Colby Martin - The Shift: Surviving and Thriving After Moving from Conservative to Progressive Christianity

To Sojourn Grace Collective.

Thank you for teaching me so much about love, community, and wholeness, and for giving me the grace and space to work through many of the ideas in this book.

Its an honor to be your pastor.

One afternoon, while in a photography museum gift shop, I noticed the title of a book so juicy I couldnt not pick it up. Read This if You Want to Be Instagram Famous, the bold letters promised, perfectly aligned across the cover of the of-course-its-square book. Flicking through the glossy pages of pristine people and fabulous food, I skimmed sections covering topics such as choosing the right hashtags, using filters, and everything youd ever want to know about taking the best selfie (I may or may not have lingered on this section). The final sentence of the introduction promised, No matter what direction you want to take your feed in, this priceless advice means you can build a following fast, create something to be really proud of and, of course, give up your day job, travel the world and get shit for free.

The book you hold in your hands offers no such promisesunless you believe reduced anxiety, more freedom, and deeper love amount to getting shit for free, because I will offer that. Bookstores overflow with how-tos, but this book is not a guide for how to become a progressive Christian. There does not exist one single way to be a progressive Christian; therefore the following pages wont tell you what you need to do (or worse, what you need to believe) in order to become one.

When I first came up with the idea for this book, and before I had a title worked out, I told people, Its kind of like a survival guide for becoming a progressive Christian. I balked at outright calling it as such largely because I feared people conflating survival guide with how to. But I noticed peoples eyes light up at the term survival guide, because the movement away from conservative Christianity is no joke. Its hard out there. The path toward progressive Christianity is loaded with obstacles, and surviving is often about the best we can hope for. Yes, I also hope to empower readers to thrive in their new spiritual lives, but I want to be clear from the get-go: this is not a how-to book.

Eventually, I landed on titling this book The Shift. This is my attempt to name the process of a person shifting from their conservative Christian communities toward an expression of spirituality that might still connect with some aspects of the Christian tradition but resides within a more progressively minded worldview. In other words, when you move from conservative to progressive Christianity, thats the Shift.

Terms such as progressive and Christian are difficult to definethey carry about as many meanings as there are people who use these terms. I trust that you will use, edit, or ditch these labels depending on their utility and value for you.

But so you know where Im coming from, when I say progressive, I am referring to someone who affirms and celebrates a diversity of sexual identities and orientations; holds egalitarian views regarding men and women; sees the existence ofand the need to dismantlewhite supremacy; and accepts scientific inquiry as a companion, not a competitor, toward spiritual enlightenment. Progressivism certainly includes more than that, but for me it is at least that.

And when I say Christian, I do so in the broadest sense. My bars for what might render a person Christian are fairly low. For me, the term represents the person who (1) has decided that in Jesusthrough his life and his teachingsthere exists a trustworthy path for living life to the fullest and they are trying to live in that way, and (2) makes effort to identify with at least some aspects of the religious tradition and heritage that emerged in his name.

Ideally, this book will function like a survival guide. A survival guide is written by someone who has traversed treacherous territory, fallen down its pitfalls, survived its hardships, and then turned around to shout across the ravine, Yeah, its no joke out here! But if youd like, heres what I learned. Perhaps it can make your excursion along similar territory slightly less cumbersome.

In 2014, my wife and I started a progressive Christian church in San Diego called Sojourn Grace Collective. Since then, weve spent untold hours ministering to hundreds of people who have undergone the Shift. Each of their stories carries similar themes of pain, loss, confusion, and loneliness. This book emerges out of both my own experience with the Shift and as a result of shepherding many along the way. The following pages represent my attempts to guide people through the very unique experience of leaving conservative Christianity and attempting to make their way toward some version of faith within a more progressive context. Such a journey tends to leave people lonely, frustrated, confused, and angry (in addition, of course, to the uplifting moments of feeling freer, lighter, and more hopeful than ever). I hope this book normalizes that experience for you, while at the same time offers the occasional helping hand or useful insight as you navigate the obstacles ahead.

Not to brag, but Im pretty good at sleeping. Normally, it welcomes me like a freshly hired Walmart greeter. But one evening, just before finishing this book, it treated me more like the Costco exit guard who scans your receipt, glances with unprovoked judgment toward your cart, and wont let you go until you acquire the Sharpie swipe of victory. Frustrated, I stared into the darkness, scanning the receipt of my brain for what held me back from passing to the void. I tossed and turned on my Casper mattress. I fluffed and re-fluffed my Tuft & Needle pillow. Maybe my issue is that I fall prey to too many Facebook ads? Nah, thats ridiculous, I thought as I unclasped my MVMT watch.

Finally, after about thirty restless minutes, it hit me: I was anxious about this book. Not in terms of finishing it or meeting deadlines, but the thought of its content becoming public started to make me panic. Thats interesting, I mused. This is all stuff youve been preaching at your church for the past six years. Plus, in UnClobberyou took on one of the most volatile topics in Christianity: homosexuality and the Bible. Youre not unaccustomed to entering potentially treacherous territory or questioning dearly held beliefs, so why the anxiety now? The more I sat with this observation, the clearer it came into focus. Its one thing to preach a sermon to 150 people who know and trust me, and who can engage in immediate feedback and dialogue if needed. But putting the same thoughts on paper for strangers to read, with no potential for dialogue? Thats different.