A closer, faster, walk with thee
Publishers and pastors are offering bits of spiritual inspiration for busy Americans on their one-minute search for faith.
So you're racing through another jampacked day, late picking up the kids from basketball practice because you got stuck at the office. Then you pay the bills, walk the dog and perhaps grab cold pizza before collapsing into bed.
When do you ever find time for God?
One publisher has the answer: "The One-Minute Bible, Day by Day," whose brief readings promise to inspire your "daily walk with the Lord."
Or check out "5 Minute Theologian: Maximum Truth in Minimum Time."
Because man does not live by bread alone -- and might be tempted to eat on the run -- there's "Aunt Susie's 10-Minute Bible Dinners: Bringing God Into Your Life One Dish at a Time."
The American style of worship, like everything else in people's overloaded lives, is speeding up. Call it God on the go.
This hurried search for the Almighty partly explains the rise of a niche industry of books, DVDs, podcasts, text messages and e-mail blasts that distill the essentials of faith, from Creation to the Crucifixion.
The materials offer bite-sized spiritual morsels that can be digested in minutes, or even seconds, on the daily commute, aboard airplanes or at the dinner table. As "7 Minutes With God" promises, "Learn how to plan a daily quiet time that takes just 7 minutes."And what about your over-programmed 10-year-old? Again, religious publishers have an answer: "The Kid Who Would Be King: One Minute Bible Stories About Kids."
"The audience is definitely anyone who's interested in a ready-made, quick little devotion they can do every day," said Tim Jordan, an executive editor at B&H Publishing Group in Nashville, which produces the "The One-Minute Bible."
"It's not meant to replace the Bible," Jordan added. "It's meant to whet your appetite."
Publishers aren't the only ones adjusting to the time pressures on modern religious life. Rabbis and ministers, aware that worship is just another weekend option for many parishioners, are shortening their sermons and taking other steps to entice worshipers.
"What's the scarcest commodity in American life?" asks the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. "How do we invite people to connect their life of faith with their life at the soccer practice or in the coffee shop or at the pub or waiting in line for something? I think that's the biggest challenge the church is beginning to recognize."
