It may be that God permitted the institutionalization of the church and even used it to protect the church and is now in the process of transforming it again in Christ. In many ways, the evolving secularization of the society which began during the Enlightenment has slowly dismantled this hierarchical view of the church created by its institutionalization.

First, the political power of the church to demand obedience even from the rulers and to shape the state was removed. How many governments now stand in fear of the decisions made by the church? While our government tried to dissuade the Catholic Bishops of America from taking a stance against nuclear armaments in the early ‘80s, they found no necessity of altering their government policies in response to the Bishop’s stance once it had been issued.

Then through the Reformation the power of the church to grant or withhold salvation and forgiveness slowly dissipated. The importance of confession has largely been removed from the church and more frequently is entrusted to the psychologist. In most Protestant churches, it would be highly unusual for the church to publicly call a member to account for their ethical conduct. Even in the Roman Catholic church, the importance of the confessional has largely waned in the lives of many very active Catholics.

In recent times the capacity of the church to officially interpret Scripture and to convey the tradition has also been challenged. It is common for members to express disgust, if not anger, at the efforts of their denomination to make Scriptural based pronouncements with respect to even issues that are clearly of a moral nature. A clear example is the inability of most denominations to come to any clear resolution in the area of sexuality. Clergy, who are presumably trained in the interpretation of Scripture, are frequently challenged by lay members as to the accuracy of their understanding of Scripture.

Now the status of the clergy and even the very necessity of the church are being challenged. As polls indicate, the vast majority of those who verbally proclaim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior do not believe that the church is an essential element of their journey of faith. For many, though in decreasing numbers, the church helps strengthen their faith. But if that should cease to be true for them, it might be sad but not critical in their journey of faith. They might leave with anger towards the church but they do not believe that in doing so they have been cut off from the means of their salvation.

If God is Lord of history, what does this process of disestablishment mean? Where is God in all of this?