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Pew research has given us statistics on the life of the church - specifically on the reasons people leave the faith, and the reasons people stay. I like to put it in the context of sports. Winning people to faith in Jesus is offense. Keeping them from falling away is defense.

Understand that we can do everything possible to present people with the life-saving message of Christ, and our greatest efforts may come to nothing. Then the Holy Spirit falls on individuals or groups and revival breaks out on its own! That doesn't mean that we don't play offense - we are called to fulfill the Great Commission!

Similarly, we can play the best defense in the world, and still see people jettison their faith and fall away from the church. It is inevitible. However, we still are called to be defenders of the faith. 

So, faithfulness to the calling and mission of Jesus is to play both offense and defense; then trusting in the Lord of the harvest for the increase.

With that lengthy introduction, let's look at some statistics.

First to offense: 

Among those who stay, most say a very or extremely important reason is they believe the religion’s teachings (64%), their religion fulfills their spiritual needs (61%), and their religion gives their life meaning (56%).

I classify this as offense, because I believe this is our appeal to a lost and dying world. We major in the truth of the Gospel as fulfilling the spiritual needs we all have, giving each one of our lives meaning. How we present the Gospel to others should be aimed at these three targets. Although there is room for the others (community, familiarity, tradition, family ties, social issues, and a sense of committment) we must be clear about the content of the good news, and how it offers the ultimate answer for our sinful conditions.

Now on to defense:

Among those who no longer identify with their childhood faith, Pew found the top reason is that people stopped believing in the religion’s teachings. Almost half (46%) say no longer accepting those teachings was a very or extremely important reason behind their change in religious identification.

This sounds the same as offense. But is it? Is it because people are dissuaded from a true and winsome faith, or is it because that faith is not well communicated - in substance and practice - in the church? It may be conjecture, but I believe that most who leave the faith have either grossly misunderstood the Gospel message in all it's beauty and bredth, or that a competing counter-belief came along that knocked the person off of an already shaky faith into something else. 

In other words, a good defense looks like a good offense. Preach and practice the Word of God in kindness, clarity, and with conviction. 

You can access the rest of the statistics by clicking this link --> here <--