Religion in the US today

Three different people (edit: four...and counting) have sent me a link to this article in the past day. Please read it. You can find the actual study here, and if you really want to dive in the data tables are here.

A couple of things that jumped out at me:
-the article begins "The US religious marketplace..." When did truth become something we buy and sell?
-the fourth largest religious affiliation in the US is 'none,' with 16% of the total population.
-most of those had an affiliation as children.
-only 1.6% of Americans are atheists, and only 2.4% are agnostics.
-that means that 12% (unaffiliated minus agnostics and atheists) believe in God but are unaffiliated.
-'no affiliation' is the fastest growing affiliation in the country.
-one in every ten Americans is an ex-Catholic...yikes!
-44% of Americans have changed affiliation during their life.

What does all this say to me?

First, 16% unaffiliated isn't all that bad. But when it's the fastest growing group, that's no so good for how we do church in America. Second, the last numbers I heard were that 40% of Americans go to worship (of any religion) on any given week. So there's 44% of the population that are affiliated but don't show up anywhere on a given week. That includes folks who go every other week, once a month, and a couple times year, so it's complex. But there are still lots of folks who are affiliated but not very active. I wish the study would have gotten into that.

Overall, this study shows me that there would be a tremendous market for The River if I thought truth was something to be bought and sold. But I don't. I'm also not all that worried about the numbers of 'unaffiliated' or the 44% who have switched affiliations. I don't care if folks who are The River view themselves as unaffiliated, Lutheran, or African Methodist Episcopal Spinach Tossing Bagel Munchers. Call yourself whatever you like. Truth is not something we're pouring from a denominational tap. It's a cup we're offering to anyone who is thirsty. Have a sip, chug it down, whatever. Stay for a swim or just dip a toe in, whatever. Because Jesus gives the water of life, not a denomination. And those who drink of the water he gives will never be thirsty, regardless of the tap it comes from.

To be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known.

This is really good stuff. It's a dramatic interpretation of the "Woman at the Well" from John 4:1-30. Click on the 'click here to preview' and watch it for free.

I was talking with someone Sunday who said that we no longer have a need for community. I had never thought of it that way before, but it's true. We fill up on 'activities' instead. Think about how much time we spend at them. Both adults and kids. We go from one thing to the next, and what we're typically doing is paying someone to provide a service to us. Karate, Basketball, Knitting, whatever. We're paying for a service. We aren't having conversation or experiencing relationships that involve authenticity or vulnerability because we don't have to. We go from activity to activity, day after day, week after week, year after year, and it's all about us: what we get. We hide our true selves, and live without a genuine relationship to be found.

Contrast that with this woman. She wants to be loved. And she knows that to do that, she has to be known. She has to be known! Otherwise, she cannot be loved. You can't have one without the other. Now, here's the really scary thing that she points out: despite our best efforts to hide, God knows you already. Hate to be the one to break it to you, but it's true. God knows you already. And God loves you. The real you. Not the one you bring to Starbucks or the one you show online. The real you. God knows the real you, and God loves you.

And if you're good enough for God, why worry about what anybody else thinks?

It's scary being vulnerable, but we are vulnerable to God. We like to pretend we aren't, but we are. Instead of fighting that vulnerability, do what she does and embrace it. Knowing we are loved by God frees us to be authentically known by other people, and so to be authentically loved by them. It's freeing.

So skip the activities. Instead, be known. And be loved.

What do we call ourselves

Somebody asked me last week what I call people who are part of our community. Most folks in Lutheran churches refer to folks who are part of their community as "members." Well, we don't have members, and I don't want to have them. It just doesn't fit who we are. But that leaves us in a bit of a predicament because, as the questioner appropriately wondered, what do we call each other?

I've been wondering about that off and since I started on this journey in The River. For most of the past year and a half, that's how I've been referring to them: folks who are in The River. I still think that's pretty good, but I recently found a better description. It happened when I was in Colorado a few weeks back, but only last week did it coalesce in my brain into this idea.

The speaker was talking about offerings, and he took issue with the idea that people are giving to 'the church'. His point- we are the church! We don't give to the church, we are the church! It's just taking our money and putting it in a different account. He is correct- we are not in The River. We are The River. I am The River, and so is anyone else who identifies themselves as such. We are The River.

So from now on, I'm not going to refer to anyone as being in The River. I'm going to say the people who are The River. It's gonna take me a little while to be used to saying it that way, but it's the best way I've found to say it.

Perception

We've recently added more tables (and thus more seating) during worship. That's a great thing, for obvious reasons. But I something interesting happened yesterday.

As we were singing, I looked out and thought "Huh. Looks like about the same size crowd used to have back in the fall when attendance was lower." Then after worship I talked with our 'attendance counter', and he told me how many people had been there. And I thought "Huh. That's higher than it was in the fall. In fact, that's about what I expected." So why did it not look that way to me? I quickly realized that the new tables threw me off. As I looked out, the density of people was unchanged. But they took up a larger space. So while the number of people looked like it was about the same, it was in fact larger than back in the fall.

Perception. So many things go into it. Is what I'm seeing accurate? Am I thinking things are better than they are or worse? Maybe a more appropriate question would be "Which things am I too optimistic about, and which am I too pessimistic about?"

One reality is that I will never be able to see the whole picture. No one can. I will always have blind spots. As we grow as a body of Christ, one of my tasks is to find people with different blind spots so we can work together to have an accurate picture of what is really going on. Not people with no blind spots, because that will never happen. Just different ones, so our sight lines overlap. The other reality is that God will always be at work in ways we don't even see, so no matter how many people are looking we'll never have the whole picture anyway.

Still, I found one of my blind spots yesterday. That was a good thing. I pray God will work through those around me to bring intersecting sight lines. And I pray for God to grant me faith to know that God is at work in ways I will never see.