Does Leaving The Church Mean That People Will “Lose Their Faith”?

The research throws up some surprising results

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It’s easy to find doom-laden statistics about people leaving church.

Hardly a week goes by without new research showing statistics about how the number of people attending churches in the West is falling away, inevitably followed by gloomy predictions about the future trajectory of the organised church.

Heck, I’ve made a decent living here on Medium by analysing and writing about these trends.

But what’s a bit more unclear is what happens to those people once they’ve thrown in the towel with Sunday morning church.

• Do they become avowed atheists? Maybe head for spaces like Medium to rant about the evils of Christianity and the virtues of unbelief?
• Are they exploring other faith paths? I dunno — sitting on a lotus leaf, contemplating their navels whilst humming a Buddhist mantra.
• Or do they make a beeline for the local coffee shop on Sundays before opening the morning papers?

I was challenged by my friend, Dan Foster, who wrote an excellent piece recently about how he left the church entirely to discover an authentic and meaningful relationship with Jesus.