Thinking of the nones
08/02/15 05:16
Around the conference, the term “nones” has a meaning. It was probably coined by researchers of the sociology of religion, perhaps even some of the people who work at the Pew Research Center, source of most of the statistics that get quoted in religious circles. “Nones” are people who indicate no religious affiliation. It used to be a very small and insignificant number, but it is now the fastest-growing segment on the religious spectrum in our country.
Part of the problem when a group of religious leaders get together to discuss this phenomena is that we really don’t know what we are talking about. We spend our time in the church. We are most in contact with those who have a religious affiliation - in fact we spend most of our time working with those who are deeply committed and are in leadership positions in their churches. And most of the time when we talk about those with no religious affiliation, we have no idea what we are talking about.
The researchers tell us that a major factor in the growth of adults with no religious affiliation is young adults. People between the ages of 19 and 32 are the largest age cohort in the “nones.” When I think of the young adults that I know, I realize that most of them are people who grew up with some involvement in the church, participating in local congregations, attending camps and youth events, or having some other connection with the church. In many cases, they weren’t as involved in the church as I was, attending weekly and participating in multiple other church events, but that would be true of adults of other ages that I know as well.
But we know that there is a significant population of young adults who grew up with little or no real participation in the church. They may have attended on a special occasion with grandparents or other family members, but regular church participation wasn’t the pattern of their households. I am well aware that there are plenty of young adults who have had such an experience, I just don’t happen to know very many. Most of the young adults I know are either involved in the church now or were involved when they were teens.
The researchers are telling us that there are plenty of other young adults.
It seems that any group of people, or segment of the population, who have no significant experience in the church, is a mission field. If we take seriously Jesus’ invitation to take the gospel to the whole world - our reach has to be wider than just those who come to us. I’m no fan of forced conversion - or of any kind of pressure. But I do know that if there are people who have no significant experience in the church, we have much to offer to them and failing to share the deep meaning and rich community of the church is more than a tragedy. It is a sin.
Having been parked solidly in the midst of the church for my whole life, I’m not sure where to begin. I have invested most of my life responding to and forming community with people who come to us. I’ve never been the kind of evangelist who goes out to others. And what little I have read about significant outreach and community building among those who have no religious experience have been stories of ministers who themselves were young adults making peer-to-peer connections. I’m a little old for that style.
A few months ago, I did quite a bit of reading about pioneer missionaries in the early days of settlement of the American West. There seemed to be two categories of these pioneering ministers. One group was essentially taking their Christianity to those who already considered themselves to be Christian. Church planters and circuit riders found settlers who were Christian, but who had left their churches behind when they moved west. These people were eager to have churches in their community and quick to respond to the traveling missionaries. The second type of missionary went to indigenous populations to spread the Gospel. These tended to be spreading a good deal more than their religion. They were spreading their system of education, their understandings of health care and nutrition, their way of organizing government and a whole lot more of culture and society. They saw the people they went to convert as uneducated and uncivilized. They never sought to understand the cultural, educational and religious traditions of the indigenous people. And they were not beyond the use of violence, including robbing people of their food supplies, as a technique for their work of exporting culture.
I’ve also read plenty about the long-lasting effects of this particular form of cultural genocide.
Were I to pick one of those categories, I guess I’d have to go with spreading the gospel among those who have already heard the gospel.
Neither of those models, however, serve the church’s current reality. There is a growing population in our own communities of people who don’t really know what the church and life in a close religious community is all about. And, if my limited experience can be trusted, most of them have a notion of what religion is about that is far from the reality of the church that I know. I don’t experience the church as harsh and judgmental, scattering fear of future punishment to manipulate and control people. I don’t experience ministers as money-grubbing hypocrites who say one thing and live their life in a totally different manner. I don’t experience the church as unaccepting of those who don’t fit a strict and narrow version of morality. I don’t experience religion as an ignorant anti-science group who want to live in some kind of world of make believe.
I experience the church as a center of love and support - a place of people who walk with me in the times of grief, who share one another burdens. I experience the church as a place where we can talk about the things that are most important in our lives and share our doubts as well as our convictions. I experience the church as a place filled with awe and wonder, mystery and fresh learning.
Sharing that experience with the “nones” seems worthy of a lifetime of commitment and dedication and I don’t have a lifetime ahead of me. Still, the time and health that I do have is not insignificant. Perhaps the call to repent - to turn in a new direction - is a call that I need to be taking seriously. It is worthy of prayer and discernment.
Part of the problem when a group of religious leaders get together to discuss this phenomena is that we really don’t know what we are talking about. We spend our time in the church. We are most in contact with those who have a religious affiliation - in fact we spend most of our time working with those who are deeply committed and are in leadership positions in their churches. And most of the time when we talk about those with no religious affiliation, we have no idea what we are talking about.
The researchers tell us that a major factor in the growth of adults with no religious affiliation is young adults. People between the ages of 19 and 32 are the largest age cohort in the “nones.” When I think of the young adults that I know, I realize that most of them are people who grew up with some involvement in the church, participating in local congregations, attending camps and youth events, or having some other connection with the church. In many cases, they weren’t as involved in the church as I was, attending weekly and participating in multiple other church events, but that would be true of adults of other ages that I know as well.
But we know that there is a significant population of young adults who grew up with little or no real participation in the church. They may have attended on a special occasion with grandparents or other family members, but regular church participation wasn’t the pattern of their households. I am well aware that there are plenty of young adults who have had such an experience, I just don’t happen to know very many. Most of the young adults I know are either involved in the church now or were involved when they were teens.
The researchers are telling us that there are plenty of other young adults.
It seems that any group of people, or segment of the population, who have no significant experience in the church, is a mission field. If we take seriously Jesus’ invitation to take the gospel to the whole world - our reach has to be wider than just those who come to us. I’m no fan of forced conversion - or of any kind of pressure. But I do know that if there are people who have no significant experience in the church, we have much to offer to them and failing to share the deep meaning and rich community of the church is more than a tragedy. It is a sin.
Having been parked solidly in the midst of the church for my whole life, I’m not sure where to begin. I have invested most of my life responding to and forming community with people who come to us. I’ve never been the kind of evangelist who goes out to others. And what little I have read about significant outreach and community building among those who have no religious experience have been stories of ministers who themselves were young adults making peer-to-peer connections. I’m a little old for that style.
A few months ago, I did quite a bit of reading about pioneer missionaries in the early days of settlement of the American West. There seemed to be two categories of these pioneering ministers. One group was essentially taking their Christianity to those who already considered themselves to be Christian. Church planters and circuit riders found settlers who were Christian, but who had left their churches behind when they moved west. These people were eager to have churches in their community and quick to respond to the traveling missionaries. The second type of missionary went to indigenous populations to spread the Gospel. These tended to be spreading a good deal more than their religion. They were spreading their system of education, their understandings of health care and nutrition, their way of organizing government and a whole lot more of culture and society. They saw the people they went to convert as uneducated and uncivilized. They never sought to understand the cultural, educational and religious traditions of the indigenous people. And they were not beyond the use of violence, including robbing people of their food supplies, as a technique for their work of exporting culture.
I’ve also read plenty about the long-lasting effects of this particular form of cultural genocide.
Were I to pick one of those categories, I guess I’d have to go with spreading the gospel among those who have already heard the gospel.
Neither of those models, however, serve the church’s current reality. There is a growing population in our own communities of people who don’t really know what the church and life in a close religious community is all about. And, if my limited experience can be trusted, most of them have a notion of what religion is about that is far from the reality of the church that I know. I don’t experience the church as harsh and judgmental, scattering fear of future punishment to manipulate and control people. I don’t experience ministers as money-grubbing hypocrites who say one thing and live their life in a totally different manner. I don’t experience the church as unaccepting of those who don’t fit a strict and narrow version of morality. I don’t experience religion as an ignorant anti-science group who want to live in some kind of world of make believe.
I experience the church as a center of love and support - a place of people who walk with me in the times of grief, who share one another burdens. I experience the church as a place where we can talk about the things that are most important in our lives and share our doubts as well as our convictions. I experience the church as a place filled with awe and wonder, mystery and fresh learning.
Sharing that experience with the “nones” seems worthy of a lifetime of commitment and dedication and I don’t have a lifetime ahead of me. Still, the time and health that I do have is not insignificant. Perhaps the call to repent - to turn in a new direction - is a call that I need to be taking seriously. It is worthy of prayer and discernment.