Well-Equipped Christians are Checking Out, Right when Churches Need Them Most

I’ve (Andy) been almost begging older, knowledgeable, and discipleship minded Christians to come to our church lately, and it’s been a surprisingly difficult sell. Why am I doing this? Well, I am a pastor of a small church that intentionally seeks to be an outpost of Christianity. We have committed to historic and orthodox Christian faith, but we have also committed to placing ourselves on the “edge” of the Church, where skeptics might dip their toes in and ask questions, and where struggling believers might stop to ask their hard questions before they make a decision to leave the faith. To our surprise, especially this calendar year (2022), these folks have been not only engaging with us relationally, but coming to church. We have had somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty formerly religious folks or unbelievers (Sigmund Freud’s term for them, not mine) show up to worship, and most of them have reported liking it. That may not seem like a lot, but as I mentioned, we are a pretty small church. Almost every single week I’m looking out and thinking, “Who’s that?” We’ve been attempting to be this kind of church for about nine years, and this has never happened to this degree before now.  (Read More)