Why People Don't Go To Church

Working in a company that researches the Australian church you sure see the absolute best and worst of this institution. I've had some conversations over the last few days that left me assured why people don't go anymore - rude, rude, rude people in leadership. Other interactions have been at the opposite end of the scale but it doesn't balance out the rude ones. I have to clarify that the views expressed here are not those of NCLS but of one fed-up Rachel Catherine Barr. Actually "we've" published a book by the same title as this entry but I can't find any reference in it to rude clergy.

I read nearly every denominational mag or newspaper in the country - every month. It's devastating stuff. Pages and pages of meeting reports and Synod resolutions and church building birthdays and pomp and ceremony. I’m scouring pages for stories of life and initiative within the Australian church and I’m grieved to say there ain’t much being published. One church celebrated its 100th birthday with a vintage car show and certificate presentation. What?

Half of me wills it to die and the other half just wants to slap it around the pulpit and tell it to ‘get a life’.

I’m reading Alan Hirsch’s new stuff at the moment. I want to look where he’s pointing to.