Inevitable Denominations?

Rex Koivisto (One Lord, One Faith) argues that the problem of church unity has less to do with denominational structures and more to do with a sectarian spirit. Denominations weren’t sectarian in origins, but an attempt to retain catholicity in a diverse theological setting.

All true, but his argument that “denominations will occur inevitably” (109) doesn’t follow. When a group “develops enough of a sense of mission to support a church plant and to retain reciprocal fellowship with the daughter church,” we have a denomination. A denomination, after all, is only a grouping “of groups of Christians,” a sociological phenomenon: “Christians who gather in groups, just as all other human beings who do so, must organize. Just as the local church must become more organized the larger it becomes, so groupings of churches must become organized, the more churches they include” (109).

Groupings of groups of Christians, let’s say, have always existed, yet denominations have not. What’s the difference? It comes down to organizational factors—budgets, flow charts, personnel decisions, who is accountable to whom? There is no reason why a group of churches couldn’t make common cause in some ministry while remaining fully within the overall structure of a larger church. Benedictine monasticism was a grouping of groups of Christians, but didn’t create anything that we would call a denomination. 

This isn’t a theoretical point. If denominations are thought to be inevitable, we will act as if they are inevitable. Whereas if we recognize that they are recent and historically relative, we might begin to imagine world beyond denominations, or, what amounts to the same, a world where denominations don’t matter anymore. 

Whether anything close to that ever happens comes down, again, to organizational factors and interests: When push comes to shove, the question is, Will the general assembly or the convention or the conference or the archbishop’s be willing to relinquish control of budgets and buildings? Will they be willing to add their riches to the general pool of Christian wealth? When that happens, we will know that the Spirit has indeed fallen from heaven.