The State of the Unions

Denominations in the 21st Century
By Dr. Bob Wenz

Church history points to no more fertile soil for the multiplication of denominations than early American history. The Reformation plowed up the soil with the teaching that the Bible could be read, understood, and even interpreted apart from the Magisterium of Rome. As the colonies in “New World” began to be settled a century later – a century marked by religious wars in Europe — each of the colonies became a refuge for disgruntled or persecuted sects from Europe. Puritan Congregationalists dominated Boston and the Bay Colony. The Dutch, with their reformed groups, were dominant in New York. The German Lutherans [from Deutschland] have long been mistakenly called the Pennsylvania Dutch ever since someone forgot the “e”. Roman Catholics settled in Maryland – where the first religious toleration laws were enacted – where their religious freedom mirrored the up and down status of Catholicism back home (at one time the Puritans fled Maryland for Virginia only to return later and burn every Catholic Church in Terra Maria). So, from the time that Roger William was expelled by the Congregationalists from Massachusetts in1638 and headed to the wide-open spaces of Rhode Island to begin a new baptistic denomination, denominationalism sprouted and blossomed and bloomed here in North America as no where else. The soil and the climate proved ideal. With the First Great Awakening came the establishment of Methodism in the South and Mid-Atlantic colonies, making Wesley’s Methodism the largest denomination in the U.S. with 135,000 adherents [in a nation of 1.5 million] by the time John Wesley finally climbed off his horse and entered his eternal rest. The Colonial era ends with even more denominational fragmentation in New England as Congregationalism divided when Unitarians that were drawn away from their orthodox Trinitarian theology by the Enlightenment and its Deism. As colonies became states, many maintained their officially supported churches -- some well into the 1800’s.

The era of 1830-1880 reveals another season of great denominational fecundity. The election of Andrew Jackson ushered the Nation into an era marked by empowerment of the individual [before the term entrepreneurialism] and by a burgeoning individualism in an age of westward expansion and a spirit of Manifest Destiny. During this period hundreds of independent sects, utopian societies, and theocratic communities -- such as Oneida, New York and the seven Amana Colonies in Iowa – proliferated like bacteria in a Petri dish. Only a fraction of those movements, spawned by American individualism and entrepreneurialism spilling over into the stream of Protestantism, have survived. Most were started by strong individuals, and most withered and died with the founder. There are notable exceptions: the Russellites who still exist as the Jehovah’s Witnesses; the Mormons who survived a crisis leadership transition to Brigham Young; and the Millerites who continue today as the Seventh Day Adventist Church through the persistence of Ellen G. White.

The Civil War brought a spiritual mitosis to many denominations as they divided at the Mason Dixon Line, some never to reconnect again. This new seasons of denominationalism, including the Southern Baptists who organized in the late 1840’s, was the result of political/theological movements rather than individual initiatives.

The early 1900’s would also see a spike in denominationalism prompted by both the Azusa Street revival of 1906 as well as the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy [beginning in the 1880’s] that culminates in the Scopes Trial in 1925. Debates and swirling conflicts over orthodoxy, new theologies and neo-orthodoxies during this era spawn new denominations.

But, sadly, denominationalism has served to turn many away from Christianity as they have renounced the divisiveness as proof that with everyone claiming to have the truth, the truth is too elusive to be found. And, clearly, since the fragmentation of orthodox Christianity cannot bring joy to the heart of God, and, as it seems that the Body of Christ continues to move away from the unity for which Christ prayed, we need to ask what possible purpose could be served by 1500 denominations.

At various times denominations have served a number of different and valid purposes, three of which are worth highlighting:

1. Denominations have enabled Christians to do things together that could not have been done by individuals or even by individual congregations. Of course, this primarily focuses on establishing colleges and seminaries, sending missionaries and planting churches – and the development of camping facilities. Between 1830 and 1860 the four major denominations in the U.S. [Presbyterian, Baptist, Congregational and Methodist] established 135 colleges where previously only 25 had existed. The early 1800’s marked the rise of the modern missionary movement with Judson and William Carey [in England].

2. Denominations have served to protect doctrinal distinctives and identities, and in some cases to champion new theological trends or distinctives. In times of significant theological and even social upheaval (i.e. abolition, theological liberalism) this has been necessary as believers and congregations alike have gone through theological refinements and realignments.

3. At times denominations have served the “franchise” purpose, establishing familiar and comfortable brand churches nationally or regionally for a mobile American population.
Obviously, the landscape is changing. It is no longer a landscape of blossoming and blooming. It is rather a landscape marked by withering, fallen petals, and some new and different shoots budding:

• Some denominations are merging or consolidating districts/regions/presbyteries, effectively reducing regional overhead. This serves to reduce the burden on churches to support both a national organization and a regional association.
• Increasingly, denominations are questioning the relative value and cutting their publications ministries – whether that is the monthly denominational magazine or distinct book publishing enterprises. The Christian and Missionary Alliance recently closed CPI, its bankrupt publishing subsidiary, that was more than three million dollars in debt.
• The Conservative Baptist Association which spun off of the American Baptist Convention USA in the late 1940’s, has itself fragmented. With churches increasingly unwilling to voluntarily fund a national denominational ministry structure of any kind (it was the unified mission of the ABC that was a major bone of contention originally) , the national structure has collapsed and been replaced by a group of regional associations of varying viability. What keeps the CBA from fragmenting completely is it’s nationally based missions organization, which some observers think may not be enough glue to do the job long term.