Imagine the great weight of inventing your own religion and belief system. Many people undertake this burden upon themselves every day. They are the "spiritual but not religious."
Noah Lewis, a dude from Minooka, Illinois (I love his description) writes about how to reach those who engage in a personalized spirituality. You can read his full article on the TGC website by clicking --> here <-- He notes that those who internalize their version of religion lose the sense of community that the church offers.
Can you imagine being the only Kansas City Chiefs fan in existence? You live in a vaccum where you believe that nobody knows the Chiefs in reality like you do. As a consequence, discussion of the Chiefs is forbidden at the Thanksgiving table, at the coffee shop, in the fellowship hall, and at the cafe (lest an offense be taken or given). There is no community! There is only isolation that tugs at the heart and yearns for another. A heart that years for the church and the koinonia of fellow believers.
Noah sets out four biblical strategies to reach the inwardly spiritual wanderer:
1. Pray fervently.
Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. (Romans 10:1 ESV)
2. Listen with compassion.
When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:36 NIV)
3. Evangelize creatively.
To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. (1 Cor 9:21–23 NIV)
4. Commit to unity.
Church unity is one of the great detractors to the winsomeness of the gospel. Do not forget the prayer of Jesus:
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:20-23 ESV)
Now, ... go!