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Exit Interviews: Revealing Stories of Why People Are Leaving the Church

Exit Interviews Book Cover Exit Interviews: Revealing Stories of Why People Are Leaving the Church, William D Hendricks, Moody Press, Chicago IL, 1993. ISBN: 0-8024-2391-1

From the book jacket: There's a dark side to recent reports of surging church attendance in North America. While countless “unchurched” people may be flocking in the front door of the church, a steady stream of the “churched” is flowing quietly out the back. It’s estimated that 53,000 people leave the church every week and never come back.

These are the “disillusioned” Christians. People for whom the faith has not turned out as advertised. Now they are giving up—if not on God, at least on the church and other formal, institutional expressions of Christianity.

Who are these “back-door believers”? Why are they leaving? Where do they go? Are they still in the faith? Will they ever come back? How do we know they were Christians at all? What are they saying that the church needs to hear?

Curious for answers to questions like these, writer William Hendricks interviewed dozens of “dropouts” across the country. What he found is both remarkable and troubling—a craving for spirituality that leads people outside the programs and away from the structures.