More Than Cake

So here I am, planting a church in one of the most unchurched parts of the United States, yet every day I am meeting people who are very “spiritual.” I think the trend we are seeing take shape in the large metropolitan communities of our nation can best be described as the emergence of “Metrospirituality.”

Who are the Metrospiritual?

The Metrospirituals in the Pacific Northwest come in two forms: Organic-Metrospirituals and Christian-Metrospirituals. Sites like Belief.Net have made a good case for what I am calling the Organic kind.

Organic-Metrospirituality is the “mainstreaming of Taoist, Buddhist (thanks to Richard Gere and Uma’s dad, Buddhism scholar and practitioner Robert Thurman), and Hindu values, among others, into an easily digestible, buyable form.” In Seattle, it is the rejection of any organized religion coupled with the desire to be spiritual by communing with nature (thus the name Organic) that creates the uniqe breed of Metrospiritual here in the Puget Sound region. I think I will leave it to Jason to explore this in more depth on his blog now titled “Metrospirituality.”

Christian-Metrospirituality is where I want to focus my attention because these are the kind os people I am meeting in my own community near Seatle. Unlike the Organic-Metrospiritual, the Christian-Metrospiritual has embraced all the trappings of Western-industrialized religion, along with the acceptance of our consumer culture, and syncretized them with a sturdy Christian veneer.

In my upcoming posts, I will give more specific definitions of trends and people I see in my own community here in the Pacific Northwest. Until then, I am open to some of your own input or stories of both the Organic- and the Christian-Metrospiritual.