I believe it is a move from sickness TO health. The greatest time of measured growth for institutional, denominational-based religion when growth was carefully measured was during the post World War II era. Conformity and church membership and belonging was at the center of community life. The institutional church of that period was "theologically light." The institutional church was not yet challenged by the radicalization of the 1960's. There were no shopping malls, no youth sports on Sundays and there was normally only one wage earner in a family and no "turn key" kids. People had more free time, and community life revolved around church life. Institutionalized religion mirrored a life style where "issues" were not really part of the theological discourse in church life.
All that changed with the period beginning in the 1960's when the nation was confronted by the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, radical student movements, the Black Panther Party, the assasinations of the Kennedys, King, Malcolm X, the burning of American cities and the rise of the new counterculture movement.
All of these events challenged the institutional church to address the core teachings of Jesus and how those teachings either moved the institutional church membership into engagement or forced it to retreat to the comfort of what it once was in the 1950's.
It has been said that prayer without action is simply poetry. The loss of membership which for some has caused them whistfully to retreat to the unreality of what church once was is a retreat from engaging the world from the basis of faith.
Today membership may be smaller. And more people seem to be "shopping" for their religious needs like visiting the supermarket....but in fact membership is more involved, engaged, and more theologically aware than ever before.
What I believe is happening is the emergence of a "New Pentecost for the 21st Century" where the church as institution is leaner, smaller and more involved in the issue of relating core theology to the lives of its membership.
Some would say...especially those who have left ...that the church has become too political. I say...all theology is political. And one only has to look at the life of Christ and his ministry of challenge to the religious and political authorities of the day to see the validity of such a statement.
The first Pentecost began with only a handful of believers who by their faith and action literally changed the course of religious history. We need to remember the size of a church or a denomination does not determine its success or its ability to live well into the Gospel. Too often the size of larger communities of faith can be a great insulator for its members from engaging personally in relating the theological teaching of Jesus to the needs of God's people in their communities and the world.
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