Has anyone else heard the term Post-Denominational? A Lutheran pastor I met with today used the term to describe a church culture in which he sees denominations slowly dying out. They may be strong now, but the younger generations seem to be leaving and the older generations will over time no longer be around to keep the church ministry going.
As I thought about this term I realized it is probably going to become another casualty of Sociological vocabulary. It will be a title thrown around by church growth experts to understand a group of people who no longer buy into the security of structure that aligning yourself with a group of historically like-minded believers can bring. Post-denominational will probably be a term used with sadness, representative of a jaded group of Christians unwilling to trust in a historical tested faith. But I hope it could be a term to describe something with far more hope and promise. I hope it comes to define the ability to recognize that which unifies, converse about that which separates, and be loved by Jesus and love in return.
Denominational: My life experience involves multiple denominations and my experience within those denominations is that they hold to their doctrine … mostly. I grew up CBA (Conservative Baptist); Dad was the music pastor and an elder in the church. Our theological positions on Jesus, Grace, Repentance, and yielding to biblical authority were pretty strong, as unfortunately were the other tenants of living a “righteous” life: making perfect decisions (or at least looking like you did), following rules in front of people, and talking about the Spirit as little as possible.
In college, I tried a number of churches and finally landed at a large Friends church (where I later worked). Friends, as a denomination, do not doctrinally take part in worship music involving instruments nor in the sacraments (communion and baptism). Our church did, however, and you can imagine the subtle confusion one finds themselves in when representing the name of a denomination that stands for specific doctrinal statements and yet acts outside of that statement.
While working at a Southern Baptist school, (not to be confused with the American Baptists, Conservative Baptists, First Baptists, Anabaptists, Fundamental Baptists, Worldwide Baptists, Independent Baptists, etc…) I attended and later worked for an Evangelical Free Church. The E.V. Free church apparently being a loose enough denomination that some of their churches and pastors are Calvinist, while others are Arminian in their teachings on salvation and what work is God’s vs. Man’s.
Since starting Conservative Baptist, my family have all taken different paths themselves. My parents are at a Presbyterian church where my dad is again the music pastor, my mom for the last few years was the missions elder (something that would never have happened at our previous church, and to this day something she is not sure about the appropriateness biblically – relevance?). My older brother met and married a good Lutheran girl and joined the Lutheran church. They are very active with the music program and seem to have found a home that fits them well, though if you put him to it there are a few doctrinal statements he probably finds slightly uncomfortable. My little brother and his wife after spending time at a Friends church, have landed at a formerly Baptist, now relatively non-denominational church. I’m not sure how a church becomes “formerly Baptist”, but this one did.
Non-Denominational. Brooke and I have landed at a large non-denominational church that was a plant from another large church. Having planted 2 churches and 5 campuses, I would say our church is on the way of becoming a denomination unto ourselves. In fact, the term Non-denominational seems to be used to try and assure people that they are coming to a church that is rigid on the essentials and flexible on the rest. No stuffy rules, and hidden agendas, we are about loving Jesus and loving our neighbors. Ironically, the term Non-denominational seems to represent a group of churches that have no oversight over one another but are taking the same actions, saying rather similar things and in many ways hard to distinguish from one another at first glance; sort of the Non-denominational denomination.
Post Denominational. From one root, each member of my family has landed in significantly different branches within Christendom with different styles of teaching, and different teaching in general. Over my 34 years of life I have served on staff in 3 denominations and volunteered in a few more. And I find myself asking, why? Do I not have roots? Do I not have an appreciation for the role doctrine plays in making sure my lifestyle is being lived according to biblical principles? Am I “easily tossed to and fro” without a strong enough grounding to know truth and hold to it when I see it? What about my parents? Both well educated with graduate degrees, highly bright and gifted people; my dad has been at his teaching job for 36 years so he is certainly capable of a stable personality. Why did they switch churches? Were they wrong to raise us in the Baptist environment, or are they wrong now for switching to the liturgically oriented, more structured, and in some ways more liberal Presbyterian environment? Now that PCUSA has opened the denomination to homosexual clergy, will they be finding themselves moving to another denomination?
It seems that most, if not all, denominations arose in fights and squabbles within the Church. Some of these fights were significant, splitting away from a church belief that Jesus wasn’t really God, or wasn’t really man for instance. But some of these beliefs, like which way to get a believer wet with water during baptism or what instruments we will use and when we will use them for worship, seem fairly petty and insignificant.
I’m not ready to draw a right and wrong conclusion from this; I think history tends to do a good job of helping us see what is right and wrong down the way. I want to be very specific in saying that I believe theology and doctrine matter; they are the umbrella for which our belief systems are lived out. But I am just beginning to realize that maybe there are less differences among many of our denominations than our blustering, defensive postures would have us believe.
At the heart of many of these denominations I can name people who love Jesus, know that without Him they are lost and could never be found, and are attempting to live life as they best understand it from the structure they see in scripture and the movement of the Holy Spirit within them.
Post Denominational
:the hope that I can stand side by side with my brothers, argue the things that seem so clear to each of us (and obviously aren’t or we wouldn’t be arguing), and at the end of it walk away in a prayerful spirit, marveling at the vastness and mystery of God.
:the movement to love Jesus and through Him the Body which is the Church.
:the movement by which the church world wide begins in humility to unify under the banner of our God; yielding to the Father, clinging to Son, and living through the Spirit.
:the realization that far more unifies us than separates us.
I’m not sure what the right definition is, but I want it to become a definition of Hope in God being bigger than our written definitions and interpretations of Him.
