THE GREAT DOWNGRADE: How the Church Lost Its Discernment

For more than a century, faithful believers have warned that the Western church is sliding into what Charles Spurgeon called “The Downgrade.” He was speaking of a slow, subtle descent, a drift away from biblical truth, historic Christianity, the holiness of God, and the shepherding model Christ Himself gave us.

Spurgeon’s warning in the late 1800s has now matured into the condition of much of the modern church. We are seeing the full-grown fruit of the Downgrade, and it is bitter: a lesser gospel, a softer Christianity, a casual attitude toward sin, and shepherds who function more like CEOs than soul-tenders.

This article explores what the Downgrade was, how it developed, how Pentecostal distortions, prosperity teaching, and American Dream thinking accelerated it, what the statistics reveal, and most importantly, what Scripture commands us to recover.

1. What Spurgeon Meant by “The Downgrade”

In 1887–1888, Charles Spurgeon sounded the alarm in a series of articles known as The Downgrade Controversy. He warned that English Baptists were drifting from the authority and inspiration of Scripture•. The necessity of Christ’s substitutionary atonement• The reality of hell and divine judgment• The exclusivity of Christ as the only Savior• The necessity of repentance, holiness, and doctrinal clarity

Spurgeon said this drift would create a “new religion” that looks like Christianity but is empty of its power. He wrote:

“We are going downhill at breakneck speed.”

His words became prophetic. What he saw in seed form has become the mainstream of Western Christianity.

2. The Modern Downgrade: What the Numbers Reveal

The American church is in decline not simply in attendance, but in convictions, biblical literacy, and moral clarity. In 2007, roughly 78% of Americans identified as Christian, yet today that number has dropped to just 62–63%. Worship attendance has also fallen sharply; two decades ago, about 42% of Americans attended church weekly or near-weekly, but now that number hovers around 30%. Even more concerning than attendance, however, is the collapse of a biblical worldview among those who still identify as Christians. In 2009, only 9% of American adults held a biblical worldview, and today that number has fallen to just 4%. Among those counted as “practicing Christians,” only 17% actually hold a worldview shaped by Scripture. Nearly 44% of evangelicals now deny the existence of absolute moral truth, and only about 53% of self-professing Christians consider the God of the Bible to be an absolute spiritual authority in their lives. In other words, the majority of people in our churches are not shaped by the Word of God but by culture, feelings, and a blended syncretism of competing beliefs. This is the Downgrade in statistical form.

3. Symptoms of the Downgrade in Our Churches

The signs of the Downgrade become especially clear when we look at how the gospel and church leadership have been reshaped in recent decades. The biblical gospel is a call to repent, submit to Christ as Lord, and enter the kingdom through the narrow gate. Jesus declared, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” Matthew 4:17 and warned, “Enter by the narrow gate the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life” Matthew 7:13-14 Yet in many places today, this message has been softened into a simple invitation to “pray this prayer and know you’re going to heaven,” with no call to repentance, no surrender, no cross to carry, and no fear of the Lord. This diluted gospel produces false converts and spiritually fragile churches.

Likewise, the biblical pattern of eldership has been replaced with a corporate structure. Scripture teaches that elders shepherd souls 1 Peter 5:1-4, keep watch over the flock Hebrews 13:17 guard against wolves Acts 20:28-31, and labor in preaching and teaching 1 Timothy 5:17. But in many modern churches, elders function more like board members managing organizational decisions, pastors operate as CEOs or brand managers, congregations are treated as audiences, and the work of shepherding is placed almost entirely on a single overburdened pastor. This model is foreign to the New Testament and inevitably leads to spiritual fragmentation.

Another major contributor to the Downgrade is the merging of Christianity with therapeutic, emotion-driven Pentecostalism, the prosperity gospel, and a self-fulfillment version of the American Dream. These influences have produced a Christianity that revolves around “my destiny,” “my breakthrough,” “my prosperity,” “my emotional experience,” and “my platform,” rather than Christ, repentance, holiness, and obedience. Prosperity teaching in particular has hollowed out entire congregations by shifting the emphasis from God’s glory to personal success. As a result, many churches no longer preach on suffering, perseverance, self-denial, or contentment because such truths do not “sell.” This fusion of theology and consumerism has accelerated the Downgrade at a rapid pace.

A related symptom is the rise of the social-club church. In many places, church has been reimagined as a weekly event to attend, a brand to support, a product to consume, a personality to follow, or a program to join. Yet Scripture describes the church as a family 1 Timothy 3:15, a body 1 Corinthians 12, a holy nation 1 Peter 2:9-10, and a flock under shepherds Acts 20:28. Where the Downgrade takes hold, holiness becomes optional, church discipline disappears, and accountability is dismissed as judgmental. In this environment, churches lose both their identity and their spiritual power.

4. What Biblical Church Life Actually Looks Like

Scripture gives us a clear and consistent picture of church leadership, beginning with the pattern of plural eldership that shepherds souls. In the New Testament, elders are always plural and appointed in every church Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5, and they are shown jointly overseeing and shepherding the flock Acts 20:17-28. These leaders function not as executives or board members but as spiritual fathers who know the people, guard them, guide them, and model mature faith 1 Peter 5:1-4 The biblical church is never led by one man at the top; it is shepherded by a team of spiritually grounded elders who labor together for the care of souls.

This shepherding leadership goes hand-in-hand with word-centered worship and teaching. The early church gathered around the public reading of Scripture, faithful expository preaching 2 Timothy 4:1-5 prayer, and the breaking of bread Acts 2:42, and genuine fellowship. In this model, the Word of God, not emotional experiences, production value, or entertainment, is the centerpiece of worship. The church is nourished by Scripture, shaped by Scripture, and ordered by Scripture.

Flowing out of this Word-centered life is a commitment to holiness and church discipline. The New Testament assumes that churches will confront sin in love and truth. Paul commanded the Corinthians to “purge the evil person from among you" and Jesus Himself set forth the process of corrective discipline: if a sinner refuses to listen even after repeated appeals, he is to be treated as an outsider Matthew 18:15-17. Holiness is not optional for the people of God; it is a distinguishing mark of those who truly belong to Him.

Finally, the biblical church is marked by spiritual mothers and fathers, as seen in the pattern of Titus 2. Older women are to disciple younger women, and older men are to disciple younger men, allowing generational wisdom and maturity to flow through the body. This is not a program or a formal class it is relational, organic, and deeply personal. The early church functioned as a spiritual family, not a weekly show, and this family-style discipleship is essential for health, growth, and holiness.

5. Therapy Culture and the Erosion of Biblical Soul Care

One of the most overlooked forces contributing to the Downgrade is the rise of therapy culture within the church. For nearly two thousand years, Christians understood that the care of souls belonged to pastors, elders, and the body of Christ. Shepherds counseled their people with Scripture, called them to repentance, walked with them through suffering, confronted destructive patterns, and helped them grow in holiness through discipleship, prayer, and community. Soul care was spiritual work rooted in the Word, empowered by the Spirit, and lived out within the local church.

But modern psychotherapy is a very recent development, emerging from humanistic and secular theories in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As society began elevating psychologists and counselors as the true “experts,” pastors were told implicitly and sometimes explicitly that they were no longer qualified to handle the deep struggles of people’s lives. Churches slowly outsourced their most sacred responsibility: the care of human souls. The result is that many Christians now view emotional or spiritual struggle primarily through therapeutic lenses rather than biblical ones.

Even within Christian circles, “biblical counseling” and “Christian therapy” often blend secular frameworks with spiritual vocabulary. And in many licensed settings, counselors are restricted by professional ethics from speaking plainly about sin, repentance, or the need for regeneration. They cannot call a lost person to salvation; they can only offer validation, coping strategies, affirmations, and behavior modification. The practical assumption becomes: the person sitting in the therapy chair is already fine with God already “in” and needs to feel better, think better, or function better. This creates a functional universalism. Though churches deny universalism doctrinally, we treat people as though everyone is spiritually alive and needs self-improvement, not a new birth.

Therapy culture has also opened the door for practices with roots far outside the Christian faith. Personality systems like the Enneagram, shaped by occult and mystical ideas, are treated as tools for spiritual growth. Trauma-related techniques such as tapping methods, memory reconstructions, or guided re-imaginings are embraced without wrestling with their philosophical foundations. In many cases, these approaches subtly reshape a person’s understanding of truth, self, and healing bending them toward introspection, self-focus, and emotional sovereignty, rather than toward repentance, obedience, and conformity to Christ.

The end result is predictable: the church becomes more therapeutic than theological, more affirming than transforming. Sin is rebranded as “brokenness.” Rebellion is reframed as “hurt.” Disobedience is explained away as “trauma response.” Instead of calling people to holiness, we encourage them to cope. Instead of calling them to die to self, we teach them to center the self. Instead of calling them to repentance, we give them self-help strategies with Christian language sprinkled on top.

This is not biblical Christianity. This is not historic pastoral care. And it is not the path to spiritual freedom.

When therapy culture becomes the dominant lens for soul care, the church begins to resemble a counseling clinic or wellness center more than a holy, set-apart people under God's authority. It comforts people in their sin instead of calling them out of it. It soothes the unregenerate instead of confronting them with their need to be born again.

If we are going to reverse the Downgrade, the church must reclaim its role in soul care. We must once again see people not merely as clients with symptoms but as sheep who need shepherds, sinners who need a Savior, and souls who need the truth, not simply tools, techniques, and therapeutic reassurances.

6. How the Church Can Repent of the Downgrade

A return to biblical Christianity requires repentance, courage, and a willingness to lose numbers to gain faithfulness. Churches must first recover the fear of the Lord, preaching once again on the holiness of God Isaiah 6:1-5, the reality of hell Matthew 25:41-46, the wrath of God Romans 1:18, the seriousness of sin Romans 6:23, and the narrow way that leads to life Matthew 7:13-14. If Scripture no longer causes us to tremble, we cannot stand against the Downgrade.

Next, churches must rebuild eldership around shepherding, restructuring leadership so that elders know the sheep personally, meet regularly with members, provide accountability, lead in teaching and prayer, and carry the weight of ministry together as a team. Titles, job descriptions, and expectations must be reformed to align with Scripture rather than business models. Flowing from this, the church must re-center itself on the Word, committing to expository preaching, Scripture-saturated worship, doctrinal clarity, biblical catechism, and strong family discipleship. A church anchored in the Word cannot be easily downgraded.

Another essential step is to resist consumer Christianity, teaching plainly that following Jesus requires self-denial Luke 9:23, suffering Philippians 1:29, obedience to Christ’s commands John 14:15, holiness Hebrews 12:14, and perseverance Revelation 2 &3. Christianity is not a path for fulfilling our dreams, soothing our insecurities, or pursuing personal prosperity. It is a life of surrender to Christ. Alongside this, churches must restore meaningful membership and discipline, emphasizing mutual commitment, correction, discipleship, submission, and real accountability. Biblical discipline is not harsh; it is love in action.

Healthy churches must also revive spiritual family life, encouraging homes to be opened for fellowship, one-on-one Scripture reading, intergenerational mentoring, regular prayer gatherings, and a community culture where confession and repentance are normal. Programs alone do not make disciples people do. Finally, churches must learn to choose faithfulness over fame. Some congregations must accept that being smaller, poorer, or slower-growing may be far more pleasing to Christ than gaining crowds, applause, or popularity. Spurgeon lost his entire denomination over the Downgrade, but he kept his integrity. We must be willing to do the same.

7. A Call to Return

The Downgrade is real, and we are living in the wreckage it has produced. We tell ourselves we are faithful, orthodox, evangelical, but functionally, many churches operate with a soft universalism that denies the narrowness of the gospel in practice, even while rejecting universalism in theory. We host services that resemble social clubs more than sacred assemblies. We tolerate sin in the name of niceness. We structure ministry around comfort, convenience, and consumer appeal rather than holiness, sacrifice, and accountability. We run churches like businesses, build platforms like corporations, and measure success by numbers and applause rather than by transformed lives and persevering faith. This is not the separated, set-apart Ekklesia Christ died to create. It is a hollow, diluted imitation dressed in the language of Christianity but devoid of its power.

Yet there is hope. Christ has not abandoned His church. He still walks among His people. He still exposes what is dying, confronts what is false, and calls us back to what is true. His summons is not to innovate our way out of the mess, but to repent and return. The church does not need reinvention; it needs reformation. It needs purification. It requires a return to Scripture as the final authority, to shepherds who actually shepherd, to congregations that pursue holiness, to leaders who fear God more than they fear man, and to a body that truly lives as the distinct, countercultural people of God.

The road back is not glamorous, easy, or popular, but it is ancient, proven, and glorious. It calls us to lay down our idols of growth, relevance, positivity, and comfort, and to recover the weight and wonder of being the people of God. The question is not whether we can reclaim cultural influence or rebuild institutional strength. The question is whether we will be found faithful to truth, faithful to holiness, faithful to Christ Himself. May the church rediscover its identity as a holy people, a separated people, a shepherded people, and a kingdom people. And may Christ, when He examines us, find a people who have chosen faithfulness over compromise, conviction over comfort, and obedience over applause.

Decline of Christianity & Church Attendance Pew Research Center

Biblical Worldview Decline: Barna Group

Spurgeon & The Downgrade The Downgrade