In Exile - In The Pews

“I’m spiritual not religious.”

This has become a contemporary response to the question of faith. In my estimation it is a response flowing out of two trends that culminated in the 20th Century.

First, modernity built a “scientific” world in which all things could be objectively known. We became a disenchanted people. The church bought in completely. We became secular whether we want to admit it or not. 

Result – all the mystery was taken from the faith. 

We controlled the narrative by attempting to get people to behave (legalism) and believe (apologetics) in a uniform way. But faith is not something you wrestle your mind and heart into. 

When we saw those projects failing we attempted to get people to belong. The logic - if we could just lower the bar more would come in. 

Behave, believe, belong. All good things. But not avenues to faith. They are byproducts of faith.

Faith comes by beholding – eyes of the heart wide open.

Secularism (a four Century project) led us into this disenchanted world. And over time the shift from enchanted worldview left a hollowness of soul. The social drift took over the church. Spiritual hunger does not go away by eating bad substitutes. So the hunger remained. 

I am spiritual. Translation: I have spiritual longing. I am more than this physical body. And the traditional spiritual institutions are not satisfying the longing or at least directing me on how to satisfy it.

In his book, The New Copernicans, David John Seel describes the longing of the postmodern exile as a haunting sense, a “suspicion that there is more to life than meets the eye.” He says of the church that rather than giving cognitive answers to contemporary questions of meaning (spiritual hunger), we should invite our neighbors to an open and authentic seeking in pilgrimage.

“What if a relationship with Jesus is more like falling in love than answering the questions on a philosophy or history exam” (Seel, p. 68)?

Secondly, the church built an institution that overwhelmed the organism like a bad weed. Life was squeezed out. Church became a building, a religious “check the box,” a service on Sunday.

As a child we had this little ditty that we did with our hands:

Here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open it up, and here’s the people.

Cute. But theologically deficient and sadly reflecting a church that had become religious and not spiritual.

Better stated: Here’s the building, sometimes there is a steeple, open it up, and here’s the church.

The church is people. Organism. Most of its history it has not had steeples. And many times no dedicated buildings. The church met in homes, in caves, under trees, and in open fields. Today, the church meets in theatres, in strip malls, in pubs, in boxing gyms, and in homes. And occasionally still in a building with a steeple.

I’m spiritual not religious. Translation: I am not into your institutional church.

In truth, we are all religious in relation to what we believe. I’m spiritual and not religious is repeated religiously.

We do what we believe. We generate relational atmosphere by what we believe. We attack or avoid life out of what we believe. But my point is not to address the logic behind the phrase but the cause of distrust of religion.

Institutional church, religiosity with out presence, killed spirituality over a couple generations. The program became so controlled that the manifest presence of God was pushed out. Preaching became moralizing around culture wars. Table became ordinance remembrance alone and no sacramental presence of Christ. Community lined up in pews, watched and listened, and lost the sense of filial connection of being family.

Basically God was squeezed out.

No God – institutionalized religiosity – no presence, no mystery, no questions. Believe this. Do this (and don’t do this). 

No God – no beholding. No enchantment. No life.

Exiled in the pews. 

In exile in the pews, led to exodus from the pews. The exit was so great that we developed a new category for our demographic surveys. Religion: none. And this often really translated from “done” – ie. I am done with church. Been there, done that, found more spirituality in other places.

In speaking of vibrancy I am not talking about the latest move to worship light shows, incredibly entertaining contemporary bands, and incredibly cool skinny-jeaned preachers. The “church” has tried that routine. It is a good show for a while but there is something still missing. 

Exiles are no longer in the pews. But they still drift from their theatre seats to move from light show to light show to find a new experience. The latest, hottest and coolest spirituality. Or is it just a new religiosity?

What I am talking about is not about style. It is about the manifest presence of God. When you are with someone, or a group of someones (church), and God is in the atmosphere, your spiritual eyes come wide open. 

Presence. Behold. Life.

Chuck, what is your faith?

I am spiritual and I am religious. 

I wake-up every morning and God is waiting for our daily scheduled appointment.  Presence.

I was rooted in a church for the past 11 years – a group of people who are spiritual and religious. 

We showed up to Bible study on Tuesday or Thursday expecting to meet God. We reached out to our neighbors, some familiar and similar, and others much different, all with a sense that we would meet God in them. We worshipped corporately every week expecting the manifest presence of God.

And you know what? He always showed up. Often in ways beyond what we could ask or imagine.

Why? We moved from being in exile to being on exile. It is more than semantics. 

On exile with you in a long tradition of exiles.