Progressive Christianity – What’s the Point?

Author Adam Rao

I had just woken up. It was July; the summer heat was already beginning to invade the house even though the sun was scarcely up. I remember thinking to myself that I should have made an iced coffee instead of the hot tea I was sipping.

As usual, I was reading the latest news; the typical slow start I like to have each morning. But, the first story in my newsreader roused me out of any remaining slumber and shocked me to my soul.

Justin Aaberg was 15-years old. Like most kids starting their first year of high school, Justin was looking forward to roaming the hallways with his friends, meeting his first love, and hanging out by the lockers after class.

But, Justin was gay.

So, instead of hanging out by the lockers after class, he was shoved into them. Instead of meeting his first love, he was told by his peers that he couldn’t fall in love because it would be sinful for him to do so. And, instead of roaming the hallways with his friends, they functioned as an ever-present gauntlet where his enemies hurled insults, called him names, and tortured him with the words, “You’re going to hell.”

Just weeks after his first year of high school, Justin took his own life.

I remember sitting there, in my office, tears streaming down my face – How could this have happened? The details of the story made it clear: This was not just bullying. This was theological bullying.

And, that realization led me to ask: Where was the alternative voice? When his peers attacked him with the threat of hell, why didn’t a progressive Christian kid step in and say, “That’s a lie – God loves you no matter what”?

Like I said: I had just woken up.

The decline of the progressive Christian church is both well known and well documented. What hasn’t been explored, however, is the effect this is having in the world.

The downward trends afflicting the progressive Christian church – a reality particularly pronounced among younger adults, those most likely to have school-aged children – means that there are less progressive Christian kids walking the hallways of our schools. In places like Anoka County, MN (where I live and where Justin went to school),[1] where the political climate is extremely conservative, there are few progressive voices, Christian or not.

In other words, that alternative voice I desperately wanted Justin to have was, is, often nowhere to be found.

We failed Justin.

Because, while there are many today calling for the renewal and growth of the church, few seem willing to make the changes necessary to accomplish that task, whether they be stylistic, theological, or both. And, that lack of willingness stems from a lack of vision. We have lost our bearings when it comes to why we think anyone should be a part of the church, why anyone should be Christian, in the first place.

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The decline of the progressive Christian church is both well known and well documented. What hasn’t been explored, however, is the effect this is having in the world.
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While a larger discussion about the gospel and recovering evangelism is vitally important for today’s progressive church – one we’re having each and every week in the community I’m a part of – what I want to offer here is a simple idea that has rung true in my own experience and throughout history: People changed by Jesus can’t help but change the world.

It was people changed by Jesus – people who claimed he was their “lord” – who “turned the world upside down” and “acted contrary to the decrees of the emperor” in the first century.[2]

It was people changed by Jesus – people inspired by his counter-cultural valuation of children – who began to collect money for the orphans of the world and take them in.

It was people changed by Jesus – people who believed that “the church’s commission consists in delivering the message” of the gospel[3] – who opposed and resisted the Nazi regime in Germany.

People changed by Jesus can’t help but change the world.

It’s time to wake up to the reality that introducing people to Jesus – evangelism – matters because the decline of the progressive Christian church is leading to less justice in the world.

Don’t misunderstand: This is not a plea to recover Christendom. It’s a plea to recover evangelism – a plea to remember that introducing people to Jesus matters because people changed by Jesus can’t help but change the world.

At SafeHouse Church,[4] we’re experiencing this first-hand. Cynicism is turning into hope. Selfishness is being molded into service. People are meeting Jesus, experiencing healing, and in turn, working to heal the world.

It’s my hope that, one day, because our community exists, an alternative voice will be there in the hallways of our schools; that a progressive Christian kid, deeply involved in and influenced by his church, will step into the fray and proclaim, “God loves you no matter what.”

May it be so.