Postdenominational Christianity in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

Substantial changes in worship style and organizational structure are transforming the way Christianity will be experienced in the next millennium. The style of Christianity dominated by eighteenth-century hymns, a routinized liturgy, and bureaucratized layers of social organization is gradually dying. In its place are emerging hundreds of new-paradigm churches, which are appropriating stylistic and organizational elements from our postmodern culture. This reformation, unlike the one led by Martin Luther, is challenging not doctrine but the medium through which the message of Christianity is articulated. Appropriating contemporary cultural forms, these postdenominational churches are creating a new genre of worship music; they are restructuring the organization of institutional Christianity; and they are democratizing access to the sacred by radicalizing the Protestant principle of priesthood of all believers. This trend within American Christianity is illustrated by describing research on three religious movements—Calvary Chapel, Vineyard Christian Fellowship, and Hope Chapel—that have emerged since the mid-1960s and now number collectively more than a thousand organizations.