In Sunday’s sermon I spoke of the power of proclaiming the Resurrected Jesus by name. Why is this so important? Because we live in a world with a great contingent of folks who are “Spiritual but Not Religious.” Here is the beginning of the sermon.
“I’m not religious, but I am a very spiritual person!” If you haven’t heard that phrase yet, I can guarantee that you are sure to soon if you have any kind of more than surface-level conversation with people.
At the end of last year a Pew study found that 22% of Americans considered themselves “spiritual but not religious.” The largest on record.
Sometimes events like this past week’s Total Eclipse bring a spiritual conversation to the forefront as people’s illusory bubble of life is popped by something so momentous that it intrudes no matter what.
According to a Pew Research Study published in December of 2023 56% of “Spiritual but not Religious” people “feel a deep sense about the universe monthly.” And I would bet that this past week that jumped up greatly.
We are all familiar with the shift happening in American culture. It is well-documented that church attendance is falling and those affiliating with organized religion dwindling. We see the dark outgrowth of that in our politics from the national to local level.
But there is another issue I have personally observed that is borne out by other data in Pew’s research. Of the SBNR, those who identify with the Christian Faith are around 33% - fully 1/3!
Now – who knows what these mean SBNR mean when they say they “identify” with the Christian Faith. But whatever it means, it means that at the very least there is still some heart knowledge of the Faith, some fondness at least.
In the wider cultural shift we have seen some great shifts within the Church too! Realignments over the last twenty years have clarified that there was an intense rot under the seemingly larger church attendance and affiliations of the mid-late 20th Century.
Just because someone attended a building with the Word “Church” on the sign or a Cross on the steeple did not guarantee that a person was a follower of Christ or was choosing to abide in him or follow his commandments. Laity, Clergy and even Bishops failed to teach and live out Christ commandments as interpreted by the historic doctrine and dogmas of the Church instead embracing the latest human folly.
The substitution of an unregenerate human mind will always be at odds with Biblically faithful understanding. That is why as Christians we cannot go to the world for wisdom. We must allow spiritual conversations point to Jesus. We are not all St. Peter but let’s learn to proclaim Him by name in a bolder way.