Why is the church in decline?

There are plenty of articles on why the church is in decline. These can be interesting and even informative. They range from churches being out of touch in their messaging, to being too political, to being too worldly, to being too cloistered, to taking a stand for something, to not taking any stand at all, and more.

Why is the church in decline? I think it’s important to remember that this is complicated. And it’s important to define things. When the word “the church” gets thrown around, we make a mistake when we assume everyone is talking about the same thing. They aren’t. “The church” can mean a number of things — the institution of the church, the body of the church, a specific church.

The other thing to remember is that most of those articles talking about the church being in decline are oriented towards America and Western Europe. The reality is that the church is growing leaps and bounds in Asia, Africa, and South America.

So with that said, here’s my theory on the decline of the church in America. When I talk about the church in America, I’m talking about the institution of the church — primarily Protestant churches — an organization with a building, staff, and institutional identity.

The simple answer — Western society has moved past trust in institutions. Institutions don’t carry a special place in Western society any longer. There’s a variety of reasons for that — the biggest one (at least I think it is) being that institutions have shown themselves to lack trust. In…