How to Leave a Church

As we continue our series on the mistakes of rookie leaders, we’ve talked about how I underestimated spiritual warfare, or how I idealized that promotion, authority and resources would make my life simpler and happier.  And if you’ve missed these lessons, go and read part one and part two now.  But before I start with…

In our previous two blog installments (Part 1 & Part 2), we talked about WHY people leave churches (statistically) and WHEN to leave a church.  But we’ve yet to discover HOW to leave a church. Of course, it’s impossible to fully address Why, When, and How to leave in a short 3-part blog series.  It’s…

In part one of this three blog series, we covered the subject: WHY do people leave churches (statistically)?  But we’ve yet to discuss the questions: WHEN is it appropriate to switch?  And How should we make such changes? Uprooting your family at the wrong time can be a traumatic thing if God isn’t in the…

Pastors like me work really hard on making it easy to join a church.  Believe it or not, since we planted Substance a little over 7 years ago, we’ve averaged around 500 new members every year.  Of course, we also tend to lose about 150 people a year due to relocation, dissatisfaction or sending (like…