Into the Riptide between the Currents of Secularization and Spiritualization

How do we avoid getting caught in a rip tide between these diverging currents? How do we take the tension between spiritualization and secularization as an occasion for deepening our practice as resource directors?

In the Congregational Resource Guide team, we often find ourselves struggling with this question. Such a question is also central to the work of both individual institutions where (like directors of ecumenical resources centers) we wish to work respectfully with people of many faith traditions but also wish to work in a way where we meet not on a generic secular level but as people of faith.

In trying to resolve this tension profitably (or at least to profit from this tension), it is helpful to begin with a rough, broad observation about the relationship between resources and religious traditions in America: If you look at innovation in American congregational life, the ideas are constantly moving across traditions. Overall, the bulk of theological innovation moves from left to right and the bulk of organizational administration moves from right to left. So, if you want the best example of something or if you want to know about what is new, it is very unlikely that you will find it in any one tradition. This is especially true considering what has happened to denominational publishing and curriculum development. This gives you three basic options:

1. Live within a constantly shrinking world. If you choose this option, you achieve a certain sense of solidarity and focus on your distinctiveness. If you really believe that everything outside the circle is basically to be rejected, you must in faith choose this option.
   
   This option has merit. I fear the last two decades have left people of faith lulled into complacency about the dangers of worldliness. Yes, the good news must be preached in the language of contemporary culture. But who can go to a shopping mall at Christmas and not observe that a Christian ought to feel out of place there? Is it not true that an authentic, Christian celebration of Christmas must separate itself from a genericized, commercialized celebration of Christmas?



2. Live in a world that is constantly becoming more generic and less soulful. A woman the other day said to me that too many churches are becoming like rental apartments—no sense of a specific people on a specific journey with God. I suppose part of this comes from the influence of the seeker church model but it also can come from organizations that publish resources generic enough to fit everyone. The resources end up with a little spirit language at the corners while the language of business and organizational development does the heavy lifting.
   
   But this option also has merit. I cannot say that the contemporary American idea of denominationalism is really a container in which Christian faith, or any faith, should easily fit. And, if faith shouldn’t be made to fit in such artificial denominational containers, then surely we should let go of the languages and practices that press faith into such artificial containers.



3. Live with some energetic approach to difference, where we use our differences to more deeply engage the center of who we are as people of faith. I don't pretend to be neutral on this. By far the majority of my sympathies are with this third option. I believe that, on the whole, it is more fruitful to find energetic approaches to difference, where our differences become the tools we use to engage more deeply our spiritual centers.