Why 1 out of 3 members leave.

[Gregory Matthews]

http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2013/december/seventh-day-adventists-assess-why-1-in-3-members-leave-sda.html

[LifeHiscost]

http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2013/december/seventh-day-adventists-assess-why-1-in-3-members-leave-sda.html

Bottom line.

 

7Then there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. 8And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. 9This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels....Revelation 12

 

I saw a large red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, with seven crowns on his heads. 4His tail swept away one-third of the stars in the sky, and he threw them to the earth.....Revelation 12

 

God is Love!  Jesus saves! 

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

I don't think the assessment indicated anything new... imho, people generally leave churches due to their personal experiences within the church...

[Gail]

And the situation is not limited to the Seventh-Day Adventist church...

[LifeHiscost]

Maybe we can blame our personal choices to this.

 

    

This is perhaps the best evidence on the Internet that cats are just the reincarnated souls of evil warlords.

 

God is Love!  Jesus saves! 

[phkrause]

And the situation is not limited to the Seventh-Day Adventist church...

Exactly Gail. It seems interesting that we seem to believe that the SDA church is the only one with this problem. What I've noticed is most Adventist, when they leave they don't usually join other denominations, most just leave and either come back or just go on and study for themselves. We had a friend, not sure what denomination she was with, got married to someone in another denomination. After marriage they went and visited many different churches to see which one would be best for both of them. Since she didn't like his and he didn't like hers. So one day we all went out to eat and she ask about our health message, she happen to have gotten a hold of some lessons from someone. The lessons were titled Moses health laws, or something to that effect. I remember seeing ones like that when I was going to the Jewish/Adventist temple in the Bronx, NY. Anyway she said our church, the SDA church, would not do, because we didn't allow the eating pork and few other things, etc. I told her it wasn't that the church didn't allow it, it was the Bible that we followed that says not to eat that. So what I see is many just want a church that suits them, with no actual care if it follows the Bible or not.

[B/W Photodude]

I suspect that something is lacking in how new converts are brought into the church. Perhaps instead of just going for large numbers of converts, the reality of being a Christian could be more carefully gone over with someone looking to join the church. Without going into depth into it, these are some words on the subject from Jesus himself:

 

Luke 14:27-30King James Version (KJV)

27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?

29 Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,

30 Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.