The Church is not a building. It is not a denomination. It is not an administration. It is the Body of all Believers in Jesus Christ , the Son of God.
The church (lower case) is the Physical plant. It is buildings, denominations, adminstrations.
The church is responsible for all failures in society. All churches fall into "form of worship" practices to a lesser or greater extent. True Worship is in Spirit and Truth - not form and ceremony. Very little of the "power to transform lives" Message has been preached until lately. Instead, the "save your soul from hell" message along with the "do social work" message has just about covered it.
The real Message of Christ Jesus was the notion of New Birth and the potential for Abundant (super-human) Life. The Abundant Life manifests as a well spring of the Character and Blessings of God gushing from within the new creature to be poured out upon all those they encounter.
Though the New Birth has been believed in and superficially taught, it has not been the focus of the church. As a result, though the New Birth is not aborted, it is stunted in terms of its effect on subsequent life.
Christ intended for the New Birth to initiate new Life - not an improvement on the old life. This is profound! What the church has focused on is the cleaning up of the old man to make him Christ like. Jesus told us you do not put new wine into old bottles. You do not sew new cloth into an old garment. Yet, this is what the church has been about.
Since we have occupied ourselves with a failed process (new cloth in old garment) it is no wonder that we have been ineffective in convincing young people to participate. Something has not been ringing true and young people are sensitive to superficiality and insincerity.
For example, many in the church occupy themselves addressing the material needs of the poor. Jesus did not occupy himself with material needs. Rather, he focused on bringing the needy to wholeness. He Healed them and forgave their Sins and set them Free. He told us that we would always have poor people implying it was futile to solve the problem of poverty from the outside in.
The Gospel is powerful and effective. The Gospel is the Good news of the Kingdom of God. A Kingdom , if it is anything, has Power and Authority to affect the lives of its subjects. We are a Kingdom of Priests , a Royal priesthood. This means that we are to exercise the Power and Authority of the Kingdom of God on Christ's behalf.