Spiritual Experiences in American Congregations

What's behind the surge in this expression of spiritual experiences? Chaves says "there is a trend in American religion towards ... a certain kind of experience for people, away from just religious teachings—to make it more emotionally engaging, not just intellectually engaging."

Historically, this type of worship has been associated with evangelical Christianity, particularly Pentecostalism. As mainline Protestant denominations like Presbyterianism and Methodism continue to lose members, Chaves says, this evangelical style of worship has "diffused across the spectrum." Hand-waving and dancing and singing might be encouraged by ministers in a bid for better attendance—"congregations are kind of mimicking what they think is a successful worship style," he said. That perception may or may not actually be true, though: Even though Pentecostal-style churches make up a greater proportion of American congregations than they did ten years ago, "it’s a little bit of a myth that Pentecostal and evangelical churches are growing," he added.

More broadly, this finding seems to hint at a particular quality of one kind of contemporary American worship: It's direct, and personal, and visceral. Historically, this has characterized Protestantism more than Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity, which involve routinized liturgies and priests that act as intermediaries between people and God. As attendance at mainline churches has shrunk, the proportion of independent congregations has grown somewhat—15 percent of American churches weren't affiliated with any particular denomination in 2012, as compared to 10 percent in 1998. Although these churches aren't specifically associated with Pentecostal organizations like the Assemblies of God, they are very likely to involve these kinds of "spiritual encounters." Non-denominational congregations were more than twice as likely as denominational congregations to have members spontaneously jump, dance, or sing during worship services—nearly 40 percent said this happened in 2012. In the latest wave of data, these congregations were also twice as likely to have members speak in tongues—nearly 45 percent saw this. And although hand-waving is generally more common across congregations than these other "spirit-filled" behaviors, it's even more in non-denominational churches: 70 percent said this was part of their worship in 2012, compared to a little over half of affiliated congregations.

There is no way for an observer to fully know the experience of someone who is moved to raise her hands and get up and dance and speak in tongues in the middle of religious worship. As fascinating as it is to track the behavior of people in religious settings, it's also inherently limited: The chain of events that leads someone to lift her hands in prayer and experience a feeling that she identifies as "grace" could be psychological, neurological, social, or, perhaps, metaphysical in nature. Some people might see speaking in tongues as an act of mass psychosis. Some might see it as a direct communication from God. And this is the nature of peering into faith: Observing what we can, then recognizing the inadequacy of observation alone for understanding humanity's variety of religious experience.

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