The Barna Group, a research organization that focuses upon the intersection of faith and culture found that in 2014 48% of millennials (ages 18-31), 40% of Gen-Xers (32-50), 35% of Baby-boomers (51-69) and 28% of Elders (70+) identified as what they call “post-Christian”. This accounts for about 43% of all American adults. Just 49% of the adult population were regular churchgoers last year, and another 8% (including the holiday attendees). Now 49% of American adults is still a huge demographic of people, but these numbers are opposed to just 2 out of 10 adults going without church in the early ‘90s and 3 out of 10 in the early 2,000’s – that’s quite a dramatic shift! Side Note: This study sample includes interviews with 23,000 American adults over the age of 18 and was designed to replicate our national population. (study link at page bottom) As you can see, there is also a strong trend showing that younger adults are much less interested in organized Christian culture then our predecessors were: 48% of millennials were
post-christian vs. 28% of elders and over 50% of millennials hadn’t been to church in the last 6 months. This is an indicator of something most of us already knew — that religious and spiritual life have been shifting quite a bit in America. However, the pertinent question on my mind is how will community spiritual life develop over the next couple of decades? In other words, a lot of people have left church-life behind, but what’s next for these people? The Barna Group, which is actually an
Evangelical polling firm, stated that the growing trend of young adults separating from church-life is likely to continue growing. Although the group views this as a problem to be remedied it isn’t actually a bad thing at all. It does however point to the ways in which we young adults no longer resonate with organized religious life, and if you dig a little deeper, to the ways in which we
are finding spiritual growth and connection in our lives…. meditation, music, spiritual reading, the arts etc. When asked why they no longer attend church, 40% of interviewees stated that “they find God else where” and 35% that “It’s no longer relevant”. Of this study’s
“post-Christian” demographic, 67% of adults considered themselves spiritual, 51% were actively seeking something better spiritually and 62% still considered themselves to be Christian. These numbers may be a partial indicator of why
Americanized and secular applications of Eastern spiritual traditions have been gaining so much momentum in North America. These secular applications are namely Mindfulness Meditation, American forms of “yoga”, American forms of Buddhist practice such as Vipassana and Zen meditation, as well as various New Age movements. In all cases each of these traditions are centered upon contemplative or meditation-based practices that produce directly observable and beneficial results, as well as provide personal spiritual experiences — something we greatly lacked in our Christian upbringings. These practices also foster positive human qualities, directly reduce mental/emotional suffering, translate traditional spiritual wisdom into modern secular language as well into scientific understanding. Lastly, the conceptual frameworks of these spiritual movements are not steeped in strictly faith-based and judgemental belief systems that were the bane of many of our up-bringings. I mention these “spiritual applications” of Eastern traditions because some of them are seriously taking off. I mean literally, Mindfulness Meditation is offered at a huge number of major universities (as in over 50 of them), as well as in hospitals, retreat centers, therapist’s offices and even in many Christian church communities. I will also note, despite having been involved in yoga studios, Mindfulness groups, Buddhist, Catholic, Christian and Christian contemplative circles over the past handful of years, maybe half-ish of the people I personally know and interact with practice
nothing. Many of these individuals also hold well-formed thoughts on spiritual and existential topics and are well-educated, while many others hold just vague ideas and have little interest in spiritual topics or larger questions. The point here is that many, many people also
choose to orient nowhere. The Barna Group has referred to this demographic as the ‘nones’. Lastly, the Barna Group dug a bit deeper in efforts to understand what people meant by identifying as “spiritual” and “Christian” despite not actually participating in Christian community life. To do this they conducted another 42,855 interviews which assessed people’s non-religiosity based upon 15 metrics of belief, religious and non-religious behaviors and spiritual identity. What they found is that despite America’s faith-based identity, churchgoers and
post-Christian alike, over 38% of adults are essentially secular in belief and practice. So I again pose the question, how will community spiritual life develop beyond religious affiliation over the next couple of decades? Because it’s been changing rapidly on many levels. MJ
http://www.barna.org/component/content/article/36-homepage-main-promo/608-barna-update-02-21-2013#.VPoqr_nF8xI