Sociologist of religion Linda Woodhead has done important work on the rise of the religious “nones”, i.e., those who claim no affiliation with any organized religion (Woodhead, 2017). Her reserach demonstrates that increased secularization in the UK is not due mostly to adults walking away from their religious traditions. The greatest demographic source of the rise of the religious nones is teenagers raised in religious homes that opt to not follow their parents’ religion.

Many nones do attest to some form of spiritual practice in their daily lives. It is interesting to note which form of spiritual practice they are most averse to. Think of what spiritual practices are most common – prayer, scripture reading, pilgrimage, worship, etc. Woodhead’s research indicates that attending public worship of some other form of formal gathering is the most unpopular spiritual practice among religious nones.

I found this fascinating – why is it that the UK population is increasingly averse to attending formal religious gatherings but still widely practices prayer, scripture reading, and meditation?

I love going to my local church, so much of whose ritual connects me to experiences rooted in my childhood. I have lived long-term on three continents as a missionary but I always found a local Christian community I grew to love. But I recognize that my faith journey really began in earnest with a radical conversion experience in my late teens. I can’t imagine myself ever having found interest in local church attendance if it wasn’t for the life crisis and conversion experience I had in my youth. It was during that formative time that I came to understand why people are drawn to faith communities.

This isn’t to say that I never miss a Sunday service. There have been periods where it took my wife and I months, even years to finally find a church we could call home. But I wonder how Christians like myself can help make the curch a place people want to come to in contexts like Western Europe.

References

The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. (2016, December 15). The Growth of “No Religion” — Secularisation but Not as Predicted | Prof. Linda Woodhead [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC-9hgBtwgM

Woodhead, L. (2017). The Rise of “No Religion”: Towards an Explanation. Sociology of Religion, 78(3), 247–262. Atla Religion Database with AtlaSerials. https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srx031