A believer has all the opportunities that life provides through circumstances, people and the devil to generate reasons for him/her to disconnect themselves from the body of Christ.
Some of these include offenses (real and imagined), pride (churches have hypocrites), life events in which they blame God and false beliefs (just me and Jesus). All of these issues, if not dealt with properly spiritually, will lead to strongholds in the mind of the believer and likely precipitate a breakaway from the church community. Strongholds must be addressed spiritually through prayer, love and truth.
'Burned' Christians
Sometimes dropout believers get that way because they experienced a real or perceived hurt associated with a church, pastor or person. Rather than forgiving and going on, they hold anger and resentment and the spirit of bitterness and unforgiveness comes in. Perhaps jealousy and envy of another person, group or church enters the picture. In any event, they drop out and become isolated from the body of Christ—the local church. Simply maintaining casual fellowship with some believers does not constitute integration with the body and submission to it.
Tip No. 2
Consider two or three people in your sphere of influence who are dropout believers. Begin to pray and ask God to reveal to you the "why" behind the dropout. You may discern it through prayer, a casual conversation or even their behavior. Then you can begin to pray for the root issue to be dealt with. For more depth on this, read chapter 4 of Hunters of the Harvest. 
Louis Posthauer is the executive director of Hunters of the Harvest Ministry. He has been actively involved in the local church for 37-plus years and currently serves as a lay leader and teacher at Living Word Church of the Nazarene in Houston. For more information: huntersoftheharvest.org.
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