Current Studies of those who leave church
(Alan Jamieson, author of A Churchless Faith and Called Again gives us up to date feedback about ongoing research in the area of church leavers. He has just returned from a Conference in Germany with other leading researchers in this important area.)
At a recent conference current research in the area of church leavers was discussed. There seem to be two main studies underway. The first is a study which compares ‘leavers' with ‘stayers'. This study is being undertaken in Germany and the United States and could spread to samples in Britain, and perhaps New Zealand. In this study each leaver who is interviewed and run through a bank of questionnaires is then compared with ten people of comparable age and background who stay within the church. In this way the team of researchers, funded by the German government, are comparing the faith, personality, satisfaction ratings and whole host of other factors of the leavers in comparison to the stayers. The study is also being used as a major test of the internal validity of Fowler's stages of faith. Preliminary results from the German study are not too far away.
In 1998 Philip Richter and Leslie Francis explored the reasons for leaving in the mainline churches in Great Britain. They compared the results from 27 people who were interviewed and 400 people who answered a questionnaire after being contacted through a telephone survey. The results were published in their book – ‘Gone but not forgotten'. Recently they have repeated this study with another telephone survey and follow-up questionnaire. Apparently Philip has written his half of a follow-up book and Leslie is trying to get his part finished ASAP. In their first study they found (something which many who receive this newsletter would already know from personal experience), that many church leavers continue to believe in and experience God without belonging to a church and that their spiritual quest persists beyond church involvement.
While these two major studies are continuing there are also a number of smaller studies happening in the growing area that is loosely being labeled ‘deinstitutionalized faith' or ‘deinstitutionalized religion'.
As we hear of more information about these studies we'll try and let you know through the newsletter.
