We have asked our people to send us their elevator speeches on what is progressive Christianity.

We would love to hear yours!

Please email us your elevator speeches to: contact@progressivechristianity.org

Extra credit if you make a video!

 

Here are the ones we have received so far:

BY DAN SENTER:

Short Version

Progressive Christianity is an open and intelligent engagement with the long legacy of wisdom developed within the Christian tradition and the way of living modeled after the life of Jesus.  It invites healthy collaboration with current (rigorous) scholarship and emerging (evolving) cultural perspectives so that one’s religious experience can be lived with authenticity and cultural relevancy.

Really Short Version

Progressive Christianity is an open, intelligent and collaborate approach to the Christian tradition and the life and teachings of Jesus that create pathways into an authentic and relevant religious experience.

 

BY MADISON SHOCKLEY:

Full text: Progressive Christianity is a faith that is actively redefining the meaning of Jesus, the church and God. No longer is God the “big guy in the sky” that does favors for ‘his’ favorite humans. No longer is Jesus the blood sacrifice for unforgiven sins. Church is a sacred community in which we share love and life, and try to catch a glimpse of what Jesus might have meant by “the empire of God”. Jesus is that one who described ‘the way’ to live life with divine meaning. And God is that most indispensable, guiding principle and power of life.

A 17 second version:Progressive Christianity is a faith where church is sacred community; Jesus teaches ‘the way’ to live life with divine meaning and God is the most indispensable, guiding principle and power of life.

 

BY ROGER WOLSEY

a) in an elevator at a seminary:

Progressive Christianity is a post-liberal evolution of the Social Gospel movement and Liberal Christianity that’s been influenced by postmodernism. In many ways, it should be called conservative Christianity in that it seeks to affirm the values, teachings, and example of Jesus — unconditional love, radical hospitality, inclusiveness, non-judgmentalism, non-exclusiveness, mercy, forgiveness, compassion, reconciliation, and justice. It stresses salvation, as wholeness, here and now and less about what happens after we die. It emphasizes orthopraxy over orthodoxy, and embraces mysticism and paradox.

b) in an elevator at the mall/airport:

“Progressive Christianity is an approach to Christianity that focuses on the religion *of* Jesus, not the religion *about* him. It seeks to help people to follow Jesus’ “way” of unconditional love. Progressive Christianity focuses on helping people be loving instead of judging, and it doesn’t think that Christianity is the only way to God. Progressive Christianity values women’s role in leadership, doesn’t discriminate against gays, and believes that caring for the environment shows our love for God.”