최근 한국에서 제도권 교회들의 성장 정체 속에서 건물, 성직자, 교단 등 기존의 교회 구성의 문법을 따르지 않는 실험적인 새로운 기독교 공동체들이 나타나고 있다. 기존 교회의 틀에서는 의미 있는 신앙생활이 어렵다는 이유로, 또는 포스트모더니즘의 영향 가운데 새로운 가능성을 찾아서, 그리고 이러한 모양을 원하는 교인들의 욕구에 부응해 기존 교회의 모습에서 탈피한 신앙 공동체들이 등장하는 것이다. 이러한 교회들은 기존의 관점에서는 교회라고 보기 어려울 수도 있고, 또한 기존 교회의 틀로서는 설명할 수 없기 때문에 비제도권 교회라고 부르는 것이다. 이 연구에서는 사회학의 연구 방법을 통해 비제도권 교회들의 실태를 밝히고 이들의 유형을 분류하고자 하였다. 23개 사례 중에 유형별로는 목회자 없이 평신도들로 구성되었거나 목회자가 있어도 목회자로서 특별한 권한을 행사하지 않는 평신도 교회가 13개로 가장 많은 비중을 차지하였다. 그리고 일요일에 모이지 않고 평일에 모이는 ‘주중 교회’ 형태가 3개 있었다. 또한 3곳을 제외하고, 나머지는 다른 단체에서 사용하고 있는 공간을 모임 때만 빌려서 쓰는 ‘탈공간적 교회’라고 할 수 있다. 그리고 목적 지향에 따라서 보면, 대안 추구형, 본질 회복형, 필요 반응형으로 나뉠 수 있다. 이러한 새롭고 다양한 종교적인 욕구에 대해서 한국 교회, 특히 제도권 교회들이 어떻게 대응하고 스스로 갱신할지에 대해서 구체적인 논의가 이루어지고 대안이 마련되기를 기대한다.
Recently, a new type of churches is appearing in Korea. In a midst of stagnation of institutional church growth, experimental, new Christian communities that do not follow the existing paradigm of church configurations like buildings, clergy, and denominations are appearing. In response to the desires of church members who reason that a meaningful life of faith is difficult within the framework of existing churches or that there exists a new possibility within a post-modernism, faith communities that are stripped of existing church models are appearing. From an existing perspective, it is difficult to label them as churches, and since they cannot be explained from the framework of existing churches, they are called non-institutional churches. This study, through sociological research method, attempts to show the actual state of non-institutional churches and classify their types. In this study, those non-institutional churches that do not belong to a denomination and live out their faith life according to their own ecclesiology are researched. Of the 23 cases by type, churches that are organized with only lay members and without clergies or though there are clergies they do not function with special authority make up the greatest proportion, at 13 cases. Traditionally, the uniqueness of church is that the Word is declared, and that communion is carried out. But that these practices once belonged only to those ordained clergies who received theological training from a legitimate denomination show these lay churches have escaped Christian tradition. And of the 3 cases of ‘mid-week churches’ where they did not meet on Sundays but on weekdays, one was like a monastery, and the other two did not explicitly express to be a church but carried out the functions of a church. Moreover, there were only 3 cases where they had their own worship or meeting rooms like the traditional churches, whereas the rest only borrowed available spaces from other organizations as needed. And finally, 5 met in their homes. In that sense, most of non-traditional churches can be seen as ‘trans-spatial’ churches. It is a great challenge to the Korean church that attendance in non-institutional churches are on the increase. In a post church growth era, or strictly speaking, after the decline of institutional churches, a new model of churches is appearing, and it is fulfilling their new spiritual desires. With regards to formal structures, these non-institutional churches possess a unique differentiation and autonomous freedom unlike the existing, traditional churches. With regards to these new and diverse spiritual desires, I hope that the Korean church, especially the institutional churches, can engage in detailed discussions and thus arrive at solutions as to how they will respond and reform.