The Churchgoing Bust: Rebuilding Spiritual Communities in 21st century America

While current trends create a set of problems, they also create opportunities for communities to rethink their offerings to address belonging and purpose. – Pam King

Changing State of Spirituality

It’s probably not news to you that traditional forms of engaging spirituality and sources of meaning are being renegotiated and reordered in the United States. According to a 2021 study by the Pew Research Center, church attendance is in decline with almost 30 percent of Americans reporting no religious affiliation. One in four millennials say that they are unaffiliated with religion or spirituality and identify as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular.” Americans are moving away from traditional forms of religion and religious skepticism applies broadly. Sociologists report increasing numbers of people who identify as “spiritual, not religious. The chart below shows trends in religious service attendance from a recent Gallup poll. 

These patterns are not only worrying from a religious perspective, but they are also concerning from the vantage of personal and societal wellbeing. With these shifts and the decline of engagement in religious congregations and other spiritual communities, people have less access to the important sources of psychological and emotional support that offer beliefs, values, social connections, hope, practices, and rituals. In a sense, many people are currently unmoored and adrift; not sure of what is meaningful in their lives. This decline contributes to personal and social malaise, the deterioration of social bonds and trust, and increasing conflict within society.

Contemporaneously, we see reports surrounding mental health issues – epidemic levels of loneliness, anxiety, and depression – each issue points to taking a good, hard look at what we’ve lost and serious consideration about how to rebuild. The McKinsey Health Institute suggests a modern approach to health that includes spiritual health. Loneliness is as much a spiritual crisis as a mental health crisis. For many religious traditions, a divine source of love and forgiveness offers reassurance, safety, and care, and gives a sense of hope and security to connect and contribute to others. This spiritual sense of belonging counteracts loneliness. The best traditional spiritual communities offer spaces for social connection and support which are vital to wellbeing and thriving. Declines in attendance at houses of worship that were once hubs of social connection and belonging have far reaching implications.

Americans aren’t just leaving church, they are also disengaging in civic involvement. While there are complex reasons for these trends, the decline in church attendance appears to be associated with a decline in engagement in civic life. Studies show that people who are religious tend to be more prosocial. So along with loss of church attendance comes a loss of volunteering and civic action. These trends reinforce isolation and loneliness and do not bode well for the social fabric of our society. While current trends create a set of problems, they also create opportunities for communities to rethink their offerings to address belonging and purpose. The best kinds of religious and spiritual communities not only provide a moral compass, but they offer transcendence–which provides inspiration, perspective, and hope that fuels purpose and a sense of belonging. 

How should religious and spiritual leaders respond? 

Humans are meaning makers. We can’t help it. If the church is not going to meet people in their loneliness and struggles to find meaning, people will look for connection and purpose elsewhere. In recent years, I’ve been involved in research with the Fetzer Institute examining changes in the spiritual landscape. This body of research demonstrates that many Americans continue to pursue meaning, connection, and inspiration through means other than religion (see recent research by Fetzer Institute and Pew Charitable Trust). Research about trends in spirituality offers many insights for clergy and other spiritually engaged leaders, such as chaplains and community organizers. 

In order to rework congregations and build effective spiritual communities, clergy and other spiritual leaders must meet people where they are and recognize people’s needs and strengths. Religious and spiritual communities should offer love, a sense of grace, and provide a common purpose. In reworking religious or spiritual communities, leaders need a framework for thinking about how to rebuild. 

If the goal is to build communities that encourage not only deeper faith, but also wellbeing and thriving, leaders would gain from understanding how psychology points to human needs for transcendence, meaning, and belonging.

The Thrive Center offers a Spiritual Health Framework  to help leaders reprioritize as they work to meet the needs of their communities. This visual model with facets spelling THRIVE provides a lens to see the psychological resources available within religion and spirituality. At best, spirituality connects people to a loving source – whether that is God, a higher power, or a form of community. Spiritual leaders often focus on teaching, preaching, caring, organizing, and inspiring. Psychological aspects of spiritual health may suggest small or radical shifts to care for your communities with the contemporary struggles they face. 

Attending to the issue of spiritual health is more timely than ever. At its best, spirituality has the potential to counteract many of the detrimental trends that are a petri dish for the current mental health crisis and the deterioration of our social fabric. Spirituality deepens capacities to behold the complexity of life and the ability to simultaneously hold the joys and sorrows necessary for living out of the depths of life, not the shallows, and thrive. Healthy spirituality allows us to remain rooted, connected, and directed toward who and what matters most.

References

Kim, S., King, P.E., & Trudeau, S. M. (2024). Spirituality and meaning-making across contexts: Structural topic modeling of the Fetzer Spirituality Study in America. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 16(2), 203-213. DOI: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2023-29781-001?doi=1

King, P. E., Baer, R. A., Noe, S. A., Trudeau, S., Mangan, S. A., & Constable, S. R. (2022). Shades of Gratitude: Exploring Varieties of Transcendent Beliefs and Experience. Religions, 13(11), 1091. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13111091