(RNS) Even though I’m behind schedule, I can’t judge more than 10 contest entries at one sitting.

For one thing, it’s inherently wearying to read magazines and articles, score them on a four-criteria scale, and make comments on each one. But I was pleased, if surprised, when the Evangelical Press Association asked me to be a judge for their annual contest.

Besides fatigue, I feel confusion. I have no problem assessing layout, graphics, organization and quality of writing. Many of the pieces are excellent, expressing a clear view of God’s enterprise, imaginatively laid out, and a joy to read.

I am confused, however, by the content. Not put off, not appalled or offended — just confused. It can feel like reading a different language.

I hadn’t realized just how differently conservative evangelicals and my own progressive mainline tradition see the world. In religion, Scripture, politics and ethics — from the meaning of Genesis 1 to analysis of Revelation, from baptism to mission — we share a common devotion to God, but the details all come out different. I realize that I know too little about this extensive corner of the Christian world.

They care about things that I had never thought to care about, like the right age for baptism and detailed theories for explaining Revelation. They are engaged in vast mission work in challenging places, where Christianity isn’t welcome or poverty exists at a level I never see. They write about establishing radio networks throughout the world, preaching missions, leadership training events, door-to-door engagement in wretched lands, as well as a network of religious colleges that were new to me.

I don’t wish to jump ship. I find their strong undercurrent of intolerance troubling, and much that they worry about seems unimportant to me. Yet I admire their energy, their determination, their self-confidence. I read some of their accounts, put down the magazine, and simply say, “Wow!”

In the mainline world, I am so accustomed to hesitancy and leaders fretting over small details. I’ve grown weary of people resisting change and everyone fighting over control. I find it refreshing to read about large dreams coming to pass and individuals making large dreams of their lives.

What an amazing force for good we Christians could be if we stopped fighting each other and worrying about who is right. A starting point for us might be a trip to the wilderness.

You see, it doesn’t matter where, when and how Jesus was baptized. Turning his baptism into doctrine worth killing over misses the point. What’s important is that the wilderness was where Jesus said yes to God and no to Satan.

It was the wilderness where he understood who God was and where his ministry was formed. It was the wilderness that propelled him into an intensive year or so of messianic ministry. It was the wilderness into which he sent his followers.

Imagine Christians making pilgrimages to deserts and scary solitude and emerging to serve, no longer viewing certain other Christians as undesirable, no longer sweating bullets over small stuff, no longer defending small privileges, no longer worrying about who gets ordained, no longer needing to baptize our political and ethical preferences. Imagine Christians who were determined only to know God and to serve God.

With wilderness as our starting point and trust in God as our formation, we could join hands across the bitter breaches. And we could change the world.

(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus” and founder of the Church Wellness Project. His website is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com. Follow Tom on Twitter @tomehrich.)