We received the following question from a colleague two weeks ago:
Does this data point to a period of the church reintroducing ourselves to the public … or a period of being in the wilderness, while relearning why we are Christian before we reintroduce ourselves?
Our colleague was responding to a new study from Pew Research Center, which shows that the percentage of Americans who identify as Christian has stabilized after years of decline — and the percentage who identify as religiously unaffiliated has leveled off.
A New York Times article describe the Pew research findings in vivid terms:
People have stopped leaving churches en masse, according to a new study released this morning by Pew Research. America’s secularization is on pause for now, likely because of the pandemic and the country’s stubborn spirituality. Most Americans — 92 percent of adults — say they hold one or more spiritual beliefs that Pew asked about:
Secularization is on pause. Spirituality is stubborn. Americans have stopped leaving the church en masse.
In the face of these findings, it’s a good question indeed:
Does this data point to a period of the church reintroducing ourselves to the public … or a period of being in the wilderness, while relearning why we are Christian before we reintroduce ourselves?
We commend both the question — and the Pew Study — to your church board. What does Pew’s data seem to be saying? And what does it point you toward doing? Are you emboldened to re-introduce your ministry to those who may have looked past your church? Are you seeking a disorienting “wilderness time” where rediscovering identity is essential?
Either way you turn, some reflection on why we are church feels important. In many seasons past, the church assumed we knew why we existed, so we concentrated on the “know-how” of planning, implementation, and programs. Right now, rushing to tighten the bolts on the church’s machine of good plans may keep us from understanding what people really need.
The following poem by Palestinian American poet Naomi Shihab Nye offers a sly way into conversation about our know-why.
Famous
By Naomi Shihab Nye
The river is famous to the fish.
The loud voice is famous to silence,
which knew it would inherit the earth
before anybody said so.
The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds
watching him from the birdhouse.
The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.
The idea you carry close to your bosom
is famous to your bosom.
The boot is famous to the earth,
more famous than the dress shoe,
which is famous only to floors.
The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it
and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.
I want to be famous to shuffling men
who smile while crossing streets,
sticky children in grocery lines,
famous as the one who smiled back.
I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,
or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,
but because it never forgot what it could do.
What single statistic stands out most to you in the newest Pew study? Can you say why?
What statistics in the study seems most important for your church board to discuss?
Does the Pew data point you one way or another as a church? Toward reintroduction? Toward a wilderness moment? Toward something else altogether?
What makes something “famous” in Shihab Nye’s poem? (And why the word “famous,” instead of “significant,” or “important,” or “known”?)
Who does your church want to be famous to? Do you know why?
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