Study of American Religious Life :: Baylor University

Some of you may have picked this up, but Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion came forward with some new information on American religious life.  Here is an article from the Fort Worth Star Telegram about the study.  In 2006 Baylor garnered national attention when they released findings concerning not only that American’s believe in God, but what characteristics God is thought to have (friendly, angry, distant, engaged, etc.).  Click here for a USA Today article which reports findings from the initial study.

According to a Baylor University Press release, a finding of the new study that I found particularly interesting was that megachurch communities are more intimate than commonly supposed.  Check this out:

“None of the things we all believe about the megachurch is true,” said Dr. Rodney Stark, Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor and co-director of the ISR.

Even with congregations of more than 1,000 members, the Baylor Religion Survey found that megachurches surprisingly are more intimate communities than small congregations of less than 100 members (Ch. 5, “Megachurches: Supersizing the Faith”). Megachurch growth is mostly due to their members, who tend to witness to their friends, bringing them into the group, and witness to strangers, much more often than members of small churches.

When compared to small congregations, the survey found that megachurch members display a higher level of personal commitment by attending services and a Bible study group and tithing. They also are more likely to accept that heaven “absolutely” exists and that God rewards the faithful with major successes, are more convinced of the reality of evil, are far more given to having religious and mystical experiences, are significantly younger in age and are remarkably active in volunteer work (as much or more so than tiny churches).

“We think of them as these great, huge, cold religious gatherings with a symphony orchestra and a paid choir and a lot of hoopla and a lot of good tidings but no bad tidings,” Stark said. “It’s not true that it’s all happy talk. These people are as interested in evil and sin as anybody in any of the churches. Their levels of satisfaction are high, their volunteerism in community service is very high and their outreach efforts are absolutely phenomenal.”

“I’ve heard stories when you go to some of the megachurches that you have to get tickets and parking like it’s a football game,” said Dr. Carson Mencken, professor of sociology at Baylor. “You go to a football game, you sit next to people you don’t know very well, and so I figured that’s exactly what megachurches are going to be like. The survey reveals the megachurches are not like that at all. These people do know each other, and they’re networked into the church through their friends and friends of friends.”

I’ve been on staff at large churches and have been around them now for the past six years (really beyond this).  I don’t deny that a great deal of good has come about from these behemoth faith communities, but I continually question the methodology employed, the assumptions that come with “church growth,” and the degree to which such communities are effectively making disciples of Jesus Christ.  I can’t help but look at multi-million dollar facilities and wonder if this was what Jesus intended.  I can’t help but marvel at million dollar sound and light systems, elaborate staging, and slick presentations and wonder if this is a setting more fit for amusement than engagement, entertainment than serious contemplation.  I wonder where the large church pastors are who are not that attractive, considering Jesus may have been uncomely in appearance (Isa. 53:2).  I wonder if the building of our organizations do not reinforce habits of consumption more so than fuel the development of generous character.  I wonder if we give more money toward facilities, staff salaries, and promotional materials than we do to the poor.

Some large churches are more careful than others.  Some remember the poor, and encourage their members to do so as well.  Let’s just say that some of my everyday conversations with church people have indicated that they feel well connected, affirmed, and at home in the large church, but their answers as to why they are there are more centered on social connections, buzz, attraction to a central personality (usually the pastor) than they are on the Lord and Savior of the Universe.  In other words, too often I’ve found that the feeling of connection people have with a church community has little to do with discipleship.

It may be true that in megachurches “These people do know each other, and they’re networked into the church through their friends and friends of friends,” and that “Their levels of satisfaction are high, their volunteerism in community service is very high and their outreach efforts are absolutely phenomenal,” but to what end?

I can only hope that the feelings of intimacy which exist are not ends in themselves, but lead people to Christian maturity that reaches beyond participating in a church program, tithing that reaches beyond a felt obligation to sustain a building and a capital campaign, and volunteerism that reaches beyond “do-good, feel-good” mentalities that center on the self.

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Fishing :: A Saturday Meditation

Something within fishermen tries to make fishing into a world perfect and apart–I don’t know what it is or where, because sometimes it is in my arms and sometimes in my throat and sometimes nowhere in particular except somewhere deep.  Many of us probably would be better fishermen if we did not spend more time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect.
–Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It 

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”  
–Mark 1:17

I grew up fishing.  My dad is a fisherman, as was his father before him.  You could say that I am a fisherman, and the son of a fisherman.  I have many great memories of being on the lake, river, or a small pond situated on a piece of farmland.  My discipleship in the art of fishing began with a Snoopy rod.  I’ve since advanced, though not much.

The words above from Norman Maclean are beautiful words.  They are also true.  Fishing is an art that requires patience, technique, experiential knowledge, and a little luck.  Presentation, lure selection, and casting location can all be precise, yet every outing is an adventure that comes with no guarantee of success.  You can have partly cloudy skies, clear waters, perfect temperatures, and been the first to hit the water, yet have your first cast come up a tangle of line or your first setting of the hook come up with a old sunken tire.  Even when conditions turn out perfect, in fishing perfection is fleeting.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

As Maclean states above, “Many of us would probably be better fishermen if we did not spend more time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect.”  I can’t imagine what my life of fishing would have been like if we would have only set out when all conditions were perfect, or only cast our line into the water on those moments when all was just right.  If fishing hinged on perfect conditions, it would’ve been a rare day for us to make it into the water.  It wasn’t uncommon for my dad and I to arrive at the boat ramp later than he would’ve liked thanks to my desire for a breakfast taquito from Whataburger.  Every spring when we first put the boat in the water there was no guarantee the engine would start.  Depending on the condition of dad’s aluminum bottom boat, there were seasons in which we would have to gauge the amount of water we were taking on so that we could take a guess concerning how much time we had left on the water before we were in danger of sinking.  One of my greatest memories with my dad and Gramps was being on the lake as a light sprinkle set in.  Being just a small boy, I thought every raindrop was a fish disturbing the surface of the water.  That moment is burned in to my memory.

When I read Maclean’s words I not only thought of my lifetime of fishing, but I thought of my lifetime of discipleship to Jesus.  I stopped and pondered the words.  I considered how Jesus had called a handful of fishermen to be included among his close knit band of followers, and how for each of these young men a lifetime of fishing experience lent perspective to what Jesus had called them to be and to do.  How often might it have been that conditions presented themselves perfect for the type of fishing to which Simon Peter, Andrew, and the brothers Zebedee had been called to by Jesus?  I’m guessing not often.

How often have I, as someone who has worked directly and indirectly in church leadership, longed for perfect conditions under which to fish?

• “If only the people were…”
• “If only the community were not so…”
• “If only I were not so busy…”
• “If only I had preached a better sermon or taught a better lesson…”
• “If only the world were not so corrupt…”

That world for which we long that is “perfect and apart” is called Kingdom, the reality which has come and is coming.  While Jesus calls us to be fishers of people it is only natural that our eschatological hopes would birth a longing “somewhere deep” for all of creation to be made new.  Yet it is in the time between the times in which we now stand, patient yet expectant, putting our hands to the work we have been given and in the process becoming men and women who fish with a greater degree of skill.  The fact that the world is not perfect is what makes discipleship to Jesus so compelling.  Without conditions that fall short of perfection, we’d be robbed of the beauty of grace and redemption.

Instead of watching and waiting for the world to become perfect, we cast our line in the midst of an imperfect world with the hopeful expectancy which comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ, knowing that the adventure which awaits is one worth the risk of losing our lives in order to find it.

God grant me the grace to face the chaos of the waters.

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God the Action Figure

My friend Ryan sent me this image:

Here is more information about the product.  Ryan points out that God comes complete with a machine gun, instead of the traditional lightning bolt.  And as a bonus, my friend Mike sent me this link.  For those of you who know John Piper, you might find this humorous.

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Oxford Receives $4 Million to Research Belief in God

This release from the Associated Press found here is about a month old, but upon reading it this evening I had some reactions I thought I would share.  The study will explore a number of issues–in fact, I plan to do some digging about exactly what this study will cover.

Roger Trigg, Director of the Ian Ramsey Center for Science and religion stated, “There are a lot of issues. What is it that is innate in human nature to believe in God, whether it is gods or something superhuman or supernatural?”  This study likely will concern very old questions that have yielded a number of different conclusions.  For example, the studies of Tylor, Frazer, Freud, Marx, Jung, Durkheim, Weber, Geertz, and Eliade are only a few of the classic theorists of religion who present differing accounts of religion and how it should be regarded.  Thank you REL601 and Mike Zogry.  If you are ever looking for some light reading and have an interest in classical theories of religion, pick up Frazer’s The Golden Bough.  This edition is only 808 pages.

The Associated Press report is rather abbreviated (the story linked above).  An account from the Religion News Service picked up on 03.17.08 by the Baptist Standard provides a little bit more information.  According to the RNS, “The three year project titled ‘Empirical Expansion in Cognitive Science of Religion and Theology’ is designed to determine if belief in a deity is instinctive or learned.  It will be funded by the Pennsylvania-based John Templeton Foundation.”

Perhaps the most interesting comment from reading these short accounts was the desire to understand if “belief in a deity is instinctive or learned.”  What do you think?  I would think this would be incredibly difficult to discern empirically.  Even if a child is not instinctively taught a religious system, traces of various religious faiths permeate the cultural soup that we swim in.  A “civil religion” of some type seems inescapable.  Would it be possible to isolate a human being in an environment where it could be seen when the “belief in a deity” instinct kicks in?

In tracing the history of religious ideas, it has been impossible to walk back through history and discover the emergence of religious belief.  Different traditions have yielded their own texts and traditions, but to dig back to the earliest moments many of these ideas were solidified cannot be done.  Foundational developments of differing systems of religious belief took place within the context of preliterate cultures.  Along with reconstructing the earliest belief systems a picture of the culture in which it emerged would need to be developed,  which would be difficult to accomplish with any accuracy.

Belief (or unbelief) and god-talk continues to fascinate us as human beings.  It is my sense that this stuff will never go away.  Nevertheless, I’ll be interested in what the Oxford team discovers.

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