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Are
people less religious?
It's a qestion
of spirituality |
What motivates people to make them more or less
likely believe in a higher power |
By Schellene Clendenin, Newberg
Graphic Reporter
E-mail Schellene at sclendenin@eaglenewspapers.com
|
Have faith.
Often ministers and pastors use these words to comfort their congregations
and remind them there is a higher power watching over them.
But do people still feel as spiritual as they once did? Do the words that
once echoed from clergy in most every religious group still attain their hoped for goal?
According to Paul Kennedy, an associate sociology professor at George Fox,
studies are often done at the university to identify how students live out their faith.
“We do survey students about their beliefs, values and ideals,” he
said.
More recently Kennedy has been a part of a study researching how personal
relationships have molded someone’s belief systems.
Childhood experiences are important, he said, and determine
whether people have a sense of “giftedness.” In other words, their
experiences, whether good or bad, allow them to view life as having given them good
things.
Although the people involved in this study are in their 50s or older,
Kennedy said he has seen similar beliefs in different generations in spite of the
gaps.
“I think the question is a complex one,” he said.
Brian Burman, pastor at Newberg First Baptist, said he can only
speak to the people he sees.
“Around tragic times people are more likely to seek comfort from
faith,” he said. “But the reality of it is that you don’t receive benefits
until you enter into a personal relationship with God.”
Organized religion is programmatic, he said. It is different from
spirituality in that spirituality provides comfort, guidance and confirmation of what
we’re doing is OK.
The numbers in Burman’s congregation have stayed fairly steady, with an
average of about 400 people visiting the church every Sunday. But he said the church is
adding incentives to attract younger people to the congregation.
“The emphasis, the relationship is changing,” to attract people to
the church, Burman said. Dress has become more casual and the the style of music has
changed, as well.
However, a relationship with God is more important than religion, he added.
Many people look to their spirituality, he said, when it is beneficial for
them to do so. He feels many people are content with their religion only as long as it
follows the way they want to go.
People who do not have faith, Burman said, fall into three categories: those
who never had faith at all, those who didn’t know how to have faith and those who
give up on their faith when bad things happen.
“They say, ‘God, why have you done this to me?’ They blame
God,” he said. “People expect God’s promises even when they don’t have
a relationship with him.”
Faye Pruitt, a receptionist as Newberg Friends Church, said she sees a
combination of both consistency and faithfulness.
“I believe our people are quite faithful in spite of the changes in the
pastoral staff,” she said. “There is an empty place in all of us that only God
can fill.”
Pruitt said many people are drawn to spiritual things: “God made us for
our relationship with him.”
Pruitt said people sometimes turn away from their faith when they want
God to do certain things for them; they don’t believe in the sovereignty of God and
in his plan for people.
Shawn Magoon, pastor at Christ Community Church, said there is a constant
flux of people coming into and going out of his church. But there are also many
congregants who remain consistent in their worship.
“I don’t see tons of people coming or a mass exodus,” Magoon
said. “Our faith needs to be in God through Jesus Christ. That’s where the
rubber meets the road.”
Magoon feels many congregants are attracted to church through self interest.
They want to know what services a church will provide them instead of what they can do in
the service of God.
“Many come not for what they can give, but for what they can get,”
he said. “The main thing with worship is to be God-centered instead of self-centered.
It’s like the church is a mall and everyone is looking for their shop.”
People tend to look for familiarity in their church, for what style of
worship they had when they were growing up. They have what the Bible calls “itching
ears,” Magoon said.
“God is holy, we are sinful. People don’t want to hear that,”
he said. |
|
From Oct. 11,
2003, Newberg Graphic
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