In crime shows like “NCIS,” there comes a point when agents enter a building and smell something decaying. The key then, of course, is to determine who has died, by what cause, and by what perpetrator.

The smell itself isn’t enough.

The same is true when a company shows a loss or a marriage fails or a trusted group starts misbehaving. You can’t just run to the hills because the ink is red. You need to discern what happened, why and by whose hand.

Earlier this week, the Pew Research Center issued its 2014 study of the religious landscape. Headlines blared: “Americans reject religion.” Hand-wringing ensued.

The report itself was far more nuanced than that. It said Americans are turning away from religious practices grounded in family heritage or group affiliation. But overall, especially as they pursue faith as individuals, people are more spiritually active than ever. They pray, read Scripture, participate in small faith communities, and look for ways to serve.

What “smells,” as it were, is a steep drop in those who describe themselves as “religiously affiliated,” to 77% in 2014 from 83% in 2007. Also down is belief in God with “absolute certainty.”

Sunday morning pews are emptying out, but the search for God, the finding of God and the desire to serve God are growing.

This will smell like a “dead body” to those who continue to believe Sunday worship is the very essence of the Christian life and the ultimate measure of a faith community. If the main thing your church does is try to fill pews on Sunday morning, then the steep and relentless decline in Sunday attendance over the past 50 years feels like a death. The business has failed, the marriage is on the rocks, the bad guys won.

That, however, is entirely the wrong lesson to draw from Pew’s confirmation of trends that began decades ago and should by now have become not only apparent to us but a cause to rethink our mission and ministry.

Two generations have passed since children became church members because their parents had been church members. If people seek a spiritual or faith-oriented experience today, the need to do so arises from within them as individuals. Their quest doesn’t lead inexorably to a church. It might lead there, and one could argue that the faith experience will be stronger if it has a community context. But the starting point tends to be individual.

The search, moreover, isn’t for “religion” as such. It isn’t a search for worship or any of the usual “religious goods and service.” It’s something more elemental: a search for God and for meaning. If anything, “religion” is seen as an impediment to that quest. Too many rules, doctrines, barriers, angry and judgmental constituents. Too much focus on being right and being in charge.

The quest grows out of a need for newness, not a desire to be grounded in something ancient, and certainly not in a hunger for local church customs. Congregations that fight about change radiate the smell of decay.

On the other hand, there is a prevailing belief that religious institutions can do important work, like bringing people together and caring for the marginalized. If they do that work and don’t get lost in conflict or self-serving, congregations speak to Americans’ felt need for community and social uplift.

I encourage church leaders to listen carefully to their own constituents and to people outside their walls. This isn’t a time to double-down on old ways. It is a time to recognize that people are hungry for God, but in new ways.

[Here is a link to the Pew Report.]

About the Author

Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the publisher of Fresh Day online magazine, author of On a Journey and two national newspaper columns. His website is Church Wellness – Morning Walk Media