A Church Dismantled, a Kingdom Restored: Why is God Taking Apart the Church?

Wherever you look, the metrics for the institutional church spell doom. A recent headline from the Pew Research Center proclaims, “In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace.” Fewer people identify as practicing Christians; more and more say they are atheists, agnostics, “nones,” or spiritual but not religious.

Other indicators of religious commitment are also slipping. Generation Z—the cohort born from 1997 to 2015 and nurtured on all things digital—has been dubbed “the first post-Christian generation.” Even though the long-term effects of the Covid shutdown remain uncertain, the future of Christianity in America appears gloomy.

Amid this dire forecast for the institutional church, Conrad Kanagy offers a vision of hope and dispels gloom. He sees the hand of God enabling what he calls the dismantling of the church. And why would God be doing such a shocking thing? To prepare the way, to restore the kingdom first described by the prophet Isaiah and later echoed by John the Baptist who paved the way for the kingdom announced by Jesus. And if God’s Spirit is directing this grand dismantling of the church as we know it, then Christian leaders, says Kanagy, should align themselves with the project, not try to obstruct it.

For Kanagy, the decline of the church is ironically the handiwork of God’s dismantling of the institutionalized church as we know it. This process of dismantling, he suggests, reveals the real core of Christian faith: Jesus. Inspired by the vision of three Hebrew prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Jesus—Kanagy reminds us that things are not always what they appear to be. Where others see catastrophe, he sees God’s handiwork. Where others see disaster, he sees God’s Spirit at work.