What Does it Mean to Be Spiritually Open?

Over the past few months, Barna has been reporting on spiritual openness in America and how churches can welcome spiritually curious people into their midst. But what qualifies someone as spiritually open?

In this piece, an excerpt from our fourth release in the Spiritually Open series, Barna offers some concrete definitions and starting points to help church leaders identify who is spiritually open and what the Church might have to offer spiritually open non-Christians. You can read the full release exclusively in Barna Access Plus.

32% of U.S. Adults & Teens Are Highly Spiritually Open
To take a closer look at what spiritual openness looks like across the population and how its depth might vary, Barna created a four-point scale to place respondents into three categories: high openness, moderate openness and low openness. This scale was based on a combination of factors including: belief in a spiritual or supernatural dimension of life; belief in God or a higher power; positive feelings toward spirituality; and self-described spirituality that is “open,” “exploring” or “curious.” (See the Methodology for more details about this definition and scale.)

The general population roughly splits into thirds across these three levels of spiritual openness, with the plurality falling into a moderate level of spiritual openness.

Across all generations, the majority of people are spiritually open—even two-thirds of Elders (66%) are at least moderately spiritually open. Today’s teens are especially in a state of amplified spiritual openness, with nearly three in four (74%) qualifying as moderately or highly open.

Openness and Christianity are highly correlated, especially among the one in five adults who are practicing Christians (meaning they attend church regularly and say their faith is very important to them); 42 percent are highly open and another half (47%) are moderately open.

The U.S., however, is largely made up of nonpracticing Christians (47% overall), people who identify as Christian but otherwise don’t meet Barna’s “practicing” definition. Many nonpracticing Christians show a degree of spiritual openness; 79 percent are at least moderately spiritually open.

One-third of U.S. teens and adults are non-Christians (33%), just 16 percent of whom could be thought of as spiritually open (here, we’re referring to both high and moderate levels of openness).

In the fourth issue of our Spiritually Open series, we specifically explore this group of respondents. For pastors and Christians interested in outreach or evangelism among those outside the Church, this minority of spiritually open non-Christians might present some fertile ground for faith conversations. Barna data suggests that this group is not unfamiliar with faith in general or Christianity in particular—rather, they are sorting out the place of faith in their lives. It’s important to understand their backstories, their current spirituality and the hurdles that keep them from claiming the Christian faith as their own.

You can read the full release exclusively in Barna Access Plus.

Additional reading and resources:

• Interested in reading “What to Know About Spiritually Open Non-Christians” in full? This—and a variety of other Spiritually Open resources, including field guides for faith leaders and exclusive video interviews—are available in Barna Access Plus.
• To help leaders move from insights to action and apply the findings covered in this article, Barna Group has created “Reaching Spiritually Open Non-Christians: A Field Guide for Faith Leaders.” You can access this field guide, and more Spiritually Open resources exclusively inside Barna Access Plus.
• Is your church ready to welcome and openly engage with spiritually open and curious people? For more resources related to faith-sharing, check out our new Evangelism channel in Barna Access Plus.