Ivison Lecture 14 Jan 2015
Note: This was an illustrated lecture with questions, discussion and audience participation, but
these were my speaking notes, and they include the text from severalof the powerpoint slides.
Among the tributes to Stuart Ivison are phrases like this:
He was a man of firm beliefs, but liberal and forward thinking in those beliefs,
He offered insight into Biblical times and ideas, and knowledge into the problems of the
modern world.
So it is appropriate that we dedicate this lecture to focusing on a challenge posed by certain
changes in our society.
This lecture is a report of recent research into a new phenomenon in our society that the church is
having difficulty understanding and responding to… young adults who identify themselves as
SBNR – Spiritual But Not Religious.
My career has followed Karl Barth's admonition to keep the Bible in one hand and the
newspaper in the other – Stuart Ivison's concern for "knowledge into the problems of the modern
world." Newspapers are limited and inaccurate, so when the United Church encouraged me to do
a PhD 35 years ago, I undertook a sociological study of religion and change in Canada; and that
has been the area of my teaching and research ever since. It has strengthened the ministries that I
have had… at Orléans United Church for 15 years and as Carleton University Chaplain from
1999 to 2009. In 2009, the United Church appointed me Senior Scholar, and commissioned me
to carry out a research project called Listening to The Echo. Tonight I'll begin in a few moments
by speaking about the Echo Generation, then the Listening to The Echo research, and then this
phenomenon of people identifying themselves as SBNR – Spiritual But Not Religious. But first
let us all listen to some of the voices I have been listening to: these are the actual words of young
adults participating in my study.
“I’ve always respected my family’s devotion to religion and god,
but have no interest in being personally involved.”
“Religion should not be forced on another person, or assumed by parents
for their children. It should be entered into freely, based on personal beliefs.”
“I don’t blame ancient humans for believing in god.”
“Religion is more harmful than helpful.”
“I am not religious but I am spiritual.”
“The beauty of spirituality is that anybody can engage in it,
and it can help everybody in their own unique ways.”
“Ultimately,
I believe that everybody needs something to believe in
to live a happy life,
even if it is a belief in one’s own self.”
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Ivison Lecture 14 Jan 2015
“Religion does not define you. You define it.”
“I believe that I am in control of my spirit and destiny.”
"The idea of spirituality speaks more to me than organized religion does.
The idea of believing in something personal,
rather than having someone tell me what there is to believe in,
makes me more inclined to being spiritual rather than religious."
The Echo Generation
In Canada there are about 8 million people who were born between 1980 and 1995, about
80 million in the United States. Sociologists speak of age cohorts:
Baby Boomers
born 1945-1965
Generation X
born 1965-1980
Generation Y,
Echo Generation
or Millennials
\
>
born 1980-1995
/
In Canada, these young adults are often referred to as the Echo Generation. They are the
children of the Baby Boomers, the Big Generation born after the Second World War. They are
The Echo from The Boom.
The culture of this youngest age cohort is distinctly different in family life, school and the
work place. Sociologists have coined new terms to describe new social phenomena: the
Tethered Generation and Helicopter Parents, Boomerang Kids and Accordion Families. In
different countries they are called Emerging Adults, Adultolescents, Twentysomethings, the
Millennial Generation, Twixters, Generation Y, the Echo Generation, and the Net Generation.
They are the first generation to use email, cell phones and texting since childhood. High school
teachers have needed to develop new strategies in order to be effective. Universities and
colleges are adjusting. Marketers are using new techniques to reach them. Employers are
beginning to experience their attitude toward work, and make adjustments. Political parties are
considering how to attract their support, and so are the traditional religious communities of their
parents and grandparents. Mainline religious organizations might call them The Lost
Generation, because they are not visible in the community life of institutional religion in the
ways of their parents and grandparents.
Listening to The Echo – The Research
I have been listening to The Echo for more than 30 years, since the oldest Echoes were
babies. My wife and I have four children who were born in 1978, 1980, 1982 and 1983. They
have friends. As a father, I spent the 1990s driving van loads of soccer and basketball players to
games and tournaments. As a minister, I was called to Orléans United Church in 1984. The
congregation grew, and I stayed for 15 years, during which time I baptized more than 1000
babies – 1000 Echoes. In 1999, I was appointed Ecumenical Chaplain at Carleton University
just as The Echo was coming to campus. For the next 10 years I was the only full time, on-call
religious professional for a student population of more than 20,000. Those were the years of
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Ivison Lecture 14 Jan 2015
9/11, the December Tsunamis, the student deaths at Virginia Tech and at Dawson College in
Montreal. There were suicides, traffic accidents, and other sudden deaths. I was well known and
trusted by a large population of students, who became a national and international population of
graduates.
In November 1999 I started a blog, Thursday Thoughts, weekly postings of theological
and spiritual reflection in the context of life that week: exams on campus, political crises in the
world, religious news, celebrity activity, pop culture, the turning of the seasons in nature and the
religious calendars. By 2004, several hundred people were reading it; and a dozen or so would
respond to me each week, telling me about their lives, especially about their spirituality, values,
and social concerns. I began to develop a bank of statements from young adults who were
thinking seriously about their spirituality and about organized religion. I continued Thursday
Thoughts until 2009, reaching a population of about 1000.
In 2009, the United Church of Canada appointed me Senior Scholar, and commissioned
me to “Listen to The Echo.” The media release announced that “the point of this project is
essentially
* to conduct an ethnography of this cohort in Canada, collating existent knowledge
and new research from the point of view of a church leader,
* giving voice to The Echo’s perspective on church and society,
* listening to the advice this generation might offer the church,
* sharing that information through the structures of the church
and ministry networks in order to begin drawing the implications.”
I did not seek to connect with the entire population of young adults. After reviewing
international research on emerging young adults, and in consultation with church leaders, I
considered the cohort to be comprised of four sub-groups with respect to their religiosity:
1. traditionally religious, participating in the religious communities of their families;
2. aggressive atheists, denying God and the value of religious traditions;
3. fundamentalists and literalists looking for certainty and security in the face of
modernity and post-modernity; and
4. SBNRs – ethical seekers who self-identify as Spiritual But Not Religious.
The first three groups were already being heard. The last group was the focus of my research. I
designed the project to attract a population whose thoughts and perspective are not widely
published, but could be a significant resource to religious leaders – spiritual, ethical young adults
who are thoughtfully choosing to avoid traditional religious institutions.
The respondent population was developed out of the Thursday Thoughts contact list, and
from a national network of ecumenical campus chaplains. In social science research, this is
called convenience sampling, a nonprobability method that does not allow for calculation of
statistical significance, as in random sampling, but which can yield significant data. It is the
technique of a cultural anthropologist conducting an ethnography by means of participant
observation and unscripted conversations rather than that of a sociologist conducting survey
research and quantitative analysis. Since many of the early respondents referred friends and
acquaintances into the study, the research technique is also called snowball sampling.
By June 2014, there were 722 participants who had contributed statements. Most are a
page or two long if printed, about 300 to 800 words. They were mostly about 19 to 24 years old
when they participated, and they are an extremely diverse group. They live in every region of
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Ivison Lecture 14 Jan 2015
Canada. Most had graduated from a Canadian high school between the late 1990s and 2011. In
other words, they were born in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Listening to The Echo
What do we hear when we Listen to The Echo? A number of patterns emerge that are
generally consistent with a postmodern worldview. I am going to let the participants themselves
identify 12 themes that are elements of their spirituality. Each theme is illustrated by a quotation
from a different respondent.
Individualism
I do believe in a higher power of some sort, but no one can say for sure what it is because for
each person it is different. Attempting to label this higher power takes away from its uniqueness
to each individual person.
Independence
I’ve always respected my family’s devotion to religion and God, but have no interest in being
personally involved.
A sense of being empowered
I believe I am in control of my spirit and destiny.
A democratic, participatory attitude
The beauty of spirituality is that anybody can engage in it, and it can help everybody in their own
unique ways.
The Self as the starting point and focus
Ultimately, I believe that everybody needs something to believe in to live a happy life, even if it
is a belief in one’s own self.
A desire for control
Religion does not define you. You define it.
Parents should not determine their children’s religious lives
Religion should not be forced on another person, or assumed by parents for their children. It
should be entered into freely, based on personal beliefs.
A negative view of institutional religion…
Religion is more harmful than helpful.
…at both the macro level (society)
Although religion can bring people together, that does not outweigh all of the bad that has come
from religion including wars, death, and justification of horrible things.
… and the micro level (the individual)…
Religion takes away personal choice and the will of a person.
Cynicism about institutional religion
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Ivison Lecture 14 Jan 2015
Religion is a business. Parishioners have become commodities that each governing church body
is vying for.
And an association of religion with a pre-modern, pre-scientific worldview
I don’t blame ancient humans for believing in God.
SBNR?
“SBNR” means “Spiritual But Not Religious.” It is a fairly new term but the acronym has
quickly replaced the full expression, like "BFF" for Best Friends Forever.
Since the 1990s, hardly a week has gone by without someone saying to me "I'm not
religious but I am spiritual" or something like that. It has become such a common phenomenon
that the SBNR acronym has entered the language of clergy talking about absent populations,
social scientists talking about religion and change, and grandparents talking about their own
grandchildren.
SBNR is certainly a contemporary phenomenon, but it is possible to consider historical
and even biblical figures in terms of the concept. Any prophetic leader who challenges the
religious establishment with a new theological emphasis might be seen as “Spiritual” in a new
way “But Not Religious” in the traditional ways. Perhaps some saw John Wesley as Spiritual But
Not Religious. Perhaps Luther or other Protestant Reformers had moments of feeling that they
were Spiritual But Not Religious.
Jesus seems to urge his disciples to be Spiritual But Not Religious when he challenges
the legalism of the Pharisees and teachers of Torah. Consider his conflicts with the religious
leaders of the day as reported in the gospels, especially in Matthew 23, below, and especially if
we listen to Jesus' anger and frustration in Peterson’s vivid paraphrase:
"I've had it with you! You're hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds!
What arrogant stupidity! What ridiculous hairsplitting! You're hopeless, you religion
scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! Do you have any idea how silly you look? 1
“If these people are religious,” Jesus almost says, “then I’d rather be spiritual.”
When SBNR young adults talk about organized religion and explain their attitudes and
behavior, they sometimes sound like Jesus criticizing the scribes and the Pharisees. This should
be disturbing for religious leaders today who feel called to be stewards of tradition in a time of
change. It is challenging for those who do not take the SBNR phenomenon seriously.
Taking SBNR Seriously
I take SBNR seriously.
Most change is actually ex-change… a decline in one thing, a rise in another. So: the
religious changes that are taking place all around us… congregations closing, yoga studios
opening, people avoiding church services, people taking up meditation and personal spiritual
exercises…
Is this clearly Decline? – Or is it perhaps a Transformation that deserves attention and
respect?
X-shaped graphs
The downward slope might be…
the upward slope…
Number of blacksmiths
number of computer technicians
Blockbuster video rentals
videos downloaded onto a laptop
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Ivison Lecture 14 Jan 2015
Church attendance
individual religious practice
12-yr-old boys playing Cdn f'ball
12-yr-olds playing soccer
Youth
One of the dynamics is that the SBNR population tends to be young. International research
consistently finds that the largest numbers of them are found in populations of young adults.17
Dynamic Diversity
The other thing that needs to be said is that this is a very dynamic population at perhaps the most
dynamic stage of their lives. Many of them are seekers. They seek change, they feed on it and
are nourished by it. That being the case, it is interesting to "take a photograph" of them – as
Listening to The Echo does, capturing the thoughts of each individual on a particular day – but
they are a moving target and a "video" would be more appropriate. As R593 put it, "This is how
I feel today, I cannot speculate on how I might feel in five years, or one year, or the second after
I hit send on the email." R546 said simply, "My spirituality is constantly changing."
Perhaps R595 said it best, and speaks for a large number of young adults today: "I am still
figuring out who I am with respect to my spiritual and religious identity."
In fact, most of the statements are as positive about the individual’s spiritual journey as they are
negative about institutional religion. They are full of energy and hope, and they speak for a
generation – or at least for some members of the Echo Generation – who are living spiritual
lives, committed to ethical engagement in their society, hoping to make a positive difference in
the world.
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Imperatives for Ministry in the United Church of the Future
1. Value small groups.
2. Get off-site, out of Fort Church.
3. Expect, and help to create and nurture authentic, relational communities of faith,
based on neither kinship nor postal code.
4. Value theme-based ministry communities (Faith and Arts Ottawa).
5. Value activity-based ministry communities (The GO Project, service programs).
6. Be prepared to reverse the “Worship-and-work” thinking
from:
Worship first, then go into God’s mission (Gather and Send)
to:
Mission first, and allow worship to develop.
7. Value the relationship-building and community-building power of social media.
8. Realize that leadership for future faith communities needs more entrepreneurial spirit
than twentieth-century models.
9. Face the different budgetary reality of ministry without offering plates,
which can include PAR and partnerships,
but also requires different funding strategies,
possibly informed by the worker priest and tent-making ministry models,
and the Catholic Worker movement.
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Ivison Lecture 14 Jan 2015
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