Midlife crisis is that moment you realize your children and your clothes are about the same age.

The good news about midlife is that the glass is still half-full. The bad news is that it won't be long before your teeth are floating in it.
Don't think of them as hot flashes. Think of it as your inner child playing with matches.

Sure, the jokes are funny in a late-night TV monologue kind of way, but for Christians, midlife needs to be more than merely a punchline.

Church should be a place of meaningful connection with God and others at every stage of our lives, but nearly half of more than 450 people who participated in an informal and completely unscientific survey I hosted on my blog last year told me that their local church had in some painful ways exacerbated the challenges they faced at midlife. As a result, they'd downshifted their involvement in the local church from what it had been a decade ago.

George Barna's far more precise 2011 State Of The Church survey highlighted that Boomers are leaving the church in numbers that we usually think of when we talk about the exodus of the Millennial generation: "…during the past 20 years the percentage of unchurched Boomers has risen dramatically, jumping up 18 points! At 41 percent, they are now the generation most likely to be unchurched, surpassing the 39 percent level among Busters."

Some "downshifters" who took my survey told me they felt they'd spiritually outgrown their churches. Others who'd become less involved explained that time factored into their commitment level. Launching adult kids, caring for aging parents, dealing with personal or spousal health issues, or increased work responsibilities cut into time they had to commit to church activities.

Others at midlife noted that they weren't interested in investing their time and energy into busywork church projects that appeared to have little lasting spiritual impact. Many others (too many!) noted that they'd become less involved because they'd been burned by bad church experiences.

The crisis of midlife invites us to reevaluate how we're using our remaining time on earth. "I thought the more I did, the better Christian I was," said one respondent to my survey. "Because I was good and gifted at the things I did so people – especially the senior pastor – took advantage of me." Another person noted that burned out leaders ended up burning out congregants, then drew her line in the sand: "I refuse to keep serving someone else's burnout."

Many of those who've downshifted their involvement with the church – or left the church entirely – suggest that this reevaluation has led them to strengthen their faith. By moving the "talents" of time, gifts, service, and experience they'd once given to their local church into other areas of their lives, they hope to find a more lasting return on their investment. While the impulse makes sense, we all miss out when seasoned Christians leave our congregations. We need to start asking hard questions about why this is happening and what the trend means for our church communities.

For the rest of the story go here: http://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2014/march/aged-out-of-church.html?paging=off