A recent study from Pew Research Center of 18-to-29-year-olds has make clear a spiritual generation that’s looking for connection to the unseen. While 54 percent of those surveyed reported that they never attend religious services of any kind, and only 21 percent indicated that they only attend a service a few times a yr. This group has rejected the more traditional expression of religion that happens in a church, but they’ve not rejected the truth that we’re spiritual beings with souls which have an everlasting destination.
In this same study, greater than 70 percent of those born between 2000 and 2006 noted that they believed there was more to this life than what we will see with our eyes. Even a bigger percentage stated they consider that folks have souls, 76 percent consider in a form of God or universal spirit, and 60 percent shared they felt the presence of something unexplainable persistently over the course of a yr.
This younger demographic is searching. They are willing to attach with the spiritual world through a wide range of means and sometimes abruptly. A singular cohesive spiritual narrative is just not what they’re hoping for, they’re trying to find an encounter with the divine. Nature, crystals, paganism, mind-body wellness focused spirituality, and so rather more are all an element of this eclectic spiritual journey that many 20-somethings are taking. They have given up on organized religion in favor of a-la-carte rather more individualistic spiritual identity. Their hearts are open to anything that can bring intending to this temporal existence.
In this same study, we see that those 65 and older make up the overwhelming majority of the more traditionally religious crowd. Seventy-eight percent of this demographic reported to be Christians and that religion is very important to them. They make up nearly all of the American church. This group is keeping the odds of those in America that discover as Christians stable. It is predicted that as they pass on, the numbers of those in church will decline quickly because the generations coming up are avoiding anything that seems like traditional Christianity. But hope is just not lost!
As we investigate this trend of those within the younger demographic abandoning the church, we don’t see a rising group of atheistic individuals growing in our country as many could have falsely prophesied. What exists is a generation that’s open to encountering the supernatural. This could explain why in recent times we’ve got seen a wave of revival moments across the country at a wide range of colleges and universities. When this looking for generation finds the One-True-God, they should not hesitant to dive right in, following God’s Spirit’s lead towards a relationship with Jesus.
What Is the Difference between Being Spiritual and Religious?
Those who we might classify as religious are those actively engaged in organized religious activities, attend church recurrently, and would self-identify as being an element of a specific religious group or denomination. Traditional practices, gathering in a faith community, and allegiances to organized religion are valued on this group of individuals. In America, 62% of the population discover themselves as Christian, and 23% of this group are Protestant Christians.
Spirituality is gaining in popularity in those that discover because the religious ‘nones’ in our country. When surveyed this group reported that they consider in God or one other higher power but don’t attend religious services. They consider religion does some harm but can be useful. Generally they should not anti-religious. This group sees that science cannot explain the whole lot, but tends to align with science greater than the religious do. Those which might be spiritual on this non-group consider in animals, human spiritual energies, and find connection to the upper power through nature.
What Do the Spiritual and Religious Have in Common?
The more moderen Pew Study found that this latest spirituality that’s more common within the younger generation while eclectic does share some similarities with those that discover as Christians. This group prayers and sees value in prayer. Many of them consider we’ve got souls which have an everlasting destination. It is reported that they find deep wonder in creation.
This commonality offers us a bridge to attach our knowledge of Jesus as our one and only approach to Heaven with this open but less conventional generation. Prayer is a simple point that these groups can connect on. If we consider we will converse with the Creator, that is a fantastic start line for spiritually focused conversations. When Jesus becomes an element of this spirituality then true peace, transformation, and joy can begin to ignite the hearts of the young and wandering.
God Is Desiring to Reach All Those Who Are Seeking
1 Timothy 2:4 reminds, “who desires all men to be saved and to come back to the knowledge of the reality.” It seems that those that are growing up and into maturity could have to be reached outside of the partitions that traditionally make up the church. They are in search of the Divine in places that God says he could be found. Romans 1:10 says, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his everlasting power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever for the reason that creation of the world, within the things which were made. So they’re without excuse.”
God could be discovered once we take time to behold his beauty in creation. When through meditation we calm our minds and bodies to open them to what he has to say to us. God desires to be found.
The Pew research is very important to those that have a heart to share the gospel since it tells us that the people we rub shoulders with day by day, that we might even see as “unchurched,” likely have more in common with us than we might have imagined. It is on the gym, coffeehouse, in our workplaces, on those hikes, and greater than we’ve got the chance to point those that are open to spirituality to Jesus. If we wait for our youngsters, grandkids, neighbors, and more to come back to church with us for them to listen to about Jesus, they could never make it through those doors.
Their distrust, hurt, and disengagement with the institute of faith often will stop them from moving closer to God. But a heartfelt shared prayer, a note of true encouragement, a generous act of affection, and even an encounter with the Holy Spirit can transform their view of who God is and what he wants for his or her lives. They are in search of the actual deal, for an encounter with God, and for the people around them to genuinely live what they consider. You, not the church, are the very best testimony and witness to those in our lives which might be trying to find Truth.
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/ABEL MARQUEZ
