Are You Among the "Deeply Spiritual?"

Yesterday I mentioned George Barna's new book "Revolution," a treatise on the modern day church and the apparent trend away from church involvement. Barna has long been considered the "Christian pollster."

Barna's website includes many articles and polling data accumulated over the years. His November 8 "Committment to Christianity" article contained an interesting thought about my generation, the Baby Busters. Apparantly, "Baby Busters" has replaced "Generation X" as the label of choice among demographers. Here is the statement:

"Adults who were 40 or younger were less likely to indicate commitment to their
faith in relation to (eight measurements).

Well, less likely how? Here are the eight measurements, and the overall affirmative reponse rates:

• Have you ever made a personal committment to Jesus Christ that is still important to you today (72% yes)
• Your religious faith is very important in your life today (71% yes)
• Would you describe yourself as deeply spiritual (60% yes)
• The single, most important purpose of your life is to love God with all your heart, mind, strength, and soul (62% strongly agreed)
• Would you describe yourself as a full-time servant of God (53% yes)
• How committed are you to the Christian faith (42% said "absolutely committed")
• Have you attended a church service, prayed to God and read from the Bible during the past week (29% yes)
• Is faith the highest priority of your life (16% yes)

A couple of notes. First, we apparantly have 72 percent of our population that is in an important relationship with Jesus, but less than 1/3 of these individuals spent time with God last week in church, prayer or study. Good thing that we're saved by grace, cause our works probably aren't doing much for us, eh? Second, 71 percent say that they are deeply spiritual, yet just 16 percent say that faith is their highest priority. I guess that means were deeply spiritual when it doesn't get in the way of our other, more urgent, priorities.

Now, that's the population at large. I guess my generation is even worse.

No wonder Barna has written his "Revolution" book. I'd have a few questions too after conducting this survey.