A New World

I enjoyed listening to Dvorak's New World Symphony yesterday. One of my favorites, it was written in 1893, during the Czechoslovakian composer's trip to America. It is amazing how the music captures what I perceive as the essence of discovery, especially in view of the American adventure. You can view a video of the 4th movement here. I liked that President Obama chose a movement from this symphony for his inauguration. It is indeed a new world.

Later in the same day, I read a report in USAToday on the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS). You can read the article here. Based on the finding that 15% of Americans claim no religion, compared to 8% in 1990, it looks like religion is losing ground. It is indeed a new world.

As I read the ARIS report, I wasn't as concerned as you might think. In fact, I see a positive side to what seems to be happening on the religious landscape. I am concerned that fewer people seem to claim Jesus as the way to God, but I wonder if religion, as we know it, doesn't contribute to that problem. I have felt for a long time that religion more often than not gets in the way of people knowing God. That's why I want to be a Christian, not religious.

I see a parrallel between what is happening in our economy and what the ARIS results indicate is happeing spiritually. In a lot of areas of life, sometimes things get so askew, so far off course, that there has to be major changes to get us back where we ought to be. In the case of the economy, there were a lot of bad practices that had to be eliminated. That process is very painful for our entire world, but I am hopeful that we are going to be the better for it in the long run.

I can see how the same thing might be going on spiritually. There are a lot of reasons why a church might fail, but ultimately they are no longer able to connect people with God. If they aren't doing that and are unable to make the changes required to do so, why should they continue to exist? Is such a church not salt that has lost its saltiness?

Perhaps we are seeing something of a process of natural selection. The strong survive, or in this case, maybe it's the relevant that survive, those who are able to successfully live between two worlds, bridging the gap between God and people. Last year I heard Leonard Sweet describe our age in terms of the rebooting of a computer. Perhaps God is shutting down some programs that are hinding the work of his kingdom.

I am curious to see what this new world will look like a couple of generations down the road. I suspect those who say that "church" as we know it is going to be radically different are probably right, although I am confident that the kingdom of God is going to continue to advance.

In the meantime, I'm not wringing my hands much about the changes going on around us. I take it as a wake-up call. I just want to be part of one of those groups of disciples who are pointing people to God. If there are traditions, agendas, methodologies, etc. that are hindering his work, I hope we will change before it is too late.