InAllThingsLove
12th July 2006, 12:58 PM
Part of the point of the independent, non-denominational Christian Church is that it has tried to maintain itself as a movement, and tried to prevent itself from becoming a denomination.
And with good reason: as religious groups begin to institutionalize, they lose a great deal of what brought them together in the first place. Sociologists talk about the distinctions between sectarian and ecclesiastical groups:
- sectarian groups tend to be composed of new converts; ecclesiastical groups tend to be multi-generational;
- sectarian groups tend to be world-rejecting; ecclesiastical groups tend to say they are world-rejecting while in fact embracing the world;
- sectarian groups tend not to have professional clergy, but understand every member of the group to be a propagator of the message; ecclesiastical groups tend to give support to administrative power structures, with professional clergy on top.
There are other distinctions --- but is there something to this?
And with good reason: as religious groups begin to institutionalize, they lose a great deal of what brought them together in the first place. Sociologists talk about the distinctions between sectarian and ecclesiastical groups:
- sectarian groups tend to be composed of new converts; ecclesiastical groups tend to be multi-generational;
- sectarian groups tend to be world-rejecting; ecclesiastical groups tend to say they are world-rejecting while in fact embracing the world;
- sectarian groups tend not to have professional clergy, but understand every member of the group to be a propagator of the message; ecclesiastical groups tend to give support to administrative power structures, with professional clergy on top.
There are other distinctions --- but is there something to this?