Our small Christian non-profit
ministry recently requested and received approval from the IRS to be re-classified
as a ‘church’.
As our primary ministry
is hosting two church services weekly, serving as pastor and chaplain to the
residents of a large assisted living facility and promoting discipleship
through weekly Bible studies, it seemed appropriate.
As a church our core beliefs and passions led us to align ourselves as an independent “non-denominational" evangelical church.
While there is a great amount of
diversity and variety among non-denominational churches—the one likely
commonality is they all are embracing a growing trend to not be connected to a
denominational structure and stubbornly refuse to be identified by
denominational criteria.
My personal stubbornness lies in what
I call an aversion to ‘isms.’ ‘Isms’
are an expansion of what likely started as a stated doctrinal belief hopefully
based on a Biblical teaching. However,
in time, the ‘ism’ at the end of the name of the doctrine or teaching creates divisions
into different, competing and often hostile opposing groups. While, many of these teachings and beliefs
are doctrinally sound, they tend to unnecessarily divide us when Christ and the
New Testament is clear that unity of the Body of Christ is the objective.
Beyond just being stubborn, there are
two primary reasons why churches like ours are independent and
non-denominational—these reasons are organizational and theological.
1. Organizational
Denominations tend to become
bureaucratic and inwardly focused. They typically have shown an inability
to remain focused on the original vision that created the movement’s
vitality. All too often, the established and traditional methods become
more important than the results that are to be achieved. Methods are a poor substitute for being a
part of the true vine that Jesus followers are to cling to. While there are benefits in tradition,
tradition can quickly lead to inflexibility, and the larger the organizational
and associated requirements become the greater the opportunity for
organizational dysfunction and misdirection.
Many denominational churches have
moved to become independent by disconnecting themselves from their denominational
underpinnings. Often, this is
accomplished by a simple name change, taking on a generic name that in
appearance drops or greatly reduces the denominational baggage. By maintaining a connection to the
denomination, these local churches may find that they can maintain some of the
benefits of cooperation and theological training while embracing some of the
non-traditional worship, culture and language of the independent churches.
According to Pew Forum research, most
of the largest denominations in the United States reported a decline in
membership.
Interestingly, this same study also found that
while Protestants in general saw their share of the US population fall since
2007 (decline of 4.7% from 2007 to 2014), and Catholics also lost approximately
3.1% of their share of the population,
the nondenominational share of the US population grew from 4.5% to 6.2%
during the same period.
Declaring a church to be
non-denominational by itself doesn’t eliminate the inherent challenges and
predictable decline of centralized denominations. However, when combined with a focus on the
primary doctrines of the faith as discussed below, many evangelical,
non-denominational churches have thrived and pushed against the trend.
2. Theological
Non-denominational does not mean undecided or not orthodox in belief. The vast majority of independent
non-denominational churches are also clearly evangelical. This indicates while non-denominational, there
is a common distinctiveness of doctrine.
While there are many that prefer to define evangelicals based on style,
political opinions, or by denomination, the NAE (National Association of
Evangelicals) states that “Evangelicals take the Bible seriously and believe
in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. The term “evangelical” comes from the Greek
word euangelion, meaning “the good news” or the “gospel.” Thus, the evangelical
faith focuses on the “good news” of salvation brought to sinners by Jesus
Christ.”
Further, according
also to the NAE, many evangelicals choose to not use the word ‘evangelical’ in
describing themselves, focusing rather on their core theological beliefs: The
faithfulness and authority of the Bible, salvation by grace through faith, the
need for a personal relationship with God through Jesus and his death and
resurrection, their involvement in evangelism, the desire for discipleship and
fellowship and the ultimate return of Jesus Christ.
One of the
strengths of the non-denominational, evangelical church is the simplicity of
their doctrines. There is rarely any
complex terminology or exhaustive theological explanations but typically a
simple reference to a few verses in the Bible.
It can be said that the non-denominational, evangelical church typically
majors on the major doctrines of the church and minors on the minors. For example, the word sacrament can be used
to describe their regular communion and baptism rituals without the people
becoming ‘sacramentalists.’ The Bible
is considered to be faithful in origin as well as transmission without an
insistence of any particular translation or edition. Church services can be rather prescribed or
sometimes unpredictable without causing a major breach of an historic ecclesiastical
calendar.
As a result, the
local pastor is able to build a church that focuses on the primary truths of
the Bible, preach the Gospel with clarity and remain in unity with other
churches in the community that are considered to all be part of the same Body
of Christ.
Ultimately, each
non-denominational evangelical church will need to grapple with the same issues
that the denominational churches have had difficulties with over the years:
divorce and remarriage, church governance, church discipline, the roles of
women and men in leadership, etc. The
advantage however for these newer non-denominational churches is that they can
make even poor decisions without saddling other independent churches with a
mandate to go and do likewise.
Rev. Kenneth Behr
(Th.D) July 2019
