A guest post by the Rev. Jim Gertmenian

Today, Religion News Service (via beliefnet) reports:

the departures of Edgar from the NCC, Hough from Union Seminary and the Rev. Jim Forbes from Riverside are leaving three venerable -- some might say vulnerable -- icons of liberal Protestantism with "Help Wanted" signs on their doors.

Then they quote conservative Institute of Religion and Democracy president Tonkowich, who concedes

that high-profile Christian progressives like author Jim Wallis "may be having their day in the sun" with greater media visibility. But he argues that declining denominations, and an embrace of "deal-buster" issues like gay marriage and abortion, make liberal churches barely discernible from liberal politics.

"People are willing to go out on a limb for an exclamation point," he said, "but no one is willing to go out on a limb for a question mark."

I tend to agree with Joe Hough that this can be seen positively as an opportunity for a new generation to take the reins of the progressive movement. However, it puts tremendous pressure on all three institutions to make creative and solid choices at a time when the resurgence of the movement is still in a formative period. And the remnant of the "old guard" will have to be courageous and gracious in letting these important institutions continue to evolve and change. Gary Dorrien's suggestion, made elsewhere, that liberal theology has remained alive and well, albeit under the radar, will be tested in the next twenty years, and some of that testing will happen as these changes are made. The other question, though, is whether the movement will produce visible and widely known "champions" (like Hough, Forbes, and Edgar, not to mention Coffin, et. al) or whether it will take a more diffuse and de-centralized form.

The most provocative line in the article belongs to Tonkowich when he says "People are willing to go out on a limb for an exclamation point, but no one is willing to go out on a limb for a question mark." (He's basically paraphrasing Paul who asked, "If the trumpet gives an indistinct sound, who will prepare for the battle?") Can progressive religion produce an "exclamation point?" or is it, by nature, always going to come across as a "question mark?" The argument is a bit reductionist, of course; real life doesn't parse that neatly and it is the interaction of exclamation points and question marks that defines our age.

I take this work to be an act of faith, not optimism . . . an act of conviction, not certainty. I am, with advancing age, more and more willing to put it into God's hands . . . not that I am willing to be a passive observer of the Holy One's actions, but that I understand myself, with more and more clarity, to be a speck on a large and constantly surging sea whose tides are well beyond my understanding and ever further beyond my control.

Jim is the Senior Minister of the Plymouth Congregational Church, Minneapolis, MN and creator of the Emerging Leaders Conference, a project of the Plymouth Center for Progressive Christianity.