soma Posted March 16, 2008 Share Posted March 16, 2008 As progressive Christians we should celebrate knowledge and value critical thinking. In the past Christian law condemned those who said the sun did not revolve around the Earth. Ideas will expand our minds and can never hurt our souls. Jesus gave us a simple teaching that stimulates and expands our thinking. He does not want us to be uninformed and dumbed down. He plants a seed and wants it to grow. One idea gives birth to another and those thoughts grow into a strong tree that can give shade, shelter and rest to the weary. May we all progress to the altar of our soul by going through the gate of our mind and not shutting it or being afraid of what might happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllInTheNameOfProgress Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 1. What are the major issues confronting progressive Christianity today? Getting the word out that there is more than one version of Christianity. 2. What should TCPC’s role be in the broader progressive Christian movement? It would be nice if the Center would become a resource center of worship materials, music, children and adult education materials, and faith communication materials(spiritual equivalent of advertising). 3. What is TCPC’s perceived value currently? (e.g. what does TCPC do right now that you find valuable?) The 8 points give us a common language to start from. The message boards have allowed us to converse about issues. 4. How could TCPC be more responsive to the spiritual and community needs of individual affiliates/seekers? I think the resources mentioned above would help. Keep providing contact information for existing communities. There are not many (yet) in Colorado, but I hope my church will become one soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
October's Autumn Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 2. What should TCPC's role be in the broader progressive Christian movement? It would be nice if the Center would become a resource center of worship materials, music, children and adult education materials, and faith communication materials(spiritual equivalent of advertising). Excellent. I hate the Sunday School curriculum my UCC church uses for the children's Sunday School! There has got to be better stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
October's Autumn Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 TCPC Feedback: Future Steps for TCPC and progressive Christianity 1. What are the major issues confronting progressive Christianity today? Letting people, like me, know the exist. I was very isolated for many years because what I thought was "liberal" was actually just left of middle. I had no where to go because I didn't know progressive Christianity existed. 2. What should TCPC's role be in the broader progressive Christian movement? Taking back Christianity from the right wing conservatives. People need to know that not all people who identify themselves as Christians are Republicans, anti-gay, anti-pluralism, etc. They also need to know that when it comes to issues like abortion, we are not of one mind but run the spectrum. 3. What is TCPC's perceived value currently? (e.g. what does TCPC do right now that you find valuable?) It is a place where I don't have to turn off my brain to have a conversation with others. 4. How could TCPC be more responsive to the spiritual and community needs of individual affiliates/seekers? Simply existing makes a big difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllInTheNameOfProgress Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 Excellent. I hate the Sunday School curriculum my UCC church uses for the children's Sunday School! There has got to be better stuff! If I were writing Sunday School curriculum, I would start with the teachings of Jesus I had listed on the "Which Teachings" forum. OA, would you sometime take time to explain why you believe the teachings you deleted are untrue, so I can understand? For me, the Sunday School should also address pluralism by having some lessons on how other faith traditions see the world. This would be extremely helpful for kids grades 3-6 I believe. We recently changed to a rotational Sunday School model with some materials from Abingdon Press, which I believe is our Methodist publishing house. It spends 6 weeks on TOO little information for the kids to really learn anything, but it's fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidk Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 TCPC Feedback: Future Steps for TCPC and progressive Christianity Hello all! Part of what I'm going to be doing here in the future is periodically asking you for input into TCPC's focus and planning. The following questions were given to me by TCPC's secretary and webmaster, Geoffrey Gaskins. 1. What are the major issues confronting progressive Christianity today? 2. What should TCPC’s role be in the broader progressive Christian movement? 3. What is TCPC’s perceived value currently? (e.g. what does TCPC do right now that you find valuable?) 4. How could TCPC be more responsive to the spiritual and community needs of individual affiliates/seekers? Please answer in as much detail as you want. Also, if you know anyone who is interested in TCPC yet does not regularly visit our boards, this might be a good time to ask them to visit the board and give us their input! Also, we constantly have new visitors so I may have to repeat these - please don't take offense and always feel free to add to your answer. ~ Lib I have read this thread with great interest. Although many would discount any of the content of my posts, and while I have found much that needs to be addressed, I will set that aside. For there is a most insightful statement similar to one which had been introduced in one of the "debate" threads and one which I would wholeheartedly encourage adopting: "... change the name to The Centre for Progressive Religion." or "The Centre for Harmonizing Religion" - Bobd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wayfarer2k Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 "... change the name to The Centre for Progressive Religion." or "The Centre for Harmonizing Religion" - Bobd Davidk, what I would appreciate seeing from the good folks who own/run TCPC is a clearer explanation of their 8th point. The 8th point reads thus: "By calling ourselves progressive,we mean that we are Christians who recognize that being followers of Jesus is costly, and entails selfless love, conscientious resistance to evil, and renunciation of privilege." Progressive Christians, according to point 8, DO claim to be Christians. And they claim to be followers of Jesus. I would appreciate hearing from "the management" as to what they think Christians or followers of Jesus are. I'm not trying to be legalist, such desiring clarification or a "working definition." Personally, to be a bit more blunt about it (which I seems to be one of my "spiritual gifts" that no one covets), I would be interested to know if the "Christ" and the "Jesus" that TCPC is putting forward or claiming to follow is, in the words of Marcus Borg, the pre-Easter or the post-Easter Jesus. I think this is an important issue. Why? If the 8th point is pointing more towards the historical Jesus, we have, at least to some extent, a baseline to be found and explored about him in the gospels. There is MUCH in these gospels that indeed entails personal cost, selfless love, resistance to evil, renunciation of privilege. It is, to a reasonably good certainty, the historical Jesus who said that his teachings should be taken into all the world. And those teachings deserve a good amount of study and, even moreso, application to our lives. On the other hand, if the 8th point is pointing more towards the post-Easter Jesus, the "Christ of faith", or the "mystical Jesus", then endeavoring to discuss how we are "Christians" or how we "follow Jesus" becomes almost entirely subjective. Anyone here can claim an experience of the post-Easter Jesus and then, directly or indirectly, imply that "their Jesus" should be listened to and followed. When Jesus becomes solely a product of our own minds or experiences, with little or no relation to the historical Jesus, then the Pandora's Box is opened for "everyone's Jesus." Some would say this is a good thing, that we all create our own Jesuses in our minds. Perhaps to some extent this is true. But I, for one, am not willing to throw out the historical Jesus as found in the gospels for the sake of somebody else's "Christ of faith", even if that somebody is the apostle Paul himself. So I would appreciate some clarification from the management as to "which Jesus" being a Progressive Christian points to, not to exclude anyone, but to establish a baseline for profitable discussion. bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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