change

The latest study from The Barna Group “shows that despite an intense surge in religious activity and expression in the weeks immediately following 9/11 the faith of Americans is virtually indistinguishable today compared to pre-attack conditions.” It goes on to say: “five years removed from that fateful day, spiritually speaking, it’s as if nothing significant ever happened. People used faith like a giant band-aid – it helped people deal with the ugliness of the event but it offered little in the way of deep healing and it was discarded after a brief period of use.”

That doesn’t surprise me. As the study notes, Americans are both resilient and stubborn, and lasting change–transformation–takes time. What I find most interesting in the summary of this study is the point that church leaders need to plan for their response to tragedy and disaster: “Is there a clear strategy for helping people focus their faith questions and explorations–not merely to achieve short-term relief and regain emotional equilibrium–but to point them toward a process of deeper life transformation?… The job of spiritual leaders is not just to help people cope with tragedy but to break through their spiritual hard-headedness and orient them towards God’s deeper purposes for their life.”