It is a trend to see denominational pastors take an aggressive stand against non-denominational ministries. Their reason: “They always end up as a denominational church”. Yes, non-denominations mostly ended up as a church but is there any church in Nigeria that did not start as a non-denominational ministry? Point to one. From CAC to RCCG, to Deeper Life, to MFM, to WINNERS and so on. It is always a “group of people from different churches meeting together to pray and study the word”. Your Pentecostal or charismatic church is either a breakout from a Church or a non-denominational turned Church. This is not only in Nigeria but across the world. The oldest Pentecostal church in the world- Church of God in Christ, America gave birth to Assemblies of God and Foursquare Church. If we begin to trace the history of Orthodox Churches, they are all dissents from the Catholic Church. If we trace the history of the Catholic Church, it was an (“interdenominational”) church that united different groups of “denominations together”.
If you will ask me, I will say THERE IS NOTHING BAD IN A NON-DENOMINATIONAL MINISTRY becoming a church. In fact, it is the MOST EFFECTIVE METHOD in birthing a church. Winners stayed non-denomination for 3 years before birthing forth as a church.
A church is effectively conceived as a non-denominational and then delivered as a denominational assembly.
Non-denominational leaders always start out condemning some things in their mother church and later become a church. Only for their members to also condemn some things and start a system to correct the errors and then become a church too. The cycle goes on
However, there are interdenominational ministries that never became a church and they have been around for decades. Scripture Union (Nigeria) is here for over 150 years. CAET is also here. SADOZ is here.
I believe some pastors are just being insecure. You need to put a structure in place such that NO ONE CAN BREAK YOUR CHURCH. SADOZ is not a church but as a ministry, NO ONE, I REPEAT, NO MAN can tear away SADOZ. By God’s wisdom, we have set up structures to prevent that. In our 9 years, I have ordained at least 3 sons in the house who have gone out to start their own ministry. They were openly ordained and discharged, there was no tearing. Aside from those three, several others have, from here gone out to form their own ministries. Yet, no breaking or crack.
Are there excessive from young people wanting to pioneer a work? A LOT! We all demonstrated one excess or the other and it won’t stop. It is churches and pastors that should put structures in place because whether you like it or not, PEOPLE WILL LEAVE your ministry to start a new work.
