From Your Synod Executive...
- Chip Hardwick
- May 29
- 3 min read
Sociologist of Religion Christian Smith’s impact on the American church and theological education has been immense. His 2006 book Soul Searching chronicled the spiritual lives of American teens, whom he described as moralistic (religion is a bunch of rules), therapeutic (God is there to help us happy) deism (otherwise God is not very active in the world). His new book Why Religion Went Obsolete asserts that “for a growing number of younger Americans, religion has simply lost its usefulness. (Read Ryan Burge’s review for Christianity Today here: The What and the Why of Religious Decline - Christianity Today)
Smith has definitely framed the usefulness of faith as a sociological question, and not a theological one. I have all sorts of theological answers: God created us for worship; Christ gives us both abundant and eternal life; when the church is at its best we get a glimpse of the Kingdom of Heaven. In this column, though, I want to stick with the sociological angle: why is religion useful?
Recent attention in the press to what former Surgeon General Vivek Murphy called America’s “epidemic of loneliness” in a landmark 2023 report gives us one answer. Last week’s episode of “Meet the Press” focused on mental health issues, with Murphy as their lead guest. Then the Presbyterian Outlook arrived, an issue dedicated to this same epidemic. It’s filled with excellent articles, such as “Swipes and Likes: Redefining the loneliness epidemic” by Kathleen Robinson and “The Long Loneliness (of Men)” by Catherine Knott. (see www.pres-outlook.org)
Murphy, on “Meet the Press,” described his prescription for our isolated society, a remedy that directly answers the question of the usefulness of religion. The prescription is two words: “Get community!” Community, he says, is (1) where we know each other, (2) where we help each other, and (3) where we find purpose.
One of the best parts of my role is that I get to see churches all over the Synod which live out this prescription. I was invited to preach at one of them Memorial Day weekend, Bellbrook Presbyterian Church (Miami Valley Presbytery). The center part of the smallish sanctuary was very full—a surprise to me since it was (a) a long weekend, (b) a beautiful morning, and (c) a guest preacher. There may have been 40-50 in worship.
In the passing of the peace, it was clear that the congregation really knows each other, the first part of Murphy’s prescription. I think every single worshiper spoke to every other single worshiper. Virtually everyone came to the coffee hour after worship, where someone welcomed the visitors with me to a table and spent time with them rather than with others he knows better. The congregation clearly loved the five young kids who helped lead the liturgy at the beginning of worship. They know each other.
They also help each other, and the world around them (Murphy’s second point). I was so impressed by the range of their efforts to serve their community. They have a food ministry which provides milk, eggs, butter, and fresh produce to about 40 families each week; they connect resources (like furniture, kitchen appliances, and small household goods) with people who need them; they are offering reading/math interventions for kids this summer; and their community outreach finds them offering free water, back to school prayer stations, a Good Friday prayer walk, and others.
Together they find purpose, Murphy’s third point. As I preached about being blessed to be a blessing, I actually heard an audible “Amen!” Others nodded along. They know that God has given them gifts in Jesus Christ that they do not deserve and could not earn, and they seek to share these benefits with others.
I’m grateful for the Bellbrook church, and so, so many other churches in our Synod which offer not just a prescription for loneliness, but an important answer to the question: what is useful about religion?
Grateful to be your partner in ministry,
Rev. Charles B Hardwick, PhD
Executive
309-530-4578
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