(If you're maybe just tuning into this blog for the first time, it started as a follow-up to a research project I did in 2007 on church "affiliates" -- people who remain connected to the church, even if they're not all that active. )
On my survey, I asked people about two different kinds of reasons that they didn't go to church more often. One had to do with the church -- you know, boring, out-of-date, unwelcoming, bad music. And there was no clear-cut, #1 reason, at least not from the group that answered my survey. Nothing that stood out.
The other set of questions had to do with personal lifestyle issues -- and the results here were clearer. People are working on Sunday, or they go like crazy all week and Sunday morning is their "Sabbath" -- their break -- which includes break from going to church.
But I wonder to what extent people are really turned off by what goes on in your typical church -- or at least not turned on. I wonder how much people's perceptions of churches are closed, judgmental, or irrelevant is the main disincentive to being there. People who answered my survey weren't hostile to the church. They had pretty good feelings about the church.
But I keep running up against genuine hungers that people have, and which the church ought to be really good at addressing -- hungers for community, forgiveness, meaning and purpose, etc.
So, what's missing?
Showing posts with label Experience of God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Experience of God. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Soul Food
We all know, don't we, that people today make a pretty sharp distinction between "religion" and "spirituality." Religion means "organized religion" -- church, doctrine, do this, don't do that. (Personally, I prefer disorganized religion.) "Spirituality" on the other hand means getting in touch with the deep-down inner things that lead to God.
Now, just as an interesting aside, I did my Ph. D. dissertation on a theologian who lived in the early 20th century, and back then, "religion" was the good word. It meant personal experience as opposed to "dogma" or "theology," which was all the head stuff. So, it's interesting how things change.
In my survey I wanted to probe some of the respondents' views about spirituality.
Which of the following things help you to be more in touch with your spirituality?
And there were 12 options:
Coming to Church on Sunday
My relationships with family and friends.
Sharing my experiences with someone who understands.
Prayer and meditation.
Observing important occasions or familiar rituals.
Music.
The arts (film, visual arts, poetry)
Being out in nature.
Exercising or working out.
Science fiction or fantasy.
Reading.
Other.
And the top 6 choices were:
Being out in nature (55%)
Relationships with family and friends (55%)
Observing important occasions and familiar rituals (47%)
Music. (47%)
Prayer and meditation (39%)
Coming to Church on Sunday. (39%)
What are the implications of these findings for the way we do church? Part of the problem I am wrestling with is that the church can't with integrity simply say, "OK, that's what these people say they want, so we'll do it" and start planning Sunday morning nature walks instead of worship services. The yearning for nature, just to take an example, is right in line with a biblical view of what it means to be human, but it can never be allowed to become a kind of nature worship or nature mysticism. So how do our churches help people to connect their spiritual experience of nature with the Christian message?
A couple of things that surprised me was the large number of those who responded to "Observing important occasions or familiar rituals." Now that's something we ought to be able to sink our teeth into. I think churches should be able to help people use ritual and celebration to deepen their spiritual lives. That in turn resonates well with the Church's long tradition of using repeated, meaningful events to draw people into the life of God.
I'm also gratified that, even though it finished tied for 5th place, 4 out of 10 people still think that coming to church on Sunday is an important element of their spirituality. Remember, these are people, the majority of whom by their own admission show up in church anywhere from sporadically to never. So, that's an encouraging sign.
But one of our great challenges is to develop ways of tapping into the much ballyhooed "spiritual hunger" of postmodern people in such a way that they gain access to the riches of Christian tradition and experience.
I know people are reading this blog because they tell me. If you're reading, why not post a comment? I'd love to get some feedback, especially on this topic.
Now, just as an interesting aside, I did my Ph. D. dissertation on a theologian who lived in the early 20th century, and back then, "religion" was the good word. It meant personal experience as opposed to "dogma" or "theology," which was all the head stuff. So, it's interesting how things change.
In my survey I wanted to probe some of the respondents' views about spirituality.
Which of the following things help you to be more in touch with your spirituality?
And there were 12 options:
Coming to Church on Sunday
My relationships with family and friends.
Sharing my experiences with someone who understands.
Prayer and meditation.
Observing important occasions or familiar rituals.
Music.
The arts (film, visual arts, poetry)
Being out in nature.
Exercising or working out.
Science fiction or fantasy.
Reading.
Other.
And the top 6 choices were:
Being out in nature (55%)
Relationships with family and friends (55%)
Observing important occasions and familiar rituals (47%)
Music. (47%)
Prayer and meditation (39%)
Coming to Church on Sunday. (39%)
What are the implications of these findings for the way we do church? Part of the problem I am wrestling with is that the church can't with integrity simply say, "OK, that's what these people say they want, so we'll do it" and start planning Sunday morning nature walks instead of worship services. The yearning for nature, just to take an example, is right in line with a biblical view of what it means to be human, but it can never be allowed to become a kind of nature worship or nature mysticism. So how do our churches help people to connect their spiritual experience of nature with the Christian message?
A couple of things that surprised me was the large number of those who responded to "Observing important occasions or familiar rituals." Now that's something we ought to be able to sink our teeth into. I think churches should be able to help people use ritual and celebration to deepen their spiritual lives. That in turn resonates well with the Church's long tradition of using repeated, meaningful events to draw people into the life of God.
I'm also gratified that, even though it finished tied for 5th place, 4 out of 10 people still think that coming to church on Sunday is an important element of their spirituality. Remember, these are people, the majority of whom by their own admission show up in church anywhere from sporadically to never. So, that's an encouraging sign.
But one of our great challenges is to develop ways of tapping into the much ballyhooed "spiritual hunger" of postmodern people in such a way that they gain access to the riches of Christian tradition and experience.
I know people are reading this blog because they tell me. If you're reading, why not post a comment? I'd love to get some feedback, especially on this topic.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Experiencing God
It's pretty clear, I think, that Christian faith needs to be tied to experience if it's going to have any staying power in people's lives. The main way that ordinary people counteract the contemporary scientist argument that it's irrational to believe in God because there is no evidence for God's existence is by saying, "Oh yes there is. My experience is all the evidence I really need." And while scientific elitists like Dawkins and Dennett "believe" they have rendered such convictions superfluous, untold millions would beg to differ.
So it was interesting the response I got when I asked my 200 survey respondents about experiencing God.
This was one of the few questions in my survey where there were significant gender differences. While 42% of women "definitely" or "probably" have had a God-experience, the same is true for only 30% of men; while 29% of men said "definitely not" and only 15% of women. Hmmm.
"Would you say that you have had a personal spiritual experience that you would call 'an experience of God'?"
I was surprised that only 15% said, "Yes, definitely." A further 24% said, "Yes, I think so." So that's about four in ten who are pretty sure God has paid a personal visit.
31% said "I've had experiences but not sure if they were experiences of God." 19% said no way: "I've never had an experience of God." And 10% sat on the fence and said, "Not sure."
I'd want to probe this a little more to find out what's going through people's heads when they hear the term "experience of God." Are they thinking of lights and voices and angels? Or are their experiences of God incorporated into their daily lives? Either way, though, I have to say I thought that more people would claim to have experienced God. To me, it says something about the state of mainline spirituality -- or lack thereof.
Now, here's something for those of us who are deeply involved in the church to chew on. The next question was:
How closely would you say these experiences are connected to the church?
A measly 2% said "Very closely. Church is where I experience God the most." A further 35% said "Closely. I experience God both inside and outside the church." But that's still less than 40% who see a close link between God experiences and church.
39% said, "Not very closely. If I experience God, it's more likely outside the church." Ouch. Only 1% said, "Not at all. The church actually interferes with my spirituality." And 19% say they've never had such an experience.
One of Reg Bibby's arguments is that affiliates say they want a fairly clearly defined range of things from the church. They want help with family, they want support for their relationships, and they want the church to guide them in their spirituality. My affiliates are saying that if there's a connection between their experiences of God and the church, it's a pretty tenuous one.
In part, that's because what people mean by "spirituality" or "experience of God" could be light years away from what the church, even in its most liberal forms, would want to endorse. But still, we've clearly got our work cut out for us -- both in terms of guiding people to seek the God who is seeking them, and in helping them make sense out of such encounters.
So it was interesting the response I got when I asked my 200 survey respondents about experiencing God.
This was one of the few questions in my survey where there were significant gender differences. While 42% of women "definitely" or "probably" have had a God-experience, the same is true for only 30% of men; while 29% of men said "definitely not" and only 15% of women. Hmmm.
"Would you say that you have had a personal spiritual experience that you would call 'an experience of God'?"
I was surprised that only 15% said, "Yes, definitely." A further 24% said, "Yes, I think so." So that's about four in ten who are pretty sure God has paid a personal visit.
31% said "I've had experiences but not sure if they were experiences of God." 19% said no way: "I've never had an experience of God." And 10% sat on the fence and said, "Not sure."
I'd want to probe this a little more to find out what's going through people's heads when they hear the term "experience of God." Are they thinking of lights and voices and angels? Or are their experiences of God incorporated into their daily lives? Either way, though, I have to say I thought that more people would claim to have experienced God. To me, it says something about the state of mainline spirituality -- or lack thereof.
Now, here's something for those of us who are deeply involved in the church to chew on. The next question was:
How closely would you say these experiences are connected to the church?
A measly 2% said "Very closely. Church is where I experience God the most." A further 35% said "Closely. I experience God both inside and outside the church." But that's still less than 40% who see a close link between God experiences and church.
39% said, "Not very closely. If I experience God, it's more likely outside the church." Ouch. Only 1% said, "Not at all. The church actually interferes with my spirituality." And 19% say they've never had such an experience.
One of Reg Bibby's arguments is that affiliates say they want a fairly clearly defined range of things from the church. They want help with family, they want support for their relationships, and they want the church to guide them in their spirituality. My affiliates are saying that if there's a connection between their experiences of God and the church, it's a pretty tenuous one.
In part, that's because what people mean by "spirituality" or "experience of God" could be light years away from what the church, even in its most liberal forms, would want to endorse. But still, we've clearly got our work cut out for us -- both in terms of guiding people to seek the God who is seeking them, and in helping them make sense out of such encounters.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Up Close and Personal
In my survey of 200 25 to 50-year-olds who are connected to United Churches but don't attend regularly, one of the 35 questions presented people with seven statements about the church and asked whether they Strongly Agreed, Agreed, Disagreed or Strongly Disagreed with them. The statements were:
"My church would be there for me if I needed it."
"Churches play a vital role in the community."
"Going to Church is an enjoyable experience for me."
"You can be close to God even if you don't go to church."
"Churches help people to be good, caring individuals."
"Involvement in the Church strengthens family life."
"The community would lose something valuable if the churches weren't there."
There were a bunch of interesting things that came out of this particular question, but I want to highlight one in particular.
54% strongly agreed and 44% agreed that "you can be close to God even if you don't go to church." That's 98% -- virtually everyone -- who agreed with this statement. There was nowhere near this kind of unanimity for any of the others.
What's this all about??
It's hard to tell what was going through people's minds when they responded to this statement. Now, it could be a really hopeful sign. It could mean that people's sense of the presence of God is wide-ranging and not institutionally confined. That would be a good thing.
In a related question, I asked "How closely would you say your experiences of God are connected to the church?"
Only 2% said, "Very closely. Church is where I experience God the most."
A further 35% said, "Closely. I experience God both inside and outside the church."
But 39% said, "Not very closely. If I experience God, it's more likely outside the church."
When I read these results, I thought: What on earth have the churches been doing over the years? I know that the religious habit of church-going can't be made to encompass all of what happens when we encounter the Divine, but my goodness, if 98% of these folks don't see any really compelling connection between the Christian community and their experience of God, then we've got a problem.
I've just completed this research, but already people are saying, "What do you think we need to do about it?" Near the top of the priority list has to be closing that gap between the experience of God and the experienced reality of church. It's clear to me that there are a whole lot of our own people who don't have much confidence that we can guide them towards an encounter with the Beyond. And that's got to change.
"My church would be there for me if I needed it."
"Churches play a vital role in the community."
"Going to Church is an enjoyable experience for me."
"You can be close to God even if you don't go to church."
"Churches help people to be good, caring individuals."
"Involvement in the Church strengthens family life."
"The community would lose something valuable if the churches weren't there."
There were a bunch of interesting things that came out of this particular question, but I want to highlight one in particular.
54% strongly agreed and 44% agreed that "you can be close to God even if you don't go to church." That's 98% -- virtually everyone -- who agreed with this statement. There was nowhere near this kind of unanimity for any of the others.
What's this all about??
It's hard to tell what was going through people's minds when they responded to this statement. Now, it could be a really hopeful sign. It could mean that people's sense of the presence of God is wide-ranging and not institutionally confined. That would be a good thing.
In a related question, I asked "How closely would you say your experiences of God are connected to the church?"
Only 2% said, "Very closely. Church is where I experience God the most."
A further 35% said, "Closely. I experience God both inside and outside the church."
But 39% said, "Not very closely. If I experience God, it's more likely outside the church."
When I read these results, I thought: What on earth have the churches been doing over the years? I know that the religious habit of church-going can't be made to encompass all of what happens when we encounter the Divine, but my goodness, if 98% of these folks don't see any really compelling connection between the Christian community and their experience of God, then we've got a problem.
I've just completed this research, but already people are saying, "What do you think we need to do about it?" Near the top of the priority list has to be closing that gap between the experience of God and the experienced reality of church. It's clear to me that there are a whole lot of our own people who don't have much confidence that we can guide them towards an encounter with the Beyond. And that's got to change.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
