The Barna Group just release a study entitled, "Six Megathemes Emerge from Barna Group Research in 2010." For the most part, it wouldn't appear that any of the findings in this study were a surprise to anyone involved in or aware of the recent participation trends in 'The Church'. The reality that faith and spirituality have begun to take a backseat to the race for personal accomplishments and the hiatus of financial comfortability are no surprise to people who witness the falling numbers of persons sitting in church pews on Sunday mornings and the empty classroom seats during even the most short term Bible studies.
As a young mom combined career 'church person,' I know that faith takes a backseat in the fastlane of our lives; that in the midst of decisions between church participation and sports events or nights cuddled up on the couch with family; that church will probably continue to fall lower and lower on the list. I know that we compartmentalize our church life rarely speaking to or welcoming others to experience something that we have almost written off as without value. I also am incredibly aware, as the Barna Study reports, that most people my age are undereducated about Christian theology or biblical study. I know that for most of the people in our society church has offered nothing positive and continues to offer nothing of value to our American culture. These are desperate findings for a time of seeming desperation of our church and our culture. In a time when people seem to be struggling more than ever without much of a forum to feel heard, the church seems to be a gradually disappearing historical landmark.
And while most of this seems equally depressing and predictable, somewhere buried in this report is written, "...a growing majority (of young adults) believe the Holy Spirit is a symbol of God's presence or power, but not a living entity." Really? The thought had never even crossed my mind. I hadn't even thought of the possibility....God is dead, of course....but the Holy Spirit, too? In my personal confusion with theological inconsistencies it has always been the gift of the Spirit and the power of its love and grace that I have depended on for guidance and strength with this concrete concept of God crumbles as an archaic statue and Jesus, well, seems far off and unknown. Without the belief that the Spirit is living among us with the power to make possible beauty out of ugliness, order out of chaos and understanding where there is only ignorance, what would the point be of Church, of Christianity, of Faith?
Without the Living Spirit, wouldn't we lose the conduit through which God's words are spoken to us in this contemporary time? While we could harness the limited power of 'one,' wouldn't we lost the power of 'us'? The unexpected rise of people whose actions form a movement so much greater than the results of the many individuals compromising the movement. To me, this is the work of the Living Spirit. And without the possibilities of a creating and engaging Spirit, we have little hope that life will ever be different, that the promises of this season would have any relevance for 2010....outside of the empty observance of a story which happened a long time ago.
The birth of Christ in the world was a life changing event 2,000 years ago and is meant to be a life changing event today. Perhaps if we question the depth and meaningfulness of our contemporary Christmas Season it isn't because of our traditional scapegoating of consumerism but because of our inability or unwillingness to see the birth of Christ into the world through Easter eyes: that there is a Living and Active Spirit of God in our world, today. That a baby was born into this world so that we would have the possibility of understanding what justice and righteousness looks like in God's view. It requires Christmas to be, this year, a celebration of Christ's birth as Immanuel into the world just as it was on the first 'Chrstmas;' an event worth traveling for, out of our comfort zones to make true something we have only heard of and only momentarily envisioned.
