Now this is an interesting assertion in several respects. First, to put it mildly, I think it is highly debatable whether the church in our lifetimes has been preoccupied with avoidance of sin. Second, the idea that dedicating one's self to avoidance of sin could cause the church to wither on its Vine is at least equally debatable.
What is sin, anyway? The Bible presents sin to us as any want of conformity unto, or transgression of God's Law-Word given as a rule to man.
Among other purposes, God's law was given to us for our blessing. The law is good for us because God knows what it takes for man, created in His image, to flourish under His good and gracious rule as King. God's law has been given to us so that we can more fully enjoy Him and His good gifts to us, and enjoy personal relationships with fellow bearers of God's image. In Psalm 19:7-11 David speaks for every mature Christian when he expresses great pleasure in the law of God. The flip side of the expression "avoidance of sin" is "conformity to God." How on earth can a desire to be in conformity with God be identified as the church's greatest error? Such a notion is totally bananas.
The Book of Job opens with a presentation of Job as a man deeply concerned with avoidance of sin: "Job sent and sanctified [his children], and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually." And then just a few sentences later God gives us his personal estimation of Job: "Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?"
Of course, Job was a type of Christ. Another type of Christ was Joseph, whose reward for preoccupation with avoiding sin was to be thrown into prison on account of the perjury of Potiphar's wife. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were blessed by God for refusing to sin by committing idolatry. The Bible is full of people who are praised for their preoccupation with avoidance of sin. And of course Jesus Himself said repeatedly that He came to do His Father's will and that He delighted in doing so. So there really is nothing at all to be critical of concerning a desire to avoid sin (or, to turn it around, a desire to live a life that is in conformity with God).
It can be seen as the very imitation of Christ.
However, the notion that the American church since the end of World War II has been preoccupied with avoidance of sin is really preposterous. O would that we had been preoccupied with avoidance of sin! The person who wishes to avoid sin must first of all find out what God's Law-Word says. Yet Christians as a rule do not know what God's Law-Word says and to the extent that we do know, we certainly have not wanted to take it as the authoritative rule for every area of our lives. Not only the post-World War II era but the past century (at least) have been an era of studious neglect of God's Law-Word for the church in America, as a whole.
If that had not been the case, how could we have allowed the murder of more than 50 million children to take place? How could we have allowed millions of tons of bombs to be dropped on far-off countries that never did anything to us and never posed any threat to us? Time and space would fail us if we were to attempt to fully recite the litany of evils that have been perpetrated by our supposedly Christian country since the end of World War II -- and NONE of that would have been allowed if we had indeed been deeply concerned with the avoidance of sin and all that such a stance implies.
And as to what causes the church to "wither on its Vine," I'll let Jesus have the last word for this post:
I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in My love. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
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