Research tells us that of all the people who drop out of church (due to inactivity), 82 percent leave in the first year! The first 12 months are critical in the life of both the new member and the congregation.

But upon further study, we found that people do not leave at random during their first year. There are two definite "spikes" when an inordinate number of new members stop attending, at month six and at month twelve.

Our curiosity, of course, was aroused. We interviewed 36 people who had stopped attending their church after 6 months; then another 36 who had stopped attending after a year. "What happened?" we wanted to know. "Could you tell us your story?"

We then listened to the recordings of these conversations for common themes … and found some! New members, it turns out, are asking questions. Often they are not even aware of their concerns at that moment. But in these postmortems, the issues became readily apparent.

During the first six months ...