Dr. Joel Thiessen continues his synopsis on the reasons people go "post-church".

The thesis he advances is that most of the reasons for why people diminish their involvement in church attendance has virtually nothing to do with what churches do or don't do. Most of these things have to do with broad cultural changes within society.

Click the green play button to listen to Dr. Joel Thiessen: Dr. Thiessen identifies these eight reasons:

1. Rejection of exclusivity
2. Life transitions
3. Teenage choice
4. Too busy
5. Scandals and hypocrisy
6. Intellectual disagreement
7. Interpersonal tension
8. Social ties

Joel is the Director of the Flourishing Congregations Institute at Ambrose University in Calgary.

Dr. Joel Thiessen is a sociologist of religion who specializes in religion in Canada. His academic interests developed as an...

Dr. Joel Thiessen shares his insights about Canadians who claim to have no religious affiliation.

In sociological terms they are labelled "religious nones".  

Click the green play button to listen to Dr. Joel Thiessen:

He highlights five distinctive characteristics of Canadians who claim to have no religious affiliation ("religious nones"):

1. They believe they're open-minded and free
2. They hold varying beliefs about the supernatural
3. They are very clear that they have meaning and purpose quite apart from religion
4. They believe that you do not need religion in order to be moral
5. They have a strong aversion to forced religion.

Joel is the Director of the Flourishing Congregations Institute at Ambrose University in Calgary.

Dr. Joel Thiessen again shares insights on the dominant trends of religion in North America.

Europe and North America are moving in a progressive and increasingly secular direction. Secularization is a dominant narrative.   Click the green play button to listen to Dr. Joel Thiessen: The rise of people who say they have no religion represents one in three teenagers, one in four  adults. It's the fastest growing "religious" group in the modern western world. For example in Canada:

...one in two Canadian teenagers never attend religious services today. One in three Canadian teenagers say they have no religion. If you want to know where a religious group is going, you look to your young people. It is very rare that people convert later on in life. It doesn't mean it's impossible and we would all think of anecdotal stories where that's happened. On the whole, you look to your young people. Another trend pertains to Christian identification. Christianity is the lead religion in...