At the same time mainstream denominations lose thousands of members per year, churches such as Crosspoint are growing rapidly ”” 15 percent of all U.S. churches identified themselves as nondenominational this year, up from 5 percent a decade ago. A third dropped out of major denominations at some point.
Their members are attracted by worship style, particular church missions or friends in the congregation.
“They no longer see the denomination as anything that has relevance to them,” said Scott Thumma, a religion sociology professor at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn. He’s compiling a list of nondenominational churches for the 2010 Religious Congregations and Membership Study. “The whole complexion of organized religion is in flux.”
The same thing is probably happening to the political parties.
A few years ago, my denomination significantly changed the Statement of Faith under the pretense of “refreshing the language”. Then, after that huge change, they embraced illegal immigration, the Green movement, and cooperation with pro-abortion groups to advocate contraceptive use for unmarried couples.
This Spring, at the end of the Sunday School year, we will be leaving our Church and going to a different Church and denomination. We will be withdrawing membership from the former, but will not be seeking membership at the latter. We plan on just being “attenders”.
I refuse to financially support a denomination that is advocating things that I consider immoral, illegal, and unethical. I attempted to move a proposal in the congregational meeting that would have changed the support of the denomination from being commingled with the general fund, thus allowing members to have a concientious option of supporting the local Church, while denying their support to the denomination. That proposal was declined.
My wife was the nursery coordinator for 7 years, a deaconess for nearly as long, and the games coordinator for our mid-week youth group. I was a trustee, deacon, and elder as well. We were both very involved in the VBS program and I used to help out with the games coordination of the youth group. Now we are leaving. Our attitudes have changed about being “members”.
I don’t want to be involved in Church politics. I will vote with my wallet and/or my feet. I will not support an agenda bent on destroying our culture, harming my fellow workers, hurting industry for science-myths, etc.
So, for those elites that think that infiltrating or suborning the leadership of Churches is the way to harness and direct the “religious right” or the religious conservatives to their globalist, liberal, immoral agenda…they need to think again. First, we are not stupid as you suppose us to be. Second, we have a higher allegiance to the Scriptures, the revealed Word and will of God Almighty, than to a party or a denomination. You can think of us as “Religious Tea Partiers”. Party loyalty and brands mean nothing to us anymore, because of the machinations that have warped what were once trustworthy institutions into tools to further your agenda.
The globalist agenda is anti-Christ, and we will not be part of it or go-along to get-along.
No 1…your point is well taken.
A few years ago, I went to the local mega church incognito. As I was reading the history, it dawned on me that “the magic of the marketplace” was really operating in this sphere. My guess is it was a typical story: this guy had felt the call to preach, had preached, had drawn followers, had started a small church in a storefront or hotel ballroom or something, had decided to build a campus, had met with investors, raised money, and built the thing. Now he was senior pastor or pastor emeritus. How many people have gotten to that first step or the second or the third, and failed to make it to the next one? Tens or hundreds or thousands. But this guy had been a successful enough preacher, leader, and fund raiser to build this huge set of buildings. All institutional affiliations are now up for grabs, so is it any surprise this guy is successful? He’s already proved his competence at these particular skills time and time again. His competition? Little old me, who discerned a vocation and convinced my parish committee, my Vestry, my bishop, and his COM. So I don’t think this is because megachurches are inherently better, or non-denominational is inherently better — it’s because the ones who make it, without any institutional support, are pretty good at what they do. And they don’t have to try to put one in every town in the country. Whether it’ll continue to “work” with the next generation of leadership, who is chosen rather than tested, will be interesting to see (didn’t I read that the senior Schuller just came out of retirement because the Crystal Cathedral was in trouble under his son’s leadership?)
Whether the magic of the marketplace is a fit proxy for the discernment of the work of the Holy Spirit I’ll leave as an exercise for the reader.
I agree with number 2. I would also note that while many mainline denomination churches in my community are on the verge of closing their doors for lack of attenders and money, non-denominational churches (both charismatic and Reformed) here are booming. So essentially the false churches are now being pruned from the Body of Christ to make way for new growth, and being thrown in the pile to be burned, a process we should encourage. This is what Jesus said would happen to those who do not bear the fruit of the Gospel. John 15, Matthew 7:19-20
The main problem the new churches have here is that they cannot find enough spaces to meet in, because of the unavailability of appropriately zoned land. Many have to meet in theaters, school cafeterias, etc. However, when the dying churches go under and close their doors, these spaces will be available for the new churches to acquire and restore to the Kingdom.
No. 5,
I always advise churches that have issues with civic governments about zoning and such to consult the Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000. rluipa.org is a good resource on the subject. There is a federal law on the books that says the government cannot discriminate against a religious organization in terms of zoning. It’s quite the expansive little law that most people don’t know about.
As a lawyer, I actually have done a couple of cases in this area. My experience is that although RLUIPA is helpful it is not the cure-all unless you can show a discriminatory intent in the zoning law or its application. We did have a case where we showed that a Buddhist religious institution was being excluded from the neighborhood on the pretext of “increased traffic,” which is one of the usual arguments in this area, and we got the zoning authority to reverse its position. But our law is cast as having special rules for “meeting facilities,” not churches per se, which makes the argument tougher since supposedly the same requirements would be imposed on both secular and religious facilities.
Nevertheless, the secondary effect is still there, which is that the shortage of land that can be used for meeting facilities drives up the price of all such land, thus making it unaffordable for many start-up churches. If failing churches go under, theoretically that would mean more land is available and prices would fall.
Of course, the real problem is that such churches also tend be in areas ideal for high-rise condominium development.
Alternatively,they have been given “landmark” designations which make it financially or practically unfeasible for new churches to redevelop or rehabilitate the space. The result is you can get a lot of abandoned churches which nobody will touch, and then the buildings just rot away.
Pete Wilson likes Baptists.
In fact, he used to be one.
But when he launched interdenominational Crosspoint Church 10 years ago, Wilson dropped his Baptist ties. He believes what Baptists believe, and he appreciates the mission work they do. He just doesn’t see the personal benefit to being part of any denomination.
“It just seemed like a lot of meetings and a lot of talk,” Wilson said.
I think the writer made a mistake like the kind GetReligion writes about. Baptist polity is congregational (they are an offshoot of Congregationalism); you can be independent, not a Southern, American etc. Baptist, and still be a Baptist.