What Kind Of Church Is This?

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Angel_Gabriel said:
Yep, I see that a lot where I live. These churches meet in office buildings or rent space from another church.
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For a short time, the local Muslim congregation rented space from the reform synagogue! (the mosque sustained extensive flood damage and needed a space during repairs).
 
edtaylor51 said:
For a short time, the local Muslim congregation rented space from the reform synagogue!
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Here in Pittsburgh, after a baptist church burned , they met at a local SDA building. Good synergy there as SDA’s meet on Saturday.
 
<<<<<<<Education, Experience, Skills and Abilities
  • Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited institution
  • Minimum 7 years of worship experience, 3-5 years in a supervisory role>>>>>>>
<<<<<< Education

A bachelor’s degree in Bible, Ministry or Theology from an accredited institution or further theological training is preferred for the knowledgeability of a candidate, but it is not required.

Experience
  • The candidate must be tried and proven in ministry (at least five years in the local church).
  • The candidate must demonstrate leadership, have a passion for small groups and be a team player.>>>>>>>
These were online for an opening they used to have for a pastor job openings.
 
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It was mocking and condescending, and basically called me an idiot. She has no clue what I do or do not know. It was a thinly veiled personal attack.
 
No, I haven’t left the Catholic Church. I’ve just been intrigued with this other church, though, the more I’m learning about them the more I’m appreciating what we have in our Church.

Also, if I’d leave I know I would miss the Eucharist, Mary, the other saints, the rosary and Confession.
 
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I didn’t see it that way and I really doubt she was trying to do that.
 
TheLittleLady said:
It gets confusing when there are three distinct denominations, two of whom reject the term denomination, with different sets of beliefs!!
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Obviously I’m most familiar with the non-piano crowd here in the rural south In my area pretty much all the coC are non-piano/music. I call them the hardline coC because they take a hard line on coC beliefs being necessary to be a true Christian. I’ve listened to many sermons where the preacher rails against the baptist and methodist and that they will not make it into heaven because they don’t have the correct teachings about baptism, the Lord’s Supper, music in the Church and so forth. The really hard line coC also didn’t allow women to wear shorts or short skirts and many wouldn’t allow food in the church building and didn’t have fellowship halls. Women weren’t allowed to teach classes with men present (only other women and children) and women could not pray in mixed company, lead singing, or speak from the pulpit.

They wouldn’t sing “Holy, Holy, Holy” and took it out of the hymnal (or bought hymnals without it) and they wouldn’t sing “Amazing Grace” and instead changed the words to “Amazing Love”.

Back about 15 years ago I was living in Tennessee and a group started a coC that was not “hard line”. I call them Max Lucado coC’s. Eventually that started a service with instrumental music but kept an acapella service as well. They aren’t as dogmatic as the hard line coC’s and participated in local ministries groups with the Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostals and Presbyterians.
 
Hope1960 said:
In churches that believe in Baptism by immersion, which this one does, do most of them recognize a Catholic converts infant Baptism? Or do they generally require the member to be Baptised again?

As far as singing acpaella, thischurch plays and sings modern Christian pop/rock songs.
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Most credo-baptist will not accept infant baptism or any baptism that isn’t immersion. They consider any baptism that was not preceded by a profession of faith of some sort as not really a baptism. And that any baptism that is not immersion to not be a baptism because the form differs from the New Testament model and form.
 
Also, I never attended a service at this church either, just went there for Celebrate Recovery.
 
Hope1960 said:
Are non-denominational churches created that way? By just some person or people who started their own church, sort of like they just made it up?
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They don’t make it up. Many non-denominational churches were begun by pastors who typically came from non-hierarchical traditions, such as Baptist, Pentecostal, etc. The Churches of Christ/Christian Churches would be included in this. These denominations already place a lot of power at the local level, and so it is natural for people within these traditions to be less concerned with issues of hierarchy and institutional authority. You don’t have to have denominational backing to establish a new congregation.

Another factor are denominational churches deciding to leave their denominations. My non-denominational church was founded by the Pentecostal Church of God denomination. Sometime afterward, the church voted to leave that denomination because of disagreements with the denominational leadership. The theology didn’t really change.

Non-denominational churches will for the most part continue in the theological tradition they branched off from but will tend to downplay any distinctiveness in favor of cultivating a “generic evangelicalism” that they hope will be more attractive to people.
 
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They don’t claim a specific denomination in order to draw in a wider variety of people. That’s the way the large non-denominational are in my area anyway. Many have multiple “campuses” as well. They have a very soft/shallow theology, you go and can drink your coffee while hearing a good concert and then hear a feel-good message. These places would recognize a catholic baptism. Coming from the Catholic Church you probably wouldn’t feel spiritually fed, though.
 
Gingersnaps4 said:
They don’t claim a specific denomination in order to draw in a wider variety of people. That’s the way the large non-denominational are in my area anyway. Many have multiple “campuses” as well. They have a very soft/shallow theology, you go and can drink your coffee while hearing a good concert and then hear a feel-good message. These places would recognize a catholic baptism. Coming from the Catholic Church you probably wouldn’t feel spiritually fed, though.
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We have some non denominational churches with multiple campuses, too, though not the one I’ve been talking about. The two things that piqued my interest in the one I’ve been talking about is their awesome music and sermons that I assume could be described as “feel good”. Then again, those sermons are as long as an entire Catholic Mass and I can’t listen to anyone drone on that long. I don’t even have the patience to watch videos of their sermons or listen to their audio of them online, in the comfort of my own home.
 
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Hope1960 said:
So, after these people graduate from Johnson Bible College, they can just go and start their own churches?
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Johnson Bible College is part of the NOACC (my grandparents met each other at JBC). When one graduates there, they are “ordained” and approved to be a minister in Independent Christian Churches/Independent Churches of Christ. They are politically ultra conservative.

That person could, of course, leave the “brotherhood” and found their own non-denominational church. This usually happens when someone disagrees with a core/foundational doctrine of the CCs or they are fired and don’t have a good reference to be hired elsewhere.

My own father left the brotherhood when he became involved in the Charismatic Movement. Decades later, he left Charismaticism to return to his home in the ICoC/ICC.

In my teen years, the Charismatic years, we were members of an Assembly of God. That particular congregation’s pastor had a disagreement with Springfield (the head of the A/G denomination) and became non denom.

Literally anyone can get ordained on line and rent a building and start a “non-denominational” church.
 
Hope1960 said:
. I’m trying to find out just how this church began
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The original Restorationist/Stone Campbellites broke into three groups.

One is the Disciples of Christ.

Their website gives a brief history A Brief History of the Stone-Campbell Tradition | Disciples History

When I was in PA once for work, we were walking to a restaurant somewhere around Pittsburgh (likely a suburb) and there was a historical marker for a place that was considered the birthplace of the movement.
 
lanman87 said:
I call them Max Lucado coC’s. Eventually that started a service with instrumental music but kept an acapella service as well.
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I laughed out loud!

My dad can remember being asked to sing at a wedding in a non-instrumental CoC. They loaded an organ onto a flatbed truck, drove it up next to the church building and opened the windows!

The non-instrumental group does tend to have more hard core belief.
 
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