No authentic fellowship, no doctrinal stringency, no masculine leadership, no spiritual relevancy, no life.

Readership: All; Men; Christians;
Theme: Cracking Nuts
Length: 1,300 words
Reading Time: 7 minutes

Why Are American Protestant Churches Declining?

We’ve all seen headlines like these.

These articles go over a wide range of reasons why the church is in decline, but I sense there are some things left unsaid. So here, I’ll go over what I believe are the foundational reasons why Mainline and Evangelical Protestant churches are fading, in that order, followed by some general conclusions.

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Why Are Mainline Protestant Churches Declining?

In my view, the reasons why Mainline Protestant churches are in decline are as follows.

In the first place, these churches appeal to the type of Protestant Christian who prefers more moral and theological rigidity and a traditional ecclesiastical structure, both in doctrine and in liturgy.

The Mainline churches emphasize rigid doctrines (although corrupted in many instances), seasons, and traditions.  Although these characteristics are highly desired and valued, they are seen as efforts to preserve their institutions, along with other methods deemed by whatever means necessary (e.g. accepting / tolerating blatantly disobedient individuals, being “Seeker Friendly”, cultural convergence, same sex marriages, etc.), instead of caring about having a scripturally based vision of these social enterprises.

Furthermore, the truths behind the faith traditions of many Mainline churches have been so watered down and/or so thoroughly jettisoned in favor of human opinion and progressive values that they no longer contain that which attracted these people to them in the first place.

Worse, many of these churches have abandoned the strict doctrines and moral requirements that support this structure, even while maintaining the rigid ordinances and structured services.

That’s like throwing out the baby and drinking the dirty bathwater.

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Why Are Evangelical Protestant Churches Declining?

IMO, the reason why American Evangelical Protestant (AEP) churches are in decline is because of their continued stance of compromising doctrine with secular culture.  Lowering the authority of the Bible is tantamount to abandoning the message and power of the Gospel. It’s turning the inerrant Word of God into a human opinion, free to disregard whenever particular circumstances may make it convenient to do so.

These incongruences between authentic, scripture-based faith and cultural influences are most obviously manifested in the following ways.

  1. Church conflicts are a dank turn-off, both to believers and non-believing seekers alike. The PCUSA has been in a bitter split involving lawsuits and court battles, and property fights between churches and their presbyteries are making headlines. The SBC has devolved into sex scandals and court battles.
  2. Churches shrink due to vast generational gaps, aging congregations, and generational shifts in politics and social tastes, which make that gap wider. Combine this gap with Boomer mentality and Digitally isolated Zoomers to produce a church culture that is unable to retain younger generations.
  3. The “Seeker Friendly” approach is ‘weak’ and no longer appealing.  The attractional model of a seeker sensitive church in AEP circles has been criticized for dumbing down the faith and leaving people Biblically and doctrinally illiterate.
  4. Meanwhile, churches have failed to adapt by NOT being “Seeker Friendly” in accord with what would actually be attractive to real seekers — Biblical doctrinal teaching and a bulwark of communal, familial, and societal stability.
  5. Progressive Egalitarianism and the relatively more conservative Complementarianism, in which the church’s doctrinal stance is always strongly interpreted in favor of women and assiduously avoids any imprecation of women’s failures (e.g., absence of moral agency, sexual promiscuity, neglecting marital duties such as having regular sexual relations, or failing to fulfill their proper roles and responsibilities in a Christian marriage, such as respecting and submitting to their husbands), thus implicitly and sometimes explicitly removing all accountability and preventing any discipline from being enacted on women. (This one factor has had a HUGE impact on the church! More on this in the next post.)
  6. Failing churches have failed to build authority structures comprised of authentic male-dominated leadership, as well as to enact strategies for recruiting and retaining younger men, and to devise systems for properly mentoring them.
  7. As a result of 5 and 6, the church has become a Beta Factory and a cesspool institution comprised of weak men and debased, ’empowered’ wimminz. BIG turn off!
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Summary

People who are drawn to American Protestant churches, for the most part, greatly value doctrinal precision foremost, teachings that provide beneficial real-life applications, traditional families and children (‘eventually’, or at least in concept), and the middle-class values and lifestyle.  They want a church that caters to these values and delivers what they expect from church — for themselves and their families.  They also want a church that provides authentic fellowship with people as similar to themselves as possible, in as many aspects as possible. A church that does NOT offer these features is (often falsely) regarded as a ‘bad’, errant, or inappropriate church, regardless of its actual authenticity of faith and doctrinal precision.

With some exceptions among Mainline congregants, the grand majority of Protestants do NOT want the pomp and huff of a formal “High Church” liturgy, absent the familial humanitarian aspects. They do NOT want church to be a burden to their lifestyle, or to require changes from them in any way. Only pastors and leaders (deacons, elders, et al.) are willing to sacrifice their time and energy.  Almost all others (short of those rare ‘Super-Christians’ who are well-known in one’s church), have a consumer mentality oriented in service to themselves and their families, rather than a producer mentality, or even a service mentality.

Men, in particular, want a church that affirms their masculine identity and their God-given authority over the Earth and human institutions, including the church, and which does NOT undermine it. A growing number of men will not tolerate any less from a church organization.

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Conclusions

A church leadership that places too much emphasis on the church as an organized religion and/or a religious institution, or it’s place / purpose / role in the community, and its buildings and property (outside of making it look immaculate), has caused many people to simply walk away.

Same but differently, a church that diffuses the boundaries of the faith, and is too permissive of secular cultural norms (e.g. Feminine Imperatives, gynocentrism, sexual license, etc.), and teaches how to adhere to these norms in a ‘Christian’ manner, disappoints those who are seeking spiritual security, a refuge, and solace from the debased wider culture.

Churches that are too flaccid, too feminized, and engage in “Man Bashing” are becoming increasingly onerous to men, especially younger men who grew up with access to Red Pill knowledge, thus facilitating a mass exodus.

In sum of the results, for the past decade or more within Protestantism, there has been a gradual shift away from older, “established”, Mainline Protestant churches that have grown epicene, as well as lukewarm, trendy Evangelical Protestant churches that favor gynocentrism, towards more doctrinally strict, masculine-type churches (see here), and ultra-conservative, ecclesiastical churches (i.e., Catholicism and Orthodoxy), as well as charismatic and mystically oriented denominations, (i.e. Assembly of God, Radix Fidem, et al.).

Churches that do NOT adhere to strict doctrinal inerrancy and the practice thereof, while catering to the femcentric progressive culture, ressentimental identity politics, and political correctness, rather than the lifestyles and social / spiritual needs of their congregants, find themselves drifting into irrelevant territory.

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