SHUTTERSTOCK


Perspective Why don’t people


come to church? A Texas pastor asked them


A By David Hansen


sk any group in your church: “Why do people not come to worship? What keeps people away from church?” You might hear: • “We need a better youth program.” • “We have to have a different style of worship service.” • “We need to advertise.” • “If only we had a nursery for young children.”


The rallying cries will begin. Usually they center around programs. If the church could just provide better programs, or more programs, people


Hansen is pastor of St. John Lutheran Church Prairie Hill in Brenham, Texas. 34 The Lutheran • www.thelutheran.org


would begin to come back to church. Occasionally you will hear about preferences—about the time or wor- ship style. Then there is the question of staff: those who think that if the right person were pastor, director of Christian education or worship director, people would come flood- ing through the doors. These are the answers that church


people give when they try to figure out why people don’t go to church. Friends, we could not be more wrong. I recently spent a week using


social media to “listen” to people who do not go to church—listening to their explanations for why they stay away. I didn’t argue with them. I didn’t defend the church. I just listened. And what I heard broke my heart.


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