Non-denominational churches can throw up some confusion as to the role that they play for Christians. The traditional churches such as the Roman Catholic Church and Presbyterians are familiar to the majority. This leaves many to wonder as to what role do non-denominational churches play?

In essence, non-denominational churches fill a void. They are about establishing a personal relationship with God based on the Bible without the need for the rigid structure of conventional churches getting in the way.

What Is the Concept Behind Non-Denominational Churches

A non-denominal church is a Christian body of people brought together to worship God without traditional Christian churches’ rigid structures and strictures. 

They don’t assume the authority to preach in the same way that denominational churches do. Although there are pastors or elders, depending on the individual church, they are present as guides and teachers rather than authoritarian symbols of organized religion in traditional churches.

In a non-denominal church, you will not find the Eucharist or lines of saints, and their attitude to sacraments of baptism, marriage, and death is simplified and firmly based on core Bible teachings. 

Bible Centered Beliefs

At the core of non-denominational churches are Bible-centered beliefs. As opposed to most denominal churches, the Bible stands alone as the arbiter of truth. 

The Bible forms the core of a person’s faith. It is unadulterated and needs no addendums or further explanation that denominational churches such as the Roman Catholic Church or Episcopal Churches imbue, looking to shape and restrict how it should be interpreted. 

Instead, for non-denominational churches, the Bible stands for being the actual word of God and shouldn’t have additions, interpretations, and explanations ascribed to it. Pastors or elders of these churches are merely present to guide you and point you in the right direction to enable you to use the Bible as your direct conduit to God.  

What Binds Non-Denominational Churches with Christion Fellowship

Though disparate and individual, several common facets bind these churches together in a Christian fellowship. The first of these is that Jesus Christ was the human incarnation of God on earth and that mankind was saved by the death suffered through crucifixion. And he will come again at the end of time (the second coming).

The second is an interlocutor, in the form of a priest, is not present. This in many ways, is an extension of the Bible centered beliefs at the core of non-denominational worship in that nothing should stand in the way of your direct connection to God.

Who Are Non-Denominational Churches For?

The addition of non-denominational churches to the Christian landscape has been fast, but why is this the case? Surely the original structures of Christianity serve all well enough? Reality has shown much is missing. With traditional denominational churches, many have felt that they have put their relationship with God at a distance.  

God touches us all in different ways. Inside of denominational churches, this personal nature of religion is lost. Rigid church structures can get in the way of a believer’s connection with the Lord. Non-denominal churches remove this conflict and take you one step closer to God.

Filling the Void

Friedrich Nietzsche once famously declared that ‘God is Dead’. It is a big statement and not unexpected from an avowed atheist. However,  Nietzsche’s message was a reference to how humanism had removed the need for God to exist. 

What Nietzsche and humanism couldn’t explain, in an understandable way, is how the void the removal of God had left could be filled. The effect of humanism was it essentially allowed people to become directionless. 

Many realized that the problem wasn’t with the idea of the existence of God himself but with the way society, through traditional denominational churches, was at the time directed to worship. The emergence of non-denominal churches filled this void and returned God to us.

Coming back to God

There are many people who were born into a denominational church and spent their formative years under their wings only, for one reason or another, to fall away as they experienced life. As these people grew older and events for which they struggled to find an explanation touched their lives, they looked to seek answers. 

Unfortunately, for many, the structures of the churches of their childhood are often unable to provide the answers they seek, inhibited by their rigid form of worship. Non-denominal churches provide a different avenue, make no judgments and just seek to guide you to a closer personal relationship to God from which very often the answers emerge. 

Conclusion

Non-denominational churches are about bringing you closer to God without the structures of traditional organized religion filtering or even barring your path. They sprung up out of a need to find an alternate way to access God’s grace and fill the void that humanism and modern life can create.

There are no set or rigid structures in these churches. Teaching is purely Bible-centric with Pastors and elders there to guide and teach and not to act as gatekeepers to the Lord.