What does it mean that Rhodes Scholar and Progressive Evangelical Brad Braxton resigned as senior pastor of the influential Riverside Church? In this discussion over the implications, Rev. Peter Laarman and Dr. Jonathan Walton have a conversation abouth whether multiracial churches require making white people comfortable, why God needs liberal protestants to get out of the bubble, and what the future holds for the mainline church as a whole.

"If Western Christianity finds a new, post-enlightenment, post-colonial, feminist/womanist/mujerista, anti-white supremacy paradigm, it will have the energy needed to carry something else forward. I have caught some glimpses of this outside mainline white churches, but that work is virtually ignored in them. The old paradigms have huge momentum and force, not just in the minds of clergy but also in liturgical materials of hymns, prayers, and texts that embed them deeply in the psyche. We lack the resources, tools, and time to engage the profound transformation required to move beyond our comfort zones and set points."
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Response: We Might Need the End of Progressive Christianity
By Rita Nakashima-Brock

July 6, 2009
In response to the roundtable on Rev. Braxton's abrupt departure from Riverside and the crisis in Progressive Christianity, Rita Brock sees little hope in the Church as it stands.

"I think the wrong question of progressive Christianity is "what makes it Christian?" We'll only know what questions to ask of it when we get a glimpse of the different paradigm.
This essay is itself a rant and, therefore, a bit ironic. I confess it is as much an argument in my head with myself, as it is a call to other progressive Christians. I have become clearer about what might need changing only as I have caught a glimpse of a new paradigm, but changing the old one is going to be really, really hard. To get there, we have to consider the end of progressive Christianity and the birth of something else."
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This is the book that progressives and liberals have been waiting for - a deeply researched history of Christianity that sheds new light on the under-reported personalities and movements of the faith.

"Progressive faith is not about social and historical progress.  Progressive faith is not about winning. When progressive becomes hubris, it always fails. Instead, ancient tradition, deeply formed in the ideal of spiritual progress, insisted that progressive faith was about humility-our lives and the world transformed through God's beauty...But it should give pause, always remembering progress is a journey, not a destination." ~Butler Bass

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Prayer is choice; choice about where you direct your thoughts and intentions, choice about where you place your hopes and desires, choice to slow down and focus on compassion.

Please take a moment to still your mind, and make the divine choice to come into the presence of this moment. God who is always becoming, be here, be now. Shame and fear dissolve in the presence of divine love. Blame melts in the presence of divine warmth, softening the hardest heart and easing the deepest agony.

Prayer is choice. Life is choice. Life is a prayer. Need I remind you that you are powerful beyond measure. You are the director, producer, script writer and lead actor, co-creating your unfolding, open ended play called "Choose Life."

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In these quieter moments, may optimism's glow creep in and then pervade our spirits and countenance. May hope, possibility and inward smile (at least) abide side by side with any worries, fears and the rest of our human repertoire and jumble of thoughts and emotions. Summer flourishes with abundance and warmth; the litany of flowers in turn take center stage, blooming, bowing, then relinquishing their unique splendor and spray. Tiger lilies, then black-eyed susans, and on and on. As nature and emergence marches on, may we too, celebrate the now and who we are....and also who we are yet becoming.

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