Contemporary religious sociology has identified the rise of non-denominational Christianity as one of the major trends in American religion. This trend is coupled with another less documented one: the prevalence of church member transfers, otherwise known as “transfer growth.” The vast majority of these transfers appear to arise when members from small-to-midsize churches transfer to a much larger church, even if those churches do not always qualify as “megachurches.” (Such a term is usually restricted to those with 2,000 or more weekly attendees.) However, such churches are frequently non-denominational as the majority share of megachurches is, in fact, non-denominational.
These trends implicate the concepts of “confession” and “covenant” as (1) many of the transfers represent departures from a confessional tradition; and (2) church life is frequently presented in consumer or contractual terms, not covenantal ones. This paper will briefly survey the available data, present the New Testament categories of “confession” and “covenant,” analyze them in relation to apostolic teaching about the church, and commend these categories as strategies and emphases to challenge the rising tide of transfers, both from the churches of origin and to the receiving churches.