Community Church is the name of a church so located within a specific community. The name is meant to communicate
several things. Number one, a community church is for the people who live in that community, and the church provides
for them a place to organize themselves together to worship God and learn about him with other people from their same
community. Second, a Community Church communicates to others that it is a church that places a high priority on
allowing and encouraging its members to form valuable relationships with others in the church. Community Churches
typically place a high value on providing for the needs of others to love and be loved, and to trust and be trusted by
others – to journey through this life with others of kindred minds and hearts. The one uniting theme behind all
community churches in the belief that outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ, a person cannot rightly know God,
the creator of the universe, the eternal father of all creation.
A Community Church is a relatively new type of church in America. They are typically a non-denominational church.
That means they do not associate with any one national religious denomination such as Southern Baptist, United
Methodist, etc. A non-denominational church does not have to fit within the guidelines of what a church should be,
as put forth by the big national denominations, but neither does a non-denominational church enjoy the stability,
support, and guidance of a national denominational structure. The benefits to this are that a Community Church often
enjoys full autonomy in how it organizes itself, how it conducts its weekly worship services, etc. This type of
autonomy can be very freeing to members of a small independent-minded community of believers.
The value of a church being a part of national denomination is less apparent now than it once was. A Community Church
that enjoys full autonomy does have to sacrifice the support system that can come from a national denomination. This
support system might include access for the church ministers and leaders to group health insurance, pension plans, and
other benefits. This support structure might include the availability of expertise in dealing with all manner of church
crises such as the abrupt resignation of the senior pastor, etc. While there are some support structures from a
national denomination that community churches have to forego, there are also many benefits from the autonomy they enjoy.
There is a reason that a community church is one of the fastest growing types of churches in the world. Christians who attend
community churches really love the relationships with other Christians that they enjoy in their church.