It was probably the most pickles I had seen in my life. Whole dishes, in fact, were dedicated to containing vast quantities of the canned cucumbers. This was one of my first experiences with an Anabaptist congregation outside of the Sunday morning service: a funeral for a beloved member of the church.

Due to negative stigma, many Christians distance themselves from the title “fundamentalist,” and I cannot blame them given the current cultural perception. Yet are we right to so readily abandon this designation? While I may have distanced myself from adopting this title given the modern-day interpretation and definition, I am also wary of throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.

♪ Writing about the appeal of progressive Christianity is a daunting task. Those labelled as progressive Christians have been seen as those on their way out of the Christian faith, those who don’t hold to the authority of Scripture, and the legitimacy of their faith is sometimes questioned by those within evangelical circles.

♪As I struggled socially and intellectually in the church and with faith, I felt there was some other category that might better anchor me.

♪At one point the title to Collin Hansen’s 2008 book Young, Restless, Reformed would have described me quite well. I was young (in my early 20s), restless (in many ways) and Reformed (drinking regularly from the well of the three Johns: Piper, Edwards and Calvin).