by Doy Moyer<\/p>\n
Denominationalism today is not just about one particular doctrine but a mindset that relates to how we think about the Lord’s body. Denominational thinking perceives the church (universal) as comprised of an interconnected web of congregations instead of seeing the church as comprised of individual Christians without respect to time or location. Christians today are in the same body as Paul and Peter. They are “the assembly<\/em> (church) of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven<\/em>” (Hebrews 12:12).<\/p>\n Local churches are also comprised of individual Christians, and each congregation exists as a lampstand accountable to the Lord. Within each group, there may be those who are doing right and those who are doing wrong, as Revelation 2-3 demonstrates. In other words, having your name on a local church directory does not guarantee your salvation, and a congregation listed in a directory somewhere is no guarantee that the lampstand won’t be removed.<\/p>\n But to critique denominationalism and then turn around and argue as if the church is made up of a bunch of similar congregations is to betray the concept. Each congregation should be scripturally evaluated on its own terms, and each Christian should seek to bear the fruit of the Spirit. Yet, to expect to find a flawless congregation is naive. As many problems as Corinth had, they were still called the “church of God that is in Corinth<\/em>” (I Corinthians 1:2). That didn’t mean they could be satisfied with the problems, and they were given instructions to correct them, but the Lord is patient and gives time to repent. Be patient, be zealous, and seek the welfare of God’s people everywhere.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Doy Moyer Denominationalism today is not just about one particular doctrine but a mindset that relates to how we think about the Lord’s body. Denominational thinking perceives the church (universal) as comprised of an interconnected web of congregations instead of seeing the church as comprised of individual Christians without respect to time or location.…<\/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-67187","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":29780,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/identifying-a-new-testament-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":67187,"position":0},"title":"Identifying a New Testament Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 8, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steve Dewhirst Sentry Magazine, December 2002 Traditionally, we gospel preachers have spoken of \"identifying the New Testament church\" in an effort to distinguish it from the sects roundabout. But in so doing, we have sometimes obscured the true nature of the body of Christ. We begin to preach about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Magnifying_glass_with_focus_on_paper-300x169.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17510,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/denominationalism-is-unnecessary\/","url_meta":{"origin":67187,"position":1},"title":"Denominationalism Is Unnecessary","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Larry Ray Hafley Religious denominationalism in general and Catholicism and Protestantism, in particular, are unnecessary institutions. First,\u00a0if they were essential, they would be found in the Bible. Christ would have spoken of them and told us how to sustain and support them. That he did none of those things\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":29355,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/denominationalizing-the-work-of-the-lord\/","url_meta":{"origin":67187,"position":2},"title":"Denominationalizing the Work of the Lord","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jerry F. Bassett Sentry Magazine, March 2003 To denominate is \"to give a name to: designate,\" according to Miriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. This same source defines a religious denomination as \"a religious organization uniting local congregations in a single legal and administrative body -- denominational\" being the adjectival form\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":55224,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/three-reasons-i-dont-like-denominations\/","url_meta":{"origin":67187,"position":3},"title":"Three Reasons I Don\u2019t Like Denominations","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 18, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wes McAdams Radically Christian Mahatma Gandhi is quoted as saying, \"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.\" If you ask me, I'd say, \"I love Christ (and I love you), but I do not like your denominations. Your denominations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/division-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":92240,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/loose-cannons\/","url_meta":{"origin":67187,"position":4},"title":"Loose Cannons","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kevin Cauley Reading the news today, I came across an article about one of the presidential candidates, in which one of his former military commanders said he was a \"loose cannon.\" Just the other day, one of our members was telling me about a man who claimed to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/cannon-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":33097,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-cant-all-the-elders-in-a-city-get-together-to-direct-all-the-churches-in-the-city\/","url_meta":{"origin":67187,"position":5},"title":"Why can’t all the elders in a city get together to direct all the churches in the city?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: First, I would like to say thank you for posting your informative studies. I currently attend a church that has dissolved the eldership and has been operating without elders. After reading Keith Sharp's article on Autonomy I still have a question about elders. Our biblical example is one church\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67187","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=67187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}