“Denominationalism” denotes a group of people devoted to a specific religious belief system who assemble under the name of a person, or concept, as their focus within a formal organizational environment governed by those of prominence that hold to that belief system. They have creeds and by-laws that equal the Bible in authority in matters pertaining to guidance for religious expression of assembly and living. To know how a “denominational group functions and exists, one must review their creeds and by-laws. Many people claim that the Bible is their prime authority, however. Denominations arc generally religious groups of many decades and even centuries old. Non-denominationalism denotes those who are not restricted to, or associated with, religious denominations and yet still assemble within a formal organizational environment governed by those of prominence that hold to their specific belief system.<\/p>\n
Non-denominational groups generally assemble under the name of a concept and they also have creeds and by-laws that equal the Bible in authority in matters pertaining to guidance for religious expression of assembly and living. To know how a “nondenominational” group functions and exists, one must review their creeds and by-laws. Many people claim that the Bible is their prime authority, however. Non-denominational churches are generally religious groups that have split from, or individuals who have previously left, a denominational group.<\/p>\n
If we are not<\/strong>\u00a0“Non-Denominational” and not <\/b>Denominational” then what are we? This question is asked often of those who watch our lives and see\u00a0something different as they try to fit us into their own known religious boxes. We are part of the church that the Lord Jesus Christ said that He Himself would build. “Jesus said ‘… I will build my church’<\/em>” (Matthew 16:16-18). We are lively stones within it (I Peter 2:5).<\/p>\n The “church of Jesus” denotes a group of people devoted to the teachings of the Bible as given by Jesus Himself for His church. We have the teachings of Jesus recorded for us in the writings of the Bible as first penned by the apostles in the first century. We gather under the name of the Lord Jesus Christ only and accept His headship over the church as our only governing authority. We have no creeds or by-laws, and follow the Bible as the only authority for Christian service. To know how such a group functions and exists, one only needs to look to the pages of the New Testament for understanding. The church of Jesus goes back to the first century as the apostles spread the words of Jesus and established the first assemblies of Christians from town-to-town by preaching from house-to-house and publicly (Acts 20:20).<\/p>\n The apostles spoke what Jesus said (Galatians 1:11-12; II Peter 3:1-2; Jude 3,17). And Jesus spoke what He heard from the Father (John 8:26-29; 12:47-50, Revelation 1:1) God said that we are to listen to His Son Jesus (Matthew 17:4-8; II Peter 1:16-18). We are to abide in the teachings of Christ (II John 9-10) and avoid those who do not follow His words (II John 11; I Timothy 6:3-5; I John 4:5-6).<\/p>\n Who are we? We are of the one body (church), one Spirit. one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God that the Bible speaks of (Ephesians 4:4-6).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Campbell Sentry Magazine, September 2001 “Denominationalism” denotes a group of people devoted to a specific religious belief system who assemble under the name of a person, or concept, as their focus within a formal organizational environment governed by those of prominence that hold to that belief system. They have creeds and by-laws that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[448,1277],"class_list":["post-32557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-church","tag-denominationalism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":68698,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-rise-of-denominationalism\/","url_meta":{"origin":32557,"position":0},"title":"The Rise of Denominationalism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andy Sochor via Unmasking Sophistry, Vol. 4, No. 3, July-September 2024 In the previous article, we discussed the Reformation Movement, which came when the Roman Catholic Church was a religiously and politically dominating force. Over the centuries, it became increasingly\u00a0corrupt until Martin Luther challenged some of the errors and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56489,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-has-spoken-but\/","url_meta":{"origin":32557,"position":1},"title":"“God Has Spoken,” But …","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 1, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dan S. Shipley via Plain Talk, Vol. 20, No. 8, Oct 1983 \"God hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son...\" (Hebrews 1:2). But men have also spoken unto us. With excellency of speech and persuasive words of wisdom, they have troubled us with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93053,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-know-you-are-in-the-right-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":32557,"position":2},"title":"How do you know you are in the right church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 6, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello there, I am getting on here as I have many questions about God, the church, salvation, and the Bible. I was baptized into Christ just over a year ago, and while I understand that Jesus built one church and when I was baptized the Lord added me to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":70114,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-restoration-movement\/","url_meta":{"origin":32557,"position":3},"title":"The Restoration Movement","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andy Sochor via\u00a0Unmasking Sophistry, Vol 4. No. 4, October-December 2024 Earlier in this series, we discussed the Reformation Movement. This movement set out to reform the Roman Catholic Church to correct the errors and abuses that had developed over the centuries. While the reformers' intentions may have been good,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25826,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-the-use-of-conservative-non-institutional-or-mainstream-to-describe-churches-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":32557,"position":4},"title":"Isn’t the use of “conservative,” “non-institutional,” or “mainstream” to describe churches wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Since the \"Church of Christ\" is the only authorized name for the church, why do some take pride in calling it the \"conservative church\" or the \"non-institutional church\"? I also hear of the \"mainstream church.\" Is this not liberalism and denominationalism? Answer: First off, \"church of Christ\" is not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57315,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/improper-sources-of-authority\/","url_meta":{"origin":32557,"position":5},"title":"Improper Sources of Authority","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Heath Rogers \"Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, \u02dcBy what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?'\" (Matthew 21:23). In \"The Proper Source of Authority\" we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32557\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}