How Anglicans can Rechurch the Dechurched

In much of the United States, former or inactive Christians provide a major opportunity for attracting members to a new or existing church. This is the subject of this month’s Continuing Forward webinar, with an interview of two Anglican church planters about why they have been recommending a book about reaching these ex-Christians, and how they use that book in their own ministry.

The book is The Great Dechurching. The authors, Jim Davis and Michael Graham, are the lead pastor of a 250-member Orlando nondenominational church and one of his parishioners. Their analysis and recommendations are offered from their perspective as Bible Belt evangelicals.

Based on nationwide surveys, the authors estimate that about 40 million American adults no longer regularly attend church, who they defined as “dechurched.” Their book is about why people left (mostly evangelical) churches, which ones might come back, and how to avoid dechurching your own members.

Guest Speakers

In our webinar, Continuing Forward executive committee member Joel West interviewed two Anglican priests from the Reformed Episcopal Church.§ The full 56-minute video can be found on YouTube.

The speakers were Fr. Tony Melton, the planting rector of Christ the King in suburban Atlanta and Fr. Michael Vinson, the planting rector of St. Benedict’s in suburban Dallas. Each is the diocesan canon for church planting in his respective REC diocese, and help lead the nationwide REC100 church planting initiative. Both worshipped at evangelical churches before becoming Anglican.

In October 2024, the two strongly recommended the book to their students while teaching a course on Anglican Church Planting. The class at Cranmer Theological House included three participants from the Anglican Catholic Church, and the two are scheduled to teach it again in early 2026.

Losing and Reclaiming the Dechurched

Both men said the book changed their thinking. Fr. Michael said he found the book because of a shocking 2021 Gallup Poll statistic that now only 47% of Americans belong to a house of worship. The book “framed the current situation that were in, the sober reality of the culture,” he added.

Fr. Tony said he originally felt a missionary call to reach the unchurched. When he arrived in Cobb County (Georgia), he found that in the 1970s and 1970s it “was a buckle of the Bible Belt,” but now “this is an area that is primarily dechurched.” After they launched Christ the King, but reading the book “really named a lot of the things that I had experienced in reaching people that had recently de-churched.”

Characterizing the Dechurched

The core of the book are the chapters profiling five different types of dechurched. Four apply to those who left an evangelical church: cultural Christians, dechurched mainstream evangelicals, exvangelicals, and dechurched people of color. The fifth category are those who left another Christian church labeled “Mainline Protestants and Catholics”. Each chapter was illustrated by a fictional character.

The church planters found this approach very helpful, for three reasons. First, they recognized many of these types as people they’ve met in their mission field. Second, they found that the fictional characters were a helpful way to illustrate the category and the reasons these Christians dechurched. Third, the authors provide for each category a suggested approach to reach and draw back the dechurched to the faith.

Implications for Anglicans

The authors provide recommendations for their fellow evangelical pastors, and some of these would also apply to other Christian pastors and laity. Some are just common sense, such as the call for church leaders to show empathy and get to know their parishioners — both after they join through the front door and before they feel drawn out the back door.

At the same time, the three speakers agreed that Anglican parishes have natural advantages in avoiding or reversing these problems. Most of our churches have 50-250 members and thus avoid the anonymity (or neglect) of the large megachurch.

In the book, many of the dechurched are longing for deep Christian friendship. This is something all Christians long for and that healthy parishes (such as our respective churches) respectively work had to provide. Finally, the authors recommend avoiding preaching politics from the pulpit (which seems like it goes without saying).

Conclusions

The related issues of slowing dechurching and accelerating rechurching are challenges that are new with our post-Christendom era. This book (and our webinar) provide a great starting point for thinking about how to address these challenges.

§ Over the past 30 years, the REC has moved towards a more High Church, sacramental worship; in 1998, the REC and the APA signed an agreement establishing intercommunion and a recognition of each other’s clergy.