Originally Posted by Daoust

I attend a church that we call non-denominational. People are always needing to give things labels, so if pressed we sometimes accept the term "Brethren" or "Plymouth Brethren". We don't like being labelled a denomination for a few reasons, mostly because people automatically associate denomination with religion. Now, that may sound silly, right? Of course churches are associated with religion. But religion carries with it a lot of things that my church does not. We don't have pastors, or priests or reverends. We don't have membership. We don't have a lot of religious immagery, symbols, etc. I know I'm not tackling this question the best way ( and I am concerned that this answer will not directly answer people who aren't fans of religion, of denominationalists who might not understand ) but I'm trying. I know many of you are going to say that like it or not, I'm in a denomination, but that's not the way I see it.

To answer one of your questions, the 'brethren' churches do use a guideline that they learn from and preach from and that enables them to preach and teach to followers. We call it the Bible.