Non Denominational and Community Churches

[Izdaari]

I was very much involved in the “planting” of these churches growing up. And it’s very much what another poster said, they start out with a pastor who has a passion for spreading the gospel and they’d meet in small groups until they raise enough funds to find a place to meet (i.e. movie theater). They can also get financial help from Baptist, Methodist, Missionary Alliance headquarters, whatever they spring from, but they take the denomination out and replace it with “community church” to sound more appealing to people who have had bad past experiences with church.
There was actually one man that started meetings and called it “Beer and Bible study” because he worked at a bar trying to get through college and wanted to minister to his co-workers.
These pastors want to introduce church to people who hated going to church in the past. They have sayings like “come as you are”, and “culturally relevant messages”. It’s very casual and they mostly use secular media to attract people to come and then put a feel good, gospel message to it. They rarely had communion, and if they did, it would be on a Wednesday night service, because Sunday mornings were reserved for “seekers” and they didn’t want to make them uncomfortable. You would rarely see an alter.
I could go on all day, but I think the turning point with my family leaving this type of church was when some of these pastors would push the envelope in their messages and they began to sound vulgar and disrespectful. I distinctly remember them announcing one Sunday that the service was “going to be PG-13, so please take your kids to the nursery, youth classes”
I very much like that my children sit with me during mass now, and I don’t have to be on the edge of my seat, afraid of hearing something offensive NOT ALL COMMUNITY CHURCHES DO THIS I’M SURE, but this was my experience.

Not all Community Churches are new plants. Many are established churches, whether affiliated with a denomination or not, that have had a name change. That’s the case with my AG church, which has been there at least 50 years, but probably has been called “________ Community Church” for only the last 10.

 

[Faith1960]

Dig around the web site of a community church near my home and you will find that it is Baptist. Another nearby community church has a note on its web site that it is Methodist. The term means whatever the organizers choose.

Most in my area seem to be what I see as churches high on multi-media and low on creeds. At least two in my area have advertisements that make them appear like rock music clubs with religious themes. Rock bands, purple tint to the advertisements, come-as-you-are, and statements about not being your parents’ church seem to be common in advertisements.

I certainly can see why this might appeal to younger people, seeking a place to belong and express their faith. It probably would have been the type of church setting I’d have gravitated to when I was younger, had I known about them.