Closing the Back Door of the Church

There has always been a discussion of closing the back door of the church, at least in my memory. It usually referred to the retention of visitors that would come to a church. Churches felt the need to "hook" visitors so they would come back, and hopefully become integrated into the life of the church. This is certainly a worthy goal.

When I was a pastor, I came to the realization that there were some folks who would not come back. They were visiting, because that is what they did. They visited churches, never with the intention of staying at any church they visited, no matter what "hooks" a church had.

There has been an effort in many churches (again, this is good) to retain and involve fringe people. Those that come a couple times a month would be considered fringe.

My concern more recently is closing the back door for those that are currently involved in the church. They may be leaders, or just committed people who come every week. It seems that more and more these good people are finding their way out the back door. I'm not sure why, but it seems that once one person leaves, it makes it easier for someone else to leave. It's as if the Joneses leaving gives the Smiths permission to leave. The next thing you know three or four formerly committed families are down the street at another church.

Why does this happen? How can churches prevent this?

I will offer a couple answers, but feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments section.

I think one reason it happens is that people are micromanaged if they are in leadership. They are not given autonomy in their ministries. They get frustrated and leave.

I think part of the reason in cultural. We are much more mobile as a culture now than we were 30-plus years ago. We change jobs, dwellings, spouses, so why not churches?

I think we can prevent this "rotation" by empowering leaders to do their ministry. Sure, there has to be oversight, but we must give them the tools to what they need to do. We need to give them the space to do it.

As to the cultural reasons, I guess the only thing we can do is sit around and complain, like I'm doing now.