Up until about six years ago, I couldn’t have told you what a progressive church looked like. If you had asked me, I maybe would have told you that it was a liberal church, but that would have been about the extent of it. And then, in 2018, I heard former ZOEgirl member, Alisa Childers, speak at the inaugural Women in Apologetics conference. As she gave her testimony, I shifted uncomfortably in my seat because I had no idea what she was talking about. Here I was, someone pretty familiar with world religion, and I couldn’t spot progressive Christianity in a line-up. That moment when I realized that I couldn't spot Progressive Christianity in a world religions line-up... Click To Tweet
Alisa explained in her lecture that part of the reason people can’t easily spot it is because progressive Christianity is sneaky. She and her husband were attending a church, and she found out that her pastor, whom she respected, called himself a “hopeful agnostic.” Before that, she didn’t see any warning signs. Her faith was challenged in that moment, and the situation eventually led her to apologetics because she wanted to know how to defend what she believed. You can listen to her story here. You should also check out her book, Another Gospel? (Tyndale, 2020).
Many of you may know Alisa’s story, and if you do, then you’ll understand why I am going to defer to a lot of her work in this article. I want to give you some basic information about how to spot a progressive church because I want you to be prepared to identify progressive ideas in case they exist in your own church. Keep in mind, though, that not every progressive Christian will believe everything I mention below. Just as I say with every worldview, don’t make assumptions. If you want to know what a person believes, ask them.
So, just what is progressive Christianity?
Essentially, it is liberal Christianity. By progressive, we don’t mean politically progressive, though the two views often go hand-in-hand. Progressive Christianity doesn’t necessarily view the Bible as God’s Word and bases its theology on 1) personal conscience or experience and 2) cultural norms. But progressive Christians will sometimes use a lot of the same words like inspired, so we need to ask good questions.
Have you ever read anything by Rachel Held Evans or Rob Bell? If so, you’ve dipped your toes into the world of progressive Christianity. This doesn’t mean you are a progressive Christian, but you do need to know how to spot the inconsistencies with Scripture so you can be on guard next time you read something released as popular “Christian” non-fiction or self-help. (For a good example, check out Alisa’s article about the popular book, Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis here.)
Way back in my first article in this series, I talked about how FBI agents spot fake money by studying real money. A person who knows the “real thing” can spot a fake instantly. (That’s why we started out this world religions series with a crash course in Christian theology! We wanted you to know the real thing before we started diving into other world religions.)
When it comes to knowing true Christianity, you need to start with your Bible. Get a reliable translation of Scripture, and study it. This is the best way to arm yourself against falsehood presented as truth.
On her website, Alisa outlines the top five ways to spot progressive Christianity. I’ve combined that list with her list of similarities between the New Age Movement and progressive Christianity and came up with the following things to look out for in your church.
1. Redefining sin
Hillary talked about this in her blog about the “messy” church. Friends, we are sinners. That’s not us simply spilling our coffee on our shoes or having trash on the floors of our minivans. Our sin has eternal consequences (Romans 6:23), and we need to be able to confess that and realize we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Thankfully, by God’s grace we are saved (Ephesians 2:8-9). He didn’t just give us a new pair of shoes or a detailing service for our vans. He died so that we may live (2 Corinthians 5:15).
In progressive churches, you’ll sometimes see a move away from using the word sin or even calling sinful behaviors sinful. In a flurry of misguided compassion, the progressive Christian church has rightfully identified that the concept of sin has, in the past, been used to browbeat people by screaming hellfire and brimstone preachers. However, instead of correcting this weaponization of sin, these churches choose to instead focus on the goodness of humanity. This is not a Biblical approach to sin and does much more harm than good because, as Hillary said in her “messy” church article, if we don’t understand why we need salvation, the good news of salvation becomes a moot point.
2. Devaluing truth statements
If you ever visit a progressive Christian church or read progressive Christian literature, you’ll notice a theme: questions are more important than answers. As I’ve already said a couple of times in this article, questions are important, but answers are important, too. While they don’t come right out and say that absolute truth doesn’t exist, why should we be totally content to simply ask questions? (I mean…isn’t the purpose of questions to find answers?) Have you ever heard someone say, “Your truth is yours, my truth is mine, and either truth is okay”? How can that statement be true? It can’t be because that would violate the law of non-contradiction (a fallacy to add to your apologetics handbook)! Simply put, the law of non-contradiction says that A cannot equal non-A. Progressives often reject putting Christianity in any sort of exclusive box or rigid dogma. One of the problems with this is that we can’t deny absolute truth because absolute truth does exist. Scripture is our compass, and once we start to sway away from what’s in the Bible, we start to accept non-truths. Don’t fall into this trap! Dear church, truth should never have a possessive pronoun in front of it. Click To Tweet
3. Jesus didn’t die for our sins. He was killed because He was a threat to the current power structures.
A couple of years ago, Hillary and Rebekah responded to an article by Unfundamentalist Parenting called “The Trouble with Easter.” (You can listen to the Mama Bear podcast about it here.) In the article, the author says she doesn’t want to teach her children that Jesus died for their sins or that Jesus died to save them from God’s judgment. She also says “Jesus died publicly and grotesquely because he was a political and religious threat to those in power.” The truth, though, is that Scripture says that Jesus died to rescue us from our sins to reconcile us with the Father (see 1 John 2:2, 1 Corinthians 15, and Hebrews 2:14).
The author of the article, who says she is a youth pastor at a progressive church, seems more concerned that topics like the atonement are too confusing or troublesome for children to learn about. Instead, she recommends that Christian parents focus on Christ’s character, emphasizing to their kids that each person is responsible for their own actions. As I’m sure you’ve already realized, the problem here is that while it is good to teach about Christ’s character, leaving out Christ’s death and resurrection defeats the purpose of the atonement entirely. Where is our hope?! Who is Christ without His death and resurrection atoning for our sins? Somebody worth admiring maybe, but not someone worth worshiping. Click To Tweet
Speaking of the atonement, some progressive Christians reject Christ’s blood atonement for our sin, and some even go so far to call it cosmic child abuse.1Steve Chalke and Alan Mann, The Lost Message of Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003), 182-83. Mama Bears, Christ died on the cross for you, for me, for all of humankind. Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that God wouldn’t do this for you. He would, and He did. He also rose again on the third day. He did that, for you.
4. Redefining terms (aka “Linguistic Theft”)
This kind of goes along with #1 on sin, but it can be even more subtle than changes in doctrine. A common word progressives misuse frequently is love. Instead of love being defined like it is in 1 Corinthians 13, it is watered down to some namby-pamby concept of comfort. Making someone feel uncomfortable is unloving. Now, we’re all for not creating unnecessarily awkward moments, but Christianity inherently makes people uncomfortable. Nobody likes having their sin pointed out, and living in community is often… well… uncomfortable. We can’t use others’ level of comfort as the barometer for how well we are loving.We can't use others' level of comfort as the barometer for how well we are loving. Click To Tweet
Other words progressive Christians sometimes misuse include biblical, gospel, and justice. One thing I’ve stressed in some of my other articles about religion is that you need to ask the other person what they mean when they say certain things. You’ve got to do this with progressive Christianity, too. Do not simply assume that you define words in the same way. Ask them what they mean by the words they say. (To learn more about the concept of linguistic theft, we have a whole chapter dedicated to this in the first Mama Bear Apologetics book.)
5. The Bible is just a human book.
Rob Bell once called the Bible a “profoundly human book.”2Rob Bell, What is the Bible? (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2017), 22. Many progressives will say things like “Although there’s wisdom to be found in the Bible, it was written by men. These men were writing what they believed about God, and they didn’t necessarily get everything right.” The problem with this perspective is that it gives progressives like Rob Bell the freedom to disagree with the Bible’s contents, keeping what they like and throwing the rest out with no remorse.If the Bible was merely written by fallible men, fumbling in the dark, cobbling together a book with the best information they had at the time, why trust it at all? Click To Tweet
Did you spot anything in our list that you’ve seen in your own church? I hope not, but if you have, you should talk with your pastor to see where they stand on these issues. Be sure that you attend a Bible-believing church that stays true to Scripture and doesn’t muddy the waters with bad theology.
Want to learn more about Progressive Christianity? Check out Alisa on the Mama Bear Podcast here and make sure to check out her chapter in the first Mama Bear Apologetics book, as well as visiting her website and podcast at www.AlisaChilders.com. Also, check out her book, Another Gospel? (Tyndale, 2020).
Lindsey Medenwaldt is Mama Bear’s director of ministry operations and our resident expert on world religions. She is a perpetual student, so in addition to her M.A. in Apologetics and Ethics from Denver Seminary, she has a J.D. and a Master’s in Public Administration. She’s been married to another apologist, Jay (aka, the Psych Apologist), for 15 years, and they live with their daughters in Texas.
I read this article with great interest and posted a link to it on FB. Imagine my surprise when I received the following response from a FB friend.
Thg comment: Pat…I read this article. And from it, I gather that those who consider themselves true Christians with the right way, do not accept that the way I Am is the way God made me, and is not a sin. Which to me, is passing a judgment on me….and that goes against the primary Christian directive that supersedes all. Jesus said….”Judge not, lest ye be judged.” So in that vein, I will do as He suggests and return the judgment. To those who call themselves true Christians and judge in such a way, you are the worst hypocrites, and most definitely do not feel love in your heart for me. As such are not truly a friend, but in actuality an abusive persecutor. So I pray….”Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do,” and then turn my other cheek and walk away. What does not embrace me with love, I recognize as being outside of the Light, it is of the Darkness. It is bigotry and hatred masquerading as ‘truth’. Peace to you on this Lord’s Day.
Patricia, Because I don’t know your friend personally, it’s difficult to respond directly to their concerns. Without more details, I really don’t know what to say. I will say that it is our goal as Christians to live biblically in all things, and that includes loving our neighbors and living according to the example Christ set for us. If you’d like to share more about your friend, you can email me directly at LindseyLMedenwaldt@hotmail.com. Thanks for taking the time to read and share our article on Progressive Christianity. Blessings, Lindsey
Wow, Jesus is Lord
The tenor of your article is ‘avoid progressive characteristics altogether’. But the thing is we all have a decision to make on how we present the gospel so as to win people over without misrepresenting Christ.
If I’m talking to a friend or an acquaintance and then they suddenly start talking very definitely about sin, that’s intimidating, confusing and difficult to understand. (I don’t know why. To me the idea that we’re all sinners is the one of the most obviously true claims Christianity makes, but other people don’t seem to think like that.) They’ll be reluctant to talk to me in future.
If I ask people questions, I can work with the understand they do have and the life circumstances they are facing. Perhaps they are worried about their long-term boyfriend and ready to have a conversation about Christian marriage. That’s a good outcome for today, even if it’s not the gospel message I would most like to share. I have to trust that God will keep working in their heart and call others to work the ground that I have been preparing.
Likewise, I am not going to persuade an atheist God is real and the bible is written by God at the first encounter, but I might be able to show them there’s a reason for whatever it is they think is so ridiculous. I am not asking them questions because they think their answer is just as good as the scriptures, but because I want to give them the chance to understand and get involved.
The concern, of course, is that we then build an expectation that we don’t talk about these things at all … and then suddenly you’re talking to someone in your own church and they think it’s very weird that you should be so dogmatic about something that you thought everybody understood. Thankfully that’s rare for us (though it was the norm in English churches when I was a child).
I think the Alpha course handled this well. The setup was that you gave a talk and then you let all the visitors discuss it without correcting them. I remember sitting there almost biting my tongue while they worked it through for themselves, but it was amazing how often they came up owning the truth for themselves. The course gets progressively deeper and there’s a clear message about sin a few weeks in. But that’s getting old now; and it relies on people being willing to commit, so we can’t often use it.
Of course, we have to stand up and risk offending people at some point. But when?
Hi Duncan,
First, thanks for taking the time to read and comment on the article. I do appreciate where you’re coming from and share your desire to evangelize in a way that truly meets people where they are. I always encourage people to ask questions first. This keeps us from making assumptions about peoples’ beliefs. That said, we should be speaking truth, even if it’s difficult. Sin is a real thing, whether someone wants to be called a sinner or not (we’re all sinners, after all!). The Bible is truly inspired by God. Jesus really did die on the cross for our atonement. Just as I said in one of my articles about Jehovah’s Witnesses, we shouldn’t necessarily dive deeply into tough theological issues like the Trinity from the get-go, but we should work our way to deeper and deeper topics as we go along (just as you described regarding the Alpha course). I think we need to know truth, first and foremost, so that we can spot the issues in conversation we have with others about worldview. Thanks, again, for taking the time to share your perspective. Blessings, Lindsey
good article
False teaching/teachers have been among us since the Apostle Paul was first spreading the gospel in the first century. Many during that day went about teaching a different gospel than was being preached by the likes of Paul and Apollo. Today’s false teachers spread the same type of spiritual poison and they, too, will one day face the same judge and judgement as those in Jesus’s time. Beware….
Funny how you laud “progressive Christianity” for being mired in “cultural norms” when your ideals themselves are…wait for it…still a product of human culture.
Like, obviously the Bible is infallible and all that but it’s also a book made with a history in mind, written with the people in mind who lived during the time of the original oral traditions of the stories told around Jesus.
Maybe just maybe you should open your eyes and realize that people like you are human that truth, as valuable as it is, still comes from the mouth of a SINNER like YOU.
In other words, nobody has all the answers. Be a bit more open to other people’s ideas and test them according to God’s word, because it’s clear you haven’t done that…
*interpreted not comes…like either way no human is perfect so don’t assume you know all of God’s truth!
anyways, God loves dykes
Thank you for responding to this article. It shows that you care. We would love the opportunity to correct any errors on our part. Could you please let us know where in this blog (or this website) we have done the things you mention? Have at any point we conveyed that we are not sinners? Which points of Lindsey’s article make it “clear” that she has not tested other people’s ideas according to God’s word? We would like to address any errors we make and correct them. Again, thank you for taking the time to respond.
Just a couple of questions.
1) Do you believe that God dictated the Bible to the writers of each book? Is that your definition of inspired?
2) What questions are okay to ask? Jesus was impressing the scribes and teachers in the temple with his questions and questions are more highly valued in rabbinic traditions than answers, so which questions are allowable and which are not?
3) When you define sin, are you using the Torah’s classification? As in the Hebrew word “toevah” which has been translated as abomination in English although the Hebrew actually means ritual uncleanness?
4) You reference 1Cor 13 as the definition of love, which is true, but how does that look to you in regard to dealing with people on a daily basis?
5) What shape is the rigid box or dogma that Christianity fits into?
Um… I know lots of christians who hold tightly to scripture but would consider themselves progressive christians. Just means they’re not holding tightly to evangelical tradition, and are going back to study what scripture actually says.
Hi Steve, Thanks for taking the time to read the article and to comment. As I said toward the end, we are certainly encouraging people to adhere to Scripture, rather than bad theology. Bad theology can be found in many churches, and we want our readers to know the Bible so that they can spot the issues when there are issues. The hope is that we are not twisting Scripture to fit our ideals, rather, we’re hoping that our ideals to fit with Scripture. Thanks, again, for commenting. Blessings, Lindsey
Steve, yes and amen! I was rather glad I recognized myself in this article. We are setting evangelical traditions rather than traditions in line with the life of Jesus.
What I mean are traditions in line with the evangelical church, which is a Greek oriented, western civilization, dominant culture understanding of a book written by Hebrew thinkers. And that is an entirely different thing. The yoke of a rabbi is his interpretation of scripture, and as disciples, we do not have the authority to interpret scriptures on our own. We only have the authority to teach the yoke of OUR RABBI.
My church is attempting to move in the direction of allowing women to teach from the pulpit, also proposing that they be allowed to perform wedding ceremonies, and hold the title of pastor. Would you consider this massive shift consistent with progressivism in the church?
Nah im a progressive christian myself and ive never felt closer to God than now, i do believe jesus died on the cross for my sin, and i also understand that God’s love and power is beyond the bible, and beyond any man or womans imagination, relying on the bible alone as christians is practically limiting God’s power into one book, God’s power and love has no limit and doesnt seculude to one box. Truth can be found anwhere at anytime. I couldnt possibly believe that God created the entire universe of endless and timeless galaxies and planets, thousands of creatures. billions of humans just for a set group of people who fit into the hetrosexual,christian,church going box to be right. I dont limit Gods powers, christianity is my train to God, Islam could be another persons train to God… we all walk our own path to God, some allow their evil and wicked heart to dig their holes to hell, we dont know what everyone else path is like so why judge others that do not walk the same path as us.
It’s not that hard to spot progressive Christianity. Most of us progressive Christians are proud to be, and will happily and freely tell you so. 🙂