So long story short, I lost my job, church, and had to withdraw from seminary because of my views on hell (conditional immortality), evolutionary creationism, and women’s ordination. This event had got me thinking about how Biologos can help lay people like myself. Many ministries have a church search engine, where churches who align with the statement of faith add themselves to the list. I think it would be awesome if Biologos did something like this. Churches could state where they’re at and their openness to EC, which would give us the ability to quickly search for churches who are at least accepting of EC. What do you guys think? Has this been suggested before?
I’m so sorry this happened to you. I can imagine it’s frustrating and I don’t blame you for wanting to be able to have some sense for where a church stands on these issues before investing in relationships there.
We recently had a thread about the Clergy Letter Project, which isn’t quite the same thing, but might be of interest:
The cynic in me says that all you’d need to do is avoid churches from conventionally “conservative” denominations, but that’s not really fair, plus lots of churches are nondenominational these days.
So sorry to hear of your situation. Just talking off the top of my head as I have no real position with Biologos, so don’t think my thoughts are their position, but I would think such a registry would be problematic and unrealistic, though the discussion board here can certainly fill a gap as a supportive online community.
Many here attend churches where we perhaps hold the minority view, but it does put a different spin on things when looking to be a staff member eventually. I think the goals of Biologos are to promote acceptance of those who hold the EC position and help those who hold that position in their Christian life. I can see where listing churches according to their status on that one position could be divisive. It might also take away from examining other theologic positions which may actually be more important to a prospective member.
You might share your general location here in case someone else in your area can share their experience with churches. In any case, welcome to the community here, and best wishes in your journey.
I hope you are okay. That is a lot of loss to deal with.
It has been suggested before. I don’t think many Evangelical-ish churches are beating down the door to be put on such a list, (and it doesn’t seem to be as much of an issue with mainline ones) so I don’t know how useful a list of ten churches for the country would be. There are a number of leaders who work cooperatively with BioLogos who don’t necessarily want to be publicly associated. At the conference you can request that no photos with you in it be posted. That’s kind of the unfortunate state of affairs.
Don’t lose heart! There are a lot of churches out there that aren’t hostile, even if they aren’t all out embracing of EC. Women’s ordination, now, that might be a little harder to find unless you go mainline. Some of us just put up with a certain degree of sexism and hope that in one more generation, stuff is going to finally change in some places if we keep gently pushing and waiting for certain people to die off.
I’m sorry too. And for what it’s worth (even though you can’t take this to the bank, so to speak), it does sound like you resisted sacrificing your integrity by refusing to sign on with things that you knew those around you want to hear. That in itself is a valuable and I’m sure all-too-rare shining light these days. Feel free to private message anybody if you want to share any more as you may feel led.
Also - don’t be too quick to write off entire denominations. Although mileage will vary, to be sure, there can be quite a lot of difference between churches even within a same denomination or conference. Progressive and dogmatic differences cut through every denomination and even every church and individual.
May God sustain you through these hard circumstances, and may you experience care from key supportive people to help carry you through this time.
I can imagine it’s frustrating and I don’t blame you for wanting to be able to have some sense for where a church stands on these issues before investing in relationships there.
Some of us just put up with a certain degree of sexism and hope that in one more generation, stuff is going to finally change in some places if we keep gently pushing and waiting for certain people to die off.