For instance, 93 percent haven’t been to a religious service in the past six months. Though some may self-identify as members of a religious faith (22% Christian, 15% Catholic, 2% Jewish, 2% Buddhist, 1% other faith), they are in many ways irreligious-particularly when we take a closer look at their religious practices.

The first group (SBNR #1) are those who consider themselves “spiritual,” but say their religious faith is not very important in their life. To get at a sense of spirituality outside the context of institutional religion, Barna created two key groups that fit the “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR) description. In this conclusion of a two-part series on faith outside the church ( read the first part, on those who “love Jesus but not the church”), Barna takes a close look at the segment of the American population who are “spiritual but not religious.” Who are they? What do they believe? How do they live out their spirituality daily? The twin cultural trends of deinstitutionalization and individualism have, for many, moved spiritual practice away from the public rituals of institutional Christianity to the private experience of God within.

But what does it actually mean? Can you be one without the other? Once synonymous, “religious” and “spiritual” have now come to describe seemingly distinct (but sometimes overlapping) domains of human activity. “I’m spiritual but not religious.” You’ve heard it-maybe even said it-before.

Religion is not even wrong