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Church of Broken Pieces (est. 1982) in Minersville, Pennsylvania, is a nondenominational church.

Nondenominational (or non-denominational) Christianity consists of churches which typically distance themselves from the confessionalism or creedalism of other Christian communities^[1] by calling themselves nondenominational. Often founded by individual pastors, they have little affiliation with historic denominations, but typically adhere to evangelical Protestantism.^[2][3][4]

There is no identifiable standard among such congregations. Nondenominational church congregations may establish a functional denomination by means of mutual recognition of or accountability to other congregations and leaders with commonly held doctrine, policy, and worship without formalizing external direction or oversight in such matters. Some nondenominational churches explicitly reject the idea of a formalized denominational structure as a matter of principle, holding that each congregation is better off being autonomous. This is a main feature of the congregational polity.

Many of the nondenominational churches trace their origins back to the United States. Their history is often associated with American Protestantism, even though nondenominationals emphasize their Christian identity above all others. A 2012 Gallup survey reported that 10 percent of U.S. adults identify as non-specific Christian.^[5] According to 2014 data, nondenominational Protestants are the second largest group in American Protestantism after Baptists and ahead of Methodists and Pentecostals, at 6.2% of the U.S. population.^[6]

Nondenominational churches have grown significantly in the 20th century, and continue to in the 21st. Worldwide, nondenominationals constitute a substantial share of Protestants.^[7][8]

History

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According to James Walker:

The visible churches, in the idea of the Scottish theologians, is Catholic. You have not an indefinite number of Parochial, or Congregational, or National churches, constituting, as it were, so many ecclesiastical individualities, but one great spiritual republic, of which these various organizations form a part. The visible church is not a genus, so to speak, with so many species under it. It is thus you may think of the State, but the visible church is a totum integrale, it is an empire. The churches of the various nationalities constitute the provinces of this empire; and though they are so far independent of each other, yet they are so one, that membership in one is membership in all, and separation from one is separation from all... This conception of the church, of which, in at least some aspects, we have practically so much lost sight, had a firm hold of the Scottish theologians of the seventeenth century.^[9]

In some countries^[which?] where the Protestant Reformation took place, the founders claimed that the result was not a new denomination but a reformation of a supposedly pre-existing "national church".^{[citation needed]}

Denominationalism was accelerated in the aftermath of the Westminster Assembly convened by the English Parliament to formulate a form of religion for the national churches of England and Scotland. In the debate between the two main parties present at the Assembly, the Presbyterians and the Independents, the Presbyterians were in favour of a form of church government that maintained the visible organizational unity of the Catholic Church while Independents, weary of the ecclesiastical tyranny they experienced under the Episcopal system, wished to organize the churches in a congregational way envisioning no legitimate authority of the church above the local congregation meeting at one time in a single place.^{[citation needed]} These two parties were not reconciled and following the Assembly the Independents formed their own independent church. Thus, instead of a united expression of the Catholic Church in England, there were now two churches.

Criticism

Boston University religion scholar Stephen Prothero argues that nondenominationalism hides the fundamental theological and spiritual issues that initially drove the division of Christianity into denominations behind a veneer of "Christian unity". He argues that nondenominationalism encourages a descent of Christianity—and indeed, all religions—into comfortable "general moralism" rather than being a focus for facing the complexities of churchgoers' culture and spirituality. Prothero further argues that it also encourages ignorance of the Scriptures, lowering the overall religious literacy while increasing the potential for inter-religious misunderstandings and conflict.^[10]

See also

• Plymouth Brethren


• Protestantism in the United States


• History of Protestantism in the United States


• Community Church movement


• Jesuism


• Non-church movement


• Non-denominational Muslim


• Non-denominational Judaism


• Postdenominationalism


• Sunday Christian

References

External links

• Nondenominational Congregations Study