My responses.

1.  The church doesn’t exist to spoon-feed us. Rather, we exist to serve God in community.
2.  Many of us who say this aren’t even “plugged in” to meaningful church work
3.  Yes, and that sounds like a judgemental statement to me, and I’ve made it before!
4.  In Modern America the sermon has become the center of church life. wrong…
5.  Hey, the world changes, everything changes except God
6.  Yes, we are all hypocritical, and they will be in the next church you go to.
7.  WE are God at work.
8.  The first really legitimate complaint I read here.
9.  If true, the second…
10.  See 6 above.

I’m sorry to say this, but in my experience, most of the “complaints” of people who leave churches I’ve served in have been selfish and shallow. (Not all, but most...) This list just confirms that for me. Sometimes, people want to be “fed” as if they are animals at a trough where the pastor is the farmer doling out food. (Sounds like we have a spiritual eating disorder in America.)

We have such great resources for spiritual growth in our churches and in our homes (the average American home has half a dozen Bibles I once heard) that if we really want to grow, we will.

I agree with Peter.

And I’m not convinced that #1 is really #1. I think it’s really just a smokescreen. Fact is, people (including pastors) know how to make a selfish decision sound spiritual.

Most people who leave a church say “I was not being fed” in an attempt to spiritualize and justify their leaving.  What it reveals is the person’s self-centeredness and consumerism mentality. I would love to see a survey of people who recently left a church and claim it was because they were not being fed, which asked:

1) How often do you read your Bible?
2) In what capacity were you serving in your church?
3) Were you a part of a small group?
4) How many people have you shared your faith with or invited to church this year?
5) What percentage of your spiritual growth do you think is your responsibilty, and what percentage is your church’s?

I’m always dissapointed at how my first reaction is to brush these off as “selfish” before really diving into what’s behind them.  Sometimes it’s easier for me to do that than look at how I could address some of these issues in a Godly way.

1) Yes, some of this could be selfishness, but the church is the place people come to be spiritually fed.  In order for them to learn that “meeting someone else’s need also meet’s mine” the church has to disciple and show them this.  Often we call this selfish when in reality we dropped the ball on discipleship.
2) and 8) Many churches are horrible at assimilation.  Same people do all the work, new people are just expected to watch.  How can we better engage people in Kingdom work?
3 and 9) Just because these statements are judgemental doesn’t make them untrue.
4) This one a lot of times is a taste issue, but it also could be a reminder for Pastor’s to continually improve their communication.
5) Change needs to happen, but churches who do change well (explaining the change, not implementing it to quickly, making change a part of vision) will do better.
6) and 10) We’re all hypocritical at times, but it’s a problem when we act like we’re not.

Some people are just going to leave, some are going to make up excuses.  We can’t dwell on them, but it might be good for us to at least try and learn from those excuses.  Not so we can bring those people back (it’s better to let them go), but so we can continually strive to be a place where people are brought into the work of God’s Kingdom and grow in Him.

Where’s the love?  Most the comments so far seem to be fairly dismissive of most of the reasons listed.

There are churches that just “do” church on Sunday and don’t do much else to help people grow and develop.  No guided Bible study or small groups or anything else.  There are churches where volunteering means serving as a parking lot attendant, usher, or maybe in child care, all of which are necessary and important but may not be viewed as “meaningful church work”.  I have a friend who was a member of a church when Bikers for Christ showed up at a service, unannounced, and no one would talk to them and several people were heard to ask “What are those people doing in church?” She was so embarrassed by the church’s lack of welcome and disdain for fellowship that she took a closer look at the spirit of the church and began looking for another church.  There are churches where members and/or staff are hypocritical or judgmental. 
#7 “Church didn’t seem to be a place where God was at work” – see Growing in Grace Ministries/Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda (although I’m sure Miranda would say that’s not true since he works there and he claims to be God). 

Just because none of these reasons are valid at your church doesn’t mean they aren’t valid somewhere else.  And just maybe some of them are just a little bit valid in some small way at your church?