The growth of non-denominational churches

Thom Rainer is a well-respected Christian author who produces valuable resources for the church. In a recent post of his that I read he addresses the growth of non-denominational churches. He points out that many of our denominations are seeing a significant decline in membership and attendance. For instance, the United Methodist Church has seen their membership decline from 3 million to 2 million with expected further decline as more churches leave the denomination. The Southern Baptist Convention had 16.2 million members in their churches in 2006, and that number fell to 13.2 million in 2022. Furthermore, the SBC saw a nearly 40 percent decline in attendance in those 13 years. These are significant decreases in two of our largest denominations.

At the same time, he notes that 13 percent of American adults now attend non-denominational churches which is more than the SBC and UMC combined. I might add that the national media seldom reports on this growth among non-denominational churches but often reports on the decline experienced by the denominational churches. Rainer offers five thoughts on why he believes the non-denominational churches are growing.

1. They tend to be more evangelistic. In general, they tend to see their purpose to be reaching their communities for Jesus Christ, and their efforts are directed to that end.
2. They invest more money in local evangelism. While most of the churches I served as a judicatory minister said they wanted to grow, their budget was primarily directed toward their current membership. Non-denominational churches tend to budget more money for outreach.
3. They spend less time on conflict issues. When you are focused on doing positive things you have less time to fight over minor details.
4. They have no baggage associated with a denominational label. Like Rainer, I think this has been over-emphasized. While many people today do not choose a church based on its denominational affiliation, I do not believe most reject a church for that same reason. Still, there may be some people who will reject a church due to its denominational affiliation.
5.  It is a proven fact that newer churches tend to grow faster, and many non-denominational churches are newer. I read recently elsewhere that this tends to end when the church reaches eleven years of age. At that point, the church is likely to become more structured and begins to lose its initial emphasis on evangelism. That will be something interesting to study further.

I tend to think there is another reason Rainer doesn't mention, and that is the way these churches are structured. In many denominational churches it can be very difficult to do anything new. Committees and boards often study new proposals for months before presenting them to the congregation for approval only to see them turned down by a handful of people who show up for a business meeting who haven't spent 10 minutes studying the proposal. In the newer, non-denominational churches the structure is often much leaner. They trust their leadership to lead, and these individuals make most of the decisions for the church in much less time.

Denominational churches serious about wanting to grow need to compare their church to what Rainer has identified as elements of growing churches. As I've written many times in this blog, your structure is perfectly designed for the results you are getting.