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The group known as the "nones" have fairly quickly become the predominant religious story in America. Nones—not to be confused with nuns—are the fastest-growing religious group in America. The term refers to people who select "none of the above" when they're asking a question on a religious questionnaire, they're not necessarily atheists; in fact, most aren't. They're not necessarily anti-religious; some of them believe in God.
A more precise term would be the "religiously unaffiliated." Depending upon which study you look at, as many as one-third of the nones plan to go back to church one day. They're generally not all anti-God, though some are.
To summarize:
- Nones are people who identify as religiously unaffiliated
- They represent a rapidly growing section of the U.S. population:
- They are the fastest-growing religious category in the U.S.
- They are the second-largest religious category in the U.S.
As Christians, I believe we should always be more driven by our missionary identity than we are by our national identity, our political identity, our environmental identity, our social identity, or even our church identity.
Don’t get me wrong. We ought to love our church. (I know I love my church.) And the Church (with capital C) is the bride of Christ, destined for eternity with God. But here on earth, we must face the reality that our culture is not to be our primary identity.
Our culture is a mission field. We must see ourselves as people on mission. This is not our home. This is our mission field. Therefore, we all must see our vocations as mission—as kingdom work.