Maybe they're just lazy?

"Anonymous" posted a comment on my first posting that really lays the question out. Does affiliation matter? Are we glamorizing what is basically old fashioned garden variety apathy? I guess I've swung back and forth on that one over the years. But having heard from and talked to a whole bunch of people, I think there's more going on than just "Yeah, church is OK but I'm busy with other stuff." At least for many people that's true. Part of it (I hope to write on this soon) is the tragic sense of being trapped on a treadmill of busyness they can't seem to get off of. (Please don't anyone correct my grammar, I know that's a clunker.) But it's also rooted in the failure of the church to deliver the Gospel in a way that resonates with what people are going through. Maybe this is all wishful thinking, but in the interests of my personal sanity I can't simply write people off who retain their church connection but don't come. For one thing, a lot of them are wrestling with God at a much deeper place than many folks who are in the pews every Sunday.