Study: Young people spiritual but not religious

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From staff and wire reports

Ian is a Christian who says he is highly spiritual but not at all religious.

Unfortunately for churches, there are a lot of Ians out there.

A new worldwide benchmark survey finds that 55 percent of young people ages 12 to 25 say they are more spiritual now than two years ago. But nearly one-third of the young people said they don’t trust organized religion.

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A survey by the Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence found that participants said they feel most spiritual when "spending time in nature," not in church. (photos.com)

A survey by the Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence found that participants said they feel most spiritual when "spending time in nature," not in church. (photos.com)

“If that’s the way they really feel, it means that we have some serious questions that we need to ask ourselves,” said Terry Dittmer, national director of youth ministry for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

The survey, believed to be the first of its kind in the world, was conducted by the Minneapolis-based Search Institute and released Nov. 5 at the four-day Healthy Communities-Healthy Youth Conference. Peter Benson and Gene Roehlkepartain, co-directors of the institute’s Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence, said it will take several months, if not years, of serious number-crunching to figure out all of the study’s implications.

“This work is still in the emergent stage,” Roehlkepartain said. He said the institute hopes to use the data as a baseline for follow-up surveys that will be conducted every two years. “This is our first coming-out party.”

The survey included 6,853 young people in 17 countries across six continents. They voiced their views through focus groups, interviews and surveys.

The first question was, “What does it mean to be spiritual?” The nine choices ranged from “believing in God” to “being true to one’s inner self.” They also could say that there is no spiritual dimension, and there was an “I don’t know” option.

The good news for faith communities is that 93 percent of the young people surveyed believe there is a spiritual aspect to life.

But the disconnect between spirituality and religion was clear in the comments from Ian and other young people interviewed for the survey.

Another interviewee, Gaurav, said he is “practically religious” in that he follows his Hindu faith’s traditions, but he’s not “spiritually religious.” Amneh has rejected many of her religion’s traditions as sexist but said she still adheres to the teachings of Islam.

Benson said he wasn’t surprised that many young people drew a line between spirituality and religion.

“Spirituality is bigger than religion,” he said. “One of the things we have to focus on now is disentangling spiritual development from religious development.”

That comes with age and life experiences, said Cameron McDaniel, director of youth ministries at Eastridge Presbyterian Church in Lincoln.

“Overall, the younger generation often finds spirituality more important than religion,” said McDaniel, 24. “They view it as more rewarding. To live a Christ-centered life you need to bridge the gap and find the balance of religion and spirituality. Younger people are often struggling to find a church service that meets their spiritual needs.”

And McDaniel doesn’t see that spiritual-religious gap as necessarily a bad thing.

“Everybody is going to worship differently. As long as we are focused on the same God and the same Bible scripture, there is no right or wrong way to get to that worship,” he said.

More people use the word “spirituality” to define themselves because it does not have some of the negative connotations that “being religious” does, said Scott Guenther, director of high school ministries at Messiah Lutheran Church in Lincoln. Young people share that feeling that “God is instilled in all of us and we need him,” but are less comfortable associating that feeling with religion.

Miriam Cameron, a professor at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spirituality & Healing, said the survey’s results confirm what she has observed in her classes.

“Many of my students equate religion with dogma and spirituality with harmony,” she said. But speaking as the daughter of a minister, she said she doesn’t think religions need to feel threatened by the growth of spirituality.

“Not at all,” she said. “Spirituality works well with most religions. The only ones it doesn’t work with are the angry people who say that everyone else’s image of God is wrong. ... The spiritual view of God is much more inclusive.”

If the youth don’t feel spiritual in church, where do they?

“Spending time in nature” topped the list of responses. “Listening to or playing music” was No. 2, and “helping other people or the community” was third. “Attending religious services” was ninth on the list of the top 12 most-frequent answers.

Students don’t find that line between spirituality and religion all that surprising.

“For me, that’s very true,” said Jon Delperdang, a student in the Mindfulness Meditation Club at the University of Minnesota. “I’ve developed a strong belief in the interconnectedness of the world.”

The theory that everything and everyone is part of a larger whole is what sets spirituality off from most religions, said David Horn, a senior at the University of Minnesota. “It doesn’t make distinctions, and religion is all about making distinctions.”

Ty Thomas, youth pastor at Lincoln’s Berean Church, says today’s young people want to be part of something bigger than themselves, and they see that as something spiritual.

“They use words like ‘rise up’ and ‘freedom,’” Thomas said. They initiate grassroots movements to help people all over the world, rather than simply focus only on their own little corner of the world.

“I feel like people are going to do great things with their lives,” Thomas said. “One of the thing we realize in the youth ministry is that it is not enough anymore for us to tell students to ‘live good lives and not do bad things.’ They are really wanting to be mobilized as a generation to accomplish great things.”

It’s more than a Christian value; it is a generational value, he said.

Thomas recalled a Berean youth mission trip last year in which Lincoln students visited a remote rural community in Costa Rica. For nine days they saw how other kids survived not only without iPhones and iPods, but without beds.

“It was a really forming thing for these kids,” Thomas said.

And it is this global perspective of spirituality that Thomas says will change the world.

“I do believe we will see a change. Part of the idea that the United States is always right and always the best, that is changing. Our students don’t believe that anymore — in a healthy way. They still love their country, but they realize other countries can also be great and you can learn from them.

“I think we will see more humility and collaboration in the coming years,” he said. “I think we’ll see technology used as a catalyst for unity.”

So how should faith communities respond to these trends with young people? The Center for Spiritual Development stopped short of offering specific advice for churches, but it suggest that the place to start is with conversations. The report recommends asking young people open-ended questions, such as “What does being spiritual mean to you?” and “What is most important in your life?”

“We’re not paying enough attention to what our kids are saying,” Roehlkepartain said. “We need to listen more and talk less.”

Lincoln’s McDaniel agreed.

“Our job as youth group leaders and workers and Sunday school teachers as involved disciples for Christ is to take advantage of the huge number of spiritual (youth) and bring the religious aspect into it,” McDaniel said. “If kids are spiritual and believe in a higher power, our job is to take advantage and say, ‘You’re halfway there.’ Be the bridge to bring them into the religious part.”

Guenther said churches need to always re-examine what they are doing.

“But the essential message should stay the same,” he said. “Kids are trying to strip away some of the extras in religion and get down to what is the essential message — and that message isn’t going to go away.”

Erin Andersen contributed to this story. Reach her at 473-7217 or eandersen@journalstar.com.