Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Articles

The Imperative of Planting Progressive Churches

October 10, 2025 by Duncan Pile

Progressive Church

Adobe Stock

Like many progressive Christians, I’ve been so let down by leaders of traditional churches that it can be hard to trust any kind of church set-up. Progressive believers often form online groups and seek to encourage each other from afar, but if we really want to show the love of Jesus to the world, it’s hard to beat an actual, face-to-face gathering of people.

This week, I was invited to attend an event called Church Reimagined in Nottingham UK, which is where I live. Church Reimagined describes itself as ‘a group of friends in Nottingham who are starting a conversation about how centring our lives around Christ compels us to include others… every identity, story, life and love.’ This is a progressive Christian group that emphasises several core pillars:

1. Loving Jesus.
2. Social justice as an expression of the Gospel.
3. Full, joyful inclusion of the LGBTQIA+ community.
4. Progressive theology.

It’s the kind of place where you can fellowship, worship God, and serve others, much like any church, but you can also pose the difficult questions you need to ask without being given cookie-cutter answers, and where you can be fully accepted as who you are, including members of the LGBTQIA+ community. As an ally of that community, I’m greatly relieved to finally find a place where I can bring my gay, lesbian, and transgender friends, trusting that they will be given a warm, lasting welcome!

Personally, I’m still in shock that such a group would come to Nottingham. After trying to integrate into numerous Evangelical churches over the decades, I’ve been living in the spiritual wilderness since 2021. I’m just plain worn out. The prospect of being free to attend a church without having to censor my theology seemed an impossible one, and yet it’s happening, right here, right now. This will mean a lot to every other local believer who has felt unwelcome in church.

Ending the drought

There must be millions of progressive believers the world over who are enduring a drought of fellowship. The progressive community is always growing. People will continue to be marginalised and excluded by church movements who reject the LGBTQIA+ community, clamp down on difficult questions, and keep women out of leadership. The ongoing pain of marginalisation drives even the most faithful people away from churches that should have treated them with respect, but all too often, they have nowhere else to go. Many will have tried different churches in their local area, but the result will always be the same if those churches carry the same systemic prejudices. I confess that the pain of rejection, especially when that rejection happens over and over, is excruciating, and gets worse over time.

Healing from the trauma of reformed theology

As a child, I inherited reformed theology, but it was never presented as an interpretation. Rather, it was the unquestionable truth. Reformed theology is, in my opinion, fundamentally harmful, especially to a child. On a weekly basis, a child exposed to that kind of thinking will learn to see themselves as a dreadful sinner, unworthy of God’s love.

I remember a prayer meeting, in which a bloke stood up to share a testimony about his four-year-old daughter. She had referred to herself as a Christian, and he had responded to that by telling her she was not, in fact, a believer. He told her she was yet to be convicted of her sin, her absolute depravity, and that until she said and meant ‘the sinner’s prayer’, she would remain unsaved. This man told the story as if he’d honoured God by his actions and was praised for it by the congregation. He finished his testimony by telling us ‘She’s been very quiet since then’ as if that was evidence of the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Along with the foundational harm of hearing that they are unworthy of love, a child growing up in that environment will absorb a host of damaging ideas, week after week:

•That they are so irredeemably evil they deserve to be crucified, but Jesus took their place.
•That they deserve to be tortured in Hell forever, with no chance of escape.
•That God chooses who is going to Heaven and Hell, and nobody has any choice in the matter.
•That God is in control of everything that happens, all the time, including personal injuries, sickness, disabilities, and untimely deaths.

The God being presented is a capricious, remote, and domineering tyrant – someone to be terrified of rather than feel safe with. Jesus is presented differently, but the contradiction is never resolved. Though Jesus still beams through the Biblical stories of his life, his goodness is seen as a temporary staying of God’s vengeance. Come Judgement Day, believers who hold to reformed theology are not expecting Jesus to show the same kindness and love that governed his behaviour on Earth. They put more stock in the angry, Old Covenant version of God than in the gentleness, grace, and mercy of Jesus.

This kind of thinking is crushing to everyone but especially to a child, and unfortunately, reformed theology has found its way into most expressions of Evangelicalism. Even if the pastor knows better, the anger and vengeance of God is still present in many popular worship songs, as are confessions of how awful we are, undeserving of love. Gratitude and self-loathing are intermingled to brew a toxic potion nobody should drink from if they want to safeguard their mental well-being.

Personally, it took decades to shake off what I now consider to be man-made dogma. In my seeking, I discovered that the set of beliefs I’d been presented with as a child are just an interpretation of specific Bible passages that make much more sense if understood in kinder, more gracious ways. The journey of deconstruction and reconstruction has been long and lonely, and I can only imagine how different it would have been if I’d had some fellowship along the way.

The remedy – planting progressive churches

I’m conscious that the network of progressive churches is broader and more tightly woven in some countries than others, but no matter where we live, there is a huge demand for more. Progressive churches tend to spring up in major cities, leaving smaller cities and towns in the hands of more traditional denominations. Let’s at least present an alternative and give people a choice.

I belong to an online community of progressive believers, many of whom are crying out for inclusive, intellectually honest churches that major on the love of God. There are so many people out there who are lonely and marginalised, yearning for places of sanctuary.

I appeal to any readers who have the capacity and resources to plant a progressive, inclusive community to reach out to others, form a team, and get on with it. And to those who are leaders of congregations, can you find a way to engage with the progressive Christian community?

If we want to shine the light of God’s love to our neighbours, we need to be deliberate about it and create Christian communities where people feel respected, listened to, and included. I urge progressive readers to go beyond online groups and forge local friendships to provide real, face-to-face fellowships where people can hear about Jesus without the burden of religious dogma. It can be hard to overcome the traumas of the past, but because of what we’ve learned through those traumas, progressive Christians are in the ideal position to give others what we never had. In doing so, we heal ourselves and each other.

10/10/2025 11:14:32 PM

featured writer

more at patheos

What If You’re Wandering From God and Don’t Know It?

Teresa Devine

Bible & Catholicism on Mortal Sin (vs. John Anderson)

Dave Armstrong

Praying With a Hate-Filled Heart

Frank Viola

Generative AI Is Reshaping Work Exactly As Expected

Gleb Tsipursky

About Duncan Pile

Duncan Pile is a writer, author and speaker, living in Derbyshire, England with his wife and stepson. His mystical approach to faith straddles the Evangelical/Progressive divide, and flowing from lived experience, he is passionate about the deconstruction and reconstruction of the Christian faith.

Patheos Logo Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Subscription Support Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In

Follow Patheos