{"id":161,"date":"2009-02-11T15:51:12","date_gmt":"2009-02-11T20:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/?p=161"},"modified":"2009-02-11T15:51:12","modified_gmt":"2009-02-11T20:51:12","slug":"letter-from-ds-shaw-view-from-the-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/2009\/02\/letter-from-ds-shaw-view-from-the-bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter from DS Shaw “View from the Bridge”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Dear Pilgrims,<\/div>\n
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A January 28, 2009 Gallup Poll entitled State of the States: Importance of Religion<\/span> reports that when asked \u201cIs religion an important part of your daily life?\u201d 65% of Americans reported that religion is an important part of their daily lives.\u00a0This conclusion was based on interviews of more than 350,000 participants around the country.\u00a0The poll also breaks down responses to the same question state by state.\u00a0Here the information gets a little more interesting.\u00a0The poll finds that \u201cMississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas to be the most religious states in the nation, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts are the least religious.\u201d\u00a0In fact six out of the ten least religious states are located in the soon to be New England Conference. (VT 42%, NH 46%, ME 48%, MA 48%, AK 51%, WA 52%, OR 53%, RI 53%, NV 54%, CT 55%).\u00a0(www.gallup.com)<\/div>\n
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I am of the opinion that this Gallup Poll reveals some deeper questions such as:\u00a0What is the future of \u201creligion\u201d in New England?\u00a0What is \u201creligion\u201d in New England? Why isn\u2019t religion an important part of peoples daily lives in New England?\u00a0While some like to believe that New England may be on the verge of a \u201creligious revival\u201d I am not sure the evidence would bear that out, but what if we were in the verge of a \u201cspiritual revival?\u201d\u00a0That\u2019s the question I would like to see answered, \u201cIs spirituality an important part of your daily life?\u201d\u00a0I believe that the answer to that question would be vastly different.<\/div>\n
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One of the things I have learned over the years working alongside people in recovery, as well as in my own spiritual journey, is that addicts who identify themselves as Christians are often resistant to embrace step three in the twelve step program: \u201cMade a decision to turn our will and lives over to the care of God as we understand God.\u201d\u00a0Some have speculated that this is because addicts who have been raised in the church note that they have already tried the \u201cGod stuff\u201d and it hasn\u2019t worked, thus creating a resistance to trust and an unwillingness to \u201cdo it again.\u201d\u00a0Others have noted that addicts who are also \u201creligious\u201d may be unwilling to let go of a childlike understanding\/relationship with God; an unforgiving, punishing, judgmental, unlistening, and failed miracle God. In any case part of recovery is \u201creframing\u201d a relationship with God that is personal, maturing and spiritually connected.\u00a0It is the willingness to turn \u201cwill and lives\u201d over to God, and letting something new develop that may have nothing to do with the past and may even make the future a little scary.<\/span><\/div>\n
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In my church travels I often hear churches discuss the need for new members along with the appropriate reasons why.\u00a0The conversation is often about the needs of the church and not the spiritual needs of those who might be coming into fellowship.\u00a0It is much like asking; Where is religion in your life, verses where is the working of the Holy Spirit in your life?\u00a0When churches have assumed values of what it means to be \u201creligious\u201d or what it means to have \u201creligion\u201d in your daily life and try to impose it on others the result will often be a dying church.\u00a0When a church understands the centrality of the Holy Spirit working, reshaping, reforming, recreating the body, exercising a mature and bold faith, the result is often that the church will grow.\u00a0The \u201cconcept\u201d is the same, at AA or UMC; it is about allowing God to direct us, and not us correcting God.<\/div>\n
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New England might not be the hotbed for a religious revival, but I am convinced that there is a spiritual awakening among us, the question for our churches is: Will we have the ability to adapt and allow the working of the Holy Spirit guide us deeper into something we don\u2019t quite understand or will we try and assimilate the Spirit into the institution and extinguish the flame. It\u2019s a personal question that requires turning oneself and the church over to God.<\/div>\n
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Blessings,<\/div>\n
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Gary<\/div>\n
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Dear Pilgrims, A January 28, 2009 Gallup Poll entitled State of the States: Importance of Religion reports that when asked \u201cIs religion an important part of your daily life?\u201d 65% of Americans reported that religion is an important part of their daily lives.\u00a0This conclusion was based on interviews of more than 350,000 participants around the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories-from-our-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions\/162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}