That was the thrust of the article. Both organizations are stuck in the mode of “we used to attract fans/parishioners this way, it will continue to work this way, just try harder”.
The kids don’t like Rock’n Roll anymore, quit trying to lure them in using rock ‘n roll. Accept it and adapt.
From my own experience, the article may have missed an opportunity to identify the flaw in the comparison. The article did point out that young people want some of their life devoted to philanthropy and volunteerism, but failed to identify that in the old days church and baseball both filled a social experience need that is now filled by other things. Town ball still fills that social experience void. It’s a smaller community at an affordable price, just like Twinsdaily. MLB is neither small nor affordable, it is purely entertainment and needs to be more compelling. Church is not a social experience anymore for the youth, and isn’t entertainment. It could be an outlet for service and philanthropy, but the organizers haven’t quite figured out what that looks like.
Where I agree with the article is if they both don’t figure out how to change, they are very much at risk.