Seeking
Lately, I have found myself asking a simple question over and over again: what are they looking for? Articles, reports, blogs and books all present a commonly themed challenge facing the church today. People of all sorts, backgrounds and faith journeys are searching. More than ever, people identify themselves spiritually as “questers” or “seekers.” As one might imagine, this includes people who have never practiced any faith at all. A growing number of folks describe themselves as atheist or agnostic, which does not really surprise us. No, the shock comes in the increasingly large numbers of people who have considered themselves faithful in some way and no longer do so now. Dave Kinnaman, President of the Barna Group, says that most Americans (7 out of 10) will spend at least six months in a Christian Church. However, many young adults are becoming what he calls Prodigals, Nomads and Exiles. They are either leaving the church never to return, wandering in search of something or feel displaced by their faith tradition due to a dissonance between the teaching of their tradition and their own experience. For what are they seeking?
I am not alone in asking this question. Pastors, church leaders and people of faith everywhere are asking the same thing. I do not pretend to have the answers, but I have some suspicions. I should preface the rest of what I am about to say by acknowledging that I have never really been in the category of an “outsider”, but I do understand the yearnings of a spiritual quest. So, here are my suspicions.
Meaning
Most everyone I have ever met want life, the events of it, what they do with it and their experience of it to mean something. The search for meaning has long been the quest that caused us to look outside of what we can see and apprehend for something more.
Relationships
Except for a few anti-social types, we need other people with whom we share our lives. I believe this is because we were made that way—to relate to God and one another. I suspect folks are looking for not only social and emotional connections, but spiritual ones as well. While they may not articulate it as such, each one of us longs to relate to God.
Community
As I talk with younger people, what I hear most often is that they want a group to which they can belong. Both meaning and relationships can be found in community. In a world in which people are more and more isolated and lives more fragmented, I see people searching for real community that provides unconditional love, support and accountability through which they can realize their dreams and potential.
The bottom line is that we have what folks are seeking in our churches. At least, I believe we do. The task is to help them see it by what we say and how we live. I look forward to trying that with you in the coming year.
Blessings,
Monty