The eCrozier

In a previous Ecrozier I mentioned that more and more folk have come to define themselves as “spiritual, but not religious.” There are probably different reasons for this, but the one that seems to pop up for me as I talk to strangers (and I do, the purple shirt is a great conversation starter, I’m discovering) is this: “religion” has come to equate for many as a word that describes “rules, rigidity, and dogma,” while “spiritual” connotes for them “openness, wonder, and seeking after God.” So, for many of these folk, the least likely place to find spiritual direction and insight for living a holy life is in the church, the institutional epitome of religion.

On Palm Sunday morning in Savannah I struck up a conversation with a young father who was jogging down the avenue pushing his infant son in one of those jogging strollers they have these days. He had a “Cornell” t-shirt on so I congratulated him on his team going so far in the NCAA tournament. He smiled thanking me. I then asked him if he belonged to a church. His smile never left his face and he said: “No way, that’s not for me. I am a runner and I do yoga. That’s how I connect to God.” He then nodded politely and continued on with his jog. The church has been for folks like this jogger a “taillight” rather than a “headlight” for lighting a way to a holy life (full disclosure: I borrowed that image from Dr King).

Of course, religion is getting an unfair rap in all this. Religion simply means “that which holds things together” for us (the ligio part of “religion” is the same root used in the world “ligament,” which, as we know, holds our bones together so we can stand upright and walk). People are looking for ways to make sense of their lives. They are looking for ways “to hold things together.” It is just that they are finding other ways to do that apart from the church, which they see as representing a wrathful, angry God looking for ways to punish humanity.

As I travel around the towns and cities of our diocese, I see a lot of people out and about on Sunday morning who are clearly not going to church. Please do not tell me that all the people in your parish neighborhood already belong to a church so there is no way for your church to grow. My eyes tell me something else. If we want these folk, particularly the younger ones, to come into our fellowship (and please tell me you do), we are going to have to focus on “openness, wonder, and seeking after God” in our approach and not “rules, rigidity, and dogma.” And that is right up our alley as Episcopalians. That is playing to our strength. Now that does not mean we should ignore doctrine or the canons or anything else. It simply means that we cannot lead with those.

This Sunday we will have a lot of people in our pews who, when they were last in church, we were singing “Silent Night, Holy Night.” We have an opportunity in our preaching and in our hospitality to touch them with the truth of God’s redeeming love and to invite them into a community that will light the way to a holy life.

+Scott