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Sharing the Gospel in a "Spiritual but not Religious" Age
How to engage?
Pastor Lillian Daniels   Dr. Diana Butler Bass
Where the Cross
  Meets the
Dream catcher

  Brian McLaren

 “A New Kind of
 Christian” (1992)
Where are We?
              2009 Princeton Research Associates Poll
       http://www.psrai.com/filesave/0904%20ftop%20w%20methodology.pdf (Accessed 5/8/12)

60
50
40
30
20                                                                       % of US Population
10
0
     Spiritual      Spiritual       Religious  Neither
      but not         and            but not Religious or
     Religious      Religious       Spiritual Spiritual
Sharing the Gospel in a "Spiritual but not Religious" Age
Word Association Exercise


   What do you think of when you hear the
              word “Spiritual”?
Word Association: “Spiritual”
Source: Diana Butler Bass, “Christianity after Religion”
Word Association Exercise


   What do you think of when you hear the
              word “Religious”?
Word Association: “Religious”
Source: Diana Butler Bass, “Christianity after Religion”
Sharing the Gospel in a "Spiritual but not Religious" Age
Spiritual vs. Religious:
                       What’s the Difference?
http://benaiah.mischenko.com/pinacoladahappyhour/archive/i-love-jesus-but-hate-religion/
Spiritual vs. Religious:
           What’s the Difference?
“They (the public) have
essentially substituted the word
“religion” for institutional
religion and “spirituality” for
lively faith.”
-Bass, Pg. 71

“this newly defined construct
(institutional Religion) is
contrasted with the
spiritual, which refers to the
personal, the affective, the
experiential, and the thoughtful.”
- Kenneth Pargament “The psychology of
Religion and Spirituality. International Journal
for the Psychology of Religion Vol. 9, No. 1.
Defining Terms:

Spiritual

“Personal (but not
necessarily private) beliefs
and experiences that
provide a sense of
meaning and connection
to the divine.”
Defining Terms

Religious
“Public beliefs and
practices expressed
communally within an
organized religious
setting.”
Sharing the Gospel in a "Spiritual but not Religious" Age
A “Christian” Nation?
   Perception: Americans have
    always been peculiarly
    “religious”.

   Reality.
         1600’s: only 1/3 belonged
          to a Church.
         Revolutionary War: > 15%

    Sources: Robert Fuller “Spiritual but not
    Religious: Understanding Un-churched
    America. Roger Finke and Rodney Stark “The
    Churching of America”.
The Distant American God

   Puritanism: An
    “Authoritarian” God.

   Enlightenment rationalism:
    a “Distant God”.
       Deism: God the “watch
        maker”.

   Left Americans craving a
    more “spiritual” connection
    to God.
American Concepts of God

     The Authoritarian God
      (31%)

     The Benevolent God (23%)

     The Critical God (16%)

     The Distant God (24%)


Source: Paul Froese & Christopher Bader, “America’s
Four Gods” (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2010)
Reactions

   Historical Examples.
       Astrology.
       Divination.
       Occult.
       Mesmerism.
       Swedenborgianism
       Transcendentalism
The Rise & Fall of Modern
         Evangelicalism

   Fundamentalist/Modernist
    Split (late 18th/Early 19th
    Century)
       Modernists: Biblical
        Criticism, Social Gospel.
       Fundamentalists retreated
        from modern life.
The Rise & Fall of Modern
         Evangelicalism

   The re-emergence of
    Evangelicalism: A more
    public form of conservative
    Christianity. (circa 1940-
    1950)

   Golden Age for
    Evangelicals: 1970’s-1980’s.
       Moral Majority.
       Religious Right.
The Rise & Fall of Modern
         Evangelicalism
   Backlash against
    Evangelicalism.

   Numbers declining since
    1990’s, particularly with
    young adults.
       1986: 26%
       Now: 15%
The Rise & Fall of Modern
         Evangelicalism

   Evangelical
    growth/Mainline decline
       Birth rates.

   Reality: American
    Christianity is in decline
    across the theological
    spectrum.
The Mega Church Anomaly

   Nondenominational
    (Evangelical) Megachurches
    still growing.

   Overall percentage of
    Christians in US continues
    to decline.

   Where are they coming
    from?
Sharing the Gospel in a "Spiritual but not Religious" Age
Where are We?
              2009 Princeton Research Associates Poll
       http://www.psrai.com/filesave/0904%20ftop%20w%20methodology.pdf (Accessed 5/8/12)

60
50
40
30
20                                                                       % of US Population
10
0
     Spiritual      Spiritual       Religious  Neither
      but not         and            but not Religious or
     Religious      Religious       Spiritual Spiritual
American Religious
Trends:1990-2009
The Rise of the None’s

•   The fastest growing religious
    affiliation in the US is
    “None”.
     •   1990: 8%
     •   2009: 16%

Source: Newsweek Article, “The End of
Christian America” April 3, 2009
American Religious Trends
                       The Rise of the None’s
               (Source: Diana Butler Bass “Christianity after Religion” )

30
25
20
15
                                                                            Percentage of US
10                                                                          Population (2011)
5
0
     None's    Mainline           Roman            Evangelical
              Protestants        Catholics         Protestant
A Sign of things to Come

     25-30% of young adults are
      “none’s”.

     Only 25% attend worship
      weekly.

     40% never pray.


Source: “2012 Millenial Values Survey”, Public
Research Institute
http://publicreligion.org/research/2012/04/millenn
ial-values-survey-2012/ Accessed: 5/8/12.
Sharing the Gospel in a "Spiritual but not Religious" Age
Two America’s?
What’s missing in American
              Christianity?

Faith has become impersonal & isolating.
      Personal experience
      Participation
      Graciousness
Changing Questions
                       Source: Bass, “Christianity after Religion”




   Modern question:
       What do I believe?

   Contemporary questions:
       How do I believe?
       Why do I believe?

   Discipleship & Spiritual
    Formation.
Reaching Out
   The Missional
    Church
   Resources:
       Craig Van Gelder: “The
        Ministry of the Missional
        Church”.
       Alan Roxburgh
        “Introducing the Missional
        Church”
       ARE (Kelly Fryer).
Best Practices
   Spiritual Practices
       Personal:
        Prayer, Reflection, Study, M
        editation.
       Communal:
        Service, Friendship, Worshi
        p, Hospitality, Lectio
        Divina.

   Resources:
       Brian McLaren “Finding our
        way again”.
       Richard Foster: “Celebration
        of Discipline.”
       Diana Butler Bass:
        “Christianity for the rest of
        us”.
Best Practices

   Catechumenate.
   Resource:
      Paul Hoffman: “Faith
       forming Faith”.
Best Practices
   Participatory
    worship
   Resources:
       Dan Kimball: “Emerging
        Worship”.
       Robert Webber: “Ancient-
        Future Worship”.
       Mark Pierson: “The Art of
        Curating Worship”.
Sharing the Gospel in a "Spiritual but not Religious" Age
Primary Sources
   Robert C. Fuller, “Spiritual but not Religious:
    Understanding Un-churched America”. Oxford Press, 2001.



   Diana Butler Bass, “Christianity after Religion”. Harper One:
    2012.



   Robert D. Putnam & David E. Campbell, “American Grace:
    How Religion Divides and Unites Us”. Simon &
    Schuster, 2010.
Dwelling in the Word
   Acts 8:26-39

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Sharing the Gospel in a "Spiritual but not Religious" Age

  • 2. How to engage? Pastor Lillian Daniels Dr. Diana Butler Bass
  • 3. Where the Cross Meets the Dream catcher Brian McLaren “A New Kind of Christian” (1992)
  • 4. Where are We? 2009 Princeton Research Associates Poll http://www.psrai.com/filesave/0904%20ftop%20w%20methodology.pdf (Accessed 5/8/12) 60 50 40 30 20 % of US Population 10 0 Spiritual Spiritual Religious Neither but not and but not Religious or Religious Religious Spiritual Spiritual
  • 6. Word Association Exercise  What do you think of when you hear the word “Spiritual”?
  • 7. Word Association: “Spiritual” Source: Diana Butler Bass, “Christianity after Religion”
  • 8. Word Association Exercise  What do you think of when you hear the word “Religious”?
  • 9. Word Association: “Religious” Source: Diana Butler Bass, “Christianity after Religion”
  • 11. Spiritual vs. Religious: What’s the Difference? http://benaiah.mischenko.com/pinacoladahappyhour/archive/i-love-jesus-but-hate-religion/
  • 12. Spiritual vs. Religious: What’s the Difference? “They (the public) have essentially substituted the word “religion” for institutional religion and “spirituality” for lively faith.” -Bass, Pg. 71 “this newly defined construct (institutional Religion) is contrasted with the spiritual, which refers to the personal, the affective, the experiential, and the thoughtful.” - Kenneth Pargament “The psychology of Religion and Spirituality. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion Vol. 9, No. 1.
  • 13. Defining Terms: Spiritual “Personal (but not necessarily private) beliefs and experiences that provide a sense of meaning and connection to the divine.”
  • 14. Defining Terms Religious “Public beliefs and practices expressed communally within an organized religious setting.”
  • 16. A “Christian” Nation?  Perception: Americans have always been peculiarly “religious”.  Reality.  1600’s: only 1/3 belonged to a Church.  Revolutionary War: > 15% Sources: Robert Fuller “Spiritual but not Religious: Understanding Un-churched America. Roger Finke and Rodney Stark “The Churching of America”.
  • 17. The Distant American God  Puritanism: An “Authoritarian” God.  Enlightenment rationalism: a “Distant God”.  Deism: God the “watch maker”.  Left Americans craving a more “spiritual” connection to God.
  • 18. American Concepts of God  The Authoritarian God (31%)  The Benevolent God (23%)  The Critical God (16%)  The Distant God (24%) Source: Paul Froese & Christopher Bader, “America’s Four Gods” (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2010)
  • 19. Reactions  Historical Examples.  Astrology.  Divination.  Occult.  Mesmerism.  Swedenborgianism  Transcendentalism
  • 20. The Rise & Fall of Modern Evangelicalism  Fundamentalist/Modernist Split (late 18th/Early 19th Century)  Modernists: Biblical Criticism, Social Gospel.  Fundamentalists retreated from modern life.
  • 21. The Rise & Fall of Modern Evangelicalism  The re-emergence of Evangelicalism: A more public form of conservative Christianity. (circa 1940- 1950)  Golden Age for Evangelicals: 1970’s-1980’s.  Moral Majority.  Religious Right.
  • 22. The Rise & Fall of Modern Evangelicalism  Backlash against Evangelicalism.  Numbers declining since 1990’s, particularly with young adults.  1986: 26%  Now: 15%
  • 23. The Rise & Fall of Modern Evangelicalism  Evangelical growth/Mainline decline  Birth rates.  Reality: American Christianity is in decline across the theological spectrum.
  • 24. The Mega Church Anomaly  Nondenominational (Evangelical) Megachurches still growing.  Overall percentage of Christians in US continues to decline.  Where are they coming from?
  • 26. Where are We? 2009 Princeton Research Associates Poll http://www.psrai.com/filesave/0904%20ftop%20w%20methodology.pdf (Accessed 5/8/12) 60 50 40 30 20 % of US Population 10 0 Spiritual Spiritual Religious Neither but not and but not Religious or Religious Religious Spiritual Spiritual
  • 27. American Religious Trends:1990-2009 The Rise of the None’s • The fastest growing religious affiliation in the US is “None”. • 1990: 8% • 2009: 16% Source: Newsweek Article, “The End of Christian America” April 3, 2009
  • 28. American Religious Trends The Rise of the None’s (Source: Diana Butler Bass “Christianity after Religion” ) 30 25 20 15 Percentage of US 10 Population (2011) 5 0 None's Mainline Roman Evangelical Protestants Catholics Protestant
  • 29. A Sign of things to Come  25-30% of young adults are “none’s”.  Only 25% attend worship weekly.  40% never pray. Source: “2012 Millenial Values Survey”, Public Research Institute http://publicreligion.org/research/2012/04/millenn ial-values-survey-2012/ Accessed: 5/8/12.
  • 32. What’s missing in American Christianity? Faith has become impersonal & isolating.  Personal experience  Participation  Graciousness
  • 33. Changing Questions Source: Bass, “Christianity after Religion”  Modern question:  What do I believe?  Contemporary questions:  How do I believe?  Why do I believe?  Discipleship & Spiritual Formation.
  • 34. Reaching Out  The Missional Church  Resources:  Craig Van Gelder: “The Ministry of the Missional Church”.  Alan Roxburgh “Introducing the Missional Church”  ARE (Kelly Fryer).
  • 35. Best Practices  Spiritual Practices  Personal: Prayer, Reflection, Study, M editation.  Communal: Service, Friendship, Worshi p, Hospitality, Lectio Divina.  Resources:  Brian McLaren “Finding our way again”.  Richard Foster: “Celebration of Discipline.”  Diana Butler Bass: “Christianity for the rest of us”.
  • 36. Best Practices  Catechumenate.  Resource:  Paul Hoffman: “Faith forming Faith”.
  • 37. Best Practices  Participatory worship  Resources:  Dan Kimball: “Emerging Worship”.  Robert Webber: “Ancient- Future Worship”.  Mark Pierson: “The Art of Curating Worship”.
  • 39. Primary Sources  Robert C. Fuller, “Spiritual but not Religious: Understanding Un-churched America”. Oxford Press, 2001.  Diana Butler Bass, “Christianity after Religion”. Harper One: 2012.  Robert D. Putnam & David E. Campbell, “American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us”. Simon & Schuster, 2010.
  • 40. Dwelling in the Word Acts 8:26-39

Notes de l'éditeur

  1. The first time the term SBNR was used was in Alcoholics Anonymous in the early 20th century.
  2. Pastor Daniels and Dr. Bass offer rather different strategies to addressing the Spiritual but not Religious phenomenon.http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2011-08/you-can-t-makehttp://www.patheos.com/blogs/dianabutlerbass/2011/09/spiritual-but-not-religious-listening-to-their-absence/Which one do you resonate with?
  3. My own approach has been deeply shaped by something I read in Brian McLaren’s book “A New Kind of Christian”. The book is written in a narrative format in which Dan (McLaren’s alter ego) pursues a new way of thinking about Christianity. In this particular scene Dan is on a panel with a conservative Christian who is complaining about seeing a cross and native American dream catcher hanging from the rear view mirror of a car. The man reacts with disdain because he regards it as syncretism. Dan counters by saying that his own reaction is to ask what these paired symbols communicate about what the person is longing for spiritually. I look at the SBNR phenomenon not so much as something to be feared, but rather an opportunity for us to ask what is missing in contemporary Christianity? I believe that the these two talisman’s indicate that the person may be yearning for a deeper sense of spirituality that they find missing in their lives and in the message of contemporary Christianity. The thing is that we have an incredible tradition of Christian spirituality that has often been deemphasized in the Church during the period of dominance by enlightenment rationalism.
  4. -As we will see the majority of Americans aren’t actually SBNR, they describe themselves as Spiritual & Religious. But they are increasingly disaffiliating with organized Churches. -If McLaren is right…They’re doing this not because they are rejecting Christianity for their own religion but rather because they are yearning for something that the Christian tradition has a long history of…spirituality…-We will see that an interest in spirituality has always been present within religious consciousness in the US…it tends to come to the surface when the dominant form of American Christianity has portrayed God as either distant or wrathful…In our own time this is a result of the public triumph of evangelicalism…
  5. Both positive and negative aspects to each, usually depending on perspective.What do you think of when you hear the word “Spiritual”?
  6. DBB: Worked with groups in Texas, Toronto, New Jersey,, Newport Beach, Colorado, Columbus, Sydney, Seattle…Almost all came up with same lists.
  7. Both positive and negative aspects to each, usually depending on perspective.What do you think of when you hear the word “Religious”?
  8. DBB: Worked with groups in Texas, Toronto, New Jersey,, Newport Beach, Colorado, Columbus, Sydney, Seattle…Almost all came up with same lists.
  9. So, what’s the difference? This viral video tries to set us straight.
  10. As others have noted it’s not as easy to separate being “spiritual” from being “religious”.
  11. Here are some helpful insights into what people actually seem to mean when they talk about being spiritual vs. being religious…
  12. Here’s my stab at trying to define these words, at least for this presentation.
  13. Here’s my stab at trying to define these words, at least for this presentation.
  14. -This is a grossly simplified overview of the historical factors that have created the recent upsurge in “spiritual” interest in the United States. It’s important to note that in the Midwest Christendom is lingering on which tends to isolate us somewhat from these trends. But as we shall see when looking at young adults…change is coming.
  15. Misperceptions: Today’s interest in the “spiritual” is not a new fad…there has long been an undercurrent within American religion…Contrary to popular belief the US was not always a particularly religious country.
  16. -Much of the early interest in spirituality in the US was a reaction to the dominant images of God which were overly “authoritarian”, as is the case with Puritanism, or overly “distant” as is the case with the rationalized deity of the enlightenment…
  17. Actually four different dominant concepts of God in the US…Authoritarian God: Wrathful, sin hating.Bevevolent: forgiving, healer, peacemaker.Critical: Bringer of justice, make things right.Distant God: Cosmic creative force behind Universe.-My contention: When dominant theological concepts become too distant or authoritarian, Americans react by turning to spirituality.
  18. Robust history of alternative spiritualities.
  19. -Evangelicalism had been the dominant form of 18th century American Christianity. Fundamentalist/modernist split: modernists became mainline, fundamentalists retreated from public life.- Modernists became mainline: biblical criticism, social gospel…personal piety or spirituality took a back seat.- Fundamentalists emphasized piety/spirituality but also conservative worldview which distanced them from surrounding culture.
  20. -1940’s conservative Christian emerged from cultural exile.-Golden age 1970’s-1980’s. Led some to suggest that Conservative Churches were growing b/c of their conservatism…
  21. -Rise of evangelicalism led to backlash…particularly the public political involvement of the Religious Right.-Numbers of Evangelicals declining since the 1990’s, particularly with young adults. -My belief that much of the contemporary interest in spirituality, particularly among young adults, is a reaction to modern evangelicalism.
  22. -We’ve also seen that evangelicalism’s rise/mainline decline has been fueled by other factors like birth rates.-Mark Chaves, from Duke University, says, “The evidence for a decades-long decline in American religiosity is now incontrovertible—like the evidence for global warming, it comes from multiple sources, shows up in several dimensions, and paints a consistent factual picture—the burden of proof has shifted to those who want to claim that American religiosity is not declining.”
  23. Discussion.
  24. Some time now poll’s asking…SBNR,S&R,R&S.
  25. There are now more unaffiliated people in the US than Mainline Protestants
  26. These trends are even more pronounced among young adults…As Putnam& Campbell argue in “American Grace” it takes time for generational differences to change mainstream views. But clearly this is what is coming down the pike.
  27. -Danger: Deepening divide between “religious” and “spiritual”…-Opportunity: Mainline Protestantism is better positioned theologically to reach out to sbnr and spiritual and religious.
  28. -Go back to McLaren…what’s missing in American Christianity?Personal Connection: People are yearning for a personal/daily connection to God.Experience: People want to experience their faith.Graciousness: People are tired of faith being divisive/harsh.
  29. -How have the questions changed?-Faith was once about what one believed…in a post christian age that is shifting…-People now are asking “how” do I believe…how do I practice faith? How does one practice christianity? Also asking why do I believe? Why do Christians do the things we do?
  30. How
  31. Answering How and why…Essentially teaching people how to be Christians.
  32. A great text for thinking about how to engage spiritual seekers…