The True Cost Of Christian Denominations Going Bust
(ANALYSIS) “As an agnostic, I have spent most of my life thinking about the decline of faith in America in mostly positive terms,” writes Derek Thompson, a staff writer at the Atlantic, in a recent article.
Now he — and many others — are starting to consider what we have lost.
There is no question that Christianity is waning, but now, as Thompson observes, there are no viable alternatives for nurturing the sense of belonging and togetherness that the church offers. Despite its imperfections, the church provides a sense of community, a spiritual bond directing us to walk with one another in the love of God (John 13:35). Kind of like “a retaining wall to hold back the destabilizing pressure of American hyper-individualism.”
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Community, though, is not just about the immediate local bond, but the way that these immediate community bonds come together to form networks of institutions and organizations. Ever since the Reformation in the 16th century, Christian groups have always denominated together, uniting around various confessions and practices. Along the way they built all kinds of institutions such as social service organizations, hospitals, community centers, camps and schools.
Those who were raised in any denomination likely enjoyed the benefits of many of these formative institutions. These denominations were not sectarian in the strict sense; they built vast networks of community that reinforced social cohesion and often worked together with others for the common good. Of course there was proselytizing; that was part of program, but many good things flowed from them.
This social sense of community has declined as every major denomination is experiencing division — even if some are doing so for good reasons. Just last year, over 5,800 Methodist churches left the denomination. Other groups have experienced similar trends. In his recent book “Nonverts: The Making of Ex-Christian America,” Stephen Bullivant, a British sociologist, estimates that 41 million people have de-converted (what he calls “nonverts”) from Christian denominations, which he estimates as approximately 16 million ex-Catholics, 7.5 million ex-Baptists, two million ex-Methodists, two million ex-Lutherans, one million ex-Episcopalians and one million ex-Presbyterians, alongside others.
Among these churches, some new affiliations are forming. Those dissatisfied with their tradition often create new denominational-like structures, such as the Acts 29 network. These groups provide a semblance of community, and many services like a traditional denomination. But they struggle to maintain consistency over time, since they are only thinly held together by voluntary association, which makes leaving easy.
Another related trend is the increased presence of non-denominational churches. These churches appear to be the fastest-growing Christian communities in the country, creating a new life cycle of the church in America. (See here and here for examples). Many of these independent churches have benefited from the legacy of the traditional denominations, but now ceased any meaningful affiliation with them. No longer burdened to support the churches and parachurch organizations created by a denomination, these communities are unfettered and free to form new strategic, creative and nimble ministries. In every major city where the traditional denominations are failing, you can now find non-denominational churches planting campuses and attracting the younger generations.
There is a long history of ecclesial innovation in America and these churches are the latest iteration of what historian Nathan Hatch calls the “Democratization of American Christianity.” He argues in the book that America’s “non-restrictive environment permitted an unexpected and often explosive conjunction of evangelical fervor and popular sovereignty.”
Without an established church, different Christian groups took up residence on American soil and built extensive networks and organizations.
“The rise of evangelical Christianity in the early republic is, in some measure,” Hatch writes, “a story of the success of common people in shaping the culture after their own priorities.”
Today, these new non-denominational churches are replacing older traditional forms, creating thousands of new island churches, unconnected form any larger sense of community or social vision. Can this new generation of non-denominational churches somehow work together to form new networks that provide some measure of community? I am not so sure. Time will tell. For now, while these churches are large and well-funded, but they are not built to forge the same kind the social community forged through traditional denominations.
Some might argue that these denominational divisions were inevitable given the cultural moment. The theological and moral differences were simply too vast to maintain cohesion. That is probably true, but in the wake of these divisions it is worth considering what we have lost. We need some sense of ecclesial community — not just unity in the immediate local church — but larger networks of Christian community that bring us together.
The loss of community is not something that just affects local congregations, but affects the larger networks that produce social unity. Christianity has worked as a retaining wall to hold back the destabilizing pressure of American hyper-individualism, but that was also because Churches worked together creating the kind of religious pluralism that undergirded the social fabric of society.
We will see what happens as that fabric continues to tear.
Stephen O. Presley is senior fellow for religion and public life at the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy (crcd.net), an initiative of First Liberty Institute and associate professor of church history at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Presley is the author of a couple forthcoming books: Cultural Sanctification: engaging the world like the early church (Eerdmans) and Biblical Theology in the Life of the Early Church (Baker). Follow him on Instagram: @stopresley and X @sopresley.