Pew Study: Gap between belief and practice widens
The newest results of the Pew’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey show an American populace that professes belief in God without having to pay the price of discipleship. While 92% of people say they believe in God and 58% pray once a day, when it comes to living it out with others the numbers drop dramatically.
While worship attendance tells one part of the story (see links to survey results below), the amount of influence religious belief has on daily living seems to be in decline. For example, while 78% of Americans say there are “absolute standards of right and wrong” only 29% rely on their religion to determine these standards. Only 14% say religion is the “main influence on political thinking.” Other questions in the survey talk about heaven and hell, preserving religious tradition, and salvation.
When seen as a whole, the answers point to a population who embraces the concept of spirituality without absolutes. Belief is a good thing, but what you believe is up to the individual. The final arbiter of what is right is not the church or the religious institution, but what seems to work in the moment.
While this may appear to be a minefield for the leaders of Churches, this also gives the leader of a local church a unique opportunity to shape the spiritual life of people who participate in the life of his or her congregation. Rather than coming with preconceived notions of what it means to be a Christian, people who participate in the life of the local faith community are open to learn what you have to offer. The church finds itself in the teaching mode rather than the caretaking mode.
Fifty years ago the assumption was that everyone was a Christian and all you had to do was to remind people to do the right things and to remember the creeds and prayers of the historic church. Today it is normative for people in church to be surprised to learn about different kinds of prayer, or about the Trinity, or how a daily devotion can shape the spiritual life of their family. The life of John Wesley and his brother Charles becomes a witness to those who have never heard the story. The Book of Acts is a eye-opening account of the power of the Holy Spirit as the church was born.
What becomes attractive is a congregation who strangely enough is living what they are teaching. It’s no mistake that many of our largest congregations have a well thought out strategy for teaching the basics of the Christian faith, for helping people experience many different types of worship, small groups, and prayer, and offer multiple opportunities to be in service to their communities and in mission to the world. While the results of the survey may appear to be discouraging it challenges the local church to step up its efforts to communicate the gospel message in a way that connects with people so that they may know the joy of Christian fellowship and following Jesus as part of a community of faith.
Go to these links to find some great interactive tools relating to the survey:
http://usatoday.com/news/graphics/2008_pew_religion/flash.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-06-23-pew-religions_N.htm