If I Were Starting A Denomination From Scratch

As many of you will know, our church is in the process of leaving our denomination. It has been a long and exhausting process. If you want to read about it you can find a string of articles here, here, here, here and here. There are more, but trust me, that ought to be enough.

Our process has been delayed by COVID19, but over the next 6 months we will be engaged in the fairly elaborate process of disengaging from our historic association. As the timeline above indicates, this was not a decision we arrived at lightly. We’ve enjoyed over 140 years of friendship and partnership with these people. We’ve invested in kingdom work together, we’ve prayed together and we’ve worshipped together. But now it is time to go our separate ways.

But that doesn’t mean we intend to walk alone.

To be clear I don’t think that churches have to associate with other churches, but I think it is dangerous and generally unwise not to. Churches that don’t associate are more vulnerable to doctrinal novelty, pastoral bullying and general isolation. Association is complicated and painful, but over the long haul it is worth it.

To be clear, I’m not planning on building a denomination from scratch. I don’t think I have the time, the headspace or the necessary expertise. What I do have is almost a decade of thinking, praying and repenting under pressure. The following observations have arisen largely out of that context.

Based on what I’ve read in the Bible and what I’ve experienced over the last 10 years, if I were building a denomination from scratch in 2021 I would.... Read More