This morning the New York Times reported on the Pew Forum On Religion And Public Life’s latest survey entitled, “US Religious Landscape Survey.” It is a 143 page document outlining the seismic religious shift the American culture is undergoing. And what does it find? It uncovers what we’ve sort of known all along but were afraid to admit: it’s a very competitive marketplace, with constant movement characterizing the American religious marketplace.

Here are some interesting numbers from their massive 35,000 person survey:

• More than 1 in 4 (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised for another religion or no religion at all.
• 44% of adults have switched affiliation, moved from be affiliated from unaffiliated, or dropped any connection to a specific affiliation all together.
• Fully 16% of adults are now unaffiliated with any particular faith, making it the 4th largest “religious” group. But that doesnt mean they are all athiests or agnostics: 4% of adults are athiests or agnostics and 12% describe their religion as “nothing in particular. This last group, in turn, is fairly evenly divided between the “secular unaffiliated,” that is, those who say that religion is not important in their lives (6.3% of the adult population), and the “religious unaffiliated,” that is, those who say that religion is either somewhat important or very important in their lives (5.8% of the overall adult population).
• 1 in 5 men say they have no particular religious affiliation, compared to 1 in 13 for women.
• Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly…) 1 in 4 young adults (18-29) have no religious affiliation at all.
• Those Americans who are unaffiliated with any particular religion have seen the greatest growth in numbers as a result of changes in affiliation. People moving into the unaffiliated category outnumber those moving out of the unaffiliated group by more than a three-to-one margin.
• 6 in 10 Americans age 70 and older (62%) are Protestant but that this number is only about four-in-ten (43%) among Americans ages 18-29. Conversely, young adults ages 18-29 are much more likely than those age 70 and older to say that they are not affiliated with any particular religion (25% vs. 8%). If these generational patterns persist, recent declines in the number of Protestants and growth in the size of the unaffiliated population may continue.
• People not affiliated with any particular religion stand out for their relative youth compared with other religious traditions. Among the unaffiliated, 31% are under age 30 and 71% are under age 50. Comparable numbers for the overall adult population are 20% and 59%, respectively.

Some interesting findings indeed. Without sounding like Chicken Little or repeating the omen mantras of some fundamentalists who say the Church will die in a generation, I’d like to offer some thoughts on the implications an emerging generation will have on the Church, in light of these findings.

As I said in my last post on the Missional Commission of Jesus: Jesus started the Church, He has built and shaped it through the centuries, and He is continuing to building it. The Church was never an after though on the part of Jesus, but His very intension at the beginning of His ministry. So we need to realize the Church is and never was a man made “thing” but rather a Jesus “thing.” It isn’t a generation away from dying, but there are some significant things the Church should realize.

Young Adult’s

One of the most remarkable findings is the fact that fully 25% of young adults have dropped out of any religious affiliation (at least self-identified affiliation). Likewise, they are the least likely to identify with being Christian (68%) in comparison with those 40 and older who overwhelming (80% or higher) identify with the Christian Story. They and the the other GenX slice (30-49 yo) tie each other for dominating the New Age population with 86%. Finally, they compose 31% of the unaffiliated category. They along with the rest of the GenX’ers (30-49) compose 71% of the “4th largest religious group.”

None of this should be all that surprising, considering this age group is really the first generation who has grown-up in a thoroughly postmodern saturated American culture. The Christian Story is no longer the dominant story. Like the rest of the hyper-consumeristic capitalist culture, there are options. So while some may write this statistic off as being nothing more than angsty, counter-culture youngins, don’t bet on it. While I’m not a betting man, my guess is the next generation will self-identify with Christianity even less, perhaps just over half may identify with the Christian Story if the trend of a 12% decrease holds true between generations.

And why is this surprising? Especially among this demographic, Christians as a population are thought of as hypocritical judgemental bigots, rightly or wrongly. I see anecdotal evidence already among this population in the Christian mecca of Grand Rapids already beginning to reject the institutional form of the Jesus Storyin search of a more authentic, relevant spirituality. The challenge for the Church with the particular population will be to show and tell an alternative following of the Person, Way and Story of Jesus over against what they know of Christianity.

No Faith Affiliation

Another surprising find is that fully 16% of the adult population has no religious affiliation, dominated by 30-49 year olds and trailed slightly by young adults. What’s surprising is that this is a doubling of previous statistics which waffled between 5-8% were unaffiliated. But contrary to assumptions most of the unaffiliated are not athiests or agnostics, rather apparently most describe their religion as “nothing in particular,” meaning while they identified with spirituality in general, they neither pursued nor were persuaded by a particular religion.

And here is an interesting quotation from the survey summary:

To illustrate this point [of massive competition among religions], one need only look at the biggest gainer in this religious competition – the unaffiliated group. People moving into the unaffiliated category outnumber those moving out of the unaffiliated group by more than a three-to-one margin.

Why is this the case? Is there nothing compelling enough about religion in general, but especially Christianity in specific, to ‘attract’ people that they cobble together their own spirituality outside the mainstream of organized religion? Again, those the majority that make-up this population are those who have benefited the most of the postmodern turn, a turn that is inherently skeptical of institutions of any kind. The challenge for the Church will be to transcend this skepticism to show and tell an alternative Story that doesn’t place a system or institution at it’s center, but rather embraces a Person and Way. In fact, Prof. Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University, says, “those loosing out are offering impersonal religion.” And the religions that are “winning” are those that offer personalization, which he says evangelicals are especially good at offering.

Men

Another final surprising finding in this survey is that 20% of men say they have no particular religious affiliation, as compared to just over 7% of women. What is going on here that men do not find fulfillment for their spiritual needs in religion, especially the Christian Story? Where do men find spiritual redemption and nourishment, if not in the Christian Story? Why can they not find that at our Churches? Why would 1 in 5 men seek to find meaning for their existence in places other than the Christian Story, let alone any religion? Without getting all patriarchal (because I am nearly fully egalitarian in my understanding of gender!), this is a sobering statistic for the Church as it seeks to raise-up the next generation of men to lead within the Church and our families.

Concluding Thoughts

As I have said else where: we are responsible for the Jesus we show and the Jesus the world sees; we are responsible for the Story we tell and the Story the world hears.

What are they seeing? What are they hearing? How is it that the Jesus we are showing and the Story we are telling would influence 1 in 4 young adults to completely disengage from any form of religion, especially the Church? How about the over all adult population? Why are 16% of adults completely unaffiliated from the Jesus we show and the Story we are telling? And why do 20% not find their spiritual fulfillment from the Jesus and Story we are showing and telling?

Again: who is the Jesus we are showing, what is the Story we are telling? Because for an emerging generation that is thoroughly postmodern, skeptical of authority and institutions, intensely non-particular, and rooted in a pluralistic society untethered to the Jesus Story, it will matter even more than ever how we answer these questions.