For the last few decades, the predominant missional narrative in North America has sounded something like this, “people in North America are becoming less and less Christian and we need to reverse this trend.” This has been called the Church Decline Narrative. Underneath this narrative is the understanding that North America used to have a more Christian heritage and that it’s changing. So, “we” have to do what it takes to “win it back.” And a lot of this language is infused in the way we talk about missional engagement and faith in the public square.
In this presentation at The Gospel and Our Cities Conference, Daniel Yang talks about how Church planting and mission groups that base their ministry paradigms on the Church Decline Narrative risk becoming increasingly ineffective as North America continues to diversify and complexify.