Progressive Christianity Today: A Widening Current

June 13, 2011 by Jim Burklo

Continued from Page 2

I believe that very creative and positive things will emerge from the collaboration of progressives and emergents. We'll get livelier music in churches once known as liberal, we'll get preaching that doesn't require leaving your brain in the parking lot at churches once known as evangelical. In February of this year, a gathering of progressives and emergent evangelicals happened in Phoenix. "Big Tent Christianity" was a high-energy, fruitful event that did not settle all differences but found common ground.

I believe that the common ground is humility. St. Paul said that the Christ "emptied himself" to become a servant. How can a religion founded by an empty man get so full of itself that it would claim to be the only true religion? Jesus called us to a humility that makes such claims about our religion impossible. Abandoning hubris about our religion is integral to our faith; it is the essential for worship and devotion. Progressives join with all others who want to practice a gentler, kinder, humbler Christianity. To be a progressive is to be comfortable with fuzzy boundaries, and that is a good thing, because the edges of this movement are getting ever less distinct.

In its many manifestations, progressive Christianity is a widening current in the faith. More and more individual Christians are finding a voice, a language, to express their faith in terms that transcend the narrow doctrines and circumscribed social agendas of the religious right. They are no longer embarrassed to be Christians, because they have discovered they are not alone in leaving literalism, exclusivism, and chauvinism behind. They are not defined by walls that mark who is Christian and who is not; they are attracted to a glowing center in the heart of the Christ. They are finding friends everywhere who share their desire to be emptied, so they can be filled with Jesus' good news of justice, peace, and radical welcome.

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