Is Religion Spiritual
It depends. Some listen for the voice of a living God. Some assign the voice of God to only what was said in scripture from 2000 to 3200 years ago. I like the UCC slogan, God is still speaking.
I’m in favor of new generations building their own spiritual communities. However, religion offers valuable discoveries as well.
Let’s compare spirituality with religion.
Reference verse:
Jesus said: “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24
Why did Jesus say this to a Samaritan woman? The Jews worshipped at their Temple in Jerusalem. Samaritans worshiped on a mountain where they thought the Temple should be. Jesus saw that religion was becoming fixed to a place, unchangeable, and that was a useless discussion.
The prophets of Israel, who modeled themselves after the Prophet Moses and spoke on behalf of God, ceased six hundred years before Jesus. Priests expected nothing new from God. Religion was complete. The Jewish chief priests, who operated the Temple, performed a sacrifice every day. To them, this guaranteed God’s favor. To get national favor, religion was a fixed practice.
Yet God was still speaking. God sent Jesus. In 68 CE the Romans destroyed the Temple, putting an end to sacrifices for a stale, old, inactive God. Then the Romans scattered the Jews all over the world. Worship is anywhere and everywhere. God is active.
Jesus said God is spirit. This means the spirit is everywhere, not in a fixed place or dimension. And spirit implies much more than some ethereal concept. God represents something, is the spirit of something. That something is justice, mercy, forgiveness, and love, as spoken by all prophets, and is central to Jesus’ message.
Justice doesn’t mean throwing people in prison. Justice means making sure our society is just. Just means “based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair.”
To some morally right means obeying certain laws they want obeyed that they find in the Bible. This faith is as dead as what the chief priests in Jesus’ time practiced. All for show and comfort. There is a time for both. A Time for Every Season – Byrds.
We’re to worship in truth. The truth of God is justice, mercy, forgiveness, and love. Worshipping God is not hot air. It’s active, doing. It’s putting into practice “morally right and fair,” as demonstrated by Jesus and the prophets: “Do” justice, mercy, forgiveness, and love.
Is the Church Spiritual?
Those that live in the spirit of the living God, each day doing justice, mercy, forgiveness, and love, are spiritual. Those that sink into a comfortable set of practices and comfort are questionable. I’m not their judge.
The spiritual isn’t the doctrines of the church or common practices, not that they have no importance. It’s the receptivity and actions of its members. It’s listening to the voice of God in daily life.
Spirituality is inside and outside the Church
Spirituality involves feelings of connectedness with others and God, connecting with some meaning and mission greater than self, and spiritual growth that comes from experience and new information. It often involves a sense of awe at nature, music, and other activities.
New generations often find a spiritual and sacred experience in inspiration, deep gratitude, humility, intense curiosity, feeling blessed, connection with others, a deep sense of peace and serenity, and finding that existence is meaningful. – Springtide Research Institute
The American Psychological Association recognizes spirituality as:
“A concern for or sensitivity to things of the spirit or soul, especially as opposed to materialistic concerns. More specifically, a concern for God and a sensitivity to religious experience, which may include the practice of a particular religion but may also exist without such practice.”
Spirituality is often key to finding meaning and purpose in our lives. It connects us to a larger universe so that we have a much larger vision.
Spirituality is a key to spiritual growth. Listening to the same messages from religious services, or reading scripture, can awaken us to certain things or help us see things in new ways. But living and experiencing exposes us to the entire world. It’s the world where we live and experience our beliefs and spiritual ideas.
I call spiritual ideas, compelling ideas. They aren’t just intellectually engaging, they motivate us. It’s one thing to have an interesting thought, it’s quite another to have a profound idea that sets our feet in another direction.
Conclusion
We can easily miss comfort for spirituality. Listening to the same comforting words in church, sitting silently in nature, seeing other’s misdoings and thinking we’re better, and thinking God takes attendance can be comforting. Meh.
The spiritual is challenging and active. It represents God and is embedded in truth. It’s recognizing the need for justice, mercy, forgiveness, and love, and then doing it.
Next week we’ll look at spiritual growth.
Probability Space
What probability spaces can we open in our minds to survey justice, mercy, forgiveness, and love in our world, and take action to make it so?
Potential Space
If you think creatively and allow your mind to wander and explore, how can you feel more connected to others and God?
Series links
Is Religion Spiritual or Stuck in Comfort?
The Life-Giving Power of Spiritual Development
Alley Cats to Angels: Spiritual Growth Transformative Power
Discerning Truth in a World of Spiritual Ideas
Can We Trust the Mystics and Prophets?
Hey! How can churches minister to new generations if they won’t come to church?
Our bucket has had a hole in it since 1925. We can’t find the plug!
I developed and presented a course on understanding and working with new generations. I would like to say I had rave reviews, but on a scale of 1 to 5 it averaged 4.5. Well, some of the people were raving.
The course helps people understand new generations, their values, and their differences. It helps people understand how to build a bridge to them and minister to them. The old worn-out things we used to do don’t work, and for good reason.
This solutions focused course enables people to find new ways, appropriate ways, to minister to these generations in their local circumstances. It’s for church groups and creates deep discussion.
Free video preview of the course:
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My friend, David Ketcherside, former Christian broadcaster, has written a book series that I gave feedback on. It’s for men, written from his experience, thoughtful analysis, and heart. Gen A, Z, and X (Millennials) would find it very helpful. It’s available in print, on Kindle, and as an audiobook on Audible. Check out The Whole Dude. His description: “My hope is to remind readers what being whole looks like, and help them recognize the distortions that stop us from feeling totally awesome all the time.” He’s also excellent at marketing if you have marketing needs.
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– Dorian
Our answer is God. God’s answer is us. Together we make the world better.
Restore and recreate. Take time to celebrate life. Laugh, sing, and dance regularly, even every day. Happy. This is why we dance to celebrate life: Reindeer actually running and dancing.
Civic service opportunities
Do Unto Others Kindness Campaign, and civic engagement.
United Methodist Church Volunteer Opportunities.
Join or support Zero Hour and amplify the voices of youth organizing for climate action.
Peoples Hub. Resistance, Resilience, Restoration, Re-imagination. Online Popular Education. For movement workers to learn, connect, collaborate, and strategize – in and across the disability justice and solidarity economy movements.
Stakeholder Capitalism – a video podcast series from the World Economic Forum. Can capitalism be made to work for all of us – and to improve rather than destroy the state of the planet?
General service and aid opportunities (on One Spirit Resources Website). To add your service opportunity to the One Spirit Resources list, contact the author (me) through Facebook Messenger. Note that I only friend people I know.
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Education Opportunities for new generations
Becoming an Entrepreneur – MITx online
Evaluating Social Programs – MITx online
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Bible scripture verses are New American Standard Version (NASB), unless noted.
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Author and books
Appease the Volcano: What does God require from people? The voices of the ancients from many religions echo much of the same things: It starts with law, then mercy and forgiveness, then love. Love is a major emphasis in all major religions and replaces law.
The Prophetic Pattern: Ancient and Modern Prophecy: How to distinguish the intent of various types of prophecies and oracles, both ancient and modern.
Preparing For the Future Of Work and Education: Analysis of the kinds of jobs that AI and Robotics will displace, and the educational requirements for them. AI will replace or augment thirty percent of jobs. This is an in-depth analysis citing many authoritative sources.
Author Website: Dorian Scott Cole
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