The National Post headline said “Canadians’ faith in God is ‘decoupling’ from their attachment to religion“. Given that this is a spirituality blog, you might think I regard the survey results in this article as bad news.
You would be wrong.
Says the article, published in April 2023: According to a survey carried out for the Association for Canadian Studies, a curious demographic trend in Canada is that spiritual or religious belief has persisted despite the famously steep decline in church attendance and other formal religious observances.
This “decoupling” shows up everywhere from the strictest Abrahamic monotheisms [Christianity, Judaism and Islam] to more mystical and polytheistic faiths.
So why am I — a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, who many people believe is the Son of God — not depressed at this trend? Because I left behind the stone-hearted, negative, judgmentalism of “religion” a long time ago. And Jesus has no problem with that.
In one of the original-source biographies of His life, Jesus said this to anyone willing to listen: Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
See? Jesus knew — and still knows — that religion causes nothing but spiritual and emotional fatigue for most people. These are the folks who keep striving, unsuccessfully, to be “good” enough, pray enough, sacrifice enough and give enough to satisfy sky-high standards. And if they believed they met those standards, then they would probably become just as arrogant and unforgiving as so many other religious people.
The solution is to skip religion and focus on Jesus – His remarkable teachings, gobsmacking miracles, horrifying death and incredible resurrection.
— With an open and inquiring mind, read the four original-source biographies of Jesus’ physical life on Earth. They’re simple called the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
— Ask Jesus followers about Him (including ME: fdking@hotmail.com)
— Go even more radical and ask God to open your heart and mind to what He’s trying to tell you about His Son.
Many people would advise you not to waste your time on this. But I’m confident that since you’re here and reading this, you somehow know that checking out Jesus is important.
I believe you’re on the right track because if you sincerely welcome Jesus into your heart, your mind and your life, He will start making you into the person God created you to be. That’s what’s He’s doing with me. And that process won’t end until this life is finished and I join Him in Heaven.
So what do you think? Post your comments below and let’s have a conversation. 🙂
Frank's Cottage 
It is odd that you reject religion and yet it was the church that compiled and edited the bible.
It’s not odd at all. I’m following Jesus. Many of his harshest words were reserved for arrogant, pretentious, judgmental religious leaders.
From the start of Covid, I stepped away from gathering at religious services. Not a waste of my time at all, as so much of this has been spent in pursuing my relationship with Jesus. However, there are many things I miss about corporate worship, communion being the first and foremost. I am planning on returning tomorrow to services. I’ll let you know how that goes!
Blessings, Frank, and a happy belated Easter!
One of the greatest things that God did when He created us was to give us an investigating mind. Why would He do that? God wants us to seek, knock and ask, you know, investigate all things. See how much humankind has learned because of this gift. He also wants us to find Him. History, fact, truth of Jesus is revealed and recorded waiting for a searching mind. It is the pearl of great value when found, and also life changing.
This is an interesting conundrum – while the Bible’s New Testament is pretty clear on the importance of corporate worship and community, many churches have substituted Jesus for the “social gospel” or the “prosperity gospel”, or any number of other trends that are not Jesus.
The key is to find a community of people who love Jesus, and preach the WHOLE Bible, not just the parts they like.