A Churchless Faith [Paperback]

From the perspective of someone rethinking their religious faith, the most helpful aspect of the book was the level-voiced and non-judgemental survey work (drawn from Jamieson's doctoral thesis) showing why people stop attending churches. Jamieson develops a model showing why people leave and the summary, surprising to some, is that it's a matter of growth of faith rather than death of faith that makes the majority of leavers go it alone. The key message to the individual? "You're not the first to face this, and you're not on your own".

Like the related book 'The Post-Evangelical', Jamieson discusses the fact that faith systems today exist in the context of a culture completing the transition to a post-modern outlook. His challenge to church leaders is to see leavers not as the fallen but as pioneers. His research finds in the majority of cases individuals with insight into expressing faith in post-modern terms rather than in the modernist terms of the established churches. The key message to the church? "Culture is changing, and your leavers are your congregations's pioneers".

Overall this is a book that should be on every minister's shelf and which could offer relief to long-term church members and leaders suffering 'burn out'.

Jamieson, who is both an evangelical church minister and a sociologist, conducted interviews and discussions over six years with a wide range of people who have left evangelical, Pentecostal or charismatic churches. Most of the interviews took place in his native New Zealand, but names and places have been changed for the sake of anonymity. He also interviewed the leaders of the churches they had left. He did not find what he expected to find. It turned out that only a tiny minority of church leavers also left the Christian faith. Something like a third of those interviewed had deconstructed their faith or distanced themselves from it while not wishing to let go entirely. But the majority had retained an active faith, while no longer wishing to belong to any conventional church.

The majority of the leavers were not fringe members but had been in positions of high involvement or even leadership for many years. They did not leave suddenly, but over a period of years, as their faith journeys became incompatible with their churches. Jamieson notes that many evangelical churches have rigid understandings of faith which don't allow development or room for manoeuvre. One key finding was that the majority of church leaders interviewed did not understand correctly why people had left their churches. They often picked factors which were of little or no actual importance to the leavers. Meanwhile the leavers felt that they were not being heard or understood. This should worry those in positions of leadership or pastoral responsibility.

Jamieson groups and analyses the faith positions of his church leavers in a helpful way. Many people, even if they are committed to a church, will be able to find themselves in his categories. By comparing his analysis with Fowler's faith stages he is able to show ways in which people might move on in faith, especially those stuck in negative or apathetic positions. He gives helpful advice to those thinking of leaving their church, and also to church leaders on how to make their churches more 'leaver-sensitive'. This is a balanced and thoughtful book which will surely be a key text over the next few years as we try to work out how to make a valid and growing church for the 21st century.

However, I quickly found that it was rewarding reading. Having personally gone through the process that he describes and leaving a charismatic church, it was helpful to find that there were others in the same position. Even more helpful were the sections dealing with the process of leaving and Fowlers stages of faith. In particular, it was quite scary reading how closely my experiences were reflected in the chapter on the process that leavers go through in gradually becoming more detached over time and eventually leaving altogether. Unfortunately by its nature, it is more likely to appeal to somebody who has gone through this process and left a church than somebody who may do so in the future. The chapter on the leaving process is helpful here as it explains that somebody in the process of leaving is aware mainly of a sense of unease and it is improbable that they know that they are likely to end up leaving.

The one section I was disappointed with was the chapter dealing with what churches have to say to leavers. One of his comments I found to be self-contradictory and other comments were not always either helpful or accurate. There were things that leavers need to hear which were not included. I felt that this section was almost added as an afterthought and needed more work doing on it before being published.

I started with some questions over how representative his study was. Some of these still remain. Unlike the people he included I have moved to another evangelical church. Many others move to more traditional or even more liberal churches. This doesn’t seem to be reflected in his book and highlights perhaps a slight lack of clarity over the main issue and hence the helpfulness of the title. Issues of evangelical spirituality that cause people to look elsewhere in continuing their spiritual journey have been recognised by other authors – McGrath and Tomlinson included. In the Postevanglical, Tomlinson describes how some find that they want to retain aspects of an evangelical faith while also being open to questioning. This clearly is the same process that Jamieson describes. By focusing on those that leave without joining another church Jamieson unfortunately does not reflect this wider context.

Having made those criticisms, this is still a book that I will return to. There are weaknesses but these are relatively minor in comparison to the help it gives to both churches experiencing people leave and to leavers themselves. It is helpful though to be clear about what the book is about. It is not about the pressures of church leadership. It is about the pressures faced by those that find that they are at a different stage of their faith to those around them and the problems this raises.