Where have all die members gone?

Why are only half the Adventists in North America in church Sabbath morning? How can we win the absentees back?

Monte Sahlin, D.Min., is vice president for creative ministries at the Columbia Union Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Columbia, Maryland. An important collaborator in this research is Hoger Dudley, director of the Institute of Church Ministry at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, who serves as research director for the Adventist segment of Faith Communities Today (FACT).

Fewer than half the Seventh-day Adventists living in North America can be found in church on an average Sabbath. Most Adventist congregations in the United States and Canada have a serious church drop out problem. Many members do not at tend; large numbers have been dropped from membership.

During the second quarter of 1986 each local church in the North American Division was asked to take a weekly head count during worship. The average reported in conference after conference was about 50 percent of the book membership, and these head counts included nonmembers such as visitors and children.

I have personally examined several score attendance surveys conducted by conferences and congregations during the 1980s, and the average attendance was usually near 50 percent. A number of these studies included an examination of the entire membership list, name by name. In almost every case, one third to one half the members had not attended in the past 12 months, and that was not counting shut-ins.

Most non-attending members are eventually dropped from membership. It is estimated that there are somewhere between 1 and 2 million former and inactive Adventists in North America. These are people who, having once accepted the truth of the Adventist mes sage, have somehow slipped out the "back door."

An all too typical announcement I noticed in a church newsletter (dated November 1985) reported on a congregation that "consists of 100 families that live locally. Sixty of these are active. Of these, 40 tithe, and 33 support the local church expenses and outreach." A phone call to the pastor added the fact that another 20-some families hold membership in the church but no longer live in the area.

The dropout rate raises questions about responsibility, fellowship, and the effectiveness of our nurture activities. At a more profound level it surfaces even deeper concerns about the life and structure of the Adventist Church, But we believe that something can be done about this disturbing problem.

Who are these dropouts? Why did they become inactive ? What can be done about it? Six major studies have been completed by Seventh-day Adventist re searchers since the mid-1970s, and a summary of these studies was recently published in the book Finding Lost Sheep. 1 Much has been learned that can provide some answers to these questions.

Our responsibility is clear. As Ellen White observes: "If the lost sheep is not brought back to the fold, it wanders until it perishes. And many souls go down to ruin for want of a hand stretched out to save." 2

Who are they?

The traditional picture of a "back slider" that most of us carry around in our heads is that of a man, a factory worker, who was baptized at a recent evangelistic crusade but caved in to pressure to work on Sabbath; or of a poorly educated woman who after a few quick Bible studies had an emotional baptism but was never able to quit smoking permanently, and so decided to join another Protestant church, "because they teach grace in stead of legalism."

But surveys portray the typical dropout as someone who grew up in the Adventist faith, a younger adult who has gone through a divorce or never married, has few friends in his or her local church, holds a professional position or white-collar job that is very demanding, and does not find that the program of the local church meets his or her needs.

One of the most widely held myths about dropouts is that they are the result of quick, high-pressure public evangelism. In fact, half grew up in Adventist homes, and only one in seven came into the church through public evangelism. Four out of five spent more than two months in preparation for baptism, and the majority attended regularly for six years or longer.

"The church is losing its younger members," says Jerry Lee, a social scientist at Loma Linda University who has researched the problem. Nearly half the dropouts are in the 20-to-35 age group, and another quarter are 36 to 50 years of age.

Lee also notes, "Individuals in the missing and apostate group are more likely to report having been divorced." Dropouts are three times as likely as active members to be divorced and remarried, and four times as likely to be divorced and single.

Half the former members that Lee surveyed were single at the time they dropped out. Ardyce Sweem, in a report published in the Adventist Review, April 28, 1983, said that about 40 percent of single members never attend church. In fact, "many Adventists attend singles' functions at churches of other denominations." "Singleness, perhaps especially in the Adventist Church, is not an easy thing."

Surveys have been taken at a number of Adventist Singles Ministries retreats. "Without exception, the surveys revealed that singles leave the church be cause of unfulfilled needs rather than differences over theological issues," reports Garland Day, former president of that organization.

Surveys of inactive members indicate that they are more likely to report stressful life events and moves to new homes. In fact, from the research that he has supervised, Gottfried Oosterwal, director of the Institute of World Mission at Andrews University, believes that the techniques used to transfer membership from one local church to another are partially responsible for the loss of members.

There is evidence that the dropouts are people who never bonded with the core group of their congregation, never felt a part of the "inner circle." Two out of three participated in church, while they were active members, only by at tending, and did not hold office or have some volunteer task in the congregation. These dropouts report few visits by church members or pastors, even while they were still regular attenders.

At the same time, they continue to have a strong sense of connection with the Adventist Church. Only about one in six joins a church of another denomination when he or she drops out of the Adventist Church. Seventy-five percent still believe in the Sabbath, 69 percent still believe in the Second Coming, 53 percent still believe in the inspired role of Ellen White, and 84 percent still have Adventist friends.

Why did they leave?

In all the surveys and interviews with missing and former Adventists, three out of four indicate that they left for reasons having to do with their relationships with people and groups. Less than one in five left because they no longer believed in some teaching of the church.

"Generally speaking, poor interpersonal relationships in the church are the most frequently cited" reason that people quit attending, says Roger Dudley, director of the Institute of Church Ministry at Andrews University. He has conducted a number of studies of the problem.

"There was absolutely no proof that anybody left the church because he or she no longer believed in the doctrines," says Harold K. West of a study he conducted of 1,500 former members while ministerial director of the Florida Conference. "They left the church because of the way the church treated them. . . . People dropped out of the church because the church no longer met their needs or the church disappointed them."

Dropping out of the church is a long, slow process, not an abrupt change. John Savage, an interdenominational Protestant researcher who served as a consult ant to a project of the Columbia Union Conference from 1981 to 1985, has identified a dropout track that unfolds over a period of 6 to 18 months. The key phases of the dropout track have consistently surfaced in hundreds of interviews Adventist pastors have conducted with in active Adventists.

The dropout track begins with a cluster of stressful life events, such as marital conflict, loss of a job, or the death of a loved one, together with subtle attempts to reach out for help. When the pastor and other members do not respond, the hurting members feel angry and quit at tending, expecting to be contacted. Usu ally, though, no one comes to ask why they dropped out, so they try to forget the painful memories and reinvest their time and energy elsewhere.

A survey conducted by the Upper Columbia Conference Institute of Church Ministry also validates this picture of the dropout track. Former Adventists re ported a variety of events that eventually led to their no longer attending. Those most often mentioned include an unpleasant experience with church members or the pastor, dissatisfaction with the church program, failure to keep church standards, and marital or family problems.

But it is wrong to get a picture of drop outs as all feeling that they have been wronged by the church, cautions social scientist Lee. About half the former members he studied blamed things that happened in their lives or their own attitudes instead of the church or other members.

What can be done?

Making personal contact in face-to-face visits has proved to be the most successful tool in reclaiming missing and former members. Literature or phone calls can supplement the personal inter view, but letters, cards, and tracts have not been effective when used on their own.

"Former members felt their departure was uncontested," says Dudley. "Many cited the total absence of a visitation program, " reports Oosterwal.

In 1981 the Columbia Union Conference initiated a project to assist local churches in reclaiming their inactive members. Two dozen pastors took 40 hours of training from Savage the Lab I in Parish Visitation Skills and began to visit missing members. A year later about 20 of them took Lab II and were trained as instructors who could recruit and train church members to visit the inactive. In the Potomac Conference, evangelist Jac Colon conducted Lab I and initiated lay visitation ministry in about a dozen churches as part of his preparation for crusades. The dropout rate among new converts from these crusades was significantly reduced.

In the Pennsylvania Conference, three churches implemented the pro gram. Two of these three churches have consistently had the best growth and attendance rates in the conference over several years. In both churches groups of trained lay visitors continued the pro gram even when pastoral leadership changed.

In the Ohio Conference, a careful evaluation of the 35 churches that participated in the pilot project was done. Three to five years after the program was initiated, half the churches still had a regular visitation program. The return rates of the inactive and former members who were visited ranged from 10 to 53 percent.

The Ohio Conference has kept attendance records for all of its churches since 1970. In the 15 years from 1970 to 1985, the total average Sabbath attendance in the conference dropped by 12 percent. But in the latest triennium (1984-1986), after the conference mounted a special effort to train members and support visitation ministries in the churches, average attendance in creased by 2 percent.

The Carolina, Northeastern, and Michigan conferences have also had success with pilot projects in which church members made visits to missing and former members. "I am convinced it is a fruitful field for soul winning," says Don Gray, who-was church minis tries director in Michigan during the pilot project.

Ben Maxson, ministerial secretary and associate director of the Church Ministries Department in the Carolina Conference, has helped a number of the congregations in his field win back missing members. Based on those experiments, he believes that if even half or a quarter of the churches across North America would systematically contact the former members in their communities, it would turn the tide of church growth.

Strategy voted by NAD committee

At its 1988 year-end meeting in Minneapolis, the North American Division (NAD) committee voted to implement a plan called Homecoming Strategy during 1989 and 1990. This strategy calls on active Adventists to reach out to and welcome back hundreds of thousands of inactive and former Adventists, and includes the goal that each local church in the division will visit all the missing and former members in its territory.

Homecoming Strategy calls for visits by church members who have been trained to listen rather than simply to make social calls or to preach at the dropouts. It recommends that churches consider clearing specific time in the church calendar for training and visiting.

The document also points out the need for church members to provide an atmosphere of love, acceptance, and forgiveness in which to receive the re turning dropouts. In order to focus the attention of the entire congregation on being receptive toward returning members, it may be helpful to schedule Homecoming Sabbaths, days when a special program, advertised well in advance, provides additional incentive to attend. Local churches are urged to consider scheduling a Homecoming Sabbath at least three times during 1989 and 1990.

To communicate this goal to the local churches and solicit their participation, an informational packet has been mailed to each pastor and first elder. It includes a planning guide and full details concerning the resource materials that are avail able to support the strategy.

"The division leadership is serious about getting the attention of pastors and church members and helping them ad dress this vital issue," says J. Lynn Martell, NAD church ministries director. In fact, many conferences have already be gun to address the issue, ranking it number two among problems with which they want help in a survey conducted two years ago by NAD church ministries staff.

"Pastors have a critical role to play in this soul-winning opportunity," comments William C. Scales, Jr., secretary of the NAD Ministerial Association. "The time has come to equip and encourage our members to get out there and make contact with these precious people who have already accepted our message but have somehow been lost along the way."

1. This book, by Fordyce Detamore (Hagerstown, Md: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1989), also has a complete bibliography of these studies.

2. Christ's Object Lessons, p. 191.


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Monte Sahlin, D.Min., is vice president for creative ministries at the Columbia Union Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Columbia, Maryland. An important collaborator in this research is Hoger Dudley, director of the Institute of Church Ministry at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, who serves as research director for the Adventist segment of Faith Communities Today (FACT).

February 1990

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