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| Rev. Laura Westby |
For Printing |
The Rev. Laura Westby
September 26, 2011
A column by Lillian Daniels in Christian Century column recently touched off quite a flurry of commentary when she confessed that those who think that the word “spiritual” is an excuse to skip religious services and opt out of community (SBNR) “bored” her. In the column she allows herself (and us) to vent a little and attempts to pokes holes in the reasons people give for not being part of spiritual community.
While I appreciate the case Rev. Daniels makes for the importance of spiritual community, I found Diana Butler Bass’s response in her Patheos.com blog, Spiritual But Not Religious: Listening To Their Absence, to be more helpful. In her piece, Butler Bass reports that while most faith groups are declining in numbers, there is one group that is growing- and growing rapidly. That group is the unaffiliated, those who claim no connection to any faith community, including those who consider themselves “spiritual but not religious”.
Listen to these statistics provided by Butler Bass. In 1970, the unaffiliated were about 2% of the population; by 2008, their ranks had risen to some 16%. According to a 2011 survey, that number now stands around 20%.
What does this mean? When pollsters ask Americans how they identify themselves, the four largest religious groups in the United States are: Evangelical Protestants, 25%; Roman Catholics, 22%; Unaffiliated (including SBNR), 20%; and Mainline Protestants, 17%. Evangelical, Roman Catholic, and mainline percentages are down; unaffiliated Americans are up. Way up. …In a very real way, the SBNR are the new competitor group in the American religious economy.
It is no longer the case that our people are leaving our congregations to go the megachurches or the congregation down the street. They are simply leaving, trying to find their own path to spiritual nourishment.
It is clear that we are in the midst of an upheaval that will result in a different kind of church, a new form of Christianity. What tools will we need to meet the challenges of this new time? How will we reach out to those outside our doors? What will become of us? Our congregations are looking to us to provide answers, to lead the way. And since it’s just us here, we can confess that few of us have any clear answers.
This work we do is incredibly difficult, and never more so than in this moment. And I want to acknowledge the toll takes on every one of us. Most of us have staked our fortunes, in all kinds of ways, to ship that appears to be foundering. We have invested tens of thousands of dollars, countless hours, and the best we’ve got. And yet, despite our best efforts, many of our churches are in decline or stagnating.
As some of you know, I am the pastor of a church in decline. I have immersed myself in the effort to help revitalize my congregation. I’ve read books, attended seminars, spent my sabbatical trying to find a way to speak this new language so that those who need to hear the gospel message through us can hear it. And in the process of deconstructing my faith, I have experienced a deep spiritual crisis brought on by the need to re-examine my core beliefs. Some of you have told me that you have had the same experience. The process of helping to birth the “new heaven and new earth” God intends for us has never been more challenging.
If you are not tired, scared, frustrated and dis-heartened, then you are either not paying attention—or you’re Cameron. And so I want to say to you what I have been longing to hear myself- “well done, good and faithful servants”. You are the midwives assisting at the Birth of the Holy One’s new thing. Like every birthing process, it hurts and it’s messy and scary, and it does not bring out best in us or our people all of time. One of my favorite comedians, Bill Cosby, has a story about the birth of first his child. He says that his lovely wife, in the throes of a labor pain, stands up in the stirrups and screams at him “You did this to me!” and then informed the entire delivery room his parents were never married!
I want to say and hear that the screaming and gnashing of teeth that we have been hearing, is often part of the process of giving birth and does not necessarily mean we are doing bad job. In fact, it may mean that we are doing exactly what we are called to do.
It is our prayer that these few days of General Association will nourish you in some way so that you will be refreshed for this challenging journey that we face.
Diana Butler Bass reports that when she is asked by pastors “What can we do about this?”
My first response is simple: Maybe we should listen as non-defensively and fully as we possibly can, with wide-open hearts and nimble theological imaginations. Instead of criticizing those who already feel victimized or frustrated with church life, perhaps it is time to look more deeply at the churches people are leaving. Maybe the SBNR are pointing the way toward a different kind of church or a new kind of Christianity, if only those of us who still care about old denominations and traditions can receive the criticism of their absence and learn from it, even as it comes with a sting.
A wide-open heart and a nimble theological imagination- with these things, the good and faithful people of God may just move a bit closer to that new thing that God has in mind. May it be so. Amen.
The Rev. Laura Westby is pastor of the First Congregational Church UCC of Danbury.
