Category Archives: Churches of Christ

Progressive Churches of Christ: The Lord’s Supper, Part 2

Next, think about this in terms of story. When we take communion in our traditional way at church, what is the story that we are telling? In many churches, the story is: We care about the scriptures more than “the … Continue reading

Posted in Baptism, Lord's Supper, Progressive Churches of Christ, Sacraments, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Progressive Churches of Christ: The Lord’s Supper, Part 1

Let’s talk about the Sacraments. You see, I’m persuaded that a key step in the right direction is a re-envisioning of the Sacraments as community events that draw us toward Jesus. The traditional Church of Christ approach to the Lord’s … Continue reading

Posted in Baptism, Lord's Supper, Progressive Churches of Christ, Sacraments, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

The Progressive Churches of Christ: Resolving the Tensions, Part 4.4

I started writing this in the Comments, but decided this was too important to leave there. A couple of readers asked, regarding the last couple of posts, why Mark Love’s first story isn’t good enough, why it’s not the real story. A … Continue reading

Posted in Progressive Churches of Christ, Uncategorized | 27 Comments

The Progressive Churches of Christ: Your Story

Reader and frequent commenter Price wrote, Your PERSONAL story of how The Story has impacted your is far more interesting and far more compelling … You say you taught that divorce can only happen according to scripture when sexual compromise … Continue reading

Posted in Progressive Churches of Christ, Uncategorized | 45 Comments

Progressive Churches of Christ: Resolving the Tension, Part 4.3

I want to dig a little deeper into the bigger, better gospel story that Mark Love presented in his blog. Fortunately, Mark has already done that for me, and all I have to do is cut and paste from his … Continue reading

Posted in Progressive Churches of Christ, Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Progressive Churches of Christ: Resolving the Tension, Part 4.2

Now, to make the point made in yesterday’s post, I need to quote Mark Love, because he’s a better storyteller than I am — Let me start, though, with a scene from last night at Starbucks. I was sitting uncomfortably … Continue reading

Posted in Progressive Churches of Christ, Uncategorized | 20 Comments

Progressive Churches of Christ: Resolving the Tension, Part 4.1

I’m not an expert on story theory, but perhaps I can explain myself clearly enough not to waste your time. We define ourselves by our stories. By “stories” I mean metanarratives, framing stories, and such like. These stories may or … Continue reading

Posted in Progressive Churches of Christ, Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Progressive Churches of Christ: Resolving the Tension, Part 3.2

4. The worse thing you can do is to refuse to talk about the issues. The second worse thing you can do is bring up the issues from the pulpit. Talk about this stuff in the classrooms. When the preacher … Continue reading

Posted in Progressive Churches of Christ, Uncategorized | 25 Comments

Progressive Churches of Christ: Resolving the Tension, Part 3.1

The sad truth is that Churches of Christ have certain inherent disadvantages when it comes to evangelism in today’s world. First, we’ve been trained to “convert” the lost from among our denominational neighbors. When we realize that many of our … Continue reading

Posted in Progressive Churches of Christ, Uncategorized | 26 Comments

Progressive Churches of Christ: Resolving the Tension, Part 2

We come now to a challenging turn in the road. Imagine a Church of Christ that is well on the road away from sectarianism (the idea that everyone else is damned) and toward a healthy understanding of the Spirit and grace, … Continue reading

Posted in Progressive Churches of Christ, Uncategorized | 11 Comments