Presence and Process: A Path Toward Transformative Faith and Inclusive Community

The North American Christian church of the early twenty-first century finds itself in a period of decline. A growing percentage of young adults are not entering the front doors of churches while at the same time older and previously dedicated Christians are leaving. Coinciding with the deflation of the Western church is the explosion in popular culture of the mindfulness movement, which emphasizes meditation practices derived from Buddhism. These concurrent phenomena–the decline of Christendom in North America and the rise of a Westernized form of Buddhism and various secularized applications of Buddhist meditative practice–form an interesting juxtaposition that warrants exploration.