I’ll never forget my pastor’s reaction when I told her I wanted to spend the summer studying the Bible and telling strangers about Jesus. I returned home from college to South Dakota and asked if my United Methodist Church would support me financially.

No, she said. Because “God helps those who help themselves,” she replied.

I’ve been acquainted with progressive Christianity my whole life. I did not grow up in the most liberal corner of the United Methodist Church. But gradually through more discussion with pastors near and far, I understood we weren’t on the same page about the Bible and historic orthodoxy.

A few years later I started my journalism career and learned about the emerging church. I met writers pushing for the same progressive revisions to orthodoxy that I had seen in the United Methodist Church of my youth. I couldn’t understand the appeal of beliefs that had led to massive decline in the mainline since the 1960s. I still don’t.

But Alisa Childers grew up in an evangelical home. She was not acquainted with progressive Christianity until adulthood. As she writes in her new book, Another Gospel? A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity (Tyndale Momentum), she stumbled into learning about progressive Christianity in a church led by pastor who described himself as a “hopeful agnostic.”

For a time her faith was shaken. But Childers—blogger, speaker, and former member of the CCM recording group ZOEgirl—emerged with a deeper understanding of the Christian faith and sharper critique of progressive Christianity. She joined me on Gospelbound to discuss popular progressive writers such as Richard Rohr, William Paul Young, Rachel Hollis, Jen Hatmaker, and Glennon Doyle; whether we can be more tolerant than God; and why churches should welcome honest questions from doubters.

My United Methodist Church did support me that summer. Ignoring the pastor, a group of women from the church threw a fundrasing dinner and covered my expenses. It would turn out to be the most spiritually transformative summer of my life.