There’s a shift happening.
You can feel it.
You can see it.
People who once filled pews, who showed up every Sunday, who gave, who served, who built their lives around their faith community—are walking away.
And it’s more than just the effects of a post-covid world.
And it’s not because they stopped caring.
It’s because they care too much.
Something isn’t working. Something doesn’t fit anymore.
And maybe instead of resisting, maybe instead of blaming, maybe instead of wringing our hands and asking, “Why are they leaving?”—we should be asking, “What are they searching for?”
Here are five reasons people are walking away.
1. The Church Feels More Like a Club Than a Movement
Jesus started a revolution. A movement. A way of life that was open and expansive, where the outcasts were in and the insiders were out of excuses. It was raw, messy, alive.
And yet, somewhere along the way, the church became an institution. An exclusive club. A place where the rules mattered more than the people. Where membership meant agreeing to a long list of beliefs, rather than joining a community of love.
People aren’t leaving because they’ve lost faith.
They’re leaving because they’re still searching for the Jesus who turned over tables, who broke bread with sinners, who asked hard questions and invited people into something bigger than themselves.
They’re leaving the club, but they’re still looking for the movement.
2. They’re Exhausted by the Performance
Be good. Look good. Talk right.
Raise your hands during worship—but not too high.
Read your Bible—but don’t ask too many questions.
Be authentic—but not that authentic.
For many, church has become a place where you perform rather than belong. Where the pressure to be “right” all the time leaves no space to be real. (How sad is that?)
But real is where the good stuff happens.
Where God meets us in our mess.
Where grace actually means something.
People aren’t leaving because they don’t care about faith.
They’re leaving because they want a faith that doesn’t require a mask.
3. They Have Big Questions—And the Church Has Small Answers
What happens when your questions get bigger than the answers you’ve been given?
What happens when the tidy, pre-packaged faith you grew up with doesn’t hold up against real life?
This isn’t about some kind of deconstructionist philosophy.
For too long, the church has responded to deep, soul-wrenching questions with clichés and quick fixes.
“Just have faith.”
“Pray about it.”
“God’s ways are higher than ours.”
“Don’t lean on your own understanding.”
But people don’t just want answers.
They want conversation.
They want a space to wrestle, to doubt, to explore.
Jesus didn’t shut down questions. He welcomed them.
Maybe the church should, too.
4. The Church Talks About Love But Doesn’t Always Show It
Love your neighbor.
Love your enemy.
Love the outcast.
Love.
It’s the whole thing.
The big idea. The main point.
The whole burrito.
And yet…
Too many have seen a version of church that preaches love but practices exclusion.
That talks about grace but is quick to judge.
That says, “Come as you are,” but only if you look, think, and act a certain way.
People aren’t leaving because they reject Jesus.
They’re leaving because they want to follow Jesus.
And sometimes, to do that, they feel like they have to leave the church.
5. The World is Changing, and the Church is Stuck
The world is moving forward.
New conversations, new understandings, new ways of seeing and being and loving. Critical thought spurs deeper faith.
But so many churches are still clinging to the past.
Still operating as if the world is the same as it was 50 years ago.
Still defending old systems, old mindsets, old structures—long after they’ve stopped giving life.
Instead of altars to God, monoliths to people have been erected.
Sacred cows are still mooing in the sanctuaries.
God is on the move.
Jesus is on the move.
And people are trying to follow.
But if the church refuses to move with them, they’ll move without it.
So What Now?
This isn’t the end.
It’s an invitation.
It’s a wake up call.
An invitation to rethink.
To reimagine.
To rediscover the Jesus who broke the rules, who welcomed the outsiders, who was always making things new.
Perhaps I’m suggesting a deconstruction of the institution – but never the deep soul searching faith journey for holiness.
People aren’t leaving the church because they’ve lost their way.
They’re leaving because they’re still searching for it.
And that?
That could be the most hopeful thing of all.
What do you think?
Grace and Peace,
-Pastor Scott.
Pastor's Ponderings 
Excellent blog. Thank you.
It is good to be receiving your blogs again
Making reference to the article entitled “The Great Unraveling -5 Reason(s) People Are Leaving the Church”, I can think of a couple more. First of all, I cannot understand why Christians are leaving the church in droves at a time when current events are falling into place just as end times Bible prophesy predicts they will – which should draw people into the church rather than send them packing. The reason is of course that many pastors do not understand eschatology and do not preach it, being too controversial a subject – in their opinion. They would rather preach safe sermons like “The life & times of Barzillai the Gileadite”, which leave their congregations starving for relevance. Secondly, the Protestant Reformation is yet incomplete. Altogether too much of what is passed off in the mainline Christian churches as sound Christian teaching is the product of human imagination rather than divine inspiration – man-made theological constructs passed down from one generation to the next as traditions of men, which have no foundation whatsoever in Scripture. Jesus excoriated those who do so in Matthew 15:8 & 9 and Mark 7:6 & 7. Frankly, the exodus out of our churches will continue unabated until these two concerns are addressed.