God on the go: American worship at warp speed

So you're racing through another jam-packed 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 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.

The materials offer bite-size 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, Tenn., 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."

Traditionalists say that quick-hit spirituality can be useful but that it's no substitute for true learning or involvement in a religious community. Even some of the die-hard faithful, however, see the prophetic writing on the wall.

The Rev. Leith Anderson leads a 2,900-member church in suburban Minneapolis and is president of the National Association of Evangelicals. He also produces a daily radio segment -- "FaithMinute" -- that is heard throughout the Midwest.

"It's preaching to people who have never been in the choir," Anderson said.

"My father used to say, 'Going to church over the radio or television is like kissing your girlfriend over the telephone,'" Anderson said. "It's a good thing to kiss your girlfriend over the telephone. But it's a whole lot more fun in person."

Even as traditional worship attendance languishes, an appetite for spirituality has created new opportunities for alternative forms of religious communication, publishers say. Podcasts and other electronic adaptations are leading the way.

"If you know how to reach readers of religious materials, you are onto something, because they are devoted," said Marcia Z. Nelson, religion book reviews editor for Publishers Weekly. "Devotionals and prayer books are perennial sellers."

Only about one-quarter of Americans attend weekly religious services, a figure that has remained relatively steady over most of the past century, according to sociologists who study religion. Yet many Americans feel a need to connect regularly with a supreme being.

A recent national survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 71 percent of people were absolutely certain about their belief in God and that 58 percent said they prayed daily outside of religious services.

Faith leaders are working to capitalize on that spiritual hunger, not just with convenience but with high production values -- adding JumboTron screens, live music and other novelties to services.

"Religion is gradually being remade in the image of mass-consumer capitalism," said Christian Smith, a sociologist of American religion at the University of Notre Dame.

For the past decade, Sinai Temple in Los Angeles has mined this new religious terrain through its "Friday Night Live" service for young professionals, which blends traditional prayer, speakers, music and cocktails.

The temple's rabbi, David Wolpe, has tapped the Internet for outreach, sending a weekly "Off the Pulpit" e-mails to 2,000 people to create what he calls "a virtual community of modern Torah." Mindful of time, he keeps the messages to 250 words or less.

At Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif., associate pastor Tom Holladay has replaced a Wednesday-night Bible study with daily "drive-time devotions."

The Wednesday get-togethers attracted 1,000 parishioners -- a huge crowd by many church standards -- but the 10-minute podcasts, focusing on spiritual growth, reach as many as 10,000 members of the evangelical congregation, one of the largest in the United States.

"There have to be ways to take faith into our daily lives," Holladay said. "You learn more 10 minutes a day, five days a week, than coming (to church) one hour on Sunday, when you're nodding off."

Jews and Christians aren't the only ones with their eyes on the clock. The busy Buddhist can take heart in "10-Minute Zen: Easy Tips to Lead You Down the Path of Enlightenment."

As the book's jacket declares: "You don't have to sit under a bodhi tree and meditate as the Buddha did to become enlightened. With this easy, engaging guide ... you'll find that mastering esoteric Zen practices is as easy as a walk in the woods."