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Progressive Christian

Loving God

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Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 September 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021

August 2024

August 10, 2024

What Does God Get Out of Worship?

Does God demand that we worship him? Is it a requirement for a believer? Wouldn't...

June 2024

June 25, 2024

Who Gets to Sit on Jesus’ Right and Left?

Those of us who were brought up in church and later started thinking for ourselves...

March 2024

March 23, 2024

Is ‘Sin’ a List of Forbidden Activities?

Sin is such an emotionally laden term, associated with heaviness and accusation – the angry...

February 2024

February 15, 2024

Spiritual Discipline is Still Important

A person who’s been burned by legalism is likely to associate any talk of discipline...

November 2023

November 13, 2023

Authentic Christians and Honest Heretics

Before the age of social media, accusations of heresy were far less common among believers....

November 06, 2023

What is Christian Mysticism?

The word mysticism is bandied around rather too much, in my opinion. Mysticism is not...

August 2023

August 26, 2023

Nurturing a Sense of Self

Self is an interesting concept from a Christian point of view. On the one hand,...

May 2023

May 27, 2023

Forgiveness Builds the Bridges Between Us

At every level of relationship there is the inevitability of disappointment. Everyone gets let down...

May 14, 2023

Do All Things Work Together for the Good?

Lacklustre spiritual lives are the result of confusing theology – if believers know that God...

January 2023

January 14, 2023

The Importance of Emotion in Worship

A regular talking point in both Progressive and Evangelical circles is criticism of performed, emotionally...

January 08, 2023

If God Invited You to a Party

I love sacred poetry, and particularly Persian writings from the Middle Ages. There’s one...

January 04, 2023

The Good Shepherd

I’ve been meditating on the words of Jesus in John chapter 10 today, marvelling at...

December 2022

December 17, 2022

Be it unto me according to thy word

There are several moments in the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, that bring...

November 2022

November 13, 2022

Exercises in self-value part 2 – breaking free from conditions of worth

How do we determine our worth? The world has an ugly method, describing a person’s...

September 2022

September 02, 2022

Entering the Promised Land

Much has been made of the metaphor of the Israelites’ journey from Egypt to Canaan,...

August 2022

August 19, 2022

The Basis of Respect

The word ‘respect’ summons an array of potential meanings, the most obvious of which might...

August 09, 2022

The River of Life

Heaven and Earth are connected, and that connection is the Holy Spirit flowing from paradise...

June 2022

June 28, 2022

Progressive or Evangelical?

Over the past year or so I’ve been writing for Patheos, several people have told...

June 19, 2022

Apologetics for The Status Quo

Theology serves a crucial purpose. It steers us back time and again to the heart...

June 14, 2022

Those Wounds Yet Visible Above

I've often taken comfort from the idea that Jesus' resurrection body still bears the scars...

June 07, 2022

The Lord Tests the Heart

I’ve been dwelling on this verse in Proverbs 17: ‘The crucible for silver and...

June 03, 2022

What is Lacking in Christ’s Suffering?

I very much believe that through the sacrifice of Jesus we are given everything we’ll...

May 2022

May 27, 2022

The Problem of Persecution

Christians have a weird relationship with persecution, often speaking and acting as if it only...

May 01, 2022

Why Believe?

At the age of twenty I had a decision to make. I’d reached the end...

April 2022

April 17, 2022

What Jesus wanted his disciples (and us) to know – Part 2

Last time we established that as the disciple closest to Jesus, John wrote about him...

April 15, 2022

What Jesus wanted his disciples (and us) to know

Of the four Gospels in the New testament, I have a particular fondness for the...

April 06, 2022

The Choices That Steer Your Life

Someone I respect once said: ‘If you want to know which direction your life...

January 2022

January 07, 2022

Dig Your Own Well

Over the past few months, I’ve been fascinated, excited and occasionally dismayed by the ongoing...

December 2021

December 10, 2021

Understanding Progressive Christianity, Part 3 – Holding Fast to Jesus

In the first part of this series, I argued that de/reconstruction is a necessary reaction...

December 07, 2021

Understanding Progressive Christianity, Part 2 – Sexual Integrity

In the first instalment of this series, I looked at the necessity of deconstruction. The...