May I chat with you today about your commitment to your faith community, or, as you probably refer to it, “the church,” in 2014?  I want to react to two different voices; the secular voices that are cheering on the supposed demise of the church, and the spiritual voices that love to crow how non-religious they are.

More than once in history society has tried to replace religion and the organizational framework for spirituality with other social constructs.  Political powers have often made it a punishable offense to for people to gather for worship or create faith communities.   Popular culture has often scoffed at the idea of giving ourselves to anything but growing convenience through more gadgetry, gorging ourselves on arts, entertainment and spectator sports. In the 19^th and 20^th centuries, science crowned itself as the king of humanity; boasting that new discoveries mean that utopia was just around the corner. How did that work out?

The current song being sung by many reminds me of the famous Mark Twain quote, “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” So, according to recent findings, we can say, “reports of the death of the church and organized religion have been greatly exaggerated.”  As an aside, don’t waste your breath saying stuff like, “I’m not religious, I just love the Lord,” or “God is opposed to organized religion.” James 1:27 says, “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” How can you care for the needy and differentiate a spiritual community from the “world” if you don’t get organized?  Not only is organized religion not dying, it’s being effective.

Dr. Harold Koenig, MD. and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University has done a systematic review of 326 studies regarding the relationship between organized religion and well-being.  The results are encouraging to all church members and probably dismaying to those who are anti-religious. Eighty-two percent of these studies reported statistically significant positive relationship between well-being and being religious.  Just for the record, 90% of the samples used was of Christians.

Among church attendees compared to the non-churched…

• 73% report a greater sense of meaning and purpose.
• 79% report significantly greater social support than the less religious.
• 86% of church attendees report that they are more satisfied in their marriage.

(We have all heard by now that the rate of divorce among Christians is the same as non-Christians.  However, devout Christians are much more likely to get married rather than live together, so the divorce rate doesn’t give the whole picture.)

• There is 63% less coronary and heart disease.
• There is 57% less high blood pressure and hypertension.
• 57% report better immune function
• There is a 55% lower rate of cancer.
• 68% report longer life spans.

While I don’t have the stats to back me up, my guess is that the devoutly religious are more likely to show compassionate outreach to the irreligious.  I don’t personally know any church attendee who doesn’t want to give help and care to those who reject our message and even hate us for believing as we do. In short, I am proud to be a member of the church and I am beyond enthusiastic about being involved in organized religion.

Do I think we are better than the irreligious?  No, I just think we have made a better choice.  I just think the decision to believe, congregate and reach out is wisdom.  Being right doesn’t necessarily make us arrogant; on the contrary, we sing songs like, “Amazing Grace … that saved a wretch like me” and “would he devout that sacred head for such a worm as I.”  In fact, humility plays a key role in being healthy.  (I would love to unpack that thought sometime.) We also have all those problems like cancer, heart trouble and divorce in our ranks.  Other than in a few “hyper-faith” churches, I have yet to see the suffering among us treated with anything but compassion. You are not a bad Christian because you are sick, depressed or divorced but the fact is being a religious person lowers the risk of these negatives.

So, as you begin 2014 it would be very intelligent that we resolve to be more intensely connected to our local church and more assertive about bringing those you love along with you.

(The statistics are from an article entitled “The Influence of Faith On Mental Health and Well-Being” from Christian Counseling Today, Vol. 20, #3, by Dr. Harold Koenig. In addition to his role at Duke University, he is also distinguished Adjunct Professor at King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.)