Kevin Young, writing at his substack Culture + Faith, gives voice to both his frustrations and hopes for Progressive Christianity:

You might think that I would find a progressive church to suggest. There are a lot of those in name, especially of the liberal mainline variety like the United Methodists, American Baptists or Alliance of Baptists, Presbyterians (PCUSA), and United Church of Christ (UCC).

But I can’t usually suggest them. At least, not in good conscience.

This echoes much of the same material I touched on in my recent piece critiquing a WaPo Op-Ed that attempted to deny the undenialble decline of American Christianity. Young especially explores something I mentioned in this footnote:

It's common to refer to Mainline churches as "progressive" but the vast majority are not; they are, in fact, liberal. Thinking of your local Methodist or Episcopalian church as progressive because they're Mainline is akin to thinking of Joe Biden as progressive because he's a Democrat. This difference is significant and increasingly substantive in our society. Now, mind you, Mainline clergy, by and large, are very progressive. But their congregations are not. I would argue that, to the typical curious church-goer who has no experience with denominationalism, the typical Mainline church feels more conservative than the typical Evangelical church. In my view, that very real cultural, institutional, and ecclesiological conservatism largely explains Mainline decline. But that’s another post for another day.

Young's whole piece is worth reading but I found his defintion of progressive Christianity interesting:

When I say progressive, I mean a church that has decided the good news of Jesus impacts every arena of life and that the Gospel affects everything, leaving nothing untouched—the pulpit and the polling place, the altar and the ICE raid, the sacrament and the school board. Progressive means a church that believes God is still speaking, that the moral arc of Scripture bends toward the vulnerable, and that any theology that produces cruelty is a false religion.

I agree with this, as far as it goes, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a Mainline, Evangelical, Catholic, or Pentecostal church that doesn't affirm every part of this (yes, even the "ICE raid" bit). They all believe the gospel should impact every arena of life. But they would disagree (not only with Kevin, but often with each other) about what constitutes the gospel itself, what methods for expressing the gospel are valid, and what outcomes evidence the gospel's authenticity. A few lines later, Kevin gets more concrete:

But I also believe that being progressive today means holding strongly and clearly to (at least) four non-negotiable stances:

  • LGBTQ+ people are fully included in membership, marriage, and ordination. Not just “welcomed,” but fully affirmed with no asterisk.
  • Women at every level of leadership.
  • Anti-racism as a practice, rather than something only talked about in committees.
  • Christian Nationalism explicitly named as idolatry.

This is much more specific. And I agree with every point. But while you would lose virtually every Evangelical, Catholic, and Pentecostal church after the first bullet-point, a problem remains: This whole list would largely be affirmed by the very same Mainline churches that Young (rightly, in my view) critiques for being too conservative.

So I tend to think the definition needs more honing.

I have my own thoughts on this – especially related to the distinction between conservative and progressive ecclesiologies, the latent coloniality of the liberal Modern Christian project, and the alarming fundamentalist tendencies one often finds in so-called progressive spaces. I can't say I agree with all of Kevin's arguments. In my experience, for example, churches do not need to foster a culture of high expectations in order to grow and thrive. There's a reason that works for our authoritarian siblings and that reason is toxic. As another example, at least in our case, having an old debt-free building can be a significant asset, not a liability.

But on the whole I agree with him.

And while I share Kevin's ambivalence toward the label "progressive," I think it's the best handle we have, for now. Progressive churches have a very real opportunity to thrive and reclaim Christian spirituality in this intensely formational cultural moment. But to do so, they'll have to take the gospel, the mission to advance it, and the growth that must (by defintion) accompany it, more seriously.

This is an important and timely conversation for progressive Christians. I'm grateful to Kevin for broaching it and I'm looking forward parts 2 and 3 of his series.