:So would it be fair to say that many or most non-denominational Christian churches are fundamentalist and/or evangelical in their beliefs?:
They are mostly evangelical/fundamentalist. You do find nondenominational liberal churches as well, but they are usually affiliated with several denominations at once rather than with none! (American Baptist and UCC, for instance.)
However, leaving such churches aside, non-denominational churches cover the spectrum from moderate evangelical (Chapel Hill Bible Church in North Carolina, for instance) to ultra-fundamentalist. One certainly can’t characterize them as “more conservative than Baptists,” in part because Baptists really cover the spectrum, from extremely liberal (don’t believe in the divinity or bodily resurrection of Jesus, support homosexuality, etc.) to hyper-conservative (King James only, Catholics are not Christians, women can’t talk in church, interracial marriage is a sin, etc.). The ultra-fundamentalist Baptists do tend to be “independent,” so they would count as non-denominational. And this is the catch. “Non-denominational” may mean “not clearly associated with one particular Protestant tradition,” or it may simply mean “not a member of a denomination.” In the latter case, there are many Baptist, Pentecostal, and Holiness churches that are non-denominational. What Catholics sometimes find hard to understand is that Baptists, Pentecostals, etc., are not denominations. They are traditions that have a number of denominations and independent churches within them. Also, this gets fuzzy because many independent/nondenominational churches are part of some kind of loose association of churches. When this starts becoming a “denomination” is hard to define. Catholics often sneer at claims of Protestant groups not to be a “denomination,” and sometimes these claims are obviously self-deceiving. But many groups that claim not to be a denomination (the “Independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ,” for instance) do lack some of the things that would characterize, say, the United Methodists (perhaps the most “denominational” of all denominations!). They refuse to build up a denominational bureaucracy, for instance, and the property of each local church clearly belongs to the local congregation and not to the larger group. They don’t even have a mechanism for kicking a local church out of the group, although if enough of the other churches refused to have fellowship with a local church it would effectively be out.
In other words, the definition of “nondenominational” is itself fluid. It’s hard to make generalizations about nondenominational Protestants, and that’s part of their goal–they are trying very hard (though in your view and mine this is misguided and naive) to shed “human traditions” and denominational identities and frustrate the people (like me) who want to put everyone in a neatly defined category. To a great extent you just have to take churches like that as you find them. But you can usually expect them to be very evangelical, and if they are large and bustling with contemporary worship you can usually expect them to be fairly moderate and non-dogmatic (more interested in your “personal relationship with Jesus” than in what doctrines you subscribe to–although of course this focus on a “personal relationship with Jesus” is a dogma of its own and can lead to its own kind of bigotry). If they are small and meet in a storefront or a little white church by the side of the road, then they are more likely to be ultra-fundamentalist. But usually such churches will have a sign out front that says something like "Independent Fundamentalist Bible-Believing King-James-Only . . . . " They aren’t interested in hiding their colors.
In Christ,
Edwin
Matt16_18:
I think these people are for the most part as you say honest and sincere about the DESIRE to want to follow Christ. But if they were sincere in actually wanting to follow Him, they would know exactly where to go, meaning those who have come before them. Whether they beleive it is a Catholic church, Baptist, or other Protestant sect. Thsoe who choose to “go it alone” I think may desire to want to follow Christ, but still have a pride issue of commiting to this desire. Therefore, they want to choose and decide what it means to follow Christ as it suits their own particular agenda.
