The Future of Church is Post-Denominational
What that means for re-imagining ministry today
‘E-P-I-S-C-O-P-A-L’.
Yet again, I am spelling the name of my church over the phone to someone who needs my occupation. Yet again, I’m confronted by how few people have ever heard of my denomination.
‘Is that a Christian church?’, she asks.
It’s not just my church. All the major denominations are in steep decline:
American Baptist
Lutheran
Presbyterian (PCUSA)
Episcopal
United Church of Christ (UCC)
Methodist (UMC)
Assemblies of God
Southern Baptist Convention
Presbyterian Church of America
, the statistician and political scientist who says this about denominations:
I follow
If these nine denominations would have grown as fast as the population from 1990 through 2022, they would have about 53 million members today. That’s about 16% of the overall population of the country.
Instead, they have a membership of 30.8 million people. That’s a total gap of just over 21 million members that don’t exist today. Those 30.8 million folks are just 9.3% of the total population. So, just these nine denominations are just slightly more than half the size they should be if they continued to grow with America.
It’s well past time to see that we are in the midst of a major transformation.
And it’s not that people are losing their faith, or no longer practice Christianity.
It’s that how they want to practice Christianity is no longer defined by denominational difference.
If we were businesses, we would be forced to see the writing on the wall about the un-sustainability of this. Yet we keep trying to maintain nine different types of small churches in each community. We keep maintaining expensive, administration-heavy national headquarters for each separate denomination.
Denominational church is like malls in America - we are so full of nostalgia about them that we just don’t seem to understand that to the extent that they still exist, they no longer serve the same function they once did.
Shopping still exists. People still buy things - and want to buy things. But they’re not going to malls to do so.
Ryan Burge published another article that was much more optimistic about church in general:
‘Non-Denominationalism Is the Strongest Force in American Religion’.
In other words:
Church still exists. People still pray, worship, and gather - and want to be part of a faith community. But they’re not going to denominational churches to do so.
I disagree with one part of what Burge says, however.
I don’t think what we’re seeing is non-denominational.
I think it’s post-denominational.
I think we are transforming into a broader church that carries the traditions of the denominational past into a future without the same kind of organizational structure and authority.
And I think those of us who are part of denominational Christianity can live into that, instead of resisting it.
What does that mean for those of us who are part of a denominational church?
Well, I guess we could all just shut our doors and move on. Or we could all try to merge together … but that would be a disaster, of course.
At the same time, no one likes being in this anxious, stuck-feeling place - constantly resisting this transformation, or living in denial as denominational structure continues to collapse.
It also seems foolish - and wasteful of our calling to share Good News - to keep functioning in the same ways that are causing our deep decline.
I asked my AI assistant to give me a description of a ‘stuck’ organization:
Excessive Layers of Management
Decision-Making Bottlenecks
High Costs, Low Efficiency
Lack of Innovation and Adaptability
Stagnant Growth
After 30 years serving the denominational church, I think this is a pretty good description of where we are at, at a denominational level.
It’s hard - perhaps impossible - to break out of these kinds of ruts. We want to make changes, but we are not really changing. It’s institutional gridlock.
This is why I’m so interested in systematic change.
It’s not about doing things, so much as observing how things are changing, and re-setting our vision.
It’s about living into a different story.
Which can then give us freedom to change how we respond to the new landscape.
The trick: we’re not in charge. We’re not the ones making the changes. The landscape is not one we’ve cultivated. Instead, we’re the ones adapting.
And if we choose to adapt to a post-denominational world, there’s much more good news for the whole church.
How to adapt to a Post-Denominational Church
We live in an era when people are hungry for spiritual growth - for connection with God - and also wary of traditional church structure.
We live in a time where Christianity is on the rise again.
As the landscape changes around us, we can adapt to a post-denominational world by emphasizing faith practice and discipleship, and infusing it with denominational gifts and traditions. And by going easy on the bureaucracy.
Here’s how.
Don’t start at the top.
Trying to intentionally merge or re-organize denominations, dioceses, or conferences is not going to work. Institutions are made to be stable. They’re made to resist change. This is a good thing!
Except when systematic change makes it into a ‘change or die’ scenario.
Still, the best thing that institutions can do is to not squash innovation.
This doesn’t sound like ‘doing’ something, but adaptive change comes from going against the grain. If mainline denominational authorities (bishops, conferences, presbyteries, dioceses…) simply work hard not to say ‘no’ or shut down new expressions of Christian ministry in their midst, that would be a great gift.
It can be scary to do things that are ‘not like we’ve always done it’. New initiatives may fail. Actually, no ‘may’ about it - most will fail. This is good! You get to learn what does work. You get to define what ‘working’ means.
Don’t start with worship.
I’ve always been uneasy with the word ‘ecumenical’. It feels like compromise to me (another word I don’t really like…). It feels like some kind of middle ground of various traditions that ends up not meaning much to anyone.
Worship is the heart of our relationship with God, and each denomination and tradition is deeply important to those who find meaning there.
When we think about a post-denominational church, it doesn’t have to start with our most distinctive feature!
Instead, we can focus on the breadth of the Christian tradition that applies to all of us: formation, discipleship, service, Bible study.
There are so many ways to share our faith that are held in common. If we start there, we’ll find it much easier, and we’ll find the ways the post-denominational tradition is starting to be something distinct and new.
Focus on faith practice.
People want to know God. They want to follow Jesus. They want to know how to be Christian. They want to live transformed lives of greater peace, love, meaning, and joy.
Each denomination has unique ways of sharing the Christian tradition, and a particular emphasis that the community has carried for decades, or centuries.
My own tradition - the Episcopal Church - has the most beautiful liturgy, and an emphasis on sacraments that is being re-discovered by many today.
We have an opportunity to share the best of denominational tradition - beyond our denomination.
I’m fond of saying that instead of trying to bring people to church - and in particular, bring people into our particular kind of church (Methodist, Presbyterian, etc.), we can instead bring church to people.
We can focus on how we offer what makes our own tradition a beautiful expression of Christianity, and how we share that with others beyond church walls.
Re-imagine membership.
Sharing the faith in new ways also means thinking in new ways about who is a member of our church.
Long gone are the days when someone is born, lives and dies as part of the same church community. Or even the days when someone worships and participates with only one congregation!
Membership does not have to be a static, permanent thing. “Losing” or ‘gaining’ members does not have to feel like a win or loss.
We can cultivate multiple ways for people to be connected with our community, and encourage them to have connections with different congregations.
This can mean digital membership in many different ways. It can mean a person in a small town goes to worship at one church, has Bible study with another, and Wednesday potluck with a third. And is a member of them all!
Post-denominational church does not have to be the death of denominations. It can be the transformation of our gifts into ways to share our tradition with new generations.
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You are quite right. we are in a post denominational time right now. Yes the labels like Episcopal, Lutheran, etc remain. But the actual communities we belong to have folks from all sorts of church backgrounds, or none! I stopped believing in official church programs for growth or innovation long ago. I think we trust those we know well. We find what works for is, in Salisbury or Borrego Springs or Danbury. Yes we are smaller but those who study the church landscape tell us that's ok. I also don't believe in chucking out everything traditional. Rather, we are better when we hold on to what works and what is meaningful for us. I wish there were more purges of the top heavy bureaucracy, the rules, the layers of administrative people who know better than we do, so they think! Communities that want to be together, to pray, eat, do good works of love--they are the foundation now and going forward.
I think - not sure but think - the replacement of denominationalism would be a “movement”. A movement that is based less on organization but perspective, ethos, and lifestyle based on that ethos. I think of Buddhism for an example- hundreds of millions of people follow the Buddha, and different branches manifest Buddhism in their own ways, but it doesn’t seem to have the rigid structures and quasi-empire building of Christianity. It has always struck me as a movement than a religious organization.