The Move to Nuanced Research

In the last few weeks, we have spent some time reading through Bible Society’s Lumino research and thinking about its links to Translating God. Both research projects are interested in people’s openness to God / the Bible and offer categories through which to understand this spectrum. These categories encourage us to consider the nuance required when speaking about faith and sharing the gospel. In this blog, we consider the recent shift as we move away from the basics (e.g., church attendance) toward the nuanced (e.g., spiritual ‘types’) and what this means for supporting young people in their faith journeys.

How Has Faith Research Shifted in Recent Years?

In years gone by, faith research has tracked “single factors, such as church attendance” (Kinnaman, 2020) and these have been used to measure the ‘successfulness’ of a church or youth group and the ages they might be attracting (or not). Whilst such measures are useful for informing us of the bigger picture, they do not tell us anything about the nuances we know exist within individuals and groups. To use an example, if I told you I attend church every week, would that help you understand my feelings toward God and the Bible?

More recently, we have seen a shift toward research which centres itself around trying to dig into these nuances and complexities. As we worry about the declining numbers of young people attending church (simply being able to know this highlights the foundational importance of single factor measures for understanding of the bigger picture so I am not disregarding them!), it feels reassuring to me that, in response, we are also exploring young people’s openness to faith and the Bible and, as a result, identifying helpful entry points for sharing the gospel.

What About Lumino and Translating God?

Whilst not focussed specifically on young people (it did include participants from 18-years old), Bible Society’s research project Lumino recognises exactly this:

“What’s happening to religion? It’s a question sometimes heard as a cry of despair, as headlines highlight falling numbers and closing churches. But the truth is that while we have good data about church attendance, we’ve known much less about what people really think about Christianity and the Bible”.

Following a survey of 20,000 people, the Bible Society mapped out the spiritual ground of England and Wales. In doing so, they identified 8 spiritual types or ‘personas’ based on attitudes toward the Bible (ranging from ‘Bible Loving’ to ‘Bible Dismissive’).

In a similar vein, Translating God (found in Feel Good News) surveyed 1,000 young people (12-17-years-old) and, after collecting four pieces of information about religion and spirituality (religious identity, practice of religion, belief in God, and belief in a

Higher Power), identified six faith orientation groups (ranging from ‘Practicing Christians’ to ‘God – None’).

How Do We Respond to this Research?

“We can value and validate aspects of their lives, relationships and culture that matter to them, and through which they already experience love, hope, joy or any other aspect of the goodness of God’s kingdom”.

Both Lumino and Translating God offer a cross-sectional (single moment) snapshot of (young) people’s receptiveness to God / the Bible and have constructed categories which can inform our work with young people. We can do this by spending time exploring these categories and reflecting on which of them we can see at play in our churches and youth groups. This helps us to move beyond the ‘in’ or ‘out’ attendance narrative and into the realm of values and beliefs which are foundational to discipling young people and building relationships based upon unconditional love.

Translating God goes one step further than Lumino by offering some practical suggestions for approaching the gospel with each group (the ‘who’) and ‘how’ we might share it:

• Share stories
• Create relationships
• Build rhythms and habits

By recognising an individual or group’s receptiveness to and views of God / the Bible we can better understand their values, acknowledge where they’re coming from, and help them to see beyond. In other words, ‘we can value and validate aspects of their lives, relationships and culture that matter to them, and through which they already experience love, hope, joy or any other aspect of the goodness of God’s kingdom”.

How Do we Maintain Awareness of the Limitations of Categories?

“The trajectory of a young person’s story of faith is the result of the forcefield of supports and challenges within which their stories are held”.

With all this in mind, I have also been challenged to recognise the limitations of these categories. I was really struck by Graham Stanton and Rowan Lewis’ (2024) paper which was presented at the IASYM conference – Changing Faith Across Time and Place: An Analysis of Faith Journey Narratives of Young Australians. In this paper, Stanton and Lewis recognise the limits of ‘snapshot’ research (e.g., what is going on for young people at a specific time and place) when seeking to understand young people’s faith journeys. This is because such journeys are dynamic and influenced by themselves as individuals, those around them, the groups in which they exist, and in relationship with God; ‘[t]he trajectory of a young person’s story of faith is the result of the forcefield of supports and challenges within which their stories are held’.

In short, be encouraged to explore and use these categories to inform your work but don’t lose sight of the ‘the interplay between the combined effect of multiple supportive and contrary factors’ in the lives of the young people you encounter. Each of them is on a journey and the category with which they fall right now might (we pray) look completely different in the weeks / months / years to come as they become more receptive to God and the Bible.

Reflection / Prayer: How will you make use of the Lumino and Translating God research?

References

Kinnaman, D. (2020). “Signs of Decline & Hope Among Metrics of Faith”. Barna. https://www.barna.com/research...

Stanton, G and Lewis, R. (2024). Changing Faith Across Time and Place: An analysis of faith journey narratives of Young Australians. IASYM Conference 2024.