One In Jesus

To understand my complaints with the progressives (including me), I have to explain some of my concerns for the spiritual state of the conservatives.

Do you remember my earlier summary of Joe Beam’s article on what’s going on in the Churches of Christ? Well, his description, accurate at the time, was couched in Church of Christ terms — “change agents,” “innovation,” “Christian Churches,” and such. But the real issue is grace. And that means we need to see ourselves through a different lens — a grace lens.

You see, the Churches of Christ don’t divide neatly into a progressive and a conservative camp or, for that matter, a grace camp and a works camp. In fact, the situation looks something like this— Continue reading →

If you were to ask most Church members whether we’re headed for a split as a “fellowship,” meaning denomination, most would say the split is already well underway. Many would say it’s already complete.

In my church, when a couple is planning to move out of town, they ask the leadership whether we know of another “progressive” Church in the town they’re moving to. We know that some Churches are very different from the “conservative” Churches, but we are all hard pressed to place a definition on “progressive” and “conservative.”

For some, being progressive is about contemporary worship. For others, it’s having a spirit of grace and freedom. For others, it’s having excellent ministries. For some, it’s just not having to hear condemnation of sister congregations from the pulpit. Continue reading →