This is the title of our current series that starts this Sunday. Living in the “Bible Belt” I run into all kinds of people with many different views on this topic. I would dare say that Cleveland, TN is one of the most religious areas in the country with over 400 churches (this is just Christian denomination) in Bradley county alone. Yet, more and more people are not finding God in these churches and many have taken their search else ware.
The trend in our generation is to remove ourselves from any church or organized affiliation and pursue what some are calling a true spiritual walk. A true spiritual walk, that sounds great, sign me up.
In this series we will reduce religion and spirituality to the irreducible minimums and ask the question is one better than the other or are they both just an unattainable idea? If Jesus were to visit your hometown, would he be unwaveringly religious or deeply spiritual?
What are some of your thoughts?
Jared White says:
Both words have negative connotations…spirituality can be viewed as largely a private, even self-centered mental exploration that is divorced from the real world. Religion can be viewed as a human system of authoritative organization that seeks to explain the world in terms of divine power over matter and the subjucation of people. Either one is risky.
That being said, I tend to use the terms spiritual as well as supernatural, rather than religion. I think religion is such a loaded word these days that it’s largely useless. I doubt Jesus would claim He’s starting a religion if He appeared in the flesh today.
Jared White says:
I meant subjugation…sorry!
charlie says:
religious or spiritual? which is better or worse?in my experience it has come down to reading the bible for myself and making my own decision concerning the content. instead of having someone else do it for you, read and study for yourself!!!! the bible does say “study to show thyself approved”. alot of people just believe what the preacher tells them every sunday morning without reading for themselves. how sad. I think Jesus would be very disappointed in most of us including me. he loves us but most of us do not really get it when it comes to his main message because of our selfishness. i digress.
Suzanne Wild says:
I think it’s brilliant. There are so many people in the world that confuse being turned off byt “religion” to being turned off by “God”, and that means so many people never understand his grace.
I personally don’t even call myself a “Christian” because there is a lot of negative conotation associated with the term. I refer to my self as a “Christ-follower”.