The Path of Discipleship - Conservative, Liberal and Progressive Churches

Many books could be and have been written about trends that shape the church.  When I look at my own congregation, I see people who have been affected by many of them.  In this post, I am going to talk about three major strains within the modern, American church: conservative, liberal and progressive.  All three see themselves as faithful.  All three have strengths and weaknesses.  All three are represented in the pews of our congregations.

              The Conservative Church – The Power of Tradition.  Unfortunately, much of the conservative movement has been co-opted by conservative politics in recent years, giving political opinions an anchor among ideas of faith.  Yet the main thrust of conservative religion is an appeal to tradition.  For Christians, it is the idea that the faith which Jesus taught is a constant.  The things he said to first-century Jews are just as relevant to twenty-first century Americans.  Conservatives are much more likely to embrace a literal interpretation of scripture, believing that the text only makes sense if the whole book is true.  While this may put conservatives in conflict with modern science, their faith is strengthened by having a sense of concreteness through appealing to the text.  However, a weakness of this movement is the inability to recognize that the way we think is fundamentally different from first-century Israel.  In spite of the odd “flat-earth” movement, there are few conservatives who think the sun goes around the earth or that the earth is flat as is implied by scripture.  There are far fewer shepherds and peasants in our midst.  Conservatives often miss the fact that they are not the original audience, and even their “traditional” understandings are shaped by 2000 years of study, interpretation and progress.

              Another trend in the conservative movement that is both a strength and weakness is the tendency to focus on personal faith over outward action in society.  It is a strength because such Christians are much more willing to examine their own lives and actions in light of faith.  They are more likely to be shaped by traditional daily disciplines such as scripture-reading and prayer.  At the same time, these traditions can be less likely to be involved in the prophetic calls of scripture, those that push the church toward engagement with people who are poor or those who are weakest in society.

              The Liberal Church -Working for the Reign of God.  Liberalism is where many mainline traditions can be found.  The liberal church tends to give greater weight to passages of scripture that encourage an outward view, noting Christ’s care for the poor and the prophetic call to care for the orphan, the widow and the stranger.  In my own Lutheran tradition, which like many churches has experienced decline for the past view decades, some have argued that as our congregations begin to disappear, our tradition will continue in the many social service organizations that those congregations started.  Liberal mainline churches have been involved with social justice work, hunger relief, and peace work.  They have started hospitals, orphanages, and worked with refugee settlement efforts. 

              The common weakness for these traditions is the failure to share why these actions should be done.  No one will argue that feeding the hungry is a bad thing.  Yet liberal Christians cannot always give a faith-centered reason as to why Christians specifically should be doing them.  As part of a mainline tradition, I can say it sometimes feels like we are feeding others while neglecting to feed ourselves.  Or as one my colleagues put it, we are serving ourselves to death.  No wonder the number of “dones” (folks who used to be part of a church but have walked away) is increasing.

             

              The Progressive Church  - The Reign of God Has Come Near.  The progressive movement is a newer movement within Christianity that seeks to be a middle way between liberal and conservative.  Its critique of the mainline, liberal tradition is that they have made themselves largely irrelevant by forgetting the personal nature of faith, ignoring the call to personal commitment and devotion.  Their critique of the conservative tradition is both its general ignoring of social justice issues and its inability to define itself apart from power (the religious right) and money (televangelists, multi-million-dollar buildings and the prosperity gospel).  Author Roger Wolsey describes progressive Christianity as "Christianity for people who don't like Christianity."

The progressive church emphasizes the radical nature of the gospel message both in terms of how it impacts one's personal life as well as society at large.  Progressive Christians will take on environmental stewardship as a spiritual discipline.  They may take on simplicity as a way of Christian living.  They also seek to be intentionally inclusive, for instance, asserting that the radical nature of Christ's love and inclusion is more important than any texts that would exclude people in same-sex relationships or the LGBTQ community in general.

This leads to some of the weaknesses of the progressive movement.  While most progressive Christians agree on the spirit of the scriptures, there is not a united interpretation of what that means.  Some progressives emphasize radical community, especially with the poor; others, radical inclusion; still others, radical environmental stewardship.  There are several mini-progressive movements, each with something interesting to say, but not necessarily speaking with a united voice.

Perhaps those unique voices can have impact on the liberal and conservative traditions.  Perhaps progressive conservatives can challenge their church bodies to become more focused on the church's calling to care for those in need.  Perhaps progressive liberals can encourage mainline churches to grow in personal acts of devotion.

Where do you see yourself in the scheme of things and how is the Spirit calling you to grow?