Christian decline over the last 40 years in the United States has prompted numerous explanations advanced by experts, pastors, church leaders, and those in the media, most of which are either wrong or, at best, incomplete. This gap in understanding increasingly leads pastors, church leaders, synods, and evangelists to chase phantoms of their imaginations about why some people no longer attend church.  The societal collapse in marriage and the resulting decline in resident fatherhood offers the best explanation for the decline of Christianity in the United States.

J.P. De Gance (founder and president of Communio) has built his career around equipping churches to evangelize through the renewal of healthy relationships, marriages, and the family. Through his work, he has seen how the church affects the family, and the family affects the church.