Thursday, February 12, 2015


I have just started reading "A Churchless Faith" by Alan Jamieson, a pastor and sociologist in Great Britain.  Jamieson did his sociology research on people who were leaving what he calls "EPC" churches in Great Britain (Evangelical, Pentecostal and Charismatic). He arrives at some surprising conclusions, the central one being that most of the church leavers, left in order to continue their spiritual growth. The church they were attending had become the major obstacle to further maturity.

Here is a particularly  telling passage and quote from page 103 about what I would call paternalism in church leadership, leading to perpetual child-like dependency in the church members:


from page 103:







Jamieson develops a four part typology of stages of leaving church that also represents stages of personal growth. I will be posting on those in the next few weeks.