While networks, fellowships and groupings of friends seem to be trendy ways for churches to relate in these days, Jason Helopoulos writes a few reasons why the more structured and accountable nature of denominations are a biblical pattern which offer genuine protections for both the local congregation and their leaders; encourage a unified precision in theological expression; and offer an accountability which goes beyond the capacity to take some form of credit for everything that goes well in the network, while disclaiming everything that goes bad as being only the business of the local body.
Independency suits the spirit of the age, but sooner or later the wheel of the denomination will be reinvented, probably given a new name, and then presented as something brand-spanking new.
“We are moving into a post-denominational age” or so we are told. If that is the case, I for one don’t think it is good news. Denominations serve a real purpose and are worthy of our promotion, propagation, and commitment. I know that many of us have been “burned” by denominations and there is much fruit being born by different networks, fellowships, and independent churches. However, we shouldn’t throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. Networks, fellowships, and independent churches can’t provide the same benefits as a denomination. They may be able to provide some of the things below, but not all of them.
Read In Praise Of Denominations at DeYoung, Restless and Reformed.
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