The Nones, Dones, and Ones

For all the church people fretting about the Nones and the Dones, real transformation can come when churches focus on the Ones.

The Nones and Dones…

Over the past few years, religious studies experts have written about two groups who are negatively affecting religion in America.

• The “Nones” are the increasing number of Americans who check “none” on the religious affiliation section of census forms and polls, indicating they do not affiliate with a religion. This number is highest in the Northwest and the Northeast.
• The “Dones” are the folks who are done with church. They are otherwise Christian but due to church politics, lack of hospitality, anti-gay culture, or other reasons decide to walk away and not affiliate. While there hasn’t been much study of this group, one suspects they are most numerous in the monolithic Bible Belt.

Reams of paper have been printed and billions of pixels have been lit up with analysis and advice of how to deal with these two phenomena.

But I think churches would do better to focus on a third group: the Ones.

Read more at Hacking Christianity.