1. The classification of “spiritual but not religious” has been around for a while.
Throughout the 2010s, a new phenomenon gained momentum across the American religious landscape. It grew to such an extent that, by 2017, the Public Religion Research Institute estimated that one out of every five Americans were identifying as spiritual but not religious (SBNR). These people viewed themselves as spiritual—valuing spiritual ideas or practices—but didn’t identify with any particular organized religion. A few days after that report came out, Vox published an article offering commentary on its findings, along with firsthand testimonies from SBNRs. That same year, a PEW study reckoned that SBNR Americans constituted up to 27 percent of the population. For the last eight years, it has become more and more common for people to present themselves as spiritual but not religious.
2. SBNRs are “spiritual” in a variety of ways.
Folks who identify as spiritual but not religious engage in a wide array of beliefs and practices. Some of their sentiments are vague or innocuous, like the notion that we ought to believe in ourselves, while other ideas may seem more esoteric, like expecting multiple rebirths or living in harmony with the chi. Some who identify as spiritual but not religious see their yoga class as a deeply spiritual practice, and many consult astrological charts for guidance on day-to-day life.
As mission-minded Christians, we must remember that SBNRs aren’t our parents’ atheist neighbors. On the contrary, they are highly spiritual. They are hungry for transcendence and connection with something beyond themselves.
3. They see their spirituality as something private.
In a way, the SBNR phenomenon has seen a deinstitutionalization of religion, and with this deinstitutionalization has come a privatization of spiritual beliefs. Missiologist Steve Thrall makes this observation in his chapter of the 2017 EMS compilation Against the Tide, and sociologist Peter Berger acknowledged nearly the same idea in The Sacred Canopy half a century earlier. Today’s SBNRs express their spirituality the same way that John F. Kennedy explained his Catholicism to concerned evangelical voters in 1960—as something private.
As we engage SBNRs today, then, we must go about it with sensitivity, but we can also lean into the fact that Jesus is the truth for each and every one of us.
4. SBNRs use a particular definition of “religion.”
People who identify as SBNR tend to have a particular understanding of what “religion” means. They see religion as a set of stodgy rigamarole, as a sociological category to be stuffed into.
Many Christians can sympathize with this sentiment. Many of us remember well the cliché, “Christianity isn’t a religion, it’s a relationship with Jesus.” When Jeff Bethke’s famous “Why I Hate Religion but Love Jesus” video dropped in 2012, it struck a chord already familiar in youth groups across the nation: Religion is a rigid set of rules; faith is something more.
By “not religious,” many SBNRs simply mean they are not a part of any religious institution and are not beholden to a legalistic list of laws. As heralds of the gospel today, our task is not to squabble with them over what “religion” really means, because at the end of the day, what SBNR people need really is a relationship with Jesus Christ.
As heralds of the gospel today, our task is not to squabble with them over what “religion” really means, because at the end of the day, what SBNR people need really is a relationship with Jesus Christ.
5. The “not religious” are often highly religious.
Perhaps the most important thing to understand about the spiritual but not religious is that their beliefs and practices are as religious as a Sunday at the Vatican. SBNR people hold convictions that have long found expression in the creeds of the world’s faiths. They engage in practices forged over centuries of religious zeal. Some hold resolutely to the absolute oneness of God, as Muslims have done since the seventh century. Others sit lotus-legged in meditation, as Hindu seers would do in the Himalayas. In a sense, SBNRs are super-religious, since they engage in beliefs and practices that have long been at home in the world’s faiths.
6. Theirs is a do-it-yourself kind of religiosity.
The SBNR phenomenon has been described as a move toward do-it-yourself spirituality, or DIY religion. But SBNRs don’t craft their identities ex nihilo. Rather, they borrow voraciously from a variety of religious traditions. An SBNR woman might attend a yoga class laced with Hindu lingo, practice mindfulness techniques tracing back to the Buddha, and waft sage around her dining room as prescribed in the Lakota’s Seven Sacred Rites.
When one concocts one’s own religiosity, where is the assurance that any of it is real? As we engage SBNR people with the gospel, let’s emphasize the faith—the singular faith—once and for all delivered to the saints.
7. SBNRs have quite a strong view of ultimate truth.
God has the prerogative to reveal truths about himself wherever and however he wishes. The love of a husband illustrates for us how Christ loves his church. The mountains give us a glimpse of God’s grandeur and creativity. And one of the Buddha’s sayings—though spoken by an uninspired, sadly mistaken man and preserved in a faulty, misleading text—may echo a biblical truth about how God wants us to deal with our neighbors. Wherever we find true things, it is God who put the truth there. Traditionally, Christians have used the term “general revelation” to describe these truths that can be seen in creation. SBNR people see truth this way, but they so strongly emphasize general revelation that they discard God’s special and exclusive speaking in the Bible. So, what’s crucial to emphasize with them is that, by knowing Christ and his inerrant Word, we have everything we need for life and godliness. No other religion’s teachings include anything true that we could not have found more clearly in the Bible. Furthermore, the essential truth of the gospel can only be found in the Bible. Comfortingly, the Bible is the one, authoritative source of truth that SBNR people need.
8. Their starting point is not so different from ours.
One hallmark of evangelical Christianity (and more particularly that of biblical soteriology) is our conviction that anyone whom God wills may repent of his or her sin, commit to following Jesus, and be saved—regardless of where they have come from or who their parents are. This offer of salvation to all, has historically driven the practice of tent revivals and evangelistic services in which all present are directed to Christ. SBNRs believe they can choose their own religious identities as individuals. So we can praise God that the call on every sinner to make a decision for Jesus extends to them too! Let’s implore SBNR people to identify with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
9. Sadly, they are wary of the church.
Many SBNR people testify to having suffered “church hurt.” This phrase is vague and volatile, likely wielded cavalierly in many instances today, but it shines a light on the real mistreatment that some have surely felt in the life of our congregations. As missional Christians, we need to help SBNR people think through their allegations of church hurt. If theirs was a legitimate harm, then that is an abhorrent misrepresentation of Christ’s church and must be dealt with. Some cases of supposed church hurt, though, may have simply been exercises in biblical accountability or discipline that the person did not like. In a spirit of genuine care for your SBNR friend, you may need to help him or her think through these perceived experiences of church hurt.
10. What many SBNR people need most is belonging.
It may seem paradoxical, but those who are most loathe to lump themselves into a traditional religious category may be the ones most hungry for genuine spiritual community. Your SBNR friend might not like labels, but being human, he or she has an innate need for belonging. In a 2004 publication on reaching people wrapped up in “new spiritualities,” an issue group for the Lausanne Movement encouraged churches to become welcoming places of community for these spiritual seekers. Let’s invite the spiritual but not religious to come to Jesus and join his family of faith.
