Old friends from my early career days recently found me through social media, and each time one of their greetings has arrived, I have been whisked back twenty-five to thirty years, when we first got to know each other.

Then I discovered just how much has changed over time—not just in the way they look but also in the fact that some of them now have a strong, outspoken interest in spiritual and religious matters. Nothing even close to religion had ever surfaced in all the previous years that we knew one another and worked together.

Their interest in living a more spiritual life and connecting with a church was surprising news for another reason. It’s coming forward in a world that we have been told is witnessing the twilight of religion. Over the past decade, statistics have shown a rise in the number of unaffiliated religious people. Commentators have often pointed to religion’s uncertain future and an increasingly secular society.