ditching denominations

My local paper, which is usually as informative about current events as the back of a cereal box, ran an article this past weekend about the huge number of Americans leaving the major Protestant “brands” for nondenominational alternatives.

As is customary with The Tennessean, this is not really news, at least to those of us in the church. But I’m interested in your thoughts.


Do you agree with Pete Wilson—are there no longer any advantages to being part of a bigger group?

Or are we just replacing the traditional denominations with newer ones along newer lines—church planting networks, for instance, or regional alliances?


Does size of church matter—is it easier for bigger, richer churches to do their own thing?

What about the sort-of denominations that grow up around some of these bigger churches, like the Willow Creek Association?

What do we do with legitimate doctrinal differences? How alike do we have to be before we work together to plant a church or start a ministry?

And what does this mean for the independent Christian churches and our nondenominational denomination? More church leaders than ever before might be open to our emphasis on the simple New Testament church. Should we broaden our definitions of who’s in and who’s out—and would anyone like to comment on the irony of needing to?

in the enews—monday

I’ve mentioned I receive a ton of church newsletters, both online and through the mail, to help me find good stories for Buzz and the weekly Christian Standard enews. (Are you subscribing to the inexpensive print magazine, the free e-zine, or both? Why not? Click here.)

And I’ve mentioned that most of these newsletters share a lot of similar news; the room number for the 101 class and the date of the community service day may vary, but it’s a lot of the same. However, some interesting stuff has come my way lately, so this week we’ll do something different—each day I’ll feature an excerpt or link to a church with some news worth sharing.

We start with Eastside Christian Church in California. Gene Appel moved from Willow Creek to become senior pastor at Eastside last year, and this week his “Gene to the Core” enews announced the hire of Jill Gille as Eastside’s new “Executive Director of Weekend Experiences.” Jill also hails from Willow, having spent ten years there as the Executive Production Manager.

“She will be overseeing and coordinating the efforts of the majority of our on-campus weekend ministries including children’s ministries, student ministries, guest services, worship arts, production, and communications,” Appel writes. “Her vision is to create a conducive environment for all people and all ages to experience the transforming power of God wherever they are at on their spiritual journey in an environment of excellence in worship, teaching, personal interaction, website and printed pieces.”

Wow—that is a MAJOR role, and probably a major change for Gille after working with, as Appel notes, a staff of 30 and several hundred volunteers at Willow. Actually, it’s probably an even bigger change for the current Eastside staff. Here’s to grace abounding among all.

Paul Williams’ column this week, also about Appel and his time at Willow Creek, is also quite interesting. You can read it here……although you’d already know that if you subscribed.