What makes someone leave or join a church?

The other day I was interviewing a local Tampa minister for my podcast, and he started lamenting the dwindling numbers of people going to church. 

"They don't want the Word of God," he said. "They ask what bands are going to play, or if there's a kitchen for meals afterward, or other things. I don't do that - I just preach the Word of God. But people don't want that."

I thought about that since then. I have some ideas about why that may be - the rise of science in answering questions that used to be only answered by religion, for example. Yet sone religions have still grown while others shrink as their numbers grow older and die off. 

I just want to throw some ideas about why some faiths are dwindling - and these are my own experiences. 

But what I'm curious about is - what has kept you going to church, or what has made you leave your faith, either for none or for something else?

Here's my observations on what loses a church members:

1. Call people back. 

Holy crap, but pet peeve number 1 is calling a religion, saying "I want to learn more about you," and then never hearing back. Then calling again. And again. Or visiting in person, being told "Oh, sure, sounds great -" and then never calling back.

Whether through emails or phone calls or even personal visits -if you can't be bothered to call back a stranger who wants to learn more about your faith, how are you treating the people already at your congregation? How can I trust that you really care about people who may be interested in your faith if you can't call/email people who are interested?

2. Are your actions matching your values?

I've been to many churches. I went to one for 35 years - since the day I was born, and I left when I felt the values they stated were not being addressed by their actions. 

If you state that helping the poor is your highest value, and you build a megachurch - people will see your values don't match your actions. If you say you believe in social justice as a faith but do nothing to make the world better then you clearly don't believe in social justice. 

These are just some that I've been seeing. What about you? What has kept you in a church - or has made you leave it for something else?