Two years ago, Better Homes and Gardens published an in-magazine survey on spirituality. Since most BH&G surveys ask questions about potted plants, living room decor, and bathroom fixtures, a questionnaire on spirituality was a notable event in itself.
Even more notable, however, were the results. Most respondents told the BH&G editors that they participated in organized religion. That finding is consistent with other surveys such as Gallup Polls that consistently show over 65 percent of Americans belong to a church.
The intensity of response to the BH&G survey was impressive. More than eighty thousand readers (out of a circulation of eight million) took the time to clip the survey from the magazine, fill it out, and mail it in. The editors, in commenting on the results, said that “perhaps the most consistently expressed sentiment was one thanking us for printing the survey, for acknowledging the spiritual side of our readers’ lives.”
Yet many who responded felt that the religious organizations they belong to fall short in meeting the spiritual needs of members. The good news: 59 percent thought organized religions are sensitive to the needs of today’s families. The bad news: 35 percent thought they were not. One respondent’s comment typified this group: “We are bothered by religious organizations that fail to recognize the real life needs of members.”
Recently I attended a church meeting designed for members to assess candidly their church’s strengths, weaknesses, and visions for the future. The strengths were considerable. The people in the church have a great deal of justifiable pride in a membership filled with talented and generous Christians.
I was more interested in the weaknesses. In this forum designed for honesty and openness, the opinions were far ranging. A common core of concern emerged, however. The people were desperate for opportunities during which they could listen to fellow church members talk about how Christian faith worked in everyday life.
In asking for more fellowship time between services, more discussion time in Sunday school, and more small groups during the week, the comments I heard were like these:
“I respect John so much. I’d like to hear him talk about how his faith works when he is selling cars.”
“Ellen has had so much sickness in her family. Yet she manages. Is it her faith? I could learn from that.”
“Do other people struggle as much as I do in getting through the day? How do they do it? Is God there when they need him?”
I left the meeting marveling at the powerful hold churches still have on the vast majority of people even in our secularized age. But I was bowled over by how hungry they are for glimpses of faith that really works.
What can we do about meeting this need?
Have you ever thought about what you could do-both personally and as a church leader-for people asking for spiritual life support?
Have you thought about how you can live and act so that others will see these glimpses of God at work, glimpses they might miss without you mentioning them?
Just by the way you talk, you can make God more visible. When you talk about what God means in your life-how he adds perspective to your disappointment in a teenager who is failing a class at school, gives hope for a spiritually disinterested spouse, helps you cope in your battle with overeating-people listen. By talking about God, you make God more immediate.
Naturalism runs rampant in our society. To not connect God with these everyday events is the norm. Even Christians are reluctant to talk about God and the everyday-life connection. But if you rebel against this trend, you feed the greatest soul-hunger of our age. There is no simpler way to make a difference for those you love: talk about the difference God makes.
There’s something else you can do. You can make the Christian lifestyle seem right. Today, this is not as difficult as it seems. The anti-Christian sexual revolution has failed. AIDS, divorce, and venereal disease have nailed tight the coffin lid on promiscuity. It doesn’t produce happiness; it produces sorrow and death.
Materialism has not produced happiness, either. Depression and despair are at all-time highs. In this atmosphere, you can change people’s minds just by your determination to be happy with less, by grabbing a little less gusto and more joy. What you do with your life will make a difference to people watching you. And in today’s climate, the case for the Christian way of life is often received as liberating.
One more thing you can do: You can make Christian love practical. One of the few eyewitness accounts we have of the first-century church is a secular historian’s wonderment about how the Christians loved one another. They even buried the dead bodies of non-Christians who otherwise would be left unattended. They were known for practical love.
Can we make the same impression on twenty-first-century America? Last year we didn’t do so well with Holy Wars and scandals.
We often look for the things we can do to feed the spiritual hunger of our day-and then are disappointed when we don’t have the wherewithal to pull it off. Yet if the Better Homes and Gardens survey is right-and if the testimonies of ordinary Christians count-then what we have is what people want and need: reassurance that God can help us get through the challenges we face.
Terry C. Muck is a senior vice-president of Christianity Today, Inc.
Copyright © 1989 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
