{"id":368,"date":"2023-11-28T20:45:13","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T03:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/clairemainprize\/?p=368"},"modified":"2023-11-28T21:35:46","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T04:35:46","slug":"details-from-a-progressive-christian-church-service-that-might-surprise-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/clairemainprize\/2023\/11\/details-from-a-progressive-christian-church-service-that-might-surprise-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Details From a Progressive Christian Church Service That Might Surprise You"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/h4>\n

As a millennial exvangelical<\/a>, I belong to a generation that\u2019s been deconstructing what we\u2019ve been taught \u2014 <\/span>a painstaking process that often leads to the rejection of religion altogether.<\/h4>\n It\u2019s one of the contributing factors to the recent (yet swift) decline in church attendance<\/a>, especially in the U.S.<\/p>\n Although saving the Church as we know it isn\u2019t a goal of mine (nor do I believe it\u2019s even possible at this point), I do believe that more people my age would attend and benefit from progressive Christian churches<\/a>, if they only knew such a thing existed.<\/p>\n

Many church-hurt, deconstructing, doubting, spiritually hungry, social-justice-oriented, politically engaged, queer\/allied, progressive millennials and Gen Zers don\u2019t think there is a space where they and their convictions would be fully welcomed, embraced, and mirrored, but they would be mistaken.<\/h4>\n \ Because they often don\u2019t spend big bucks on marketing or proselytism like many popular churches do, such congregations are dying by the day. But they\u2019re out there, and I\u2019ve been lucky enough to attend several.<\/p>\n \ The church I currently go to is the first one I\u2019ve regularly attended in more than five years. My initial visit also marked the first Christian service or event I hadn\u2019t been triggered by in an even longer amount of time.<\/p>\n

Considering my (and other exvangelicals\u2019) personal experience with church includes a nauseating amalgamation of sexual abuse, purity culture, unchecked authority, emotional manipulation, patriarchy, sexism, racism, homophobia, bad theology, and white nationalism (need I go on?), not being triggered was quite a feat \u2014<\/span> and quite a relief<\/em>.<\/h4>\n During a time in which I\u2019ve craved meaningful connection to fellow humans as well as the Divine, I\u2019ve found solace in this kind, compassionate, uncertain, engaged, and aging congregation, which belongs to the United Church of Christ<\/a> (UCC). The UCC is just one among many progressive Christian denominations across the globe, in addition to other nonsectarian groups and communities.<\/p>\n To give readers an idea of what these churches and communities can be like, I thought I would share details from an ordinary Sunday in the sea of white hair that I\u2019ve come to love.<\/h4>\n*** ** ***To start off, I received a pamphlet that had the following statement typed out at the top:<\/p>\n " Welcome! We are an Open & Affirming<\/strong> congregation of the United Church of Christ, including all without regard to their race, gender, physical or mental ability, economic status, sexual orientation, or gender identity, a Peace with Justice<\/strong> church, stressing it\u2019s importance in our common life, and an Immigrant-Welcoming<\/strong> Congregation, which offers a respectful, compassionate welcome and inclusion of immigrants in our midst.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Keeping that mission in mind, here are some additional details that might surprise you:<\/h4>\n\nFrom the sign out front to the ministers\u2019 stoles, pride flags abound.<\/li>\nBefore the service, members were invited to attend a forum on Native American Heritage Month led by two local indigenous leaders.<\/li>\nOne minister, a former Buddhist<\/a>, is a soft-spoken white man, and the other is an unabashedly honest and tattooed Latina woman.<\/li>\nThe nametags all had pronoun stickers (of course, they\/them was an option).<\/li>\nSpeaking of pronouns, the ministers didn\u2019t use any for God (i.e., they don\u2019t say \u201che\/him\u201d).<\/li>\nThey also substituted the word \u201ckin-dom\u201d for \u201ckingdom.\u201d<\/li>\nThe service began with a \u201ctime of centering silence\u201d in which congregants were invited to close their eyes, take deep breaths, and feel the weight of their bodies on the earth.<\/li>\nThe sermon included a Gandhi quote, an excerpt from a New York Times article, and condemnation of both the border wall and the Gaza-Israel war.<\/li>\nThe entire offering went to providing shoes to Native\/Indigenous children in the Great Plains region.<\/li>\nThe bulletin advertised a \u201cnew womxn\u2019s circle\u201d open to those in the community \u201cwho identify as women,\u201d a Climate Action Team meeting, and a conference on Celtic Christianity.<\/li>\nWe substituted \u201cCreator\u201d for \u201cFather\u201d when singing the Doxology.<\/li>\nThe choir sang a hymn in Zulu.<\/li>\nDuring \u201cThe Prayers of the People,\u201d a member gave thanks for the birth of a couple\u2019s baby girl \u2014<\/span> a refugee family from Palestine whom the church helped get health insurance for when they moved to our town.<\/li>\nThe pastoral prayer lifted up trans folks in honor of Trans Remembrance Day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n**** If this sounds like your kind of church, let Google help you find a progressive church near you. My litmus test while searching online is whether there are women in leadership (with the same titles as the men) and whether their stance on LGBTQ+ inclusion is clear (Church Clarity<\/a> is a helpful tool). Although many churches tout the phrase \u201ceveryone is welcome,\u201d few actually mean it.<\/p>\n Feel free to reach out if you ever need help finding a good fit. However, spending your Sunday mornings sleeping and\/or convening with the Divine in nature is just as good (if not better), so\u2026 no pressure.<\/h4>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"********* ** *********As a millennial exvangelical, I belong to a generation that\u2019s been deconstructing what we\u2019ve been taught \u2014 a painstaking process that often leads to the rejection of religion altogether. It\u2019s one of the contributing factors to the recent (yet swift) decline in church attendance, especially in the U.S. Although saving the Church as we know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5007,"featured_media":404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,125,131,128,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christianity","category-church","category-deconstructing","category-politics","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nDetails From a Progressive Christian Church Service That Might Surprise You<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From the sign out front to the ministers' stoles, pride flags abound.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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