Category Archives: The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ

For those paying very close attention, I’ve been following the neo-Anabaptist playbook in suggesting the importance of the sacraments and community within the local congregation. Likely the outstanding spokesman for this point of view is Stanley Hauerwas, who has an … Continue reading →

A friend of mine from high school popped up here at One In Jesus the other day asking what this “progressive Church of Christ” thing might be. He’s from another Christian tribe. And it’s kinda hard to explain. I jotted … Continue reading →

Understandably, given how many readers are in Restoration Movement denominations or else have Restoration Movement roots, the question of baptism keeps coming up when I propose treating other denominations as fellow believers and Christians. Baptism has long been a boundary … Continue reading →

Imagine, if you will, a community without denominations. Here in West Alabama, for example, imagine that all the congregations of Christ’s church decide to cooperate in all things. They begin with the easiest form of cooperation: benevolence. They begin small, … Continue reading →

It’s ironic that our (in the narrow sense) insistence on cooperating only with those as doctrinally pure as we violates our founding principles. Yes, really. The one fact is, that Jesus the Nazarene is the Messiah. The evidence upon which … Continue reading →

Okay. This is the part where we talk some more about what we lose if we give up our denominations. And it’s not as though they serve no purpose at all. In fact, denominations do quite a lot. 1. Missions. … Continue reading →

I think it’ll help if I say plainly what I’m not saying. 1. I’m not saying that all the denominations should all merge into new super-denomination with a uniform worship pattern, uniform organizational structure, and perfectly uniform doctrine. That was … Continue reading →

[re-written and expanded] We should not ask the question in terms of the future of the progressive Churches of Christ or the Restoration Movement. To ask about our subgroup is to assume that God wants our subgroup to have a … Continue reading →

I’ve been trying to think of a simple way of explaining the idea. Let’s try — * The churches in each community should feel closer to and work more closely with each other than churches of their own denomination elsewhere. … Continue reading →