Non-denominational churches

Formed

At no single date

Family

Non-denominational

Region

United States; worldwide

Cause tags

Governance

Also known as

Nondenominational; Independent churches; Bible churches (some); Community churches (some)

Non-denominational churches share no confession or governing body, so no statement speaks for them all. A 2020 survey found the picture "quite similar" to congregations in conservative Protestant Evangelical denominations, and that many (75%) were connected to loose networks, fellowships or associations.

• Church government. They "did not claim a singular connection with a formal denomination". Each church decides for itself, and the report says what counts as a denomination "can be a gray area". (S. Thumma, A Report on the 2010 National Profile of U.S. Nondenominational and Independent Churches (Hartford Institute), p. 2)

Not gathered on divine ground.

No single date. These churches have no common founding. In a 2020 survey, 88% said they were founded as nondenominational and 12% had left a denomination, over 80% of those since 1980.

What marks them is that "they did not claim a singular connection with a formal denomination". Leaving a denomination's name is not the same as gathering on the ground of the one body. This is independency. Huebner writes of the assembly at Jerusalem: "There were no independent assemblies in Jerusalem no matter how many meeting places there were." A church may refuse every denominational label and still gather on its own government, its own leader or its own statement of faith.

“All local assemblies which are not gathered on the recognition of the whole body of Christ can only be sectarian.”

Sources: S. Thumma, A Report on the 2010 National Profile of U.S. Nondenominational and Independent Churches (Hartford Institute), p. 2; S. Thumma, A Report on the 2020 Faith Communities Today Study of U.S. Nondenominational and Independent Churches (Hartford Institute), p. 3; R. A. Huebner, Practicing the Truth that "There is One Body" in View of Division (PTP), p. 29.

This verdict concerns the ground of gathering, not the salvation of any individual. Whoever truly believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is a member of the one body, wherever they gather; ‘[The] Lord knows those that are his’ (2 Timothy 2:19).

These churches have no member bodies to show. See the Southern Baptist Convention for a typical Sunday in a conservative Protestant denomination, the group a 2020 survey found them most like.

• U.S. Religion Census 2020
• Hartford Institute for Religion Research, 2010 and 2020 reports on nondenominational churches