Last week at the national March for Life, I walked with an evangelical pastor co-leading a successful church plant. Raised in a United Methodist (now Global Methodist) congregation in Tennessee, this pastor chose to plant a non-denominational congregation in Washington, DC. The church is overwhelmingly composed of young, early career congregants. They rent space from a mainline Presbyterian church with a beautiful traditional building but a much smaller congregation.

Readers of this blog are familiar with Mark Tooley’s observation that large denominations, revisionist and orthodox, are seemingly locked in decline in the United States. Non-denominational Christianity is the only large religious category presently growing.

Even the vibrant Assemblies of God has plateaued with the noteworthy exception of some Spanish-language districts. The Presbyterian Church in America (a medium-size denomination) and my own Anglican Church in North America (a small denomination) report multi-year growth, but these are far smaller than the denominations of nationwide reach that are rapidly shedding members, such as the Southern Baptist Convention. There has also been recent buzz about Eastern Orthodoxy drawing young male converts, but, again, these converts nearly all seem to be from a small caste of highly educated post-Evangelicals amidst a pendulum swing in the opposite direction of (mostly functionally Baptist) non-denominational churches. It is an exception that proves the rule.

But not every non-denominational church is functionally Baptist. In a surprising development, a few even use Anglican liturgical materials, such as the Book of Common Prayer, in their worship. As denominations themselves decline, some denominational distinctives appear to be spreading outward to a larger number of practitioners. Evangelicals are encountering and using the ACNA’s 2019 Book of Common Prayer in a way that they might not have with the Episcopal Church’s 1928 and 1979 versions. Study and use of the ACNA catechism also appears to have spread beyond the denomination. Evangelical seminaries with Anglican studies tracks, such as Gordon-Conwell or Beeson Divinity School at Sanford University, can expose students with backgrounds in other traditions to Anglican worship (IRD’s Sarah Carter wrote about this phenomenon at Wheaton College).

Anglican Roots

My Anglican friends will rightly point out that Anglicanism, by its very nature, requires the oversight of a bishop. Anglicans believe the Church universal to be a divinely chartered institution that has a corporate relationship with God; not merely a collection of persons with their own individual relationships with God.

The idea of a non-denominational Anglicanism isn’t new, however. Atlanta’s Church of the Apostles is among the more prominent with a congregation of more than 3,000. Founded in the late 1980s, it describes itself as “an independent non-denominational church with Anglican roots.”

Apostles has local governance, but also an organized vestry and practices infant baptism, characteristics that are less common, if not altogether rare, among most American nondenominational churches. Founding Pastor Dr. Michael Youssef was ordained in the Diocese of Sydney, Australia in 1977. Apostles’ website states that “We stand in the Anglican tradition, specifically in the pattern of church government as well as various practices of worship.”

Holy Trinity Church in McLean, Virginia outside of Washington, D.C. is a nondenominational church with Anglican elements. Founded in 2010 by Anglican clergy connected to Holy Trinity Brompton as an experimental project for planting a church centered around the Alpha Course, Holy Trinity’s statement of faith says that it is “an independent non-denominational church rooted in the teachings and traditions of the Church of England.” Notably, this is seen in how the church confesses “the historic faith of the Christian Church as expressed in the Nicene and Apostles Creeds and the 39 Articles of the Church of England.”

The church is sacramental, allows for the baptism of infants, and has an organized vestry.

“Our services include liturgical elements that harken back to our Anglican roots,” HTC’s website explains. “Yet, we are non-denominational and draw as heavily from contemporary praise & worship songs as we do from hymns.”

Spirit-Led

Christ Church at Grove Farm, outside of Sewickley, PA near Pittsburgh, is “an evangelical, non-denominational church with roots in the Anglican tradition evidenced by our adherence to the 39 Articles of Faith, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Nicene Creed.”

“These elements,” the church website explains, “not only align with Anglican beliefs but also connect us to the historic and global fellowship of believers.”

Much like HTC in Virginia, Christ Church has charismatic elements and services are “spirit-led.” The church emphasizes the primacy of scripture, as is customary among low-church Anglicans emphasizing traits of the English reformation.

Each of the churches above features at least one contemporary worship service, alongside evangelical staples such as small group ministry and a significant externally-facing community outreach component. Redeemer Church in La Mirada, CA, blends liturgical and free church styles. Churches are also taking Anglican characteristics outside of worship services: Redeemer offers spiritual directors.

Interestingly, Redeemer is associated with a baptistic group of churches (ASPIRE NETWORK) yet follows the liturgical calendar, a rarity among Evangelicals.

Separately, there are also more instances in recent years of ordained Anglican clergy serving at non-denominational churches. Sam Allbery, who serves as a Canon Theologian for an Anglican Church in North America diocese, is on staff at Immanuel Church in Nashville, TN, where Christianity Today Editor-in-Chief Russell Moore teaches.

A note of caution: just as I earlier observed that young male converts to Eastern Orthodoxy probably represent a small elite, I can identify a related pattern in the churches I’ve listed above. McLean and Sewickley are leafy, sought-after suburbs and Buckhead is among the most affluent communities in Atlanta. In short, there may be an educational or economic class aspect here, where those of significant means are more drawn to liturgical structure.

Non-denominational churches employing Anglican elements may spread beyond this, but I’m authoring this story to begin a conversation about what may be occurring, and wish to not overstate what could be a niche trend. Have you seen non-Anglican churches using Anglican materials or incorporating historic, liturgical practices into their worship? Let me know in the comments below.