As we showed in our 2000 book, GenX Religion, many young people were giving up on the sterile, rationalist Protestant worship they were experiencing in their churches. We saw young people making radical switches from Baptist or Presbyterian churches to Catholic, Episcopal or Orthodox churches for fuller-bodied worship services. The radical thing is their ability to switch given the differences in theology and practices.

We wrote about young people’s interest in “embodied spirituality” and “the recovery of ritual,” but we soon discovered there’s much more going on.

The more we studied the postmodern generation, the more we concluded its members are spiritual beings who seek aesthetically rich, experiential forms to give definition to their lives—and the more we sought to develop a typology for understanding their spiritual lives. We believe these four emerging forms exemplify the Post-Boomer spiritual quest.

Innovators
“Innovators,” are those who represent a constantly evolving approach to religious and spiritual beliefs and practices. Many of these are newer, less established groups that are affiliated with the emerging church movement, while others are established churches and ministries that are innovating within their own traditions.

These groups organize their approach (in contrast to what they see as overly institutionalized and inwardly-focused approaches), so as to focus on building community within the religious group and to engage in various ways with the larger culture. These churches innovate by introducing various forms of ritual and symbol into their worship services and introducing new forms of religious and community life, emphasizing commitment, belonging and service within the congregation and to their city.

Innovators demonstrate a desire for embracing the emerging postmodern culture, and within that context are engaging in a spiritual quest that by definition is one that must change and adapt—innovate—to meet the changing culture currents.

Through our interviews and visits to their churches and events, three characteristics seem most important in providing a summary of their spiritual quest.

First, they embrace the body as a locus for an active, experiential life. For them, simply knowing what they believe is not sufficient. Rather, they seek to use their bodies in their spiritual activities. Second, they are committed to smaller, more intimate religious communities rather than seeking to grow and develop into larger institutional structures; and they exhibit a realization that the communities they create may have their own life span, including when they may cease to exist.

Finally, they are not content to seek refuge within their religious communities; rather, they seek to serve the larger communities in which they are located. They are, in the words of some Innovators, more interested in “bringing the church to the community” than in bringing the community to the church.

Appropriators
“Appropriators,” are those churches and ministries seeking to provide a compelling and “relevant” experience for participants (congregants and those leading). Appropriators seek to create these experiences through imitating, or appropriating, trends found in the larger culture and ultimately popularizing these through their networks into a particular form of pop-Christianity primarily oriented toward an individual spiritual experience.

Appropriators tend to be situated within the mega-church or seeker ideology, whether actually part of a mega-church or not. In many ways, each of the other three types we discuss in the book are at least in part responding to the form of Christianity represented by the mega/seeker model—a bureaucratized and consumption-oriented, franchised from of Christian expression and belief.

The desire for relevance and producing a culturally acceptable product mirroring the trends in the larger culture drives them to culture. Within mega-churches and their own ministries, Appropriators are able to read the larger culture, determine what is most appealing to young people and create a new product that successfully appeals to younger Christians.

Subsequently, it is difficult to understand what Appropriators actually are about, in large part because they are so amorphous and prevalent. That is, they are so much like what surrounds them, in terms of other churches and ministry programs and the broader culture, that it is difficult to determine what is distinct about them.

One could argue this is intentional and their distinction is that they are largely indistinct from the surrounding culture. Their programs, music, bookstores, cafes, clothing and the experiences they produce mirror what is available outside Christian circles; despite the Christian content, it all ends up looking pretty much like everything else in American pop culture. As a result, it’s cool and unobtrusive to be Christian.

In this, Appropriators promote a consumer Christianity in which one can “wear” the identity via a T-shirt, bumper sticker or tattoo, have coffee at the church café, and have what amounts to Christian vacations, all without really giving up any part of an American middle-class consumer lifestyle.

Resisters
“Resisters” are the Boomer-initiated efforts intended to appeal to Post-Boomers by focusing on the “recovery of reason,” thus resisting postmodern culture in order to reestablish the place of the written text and rational belief as the dominant source for Post-Boomer spirituality and practice.

Resisters possess several tendencies toward identifing and resisting cultural incursions that they perceive to threaten the integrity of historic Christianity. These patterns are intended to provide means for believers to defend against bad or improper beliefs and as strategies to fight for a particular religious and ideological perspective within culture.

Resisters stand firm against changing social and cultural order, in which they feel reason and rationalism are under attack, or are completely disregarded, and are trying to regain a voice for a commitment to reason and rationalism.

Discontent to limit efforts to the personal religious sphere, they want a rationally ordered world and propose to “reestablish” what they call a “Christian worldview” as the dominant ideology in American society and culture.

The institutions and networks they have developed allow their message to be disseminated through a variety of media, from academic to religious to popular culture, through schools and training institutes, radio programs, Web sites and blogs. They also are connected to powerful and heavily funded political players and conservative Christian groups.

Reclaimers
“Reclaimers” seek to renew their experiences of Christianity through the history, symbolism and practices of ancient forms of the faith, such as those still found in the liturgical traditions, particularly Episcopal, Orthodox and Catholic churches, thus reclaiming the ancient symbols, rituals and practices of these traditions for their own spiritual quest.

These are converts, either from non-liturgical forms of Christianity or from nonexistent or lapsed faith commitments. The particular attractiveness of these traditions are the symbols, rituals, practices and even smells of these churches, as well as the small congregational communities of believers they represent, the connection to a larger historical tradition within Christianity and the perceived authenticity these traditions provide.

Reclaimers evidence a quest that takes them on a journey to ancient Christian traditions in small, family-oriented congregations through which they pursue their desire for spiritual development. Through the different faith narratives and across the patterns unique to Reclaimers, three points seem most important:

First, they are drawn to the visual and ritualistic, particularly how this allows a physical embodiment of their beliefs and commitments. For them, faith is made more alive when they are visually and bodily involved. Touching the garments of the priest, physically kneeling, having the elements of the Eucharist mediated by the priest, experiencing the smoky aura and smell of the incense and the accompanying bell, all serve to make them aware of their minds and bodies as they worship God.

Second, and related to the appeal of the visual and physical elements, they desire to be a part of a longer history and tradition of Christianity. They, in effect, are placing themselves in what they see as a long line of fellow Christians, who stretch back to the apostolic age. Thus, the symbols and rituals have more significance for Reclaimers as they are interacting with the same symbols and performing the same rituals as have Christians for thousands of years.

Finally, this long history of tradition and the attendant structure of the tradition, as well as its resources for spiritual development, continue to allow these Christian believers to pursue their spiritual journey.

Similar Origins, Different Journeys
Post-Boomers share several formative experiences. As children of the Baby Boomers, they question institutions and emphasize the importance of pursuing one’s personal journey. They also inhabit a global village, complete with its multiple worldviews. Finally, they have witnessed the failure of corporate, political and religious institutions to act ethically for the greater common good and have been forced to deal with the implications of postmodernism. Their trends will be interesting to study as they develop in the coming years.

Flory, Richard, and Donald E. Miller. Finding Faith: The Spiritual Quest of the Post-Boomer Generation. Copyright © 2008 by Richard Flory and Donald E. Miller. Reprinted by permission of Rutgers University Press.