Martin Luther started the Reformation of Christianity when he posted his 95 Theses on the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg. Luther's act set the authority of the individual against the authority of the institution, and led to the creation of numerous denominations over and against the Catholic Church. Since then, all of these institutions have struggled to maintain their authority over the individual, but the sweep of history has favored the individual. This has been the first, deconstructive, phase of the Reformation: the establishment of the primacy of the individual within Christianity.

Today, I, Chad Whitacre, have finished Phase I of the Reformation, by founding the last Christian denomination, Christian Minimalism. Christian Minimalism gives the individual complete authority; it divests itself of all institutional authority. Every individual has permission, has the right, to define Christianity for themselves. No institution owns Jesus. He belongs equally to everybody. The deconstructive phase of the Reformation is complete.

The second half of the Reformation is constructive. We must now begin to reorganize the Church as an institution on the basis of the authoritative individual: this is the challenge of the new Anglican Church in North America. However,Christian Minimalism must always stand as a monument to the new reality that the Church now operates by the permission of the individual.