Rob Witham

“People leave churches for many reasons. Some leave frustrated and hurt. Some leave simply because they have moved out of the area. Some people even leave church because they see church involvement as a hindrance to their faith and spiritual growth. Whatever your reasons, we want to hear from you.” (Letters From Leavers website)

Tim Bower and Jason Loftis, Fuller Theological Seminary students, launched Letters From Leavers as part of a seminary course on Theology & Culture. They are soliciting stories from disillusioned churchgoers to add to the community site in hopes of opening a conversation about why people leave churches.

I have conflicting thoughts about the idea:

• On one hand I applaud their creativity and boldness in addressing an issue that does need to be addressed. Perhaps a very public, community-centered website is just the place for the conversation. This is the 21st century after all…
• On the other hand I fear the whining negative, publicity seeking crowd may gravitate toward such a site. I suppose they are aware of the risk. The editors do seem to retain control over what is published so perhaps they can balance that concern.

Tim and Jason do deserve credit for a few careful ground rules they developed though. For instance, they will not allow church or individual names to be used in the stories. Hopefully this site will serve as a positive opening to an important conversation that the church universal needs to have. There have always been (and will always be) the whining, never-satisfied crowd of church attenders. However, far too good people leave church each year because of internal church problems that need to be dealt with. We can blame those who leave from now until the rapture - but then we will explain to the bridegroom why his bride is fragmented, broken and bleeding.

One final thought - where were courses like this when I was in Bible college?