What is Religion for, Anyway?

Several years ago, I taught an inservice for hospital workers on the subject "spirituality and care giving." It was a challenge. How can an evangelical pastor like myself talk about "spirituality" apart from faith? Is there such a thing as a spirituality that is not directly linked to being Christian?
If we are talking about Spirit with a big S, there isn't. The Holy Spirit is given to those who believe in Christ. This is an important and non-negotiable part of the faith.
If, on the other hand we are talking about something else--the human spirit--then there may be something to it.
The human "spirit" as we commonly use the term refers to the part of us that contains our motivation. It is the part of us that makes us do what we do, whether or not it is in our immediate self interest. The human spirit is the part of us that determines what we do, why we do it, and what we will endure. It is how we answer the basic questions of existence.
 Suppose we have cancer.  In order to survive, we must endure a painful treatment. Why should a person endure the pain in order to stay in this world? This is a question for the spirit, not the mind or the emotions.  It is a question of values.  Is living better than dying?  Is enduring pain worth the trouble?  People answer this in different ways, but the fact that any of us puts up with pain, when we could end it all is proof that the human spirit exists.
Suppose we join the military and go to war. What sense does it make?  If all we are is an animal,  with feelings and thoughts, the idea of jeopardizing our lives for a good greater than ourselves just does not make sense.  It is not an intellectual question of whether we should give ourselves in sacrifice or preserve our lives into the future. It is a spiritual question.
Suppose we have a chance to cheat on our spouse with an attractive person, with the absolute assurance that they would never know.  Why should we resist?  Why not do it and lie about it?  It is a matter of value, not emotions.  Emotions tell us one thing, our spirit says another. 
My point is this.  All people, whether religious or non religious, must make decisions of the spirit. These decisions are neither emotional nor intellectual, since no sane person could conclude that we should throw our lives away based on what we see around us, nor could we imagine a situation where it would feel better to endure pain than not endure it.  These value judgments are based on faith in what we believe.
We cannot go a day without spiritual decisions. Each day, we must choose to get up out of the bed,  what breakfast cereal is good for our body,  whether or not to have a second cup of coffee. These are value decisions, based on what we believe to be  important. They are the only reason we do not sleep ourselves out of a job, or eat ourselves to death.  They require faith in the future to make them, based on our system of belief.
This is where religion comes into the picture. Our view of God is the basis for our faith system. If there is not God, and does it make any sense to go to church and worship Him? If there is no afterlife, does it make any sense to forgo pleasure here for future reward?  Only our faith can give us sufficient purpose to be more than than we are now.
This is very important to us who serve as shepherds and leaders of the faith.  We must realize that what we are teaching is hugely important.  It affects every moment of every day of everyone on earth.  There is nothing casual about it.  It is vital.   Even if (and I do not for a moment believe this) there is no life after this one, it would still be vital.
It is easy for us preachers to forget this.  We treat the Bible as an intellectual exercise, and theology as an esoteric province of the mind alone.  We are often guilty of substituting dogma for faith and good feelings for conviction.  What we believe is tranformative only when we really believe it. It is desperately important for us to know what it is.
The people who fill our pews know this better than we who fill the pulpits. They do not come to hear us for lectures on the sexual habits of the Philistines or to hear what Moses did to the Amelkites. They  come to help them decide whether to stay at their jobs, to keep persevering, or keep their marriage vows. They come to be given something to live for or die for, not to be tickled and teased.  Simply put, they come to find God.
That is the reason we have religion, so we can find our way to God.  If they don't find Him in church, they will look for Him somewhere else. 

"Pilates, Now!"

On my way to work this morning, I passed a large, beautiful uptown church.   I could not see it's name or or it's denomination.  What I could see though, was  big banner on the front yard declaring "Pilates, Now!"  Pilates, in case the reader is uninformed, is some kind of aerobic exercise class.

How curious!  Most of the time,  churches want their name known.  After all,  they are lighthouses to the world, beacons of hope and faith in a world of darkness and despair.  But in this case, the most visible thing about this church was that they offered Pilates classes.

Here's the Church and Here's the People

Presbytery was last Tuesday.    Presbytery meetings are pretty much  the same as the last thirty-five years of report I have seen--the same old stuff about rotating pulpits,  student sermons,  examinations that are virtually interchangeable.  Perhaps one day  we'll just record the whole meeting and play it back at the next meeting, thus saving us the trip.  I doubt if anyone would notice.
However, there are always one or two bits of business that makes this enjoyable expediency impossible.   Those are the few minutes of presbytery where something gets done. One in this case was the report on small, struggling churches and how we can help them.
Helping small churches  is a lot like trying to get rid of poverty. Churches begin, grow old, and die just like everything else.  The church universal continues forever just as the Bible says, but as it does it sheds its individual cells, just like our bodies do.  God's church survives.  Individual churches do not.  They fall like autumn leaves.

Preaching Naked

Preaching is the art of simplicity.  It is the task of taking the most complex and perplexing theological concepts and turning them into something that children can understand.  If we are not being told that our preaching is too  simplistic, that we are appealing to children and spiritual babes, then we are not doing a very good job.

John Wesley, it is said, read his sermons to his chambermaid and if there was something she could not understand, he cut it out.  Paul understood this need for simplicity when he said "I was determined to preach nothing among you but Christ, and Him crucified."  Jesus originated this call to simplicity when he invited the children to come to him, and when he spoke in stories and parables.  There is no Biblical warrant for speaking over the heads of people, nor is there any warrant for using the pulpit as a stage for theatrical oratory.