Doctrine and Church practice are strict. Only the children of confessing members are baptized. Worship follows the pattern used in the Netherlands. The early hymnology was largely confined to the Psalms but an expanded hymnology has developed in the twentieth century. Organized religious instruction of children is stressed.
Church government is presbyteral.
In 1995, total membership was 295,307. The International Council of Community Churches was formally organized in 1946, but possesses a history dating from the early nineteenth century when nonsectarian community churches began to appear as an alternative to the formation of separate denominationally affiliated congregations. Over the years, such congregations have frequently retained a fiercely independent stance. To their number were added other independent congregations that had separated from denominational structures and adopted a nonsectarian stance. There is no doctrinal statement shared by the council or its member churches, though most churches share a liberal, ecumenical-minded, Protestant perspective.