A Letter to the Churches: Why Denominations Matter

Dear brothers and sisters,

Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I write to you today on a subject that comes up frequently in conversations among Christians in our region, and one that deserves more careful thought than it usually receives. It is the question of denominations, and whether they are a help or a hindrance to the Church of Jesus Christ.

You have likely heard it said, perhaps many times: "Denominations just cause division. We should all just be Christians and stop with the labels." It is a common sentiment, and it is easy to understand why it appeals to so many. Nobody wants division. Nobody wants the body of Christ fractured. And the sheer number of denominations in the world can feel overwhelming, even scandalous. Surely, the argument goes, this cannot be what Jesus intended when He prayed "that they may all be one" (John 17:21).

I understand that concern. I share the desire for unity. But I want to suggest to you that the popular rejection of denominations rests on several misunderstandings, and that denominations, rightly understood, are not the cause of division but one of the most important safeguards against it.

Unity Is Not Uniformity

The first thing we must establish is what biblical unity actually looks like. When our Lord prayed for the unity of His people in John 17, He was not praying for organizational uniformity. He was not asking the Father to create one massive institution where every congregation on earth shares one governing body, one liturgy, and one set of bylaws. The unity Christ prayed for is a unity of faith, of truth, and of love. It is a spiritual reality grounded in the gospel itself.

Paul makes this clear in Ephesians 4:3-6 when he writes:

“Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”Ephesians 4:3-6

Notice that this unity is a unity of substance: one Lord, one faith, one baptism. It is not a unity of structure. The New Testament Church consisted of many congregations spread across the Roman Empire, each with its own elders and its own particular challenges. They were united not by a shared org chart but by a shared gospel.

When people say "denominations cause division," they are usually confusing organizational distinction with spiritual division. A Presbyterian church and a faithful Reformed church in the Dutch tradition may be in separate denominations, but if they confess the same gospel, worship the same Christ, and hold to the same Scriptures, they are united in the bond that matters most. Separate denominations do not necessarily mean a divided Church any more than separate households mean a divided family.

Denominations Protect Doctrine

Here is where the practical wisdom of denominations becomes most apparent. A denomination is, at its core, a group of churches that have agreed together on what they believe and how they will practice the faith. They bind themselves to a common confession, a common form of government, and a common standard of discipline. This is not division. This is order.

Consider the alternative. A non-denominational church answers to no one outside itself. Its pastor is accountable to no presbytery, no synod, no broader assembly. If he begins to teach error, there is no external court of appeal. If he abuses his authority, there is often no mechanism for correction beyond the congregation itself, which may lack the resources or the knowledge to address the problem.

Paul did not envision isolated, autonomous congregations floating free from all accountability. He appointed elders in every city (Titus 1:5). He convened a council in Jerusalem to settle a doctrinal dispute that affected the whole Church (Acts 15). He wrote letters to churches correcting their errors, and he expected those corrections to carry weight beyond the walls of a single congregation. The New Testament pattern is one of churches in relationship with one another, holding one another accountable to the apostolic teaching.

That is precisely what a faithful denomination does. It provides a structure of mutual accountability, shared confession, and ordered discipline. When a church within a denomination drifts from the confession, the broader body has the authority to call it back. When a minister teaches falsely, he can be examined by a body of elders beyond his own congregation. This is not division. This is the Church doing her job.

The Non-Denominational Problem

It is worth observing that the "no denominations" position has not, in practice, produced the unity it promises. Quite the opposite. The non-denominational movement has resulted in tens of thousands of independent churches, each one essentially a denomination of one, answerable to no one, with no shared confession and no mechanism for resolving disputes.

If you walk into a non-denominational church, you have almost no idea what you are going to get. The church down the road with the same "non-denominational" label may believe something entirely different about baptism, the Lord's Supper, the nature of salvation, or the authority of Scripture. The label tells you nothing because the label means nothing. There is no confession behind it, no accountability beneath it, and no history supporting it.

By contrast, when you walk into a church that belongs to a confessional denomination, you know what that church believes before you ever set foot inside. The confession is public. The standards are clear. The structure of accountability is visible. That is not a barrier to unity. That is honesty, and honesty is the foundation of genuine fellowship.

As Paul admonished the Corinthians:

“I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.”1 Corinthians 1:10

"The same mind and the same judgment." That requires doctrinal agreement. You cannot have unity of mind if you have not first defined what you believe. And the process of defining what you believe, writing it down, and holding one another to it is exactly what denominations do.

Denominations Are Honest About Differences

One of the healthiest things about denominations is that they are honest about the fact that Christians disagree on certain matters. They do not pretend that differences do not exist. They acknowledge them openly and organize accordingly.

This is not a failure of love. This is love in action. It is far more loving to say, "We disagree about the sacraments, so let us organize into separate communions where each can worship according to conscience, while maintaining mutual respect and cooperation where possible," than it is to force everyone into one room and pretend the disagreements do not matter.

The Apostle Paul recognized this principle. In Romans 14 he addresses disputable matters and counsels the strong and the weak to bear with one another. But he does not suggest that all differences are disputable. On matters of first importance, on the gospel itself, Paul draws hard lines. He tells the Galatians that anyone who preaches a different gospel is to be accursed (Galatians 1:8-9). He tells the Romans to "watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught" and to "avoid them" (Romans 16:17).

There is a difference between divisions caused by sin, pride, and false teaching, and distinctions that arise from honest disagreement among believers who share the same gospel but differ on secondary matters. Denominations, at their best, reflect the latter. They are an honest and orderly way of handling real differences without pretending they do not exist and without breaking fellowship over matters that do not touch the gospel itself.

History Vindicates Denominational Order

Consider the fruit of denominational faithfulness throughout Church history. It was the confessional Reformed churches that preserved the doctrines of grace through centuries of opposition. It was the Presbyterian system of church government that protected congregations from the tyranny of individual pastors and the chaos of mob rule. It was the Dutch Reformed churches, bound together by the Three Forms of Unity, that withstood the Arminian controversy at the Synod of Dort and produced one of the most careful theological statements the Church has ever seen.

Now consider the fruit of the non-denominational approach. In barely two generations, the broader evangelical movement has drifted from a largely orthodox consensus into a bewildering array of contradictory positions on nearly every major doctrine. Without confessions to anchor them and without denominational courts to hold them accountable, churches have been free to innovate in every direction, and they have. The result is not unity but confusion.

Our Lord told us that we would know them by their fruits (Matthew 7:16). The fruit of confessional, denominational Christianity is doctrinal stability, ordered worship, pastoral accountability, and generational faithfulness. The fruit of the "no labels" approach is too often theological drift, personality-driven leadership, and congregations that rise and fall with the charisma of a single pastor.

The Right Kind of Concern

Now, I do not wish to leave you with the impression that denominations are without their problems. They are not. Denominations can become bureaucratic. They can prioritize institutional survival over faithfulness. They can harden into tribalism. These are real dangers, and they ought to be guarded against.

But the solution to a broken denomination is not no denomination. The solution is a faithful one. The answer to institutional corruption is reformation, not abandonment. When the Reformers of the sixteenth century saw the Roman church failing in its duties, they did not declare themselves "non-denominational." They formed churches, wrote confessions, established courts of discipline, and built structures of accountability that could carry the truth forward to the next generation. They understood that the Church is not a loose collection of individuals but a body, an institution, a city on a hill with walls and gates and officers appointed by Christ Himself.

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.”Ephesians 4:11-13

Unity of the faith. Not unity of feeling, not unity of preference, not unity of branding. Unity of the faith. That is the goal, and it is a goal that requires structure, confession, and accountability to achieve. Denominations, for all their imperfections, are the Church's best attempt at providing exactly that.

A Word to the Ozarks

I know that many of you reading this have grown up in churches that wore the "non-denominational" label with pride. I know that for many of you, the word "denomination" carries negative connotations picked up from years of hearing it used as a synonym for dead religion and cold formalism. I am asking you to reconsider.

The Ozarks are filled with good-hearted, Bible-loving people who have been told that all they need is Jesus and a Bible and a building. And there is a beautiful simplicity in that sentiment. But simplicity is not the same as faithfulness, and independence is not the same as freedom. A church without a confession is a church without a compass. A church without a denomination is a church without a family.

I am not asking you to leave your church. I am asking you to think about what your church confesses, who your church is accountable to, and what would happen if your pastor began teaching something contrary to Scripture. If you cannot answer those questions clearly, that should concern you. And if the answer to the accountability question is "no one," that should concern you even more.

The body of Christ was never meant to be a collection of independent franchises. It was meant to be a communion of saints, bound together by a common faith, governed by the Word of God, and accountable to one another in love. That is what denominations, at their best, provide. And that is what the Ozarks desperately need.

“And let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”Hebrews 10:24-25

Your brother in Christ,

Ozark Doctrine