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So-called "non-denominational" churches

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Mona Pereth
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12 Jan 2026, 11:23 am

More and more churches these days claim to be "non-denominational."

In fact they are "non-denominational" only in the sense of being organizationally independent, not having a larger governing body that they must answer to.

However, most of them still do belong to "denominations" in a broader sense of the word "denomination," i.e. organized religious movements of some kind, even though these religious movements are more loosely organized than the more traditional denominations.

See the following video:

Exposing the Denominations of Nondenominational Churches on a YouTube channel called Ready to Harvest:

Quote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtZ07UhBg7M


From the video description on YouTube:

Quote:
Does "non-denominational" mean that a church is not part of any group larger than their own congregation? Probably not. Let's look at some of these churches and the groups they belong to.


Channel description:

Quote:
Christian Denominations explained in a neutral and concise way.

Let's look into what these denominations have in statements of faith, published position papers, magazines, and websites and provide a concise, unbiased, and accurate description of the denomination that allows evaluation and comparison.

Denominations and churches tend to have certain things that they focus on, and when you want to simply find out what they believe on other areas, you have to do a lot of digging. At Ready to Harvest, we've done the digging so you can have a detailed and information-dense description of much of the most important things a denomination teaches in a clear and short video.


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Mona Pereth
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12 Jan 2026, 8:10 pm

Forgot to post the video itself:


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Texasmoneyman300
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13 Jan 2026, 3:55 pm

Ya I am non-denominational because I am Church of Christ. I think the Restorationist Movement were so some of the earliest non-denominational churches.



funeralxempire
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13 Jan 2026, 5:49 pm

Texasmoneyman300 wrote:
I think the Restorationist Movement were so some of the earliest non-denominational churches.


I agree. They're ultimately Protestant, but they like to envision themselves as recreating early Christianity and therefore find it easy to claim that they're 'true Christianity' instead of just one of many flavours of Protestant, Western Christianity.

In some ways it reminds me of neo-pagans who claim direct decent from pre-Christian paganism despite there being no actual continuity. It's kinda LARPy.


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Texasmoneyman300
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13 Jan 2026, 6:20 pm

funeralxempire wrote:
Texasmoneyman300 wrote:
I think the Restorationist Movement were so some of the earliest non-denominational churches.


I agree. They're ultimately Protestant, but they like to envision themselves as recreating early Christianity and therefore find it easy to claim that they're 'true Christianity' instead of just one of many flavours of Protestant, Western Christianity.

In some ways it reminds me of neo-pagans who claim direct decent from pre-Christian paganism despite there being no actual continuity. It's kinda LARPy.

Thanks....in fact I think the Church of Christ could maybe start to grow again if it leaned into its Non-Denominational roots and started trying to really market it somehow.



funeralxempire
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13 Jan 2026, 6:37 pm

Texasmoneyman300 wrote:
Thanks....in fact I think the Church of Christ could maybe start to grow again if it leaned into its Non-Denominational roots and started trying to really market it somehow.


I feel like any non-denominational church would eventually be limited by the sources of old schisms re-emerging. At some point the same disagreements that led to schisms within Christianity would end up being discussed again, which would inevitably lead to splits between different blocs.

The other possibility would be an increasingly superficial form of Christianity that fails to offer answers to those disagreements, and some believers leaving for churches that have taken a position on those matters.


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Texasmoneyman300
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13 Jan 2026, 6:46 pm

funeralxempire wrote:
Texasmoneyman300 wrote:
Thanks....in fact I think the Church of Christ could maybe start to grow again if it leaned into its Non-Denominational roots and started trying to really market it somehow.


I feel like any non-denominational church would eventually be limited by the sources of old schisms re-emerging. At some point the same disagreements that led to schisms within Christianity would end up being discussed again, which would inevitably lead to splits between different blocs.

The other possibility would be an increasingly superficial form of Christianity that fails to offer answers to those disagreements, and some believers leaving for churches that have taken a position on those matters.

Ya the church of Christ is one of the most fractured religious movements. Churches of Christ will split over the most ridicilous reasons. However I would say that the vast majority of those in the church of Christ are unaware of the major historical schisms in broader Christendom throughout church history.



Texasmoneyman300
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14 Jan 2026, 12:53 am

Its weird because I dreamed about that YouTube video and now there's a thread about it.



RachObi
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18 Jan 2026, 9:26 am

I am a non denominational Christian myself as see myself as a follower of Christ and as a child of God. I have not seen a non denominational church in the country I live which is UK and I live in London. I can attend any church which in the true spirit of the word of God in the Bible. I can attend any church that follows the true spirit of the teachings of the faith and have done so in my life and found that they were all fit for service.

May be some church's might want to be seen as non denominational to appeal to more people but it might be hard to find out their intent and thoughts from what you have posted as you may need to ask them their thoughts to. Me myself I have been baptised in a Catholic church and have been received and confirmed into the Anglican church, but I made it clear that I will remain as a non demontional.


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19 Jan 2026, 1:48 am

I think it's fair to say most Non-denominational churches tend to be evangelicals of the Pentecostal type. If that's what you feel provides for your spiritual needs, then great. But I can see how there's something deceptive about using the non-denominational handle, especially if that congregation draws their clergy from a governing body based on a specific theology.


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Texasmoneyman300
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19 Jan 2026, 4:40 am

Kraichgauer wrote:
I think it's fair to say most Non-denominational churches tend to be evangelicals of the Pentecostal type. If that's what you feel provides for your spiritual needs, then great. But I can see how there's something deceptive about using the non-denominational handle, especially if that congregation draws their clergy from a governing body based on a specific theology.

It seems like it would be by defintition a denomination if the clergy came from a governing body or the church had a hiearchy of some sort.