| Many are leaving traditional church behind to become | | | | necessity, or perhaps do not keep to a strict routine at |
| New Age Spiritualists; others, disappointed with New | | | | all, it might be a better way to run things. But like all |
| Age Spiritualism are looking for a return to the | | | | things new, it has the disadvantage of not being tried |
| traditional values of a church with walls. At a time | | | | and tested. Nobody is really sure where the |
| when the hunger for spirituality has never been | | | | boundaries are in a new age group, or there may be |
| greater, where is the natural home for the higher | | | | no boundaries at all, which may be worrying to those |
| consciousness? | | | | who believe in boundaries, who fear that with liberality |
| Let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of | | | | comes weakness. |
| both. | | | | My own opinion is that if Jesus is at the heart of your |
| Church offers the regular routine of worship with a | | | | worship, at the heart of your spiritual growth, then |
| familiar congregation you can grow to love. Services | | | | whenever you meet with fellow worshippers, |
| are led by ordained ministers who can also be carers, | | | | regardless of location or denomination, there sits the |
| bible study leaders, and the people we turn to during | | | | body of Christ. I believe strongly in the values of a |
| the important events in our lives, christenings, weddings | | | | traditional church, but a traditional church where faith |
| and funerals. Church buildings with all their trappings | | | | has become a secondary consideration to ritual and |
| have, over the space of two millennia, established | | | | dogma, is like banging a drum without making any |
| themselves as the home of faith. Church has the | | | | music. |
| advantage of time on its side. Sometimes we need | | | | On the other hand, a New Age mentality which pays |
| the solid base of tradition to underpin us. But like all old | | | | very little heed to tradition can become whimsical and |
| things it gives the impression of being a bit stuck in its | | | | fuzzy, and if Jesus is not at the heart of New Ageism, |
| ways, slow to adapt to change, not modern enough. | | | | then who is? It is not enough to call yourself |
| Meanwhile, New Age Spirituality fills the need for | | | | "enlightened" or "belonging to a higher evolution of |
| freedom from traditional roots. It has the air of | | | | consciousness" if you have abandoned the solid |
| modernity about it. It seems right in a busy, new world | | | | precepts of the Bible. This is a bit like going into the |
| to have a spiritual condition that you can hold in your | | | | jungle with only a manual. If you are not properly |
| heart and take anywhere with you. For those who | | | | equipped, when the real danger arrives, you will not be |
| prefer to work on Sundays, or have to out of | | | | protected. |