Hi guys,
I have a protestant room mate and sometimes we discuss the differences that we know of between being catholic and being protestant. The other day, somehow we got to talking about members leaving one denomination for another.
I told her that as far as I knew, unless someone disagrees with the teachings of the catholic church, people don’t leave the church for a protestant denomination.
She said that it is generally acceptable for protestants to change denominations, as long as they are going to a christian church.
I was wondering if this is true and what others opinions are on this.
Thanks!
Yes, this is true. In America, anyway. With the exception of certain mainline denominations that have tradition unique to them, a typical Protestant attends church within a 15 minute drive of a half-dozen other Protestant churches that are identical in doctrine and nearly identical in praxis. With few exceptions, the relationship between these churches will be entirely fraternal and non-sectarian, even though they aren’t united under one hierarchy. Odds are pretty good that some of the people on different pastoral staffs will get together on a regular basis for Bible study and discussion of pastor-type things. That’s how it works in my area, anyway.
Protestants can and will leave a congregation for a wide variety of reasons. At my church, the most recent example of a family that left had to do with the dress code for ushers. They were required to wear ties at the time, and one man didn’t agree with this because ties bother his neck for some reason. It became more of a disagreement than it really had to be, so the family now attends a Free church instead of a Bible church. (It’s about 5 minutes away). I see them every once in awhile because I do some things at that church, too. Last summer, I was able to tell the man…“You know what we did at church last Sunday? You’ll like this. We worked out a dress code for ushers that’s a lot more dressed down. No more ties!” It’s nice that we’re able to joke about it now, but we both know it wasn’t about the ties. It was about how the leadership handled the whole thing. Feelings get hurt, people leave. That’s how it works. It’s good in a way, because there’s a very low threshhold of tolerance for that kind of thing. People in leadership know that improper exercise of authority will immediately lead to negative consequences, and there’s some churches that could certainly benefit from that. (Hey, you don’t ever think it’s a problem until it happens to you. Then you’re stuck and you wish there was something you could do about it). It’s also bad in a way, because people get up and leave for any reason or no reason at all. That’s not necessarily healthy for an individual church. I do think it tends to be healthy overall, though, on the basis of the principle that “competition is good.” Overall, I think it’s a healthy thing for Protestantism, though it can be a little excessive at times.
I wish they were still around, though. I let them know that every once in awhile, but we all know how it is- I’m not really a factor that’s in play, I’m not the reason they left, we both know they don’t have to attend with a particular congregation or belong to a certain denomination, and it’s not like they
need to be around me. I just
want them to be around more because I like them. I’m glad I still get to see them sometimes, though. And I’m glad they’re at a good church. I like their pastor. A lot of people at both churches have gotten to know each other reasonably well.
Before that, the last time some people went to a different congregation was when a few of the young adults went to a different congregation of a larger church. Still a Bible church, and still affiliated with the same non-denom organization. Just a different congregation. They wanted to be part of an age-specific ministry that our church wasn’t able to get them involved in, so their parents and a few other relatives still go to our church, but they’re attending at the other congregation (about 10-15 minutes away) and getting more involved there than they were here. I know quite a few people there, too, but about half of the people I know either used to attend yet another church that I was involved with more directly or I got to know them outside of church.
When you see all the different Protestant pastors and ministers out there, you probably shouldn’t assume that they all hate each other and disagree on key doctrinal issues. You should assume that they’d be open to meeting with one another regularly (which they just might actually do) and that they can’t bear any animosity toward members of other churches because there’s a decent chance that they’ll wind up in their own congregations. And usually, the only thing they’ll have to do in order to get there is drive there. If they want to be members of any Protestant church in the area, major doctrinal issues will be idential. When it comes down to actually signing off on something, points of discussion usually involve how specific they get with eschatology or the exact verbage they use with spiritual gifts. You know- the kind of things the CC doesn’t come close to being that specific on.
It’s probably best to think of these pastors as independent contractors, all working for God and more or less affiliated with different kinds of church structure and governance. Most of them aren’t really going to care exactly what that looks like, either, as long as the doctrine is acceptable and the praxis doesn’t get too crazy.
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