Lack of a Holy Bride

I want to build on something posted in the comments by David. He pondered whether much of the discontent felt within the Church is the result of the realization that the Church in general is not a holy bride of Christ. Can the concept of a "lack of a holy bride" serve as the "new wineskin" for talking about holiness in our 21st century context? I think that this is certainly a great way of posing the problem. Some of you may have read Ron Sider's new book

Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience. Here is an excerpt from the Jan/Feb 2005 issue of Books and Culture drawn from Sider's book:

Scandalous behavior is rapidly destroying American Christianity. By their daily activity, most "Christians" regularly commit treason. With their mouths they claim that Jesus is Lord, but with their actions they demonstrate allegiance to money, sex, and self-fulfillment.
The findings in numerous national polls conducted by highly respected pollsters like The Gallup Organization and The Barna Group are simply shocking. "Gallup and Barna," laments evangelical theologian Michael Horton, "hand us survey after survey demonstrating that evangelical Christians are as likely to embrace lifestyles every bit as hedonistic, materialistic, self-centered, and sexually immoral as the world in general."1 Divorce is more common among "born-again" Christians than in the general American population. Only 6 percent of evangelicals tithe. White evangelicals are the most likely people to object to neighbors of another race. Josh McDowell has pointed out that the sexual promiscuity of evangelical youth is only a little less outrageous than that of their nonevangelical peers.

Ouch.

I would argue that much of the problem stems from our current generation's lack of understanding about the nature of salvation. Most have a great grasp of the vastness of God's grace, but lack any conception or expectation that this grace can not merely forgive us but also transform us.

To use Malcolm Gladwell's terminology: What would make "holiness of heart and life" sticky?