Rob Witham

The Protestant Reformation played a vital role in the history of Christianity at a time when the organized church was largely corrupt, stale and let’s face it, quite dead. When Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenburg in 1517 he arguably initiated what would later be called the Protestant Reformation. Ironically, Luther was not trying to start a new religious tradition but rather to reform the dead, organized church system that he was a part of. It was the refusal of the organized church system to allow real debate and change that led to the Reformation and the decline of the Roman Church. Sadly, many of the abuses and intolerance of the established church were carried into the Protestant movement.

I coined the term “post-denominational” when I was in Bible College in the early 1990s to describe my affiliation to my friends. It was several years later before I heard anyone else use this term. I continue to use the post-denominational designation and in a broad sense I would also call myself a protestant. I emphasize protestant and not Protestant because I am not part of any organized denomination. Denominational names long ago outlived their usefulness. I am, however, a protestant because I believe we need to maintain a spirit of always evolving and finding new expressions of our faith. Methods and structures that worked a generation ago will not and can not work today. The gospel message is timeless but it was originally delivered to a certain culture; it takes skill and care to unpack the message from the methods. Methods that were effective a generation ago will not be effective today because we live in a very different world. The cultural differences are so profound that our methodology needs to evolve. Unfortunately, most of the traditional, established, Protestant church is unwilling to enter any real conversation with those of us seeking renewal and rebirth. Consequently, a new protestant reformation is underway. This movement has been called Emergent or the Emerging Church.

I am a protestant because our faith must always grow and our methods must always adapt if we want to be missional.