Imagine the following scenario. The year is 2068. The Western Church is preparing to celebrate Easter.

In this particular year, Easter Sunday happens to coincide with the April 22 celebration of Earth Day, a holiday that has been increasing in popularity since it was first observed a hundred years before. In order to best participate in the culture in which they have been placed, many evangelical churches choose to forego their Easter celebrations and to celebrate Earth Day instead.

Not surprisingly, other evangelicals take these churches to task for replacing Easter with Earth Day.

“Why shouldn’t we?” the churches answer back. “After all, we should be looking for points of contact with our neighbors. We would seem out of touch with society if we celebrated Easter and did nothing special for Earth Day.”

“Can’t you see how you have been co-opted by the culture?” other evangelicals ask. “You’re allowing the culture to dictate your church celebrations!”

“We are never commanded to celebrate Easter,” reply the church leaders. “Paul even says to avoid legalism when choosing to celebrate one day over another.”

Now let’s rewind back 60 years to 2008. Many evangelicals who follow the traditional church calendar are in a quandary. Pentecost and Mother’s Day fall on the same date this year (May 11). While most evangelicals in the West (though not the case worldwide) have long jettisoned the celebration of Pentecost, many evangelicals outside the U.S. embrace the history of celebrating the church’s major feast days.

So what to do on Mother’s Day?

For many in the U.S., this question will seem odd. After all, most evangelical churches do not follow a specifically Christian church calendar, except for perhaps Christmas and Easter. For my father-in-law (a Romanian Baptist pastor), the answer is clear. You celebrate Pentecost and make mention of Mother’s Day as well. Of course, he, like my other Romanian friends, is still wondering why in the world we do not celebrate Pentecost here.

A few thoughts…

Every church has a calendar. Whether the church chooses to follow the traditional calendar of the Church and preach according to the readings in a lectionary does not change the fact that every church has a way of ordering time.

The question is not, Will we follow a calendar? but Whose calendar will we follow? In other words, does our church’s ordering of time follow the wisdom of the ancient church or the whims of the consumerist American culture?

Many of our churches have a list of unofficial celebrations that order our congregational time.

• New Year’s Day.
• Valentine’s Day.
• Mother’s Day.
• Father’s Day.
• Fourth of July.
• Memorial Day.
• Halloween.
• Veteran’s Day.

By rejecting the traditional church calendar, we did not reduce the number of our celebrations; we merely replaced them with the celebrations of the culture at large.

Granted, churches do well to emphasize many of these celebrations. We can benefit from using the cultural opportunity to speak to the biblical vision of motherhood and fatherhood, etc.

But we should be willing to listen to the tough questions from those outside our culture about what our church calendars represent.

Why should the consumerist culture of the United States dictate what we celebrate as a church?

Why is it that so many American churches celebrate with great fanfare the birth of their nation (July 4) without even so much as mentioning the birth of the church (Pentecost)?

Does the way we order our time shape us as the unique, called-out people of God or merely reinforce our nationalist, consumer-shaped identity?

Listening to these tough questions may make us uncomfortable. (They make me uncomfortable too. My current solution is to celebrate Pentecost with our Sunday School class and then celebrate Mother’s Day with the rest of the church.)

As evangelicals, we do well at seeking points of contact with our culture. It would be foolish to celebrate Pentecost on Mother’s Day without ever mentioning our mothers. Our goal should not be to adopt a “we’re proud to be out of touch” mentality that harms our witness.

I am sure that evangelicals will come down on different sides of the issue of ordering time. We should refrain from dogmatism on this matter. After all, the Scriptures do give us freedom in ordering our time and celebrations.

But surely we should wrestle through these decisions. To blindly go forward without giving thought to how our time is ordered is to prepare the foundation for the imaginary scenario I described earlier, where Earth Day takes over Easter. I hope I never see that day.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

Come, my Light, and illumine my darkness.

Come, my Life, and revive me from death.

Come, my Physician, and heal my wounds.

Come, Flame of divine love, and burn up the thorns of my sins,
kindling my heart with the flame of your love.

Come, my King, sit upon the throne of my heart and reign there.

For You alone are my King and my Lord.

- Dmitri of Rostov

Here’s a recap of my chapter summaries from Robert Wuthnow’s book After the Baby Boomers.

Preface

Chapter 1: An Uncertain Future

Chapter 2: Changing Life Worlds

Chapter 3: Going to Church

Chapter 4: The Major Faith Traditions

Chapter 5: Trends in Religious Beliefs

Chapter 6: Personal Spirituality

Chapter 7: Faith and Family

Chapter 8: Politics

Chapter 9: Immigration

Chapter 10: Virtual Church?

Chapter 11: Youthful Churches

My Thoughts on After the Baby Boomers

Now that I have summarized each chapter of Robert Wuthnow’s After the Baby Boomers, I would like to post some reflections and applications that we can take from Wuthnow’s study. What course of action should the Church of the 21st century take? How should the Church take bold steps in engaging this elusive generation? If Wuthnow’s statistics are right, I suggest we do the following:

1. Raise expectations regarding post-boomer religious participation while simultaneously providing support for this generation.

Young adults between the ages of 18-20 are disappearing from our congregations, and many evangelicals have implicitly approved of this phenomenon by excusing it. They’re in school right now and are very busy. They’re working very hard in their first career position. They’ll be back once they’re married. Younger adults have disappeared from our gatherings along with our churches’ expectations. We no longer expect to see a large number of young, single adults in church. Therefore, we do not.

Part of the problem is laziness. Wuthnow rightly points out the skewed nature of church ministries that focus on the elderly, the children, or the teenagers and make no effort to help along the twenty-somethings who are without any social support from outside the church. There is a void here, and the church has done little to fill it. Furthermore, we act as if church drop-out is expected. Why else do we not focus on younger-adult ministry?

The solution to this problem is for churches to come up with innovative ways of ministering to this segment of our culture while also raising the level of our expectations.

2. Buck the trend of late marriages.

Wuthnow observes that adults are getting married and having children at a later age. “Settling down” is happening later than ever, and since “settling down” is key for the younger generation’s return to church, we are seeing less and less twenty-somethings in church.

The solution to this problem is complex. Wuthnow suggests the Church move along with the culture and create social support systems for the twenty-somethings who have not yet “settled down.” I agree, so far as it goes.

But the Church must do more than simply ride the cultural wave of extended adolescence. One of the reasons why marriage is getting pushed back later and later is because more and more evangelicals are engaging in premarital sex. Many are cohabitating. Even more startling is the number of evangelical Boomer parents who quietly approve of this practice. Other evangelical parents who would never countenance fornication virtually lead their children into immorality by unwisely and unmercifully advising their children to postpone marriage until they are out of college or until they have a strong financial foundation. Deliberately postponing marriage and childbirth is often (not always) a capitulation to a culture that sees marriage as a contract and childbearing as a commodity.

The Church must buck this trend. We need to be emphasizing sexual chastity. Our youth need to be brought up with the mindset that marrying at a young age is not only not necessarily irresponsible, but ideal. In order to promote marriage a younger age, we must also be emphasizing maturity at a younger age. The solution is not to push young couples to make rash wedding vows. Instead, we must foster an atmosphere of maturity so that young twenty-somethings will be ready for marriage.

Younger families with younger children will bring back the 20-somethings, because the prolonged adolescence will no longer dominate our churches. Of course, parents will need to grasp this vision as much as teenagers. We have a long way to go if we are to stand against the cultural tide here.

3. Reach out to new movers.

66% of converts to evangelicalism did so after a recent move. Evangelical churches must continue their outreach to people in a time of transition. Moving is one of the most stressful times in a person’s life. The Church must be willing to welcome people into the community, plug them into Bible study, offer them fellowship and ministry opportunities. We are most likely to reach people when they are in a time of transition. Churches can obtain databases with new movers, and actively evangelize or recruit those who are new to the community.

4. Emphasize doctrine again.

Right now, Wuthnow’s research shows many younger adults attending church primarily for the sense of settledness and community that church attendance provides. The doctrinal positions of young adults reveal a lack of basic theological understanding. If we are to reach the post-boomer generation, we must again restate what we believe and why we believe it. Practical tidbits for daily life may reach some post-boomers, but most young adults can find such help online or on Oprah. The Church must offer something different, something substantive. Perhaps this is why there is a resurgence of Calvinism taking place across denominational lines in evangelicalism. After years of cotton-candy teaching, many young adults are starved for the biblical meat they find in the Puritans.

5. Stop expending so much time and energy debating stylistic issues.

I am glad that Wuthnow’s research backs up what I found to be true in my own congregation. The younger adults are not heavily invested in the so-called “worship wars” between contemporary and traditional music. Younger adults want church to “feel like church” and are more likely than the most elderly segment of the congregation to prefer liturgy and tradition. So much ink is spilled on the newest music style, when the younger generation is often more concerned about the preaching of the Word.

6. We need to deepen our understanding of other religious faiths.

Wuthnow would have us study the beliefs of other religious traditions in order to foster tolerance and civility. I hope that tolerance and civility will be fostered, certainly. But that is not the reason why I believe we need to learn more about other religions.

One of the major indictments of evangelicals in Wuthnow’s book is that we are actively evangelizing nominal Christians, a.k.a. “the unchurched.” We are not pursuing people who belong to other religious faiths. Evangelism in many evangelical churches is equal to inviting someone to church. We are scared to death to be put in the position of persuading a Muslim of the truth claims of Christianity. We shudder at the thought of discussing the implications of monotheism with a Hindu.

To give our church people some credit, we leaders have not been equipping them to deal with the growing array of religious options. We must address this issue quickly if we are to reach lost people in the 21st century.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

Related Articles:
Newsflash! The Key to the 20-Somethings is Not Musical Style
Youth Worship 4: Approaching God & Authenticity

We’ve come to the end of Robert Wuthnow’s informative book After the Baby Boomers. Pastors and church leaders, you need to buy this book! Do not assume that my chapter summaries are sufficient. I am briefly summarizing Wuthnow’s conclusions. The statistics and data in After the Baby Boomers are alone worth the price of the book.

Now, we turn to chapter 11 and the question about young, diverse congregations. How are churches succeeding in reaching younger adults?

Wuthnow believes religious leaders should be troubled by the fact that young adults are less likely to participate in religious services today than in the previous generation. Those who are participating are likely to be married, which is a minority in the young adult population. Mainline denominations have lost their young people by half. Evangelicals are barely holding the ones they have. Meanwhile, more and more young adults are not religiously affiliated at all.

Numerically, the next generation is larger than the baby boomers. The problems that churches face are societal. Community is not encouraged by American society, yet people still sense the need to connect with the past. Young adults are tinkering with their religions by seeking continuity with the past while simultaneously adapting their behavior to the demands of the present.

Churches must stop assuming that if they have a vibrant youth group and then a good program for young married couples with kids, they will reach this generation. This kind of mentality leaves out three-quarters of this generation. Wuthnow’s central argument is this: 

“Young adult is a time when other social institutions fail to be of much help… We provide care centers, schools, welfare programs, family counseling, colleges, job training programs, and even detention centers as a kind of institutional surround-sound until young adults reach age 21, and then we provide nothing.”

Churches should step in and fill the void. Why do we invest so much in programs for the children and the elderly, while leaving out ministry to young adults? We need programs for single adults with questions about marriage, work, and finances.

The clergy are looking through narrow glasses at the upcoming generation. People must get something from their participation to make it worthwhile. With so many outside activities competing for time and attention, young people must have a reason to be in church.

What are the characteristics of congregations that are attracting young adults? Wuthnow defines a youthful congregation as one in which at least 35 percent of its regularly attending adults are below the age of 35. Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Generally, youthful congregations are not as established. 30% of them have been founded since 1970. Young people are more likely to go to new congregations than older ones. Yet this is not always the case. Congregations do not have to be brand new. Nor do they need to have innovative worship styles to attract young adults.
2. Youthful congregations tend to be larger.
3. Youthful congregations appeal to populations that have many young adults.

Many suspect that young adults are turning away from the mega-church model and are looking for smaller faith communities. Actually, young adults can be found in every-size congregation. No single size dominates. The congregation’s size is influenced by the size of community more than anything else. As long as young people find community in their church, it doesn’t seem to matter whether or not the church is large or small. When they attend church and do not experience community with people their age, they have a compelling reason to stay away from church.

Regarding worship styles, Wuthnow’s research may surprise you. Young adults are increasingly less likely to want the contemporary worship of the boomer generation. They think church services should “feel like church.” Young adults are more often interested in preserving traditional worship than changing it.

The research numbers on worship styles may shock you (unless you are like me and in your twenties, and then you’ll sigh and say, “Finally, someone is describing our generation correctly!”). The greatest popularity of contemporary worship appears to be among people in their early forties. The lowest percentage of all (12%) of those who prefer contemporary worship is represented by people in their 20′s. That figure is lower than the percentage of church members aged 65-97!

Wuthnow calls for balance in implementing programs for the existing needs of the congregation (mostly for married couples with kids) and those for people the church hopes to attract (singles). Church leaders should take note of the growing percentage of working women, who traditionally have poured time and resources into the life of the church.

Wuthnow believes churches should implement interreligious programs that represent other faiths besides Christianity. While I agree that the polarization of young religious adults may be a problem, adopting a secularized, pluralistic assumptions of our culture is not the answer. I strongly disagree with this section of the chapter.

Other opportunities for ministry include international mission trips, local mission efforts, volunteer work and helping the needy. Young adults will likely move toward churches who are offering these kinds of ministry opportunities.

Tomorrow, I’ll be back with some of my own thoughts on After the Baby Boomers.

Chapter 10 of Robert Wuthnow’s After the Baby Boomers analyzes the statistics surrounding the younger generation’s use of the internet. No book on the post-boomer generation would be complete without a chapter that devotes attention to the impact of the Internet. 84% of young adults today say they use the internet. News, travel, work, and education sites are the most visited among younger adults. Religion sites are visited by only 20% of young adults. Evangelicals are the most likely to visit religious sites.

The statistics show that religious adults are visiting religious websites as a supplement to their faith practices. Little evidence exists to show that young adults might be replacing traditional congregations with internet use. Regarding pornographic sites, only 5% of those who attend church weekly admit to have accessed internet pornography. This figure stands in stark contrast to the rates of pornography among those who attend church infrequently or never (20%).

Young adults who actively practice their religion use the internet to learn more about the social causes to which they are devoted. Wuthnow believes that the internet has the potential of mobilizing religious young adults who are interested in moral issues.

Young adults stay in touch by email, but most consider the telephone to be the main means of communication with their friends and relatives. Frequent church attenders are more likely than the unchurched to send and receive emails.

Young adults do use the internet to seek out spiritual information. Religious internet-users are not replacing their congregations with web-churches. But many of these adults believe individual spiritual activities to be more important than group study and group prayer. Conversations with friends are more highly valued than conversations with a pastor. Though they take part in traditional congregations, they are piecing together spirituality their own way.

72% of those who surf the web for religious reasons have claimed they are looking up information on their own faith. Half claim to have looked up information on other faiths. Other reasons are practical (seeking guidance, planning a wedding, celebrating a holiday, etc.).

Traditional churches are not in danger of being replaced by virtual churches. But traditional churches should not miss this golden opportunity to reach out to their members in new ways. Just as previous generations learned to use the technology of radio and television for religious purposes, today’s church leaders must learn to use the internet in order to strengthen their cause.

22 million immigrants came to the United States between 1965-2000. Wuthnow cannot address the future of American religion without taking immigration into account.

The church must note the growing presence of Hispanic Catholics. The younger generation of religious Hispanics are deeply involved in issues of social justice. These young adults think about the church in international terms, rather than just its local manifestations. Hispanics are less likely to see themselves as members of a particular church.

Hispanic Protestants differ from Catholics in that they are more likely to have assimilated into the Anglo culture. Hispanic Protestants are more likely to see themselves as a member of their local church.

Asian American Christians show a special vitality. Among young Asian American Protestants, 77 percent are actually a member of their local congregation. That percentage is higher than all the Protestants in the same group. For many Asian Americans, religion is a means of assimilating into the United States. Protestantism does this for many Asian Americans.

Do immigrants feel welcome in the United States? Unfortunately, not by evangelical congregations. Statistics show that evangelicals are the least welcoming to Hispanics and Asians. In fact, the odds of not welcoming these immigrants are almost twice as great among young evangelicals than non-evangelicals.

Why is this the case? Several social factors might play a part. Men are less hospitable than women. Having children is associated with prejudice toward Asians. Those who live in small towns and rural areas are more likely to be unwelcoming.

The good news? Regular church attendance reduces the odds of being unwelcoming. Overall, most young adults view Asians and Hispanics. Church going must encourage young adults to be more accepting of other ethnic groups, although evangelicals (who attend church more than anyone else) tend to still be less accepting.

Wuthnow asks some tough questions. Could it be that churches are insulating us from ethnic diversity? Are churches somehow causing us to be less willing to trust others? Is church merely reinforcing interethnic contact and trust? Congregations remain homogeneous, although regular church-goers tend to be more involved in the community, and thereby meet and trust a more diverse set of people.

On Monday, we will look at The Virtual Church – religious uses of the internet.

I suspect that many people will consult Robert Wuthnow’s After the Baby Boomers primarily for chapter 8: The Divided Generation: Religion in Public Life. How will the religious views of the younger generation affect the political process? Religion is public, and it tends to follow a three-fold process of adapting to social conditions.

1. Production – opportunities to worship and practice religion are produced.
2. Selection – process of competition through which some options survive and others die.
3. Institutionalization – most groups eventually gain some autonomy from their environment.

Is the younger generation ready to carry on the culture wars? Let’s take a look.

First off, polarization is more widespread today than before. More young Americans are identifying themselves as very conservative or as very liberal today than in 1984. Religiously speaking, liberalism outweighs conservatism.

But religious conservatives are much more active religiously than liberals. Thus, the division is behavioral, not just ideological. Many young adults now consider themselves religiously and politically in the same categories.

Do young Americans follow what is often considered American civil religion? Younger adults are less likely to believe that the U.S. was founded upon Christian principles. Likewise, they are less inclined to agree that America is strong because of its faith in God. Evidently, we are seeing a larger cultural shift in which younger adults are growing up in a different environment – one that does not presuppose a strong link between Christianity and America. (Those who attend church regularly are more likely to see the civil religion connection.)

Young adults look favorably upon mixing religion and politics. They tend to be more favorable towards references to God in public speech. However, they are less comfortable with political pronouncements coming from the pulpit and with religious leaders running for office. Young adults do not agree with civil religion in terms of a cultural establishment for Christianity. However, they are fine with politicians who speak of religion as a voluntaristic form of free expression.

What about the hot button issues of abortion and homosexuality? Regarding abortion, young adults are more polarized than ever. Some have become more open to legal abortion, while others have become more opposed. The overall trend has been a growing opposition among young people.

Regarding homosexuality, young adults across the board have become more tolerant. The biggest shift has been in evangelical circles. Young evangelicals remain overwhelmingly opposed to homosexuality, although they believe homosexuals should have certain rights (excluding marriage).

Regarding the Religious Right, many young evangelicals have a positive view of pro-life groups and the Christian Coalition. Young evangelicals resemble older evangelicals in their attitudes toward leaders like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. Still, the younger generation has softened its views toward gays and lesbians and organizations like the ACLU. Regarding issues of war and peace, young adults and older adults are quite close.

Wuthnow’s conclusion? Young evangelicals care about the future of America and politicians’ religious convictions still matter in public life. Young evangelicals are more likely now to identify themselves as conservative Republicans. The statistics do show, however, a widening gap between religious conservatives and religious liberals.

In this chapter, Wuthnow considers the evidence that will help us understand how young adults relate their faith to decisions about family.

We’ve already seen how younger adults are more likely to go to church once they are married. We also need to consider, though, how church attendance may influence decisions about marriage. Church attendance and valuing marriage go hand in hand. Little has changed statistically regarding these two actions.

Not surprisingly, high attenders and low attenders are polar opposites on the question of premarital sex. Since 1977, high attenders have become more disapproving of sex before marriage, while low attenders have become more approving. Behavior does not always follow convictions, though, as 63 percent of those who thought premarital sex was already wrong acknowledged having committed the sin in the previous year.

Regarding weddings, Catholics have the largest, with Jews close behind. Those with no religious affiliation have the smallest attendance at weddings. Church-attenders who attend almost every week have the largest weddings.

Those who participate regularly in religious services are significantly more likely to claim they are happily married.

Regarding parenting, those who attend church are more likely to see the ideal family as having 3 or more kids. Still, the ideal is not identical to people’s personal desires. Most people want less than what they consider “the ideal.” Those who go to church often believe obedience and helping others to be important values to instill in children. Religiously conservative parents want their children to obey them, while liberal parents would rather their children think for themselves. (What about those of us who want both???)

Questions of right and wrong regarding a number of ethical issues (homosexuality, claiming government benefits to which you are not entitled, cheating on taxes, abortion, etc.) elicited surprising results. Young adults have shifted towards a relativistic stance. People are more likely to ignore what the church says about money, while they listen to what the church says about sexuality and life. Perhaps this is because church teachings have concentrated on a narrower sphere of activities.

Religious participation increases the likelihood of people to feel empathy (the ability to identify with and act on behalf of people less fortunate than oneself). Religious involvement encourages empathy.

Wuthnow believes that one of the least understood dimensions of young adulthood is fear. In fact, he sees this fear playing itself out in the mindset among young people that the mass media is actually hostile to their moral and values. Even a significant minority of those who are not religiously affiliated believe that the mass media is a threat to families. Wuthnow suggests that faith communities should provide emotional and social support.

Young people are more accepting of the possibility that their child might marry someone of another faith. Still, this idea of tolerance plays out differently when the hypothetical situation becomes a reality. If we have learned anything in this chapter it is this: faith matters, but behavior does not always conform to beliefs.

Tomorrow we look at religion and public life… 

In chapter 6 of After the Baby Boomers, Robert Wuthnow discusses “spirituality” and how spiritual practices shape the lives of the younger generation. Wuthnow defines spirituality as “the shorthand term we use in our society to talk about a person’s relationship with God.” Spirituality manifests itself in what people do, “especially those activities through which they attempt to relate to God or follow God.”

What kinds of choices are young people making regarding their spiritual lives?

Church Shopping and Church Hopping

First, Wuthnow examines the difference between Church Shopping and Church Hopping. Church shopping takes place when someone is looking for a religious congregation to join. Church hopping involves going from one congregation to another, without a commitment to settle into a single church.

Most people “shop” for a place of worship if they have changed residencies. Other factors that increase the likelihood of church shopping are the social class of the parents and the education level of the shopper. Wuthnow’s conclusion? “People with more resources and greater opportunities are the ones most likely to engage in church shopping.”

Church hopping involves “staying in the market.” The same factors that lead to church shopping also lead to church hopping, but church hopping is more common among single people and those without children. It is a function of being unsettled. Often, church hopping is a matter of expedience (visiting relatives, to see friends, etc.).

Social Networks

Are young adults finding the majority of their friends in church? Statistics show that young adults are more likely to have few or no friends in their congregations. What influences this fact? Movement. If a person has grown up in one community and one church, that person is more likely to have friends in church.

Surprisingly, the vast majority of young adults claim to have discussions about religion with their friends at least once or twice a year. Almost half of all young adults talk about religion at least once a week! In fact, the proportion of people who talk about religion with their friends is highest among adults in their twenties. No one can assume that religion is a “private matter” anymore.

Because reading is lowest among young adults, it seems that religious ideas are circulating by word of mouth – not through books and sermons. Young people are influencing each other more than they are being shaped by the beliefs of religious institutions. In other words, young adults are looking to each other for spiritual guidance.

Civility

Young adults speak of religious convictions in a language of opinion and feeling, not dogmatic fact. Young adults are more likely to agree that they should “spread their faith” than that they should “convert others.” Young adults see themselves spreading the faith by living according to the Golden Rule.

Evangelicals (especially young ones), however, are more likely to believe in conversion. The statistics show evangelicals actively proselytizing friends, family members, and co-workers. But careful consideration of the statistics shows that these evangelicals are not witnessing so much to people from other religions, but from other denominations. The people they evangelize are nominal Christians – “people who do not go to church.”

Converts to evangelicalism are surprisingly less likely to actively evangelize than those who grew up going to evangelical churches.

Spiritual Seeking and Practices 

Young adults seek for spiritual answers in a multiplicity of venues. Some seek to find answers by taking an intellectual route. Others seek answers through the use of dreams, symbols, and rituals. Of course, many point to Christianity as providing answers to the tough questions of human existence, although more and more are turning to Eastern religions. Traditional boundaries have been transcended.

Spiritual practices are neglected among most young adults. Prayer is less common among young people. Few young adults read their Bibles daily. Listening to music seems to have replaced these disciplines as a “spiritual activity.” For those who do pray, ambience is important. Many report the importance of praying with candles, paintings, etc.

Young adults are more likely to see spirituality and art as interrelated. But this does not translate into fans of Christian contemporary music.

The idea that young adults are “spiritual, but not religious” is not correct. Young adults do emphasize personal experience over church doctrines. But those who are involved in religious congregations are more likely to indicate an interest in spirituality. It is inaccurate to generalize by saying that young adults are spiritual, but not religious.

Tomorrow, we look at faith and family.