Having been a pastor now nearly four years, I’ve got to tell you, there aren’t many parts of the job that aren’t enjoyable.  I confess, though, there’s at least one minor irritant and it really has more to do with some people’s reaction to what I do than with the job itself.  When I’m out and about in the general public people ask me what I do.  Obviously, I reply, “I’m a pastor” and, for the most part, people nod their heads and the conversation moves forward.  Here’s the irritating part.  Sometimes a person feels compelled at that point to either defend their lack of church participation or explicate in nauseating detail their particular qualms with quote-unquote “organized religion.”  And I guess what’s annoying to me is the surprising lack of tact in doing so.  Especially when I consider that I’ve met dozens of math teachers, for example, and never once had the audacity to say, “well, I hate math and here are the reasons why any thinking person should avoid it like the plague.” 

  Particularly vexing to me are those folks who ramble on about WHY they don’t go to church on Sunday mornings, not that I asked to begin with, mind you.  Here again, I’ve heard the gamut of things.  I’ve heard “I prefer to be out in nature on Sundays, that’s where I encounter God” issued as though it were unassailable logic that I’d obviously agree with and support.  One that will always stand out to me was the person who said “I enjoy reading the Sunday New York Times much more than coming to church.”  To which I wanted to say – “Great, I’m so glad the world revolves around you what you enjoy, pardon me for giving a rip about, oh, I don’t know, God.”   

  But anyway, sarcasm aside, I’m finding that these types of people seem to be emboldened by a growing movement here in American as it relates to faith.  “Spiritual, but not religious” it’s called.  Believe it or not, it’s a quickly mushrooming number of people.  Recent surveys indicate that upwards of forty percent of people would readily embrace this faith moniker, spiritual but not religious.  It’s grown to be such a significant number of people it’s frequently listed as an option on forms and webpages where people give data about themselves.

  “Spiritual but not religious.”  Certainly, we stand within a society that has become increasingly enthralled with the idea of spiritual but not religious.  In fact, as Rev. Will Willimon noticed, on a recent interview with Piers Morgan, Oprah Winfrey announced that her greatest role was “spiritual leader.”  She went on to elaborate “this isn’t about me.  I am the messenger to deliver a message of redemption, of hope, of forgiveness, of gratitude, of evolving people to the best of themselves.”  “So,” she went on to add, “I am on a personal journey to fulfill the highest expression of myself here as a human being here on earth.”  And again, to hear her words with our modern, secular-trained ears, it doesn’t sound half bad.  After all, do any of us not want to be the best we can be?  Does anyone here really wish live without redemption or hope or forgiveness or gratitude?  No, of course not.  And, many people think if those things can somehow be had without all the doctrine and discipline and worship and sacrifice of Christian faith, so much the better.  

  For those of us who stand inside the church walls Sunday to Sunday, maybe the prospect of being “spiritual but not religious” seems to be where the grass is greener.  A happy land where there aren’t committee meetings and usher duty and an hour and a half lost on a Sunday morning that could perhaps be better spent doing a host of other things.  Some people within the church actually do venture out into that supposedly greener pasture.  Having abandoned quote-unquote organized religion many of these folks have glommed on to a phrase that makes my skin crawl.  In fact, one of my friends posted a video on my Facebook wall which has some guy doing a rap about it.   If you wonder why I’m sometimes critical of Facebook, well, that’s my thesis statement.   “I love Jesus but not the church” these people say.  The basic idea behind this being that the church somehow represents the bad aspects of faith whereas just loving Jesus allows for the fullest expression of Christianity.  Believe me when I tell you, anybody who says this does so only in ignorance when it comes to what Jesus actually says and if you’re not listening to Jesus, then what, I wonder, precisely ARE you doing?  And I hope we wonder, where does all of this come from?  What makes people so eager to embrace “Spiritual but not religious” or spout pseudo aphorisms like “I love Jesus but not the church?”