What's missing?

(If you're maybe just tuning into this blog for the first time, it started as a follow-up to a research project I did in 2007 on church "affiliates" -- people who remain connected to the church, even if they're not all that active. )

On my survey, I asked people about two different kinds of reasons that they didn't go to church more often. One had to do with the church -- you know, boring, out-of-date, unwelcoming, bad music. And there was no clear-cut, #1 reason, at least not from the group that answered my survey. Nothing that stood out.

The other set of questions had to do with personal lifestyle issues -- and the results here were clearer. People are working on Sunday, or they go like crazy all week and Sunday morning is their "Sabbath" -- their break -- which includes break from going to church.

But I wonder to what extent people are really turned off by what goes on in your typical church -- or at least not turned on. I wonder how much people's perceptions of churches are closed, judgmental, or irrelevant is the main disincentive to being there. People who answered my survey weren't hostile to the church. They had pretty good feelings about the church.

But I keep running up against genuine hungers that people have, and which the church ought to be really good at addressing -- hungers for community, forgiveness, meaning and purpose, etc.

So, what's missing?