Recently, I read a post on Faith Over Fear Motivation (Feb. 24, 2026) that reported, “Donald J. Trump becomes the first sitting president since Eisenhower to shift religious affiliation.” The post went on to say:
It’s rare for a sitting president to change his religious identity while in office, but that’s what happened when President Trump announced he no longer identifies as Presbyterian and now considers himself a nondenominational Christian. Some see it as a sincere shift shaped by relationships with evangelical leaders. Others question whether it’s political. In a divided culture, even faith decisions become headlines. But beyond politics, this reminds us that faith journeys are personal. Scripture tells us the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). Titles and labels matter less than genuine transformation. Pray that leaders – and all of us – seek Christ sincerely.
On February 1, 1953, just 10 days after his inauguration, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was baptized and welcomed into the National Presbyterian Church. He remains, I believe, the only president to have been baptized while in office (though I have read some reports that a Christian Church minister baptized Abraham Lincoln whilst he was in office). Eisenhower was raised by parents who belonged to the River Brethren – an offshoot of the Mennonite faith – in Abilene, Kansas. Eisenhower started the National Prayer Breakfast, approved the 1954 act of Congress to insert the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, and made official the words “In God We Trust” to be stamped on our coins and printed on paper currency.
I find it most interesting, in these changing times, that while Eisenhower became a Presbyterian, Trump no longer identifies as a Presbyterian and considers himself a “nondenominational Christian.” Moreover, he is not the only one who identifies himself as such. In 1972, only 3% of Americans identified as nondenominational Christians. That would, of course, have included members of Independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, as well as non-instrumental Churches of Christ. However, today, over 40 million Americans identify as nondenominational Christians. “That's three times the size of any Protestant denomination,” says Ryan Burge, a professor at the Danforth Center on Religion at Washington University, in his February 16, 2026, blog on “The Rise of Non-Denominational Christianity.” In 1967, the second largest denomination in the US was the United Methodist Church with 11 million members. That number shrank to only 3.98 million members in 2026. A CBS “Eye on America” report (Nov. 17, 2025) said, “Many people are flocking to independent Christian churches.” The Washington Times (Jan. 24, 2025) reported that the movement from being denominational to nondenominational is “the largest, quietest trend in American history.”
Bible sales have surged since 2019, up 106% in the United Kingdom and double the units in the United States, both record highs. Millennials and Gen Z youth are going to church in record numbers, but mostly not the denominational kind. Hundreds of thousands of university students are requesting immediate baptism by immersion (not sprinkling) on campuses. They are repenting of sin and being baptized. They are bold in sharing their newfound faith in Jesus. What in the world, the religious world, is going on?
The recent trends are encouraging; increasing numbers of people just want to be Christians. For years, our fellowship of believers has declared that we are Christians only. The best book I read when I was in Bible college was Christians Only, written by James DeForest Murch, published by Standard Publishing in 1962. The plea of our movement has been that the Bible only makes Christians only. We have said that everyone should and could be a Christian and a Christian only. Thousands of folks from different denominations in the years 1801 to 1950 or so – Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, etc. – agreed and made the move to become Christians only.
However, somewhere along the line, I began to notice that in the Yellow Pages, our churches started listing themselves as either Christian Churches or Churches of Christ, just like all the other denominations. In fact, those listing themselves as “Nondenominational” did not include any of “our” congregations. We said we were “nondenominational” or “undenominational,” but we did not advertise ourselves as such. Strange.
An Episcopalian priest who submitted to immersion told P.H. Welshimer (at that time the minister of the largest Christian Church in America, the Canton Christian Church), “You people have the greatest plea on earth, but you are the stingiest with it!” Ken Idleman once said, “New Testament Christianity need not be popularly embraced to be validated, but it is especially encouraging when it is recognized for what it is – light for our age.” But now it is being embraced! Nondenominational Christianity is light for our age. There is nothing wrong with our plea, but there is something wrong with our passion to be Christians only. Until someone can show me something better, I intend to do my part to re-ignite that passion – and rejoice when others do it even “on their own.” Remember the words of Jesus: “All by itself the seed does its work” (Mark 4:28).
