What is the Largest "Denomination" After Catholicism and Southern Baptist


The answer is no denomination. Unaffiliated churches have been growing so rapidly they have more members than all denomination except Catholics and the Southern Baptist Convention. It makes sense when on realizes a few decades back there were three channels on you TV. Now there are hundreds. The same thing is true of Christian churches. The number of people belonging to churches which do not affiliate with any denomination is the largest group in the U. S.

I've never seen a survey asking leaders of startup churches why the do or do not affiliate with a denomination. It may be unclear what is a "denomination." If a preacher starts a church him/her self and is successful and then starts a couple of others, is this a denomination?

Certainly it is clear churches who belong to traditional denominations do not advertise their affiliation like they used to. If one wants to find an affiliation of a church its not on the marquee facing the street. It's never on the home page of the website in churches I've looked at. It's like they do not want new attendees to know. 

Churches not affiliating follows logically with growth of TV channels. We went from three in my childhood to three hundred or maybe 3,000. Each You Tube channel is its own TV network so why not each church be its own denomination? I don't see a reason why this trend of non affiliated churches will not continue to grow.

 

 

Comments

  1. little helperDecember 1, 2022 at 1:45 PM

    Did a quick Google on Lutheran churches is Des Moines area. All designate Lutheran publicly both on line and on their front doorstep sign. Another example of your conflation.
    Re. "non denominational' aka translates "no name" That means nothing beyond subjective content. Let the buyer beware. Do they dance with snakes down there in Iowayy?

    ReplyDelete
  2. little helperDecember 1, 2022 at 1:53 PM

    PS. I count 17 Lutheran churches in the Des Moines area. None of which are "non-denominational" Let's be honest Jon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. little helperDecember 1, 2022 at 2:25 PM

    Jon; No need to argue. I went to Google street view, and the signs are there on all the Lutheran churches.

    ReplyDelete

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