Peopled Grace: An Open Letter to Clinton First Church of the Nazarene

My brothers and sisters in Christ,

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism and our theological forefather, spoke and wrote often about the means of grace. When Wesley referred to the means of grace, he was talking about things like prayer, scripture reading, communion, and preaching. These are a few examples of some means by which God’s grace comes to us. That is, they are places where God has promised to meet us over and over again. They are regular conduits of his healing mercy. Even if “means of grace” is not terminology you find familiar, most of these practices are familiar ones if you’ve been around the Church for very long. We engage in these practices so that the Holy Spirit may use them to shape us into the likeness of Christ.

There is one means of grace that has become particularly important to me over the last several years even though it may not be one we typically consider alongside of things like prayer and scripture: other people. I’ve come to realize just what a gift from God other people are for shaping us into the likeness of Christ. Other people can obviously serve as friends and people of encouragement and support but they can also serve as a kind of mirror to our own incompleteness. They may do this directly in their words or their actions toward us but more often it is simply by being who they are. Simply by being “other,” by being something other than I am, others can remind me of the vast array of what it means to be human and therefore also remind me of what it means to be whole in Christ.

I’ve experienced this in a number of ways in my life. I’ve experienced it in parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles who have shown me godly love. I’ve come to know it in a wife whose loving presence has rescued me from a solitary life that would come all too naturally to me. I’ve come to know it in children whose constant desire for my presence is a constant reminder that I need to truly be present with those around me. I’ve experienced it in professors and mentors who have deepened and enriched my faith. I’ve experienced in strangers, mere acquaintances, and new friends every time they force me to see life from a perspective other than the one to which I’ve become accustomed. But neither is it merely a matter of my own personal experience. I think it is of the greatest significance that when God wanted to reveal God’s character to us in its fullest and deepest sense that revelation came not in the form of law or prophetic utterance but in the form of a person; namely, Jesus.

                                                                                                               

Over the past six years, I’ve also come to experience this same truth and grace through the community of people among whom I’ve had the privilege of fulfilling the role of  pastor. For the last several weeks, as I’ve reflected on my time here in Clinton, I have been reminded of the many things about ministering here for which I am thankful; the many years of faithfulness by so many, the willingness to serve others, and the hospitality and care you have shown to my family and I. But there is one thing for which I am grateful above everything else; that you have helped to shape me into a person who is a little more like Jesus than the person who became your pastor six years ago. It is perhaps obvious that the role of the pastor is to be an instrument by which a congregations is urged to be more like Christ. What may be less obvious is that a congregation can also shape the pastor to be more like Christ. Clinton First Church of the Nazarene has done that for me. You have been a means of God’s grace in my life. By allowing me to be your pastor, with all of my weaknesses and incompleteness, you have made me a more whole person and a more faithful follower of Jesus. What greater gift could you have given me than that? Thank you for being a gift of God and a means of God’s grace in my life. 

Gracious Holiness

Haggai 2:10-19 depends on some ideas of ritual purity which are rather foreign to us. As I mentioned in some of my posts on Leviticus a few months ago, sin and impurity were seen almost like a disease or pollutant. It could easily spread from one object or place to another and if it contaminated the house of God, it could threaten to drive the presence of God right out of Israel's midst. It is this basic idea which underlies the questions which God commands Haggai to ask of the priests.

"If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?" The priests answered and said, "No." Then Haggai said, "If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?" The priests answered and said "It does become unclean."

In short, impurity is contagious. Holiness is not. If someone touches something common with something holy, it does not make the common object holy. But if someone becomes unclean and touches something common then that common object does become unclean.

God says through Haggai that this is how it is with the people of Israel as well.

"So it is with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean." 

We have heard previously in Haggai that the people have begun to rebuild the temple. This verse seems to imply that they have also started to offer sacrifices there as well. One would think that this would be a good thing but God declares that "every work of their hands" is unclean because they themselves are unclean. They are polluting the very sacrifice which is meant to bring cleansing, not because they are offering the sacrifice wrongly but merely because they are an unclean people. It is God's presence alone which can sanctify this people and their gifts but it is their own impurity which drives God's presence away. In essence, it seems a hopeless situation.

But God promises to bless the people anyway. Rebuilding the temple and offering sacrifices isn't enough to make room for God because no matter what works are done they are offered by unclean hands. But God ignores that reality and promises to dwell with the people and bless them despite their impurity. God chooses to enter into the very contaminant of sin and impurity which should guarantee God's absence.

This passage in Haggai reminds me of a story in the first chapter of Mark's gospel. A leprous man came to Jesus asking to be cleansed. Mark tells us that Jesus was moved with pity and reached out and touched the man. According to Jewish ritual law, this action should have made Jesus unclean. Instead, just the opposite happens. The leper is cleansed.

In many ways, this is the essence of the gospel. We live in a world fouled by the stench of injustice and contaminated by the sins of misdirected love. Even whatever good works we might offer, are stained by the brokenness of our frail nature and the corrosive systems that surround us. These are the things that should drive a holy God away from us. Instead, this God steps into our world and into our flesh and even into our death and bursts the bonds of all our corruption and weakness with the new breath of resurrection life. This is grace. Grace that is greater than all our sin...

And I think this grace of God says something about what it means to be the holy people of God too. Often, in our "holiness tradition" as Nazarenes especially, we have envisioned holiness as a separateness from our culture. Undoubtedly, there is something to be said for being a people who live differently than those around us. But perhaps we should consider what it means for our notions of holiness to accommodate this passage from Haggai and the story from Mark as well. If we are the body of the Christ whose touch cleansed the leper rather than being contaminated by him then perhaps we can rub shoulders with those who might threaten our "purity" without fear. Maybe if we remember that we serve a  God who sanctifies the un-sanctifiable, namely us, then we will understand that holiness is not something we maintain by our own act of separation. It is not the absence of certain things. It is the presence of the sanctifying Spirit of God in our lives; a presence which is not threatened by the impurity of our world. It is a presence which can bring healing if the Body of Christ which it inhabits will only be moved by pity and reach out to those who are hurting.

What's So Great About Being a Nazarene?

In our Sunday evening services, I have been responding to questions that individuals in my congregation have asked. One of those questions was this: With so many different churches and traditions to choose from, 12 churches just in our own little town, what is the benefit of belonging to and attending the Church of the Nazarene? The very first thing I want to say in response to that question is that I regard all Christians as brothers and sisters in Christ and I think we can learn a lot from other denominations. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy participating in our minster’s association here in town, why I always strongly encourage our members to attend the community services we have with other churches every year, why our teens are currently learning about and visiting other churches in town, why we combined with the Methodists and Presbyterians for VBS this past summer, and why we are happy to have those same two denominations participate with us in our community 4th Wednesday meal. As the priest at the Catholic parish we visited just last Sunday reminded us, there is much more that unites us than divides us.

That being said, there are meaningful differences between the different denominations within the body of Christ. Furthermore, while our allegiance to Christ should always be held in higher regard than our allegiance to a given denomination, I do think there is something to be said for digging in deep and putting down roots into a single tradition. This is not because one denomination is without fault or superior to all the rest but because the only way to truly know Christ is to know his Church in all its humanity and brokenness. Our loyalty to Christ inherently entails some loyalty to a local congregation and, therefore, the tradition of which that congregation is a part.

I confess and rejoice that I was born into a family of Nazarene parents and grandparents and that this has a lot to do with me being a Nazarene today. In spite of that, I could have found a home somewhere else at any time. Instead, I have not only remained but become a minister in this denomination. That doesn’t mean that I think the Church of the Nazarene is perfect or without the need for Spirit inspired change. But it does mean there are good reasons I have happily stayed. Here are my top ten.

10. We affirm historical Christianity. This may seem an odd way to begin a list of what makes us distinctive as Nazarenes but I think it is important. There are some traditions and non-denominational groups which acknowledge little or no connection to the history of Christianity which has preceded their own fellowship. As Nazarenes, we confess the historic creeds of the Church and acknowledge that our story does not skip directly from Jesus and the apostles to our founding as a denomination in 1908.

9. Our Wesleyan heritage as a via media between Catholicism and Protestantism. We typically refer to ourselves as protestants and John Wesley certainly wasn’t Roman Catholic. However, as an Anglican, he was part of a tradition that had found a blended, middle way between the Catholic and Protestant traditions which had alternately prevailed at different times in England. Since we often look to Wesley as our theological father, that moderate, catholic spirit has been passed down to us. The earliest Nazarenes followed the maxim “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity”.

8. We believe that God’s prevenient grace makes salvation available for anyone who will accept it. This is not an attempt to put down our Reformed brothers and sisters. They remind us of the important reality that salvation is not first and foremost a matter of human will. It is primarily an act of God. However, we do not believe that God chooses to elect only a few for whom that act is efficacious. We believe that God’s work of salvation in Christ has freed every human will to the extent that they can choose to accept or reject Christ. While salvation is entirely by the grace of God, we believe that God’s Spirit enables our spirit to cooperate with that grace.

7. We Are Not Fundamentalist (but neither do we exclude fundamentalists from our fellowship). Nazarenes have an extremely high regard for Scripture. We confess that it is “inerrant in all things concerning salvation.” Wesley described himself as “a man of one book.” Yet we also recognize that one can not read this one book without making use of reason, experience, and tradition. Our understanding of Scripture does not require us to choose between a faithful interpretation of Scripture and modern scientific and historical research. We believe that the two can easily co-exist. However, neither do we make an attempt to exclude those from membership who do see a conflict between modern science and their faith. We believe there is room for both approaches in our tradition.

6. Global Fellowship and Missional Unity. In a time when “denominational loyalty” is in decline and “church hierarchy” is often viewed with suspicion, I actually think our denominational structure is one of our great strengths. Nazarenes enjoy a fellowship and mutual support structures across a district that independent congregations do not. Furthermore, even denominations which have such a fellowship often go no further than a district or conference level. By contrast, Nazarenes from around the world gather every four years. Our most recent General Assembly was the first to consist of more delegates from outside the United States than from within and also the first to elect a General Superintendent (the highest office in our denomination) from outside the United States (Eugenio Duarte of Cape Verde, Africa). Additionally, while some churches see the budgets we pay to the district and the general church as a drain on local resources, I see them as an opportunity to pool resources and carry out ministries in other parts of our district and the world that simply would not happen if it was left up to each local church to plant churches or send missionaries.

5. Nazarene Compassionate Ministries. I am proud to be a part of a denomination that has an organization dedicated specifically to compassionate ministry to those in need across the globe. NCM works in impoverished areas throughout the world, especially providing nourishment and education for children through their sponsorship program. In times of disaster, NCM is often quick to respond because they have already been working in the area where the disaster struck. When they do not already have resources in place, they are quick to funnel resources to those who do.

4. The Church of the Nazarene began with the stated mission of serving the poor of the inner city. In contrast to the “white flight” pattern of many churches in North America today, Phineas Bresee (usually considered the founder of the Church of the Nazarene) envisioned America’s cities as “centers of holy fire.” As such, service to the disadvantaged in the urban core of America cities has been a part of our identity from the beginning. In fact, the name “Church of the Nazarene” was chosen to reflect the humility of Christ who called lowly Nazareth home and was to be reminder that Nazarenes were always to find themselves among those of humble means as well. To be sure, we have not always lived up to that heritage but it is an encouragement to know it is a part of who we are. A renewed insistence on the presence of Church of the Nazarene in the urban core is not a strange, new development for us but a reclaiming of our ecclesial DNA.

3. The Church of the Nazarene has ordained women for ministry since its inception. In a world where a large number of denominations still do not allow women to serve as ordained ministers (and others won’t allow women to hold any office of authority whatsoever), I am thankful to minister in a denomination whose ordination practices reflect Paul’s words when he says that in Christ “there is neither male nor female.” In its 100 year existence, the Church of the Nazarene has always held that women are just as fit for every office of ministry as are men. While there is certainly more work to be done in this area (since female ministers still make up a very small percentage of senior pastors in the Church of the Nazarene), the ordination of women is certainly one of the reasons I am proud to be Nazarene.

2. Our Colleges and Universities. This one is especially personal for me. I would not be the person I am today if it wasn’t for Eastern Nazarene College. My time at ENC changed the course of my life in a number of ways. Obviously, my faith already played an important role in my life before college since I chose to go to a Nazarene school but the “conversion” which took place in the way I understood my faith while I was at ENC was, I believe, no less significant than the life changing stories we often hear from others when they first come to Christ. The existence of eight colleges and universities (in addition to the Bible college and seminary) spread across the country where Nazarene young adults (and many non-Nazarenes as well! Two other ministers in Clinton attended Nazarene schools when they were younger.) can find a “safe” environment, full of trustworthy mentors, in which they can ask the hard questions of the Christian faith while also gaining competence in their various future vocations and professions is an invaluable resource for our denomination and the Church in our country as a whole. So many of the graduates of our schools go on to become the lay leaders of our local churches as well as Christian professionals who engage others in their field in thoughtfully Christ-like ways. I know that we are not the only ones with great schools but the schools we do have are, in my opinion, one of the most encouraging things about being a Nazarene.

1. Entire Sanctification and the Possibilities of Grace.  Our doctrine of Entire Sanctification declares that we are a people who are optimistic about the transformative power of God’s grace in this life. Our optimism does not stem from a naivety concerning human nature but from the hope that the Holy Spirit can make us truly new creatures in Christ thus fulfilling God’s promise to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There is little doubt that we have overstated this claim at times in our history. Even as our article of faith on Entire Sanctification has been recently revised in positive ways, I have made no secret of the fact that I believe it needs to be revised further still. Nevertheless, I think we are right to continue to proclaim that it is possible for the Holy Spirit to turn all of our affections toward the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, even in this life. Even as I am painfully aware of our many failings to live up to our calling as Christ’s body in this world, it is good to be a part of a denomination that boldly declares that those failings do not have to be the norm of our existence. We believe that the possibilities of God’s grace are so great as to include a whole and complete sanctification of our lives for God’s purposes in this world. For that I say, “Thanks be to God.” 

Darkness, Light, and Entire Sanctification

1 John begins with an abrupt assertion of orthodoxy.  No introduction.  No greeting.  Just a blunt, nearly grammatically incoherent assertion of faithfulness to the Johanine teaching about Jesus.

"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life..."  

It is easy for us to forget just how much diversity there was in early Christianity, how many disagreements there were over really fundamental questions like "Who is Jesus?" and "Was he really human?".  But these questions lingered for centuries before the Church worked out what it believed.  It seems likely that the Johanine community was in the midst of debating such a question, though the enigmatic, proverb-like language of 1 John (just think how different 1 John sounds from Paul's very logical, sequential arguments) makes it difficult to discern just what that question might be.  Nevertheless, it is clear that the writer of 1 John (John himself? a disciple of John?) wishes to assert right away that his understanding of Jesus is the one the Johanine community should follow.  He asserts that his teaching is the one that has been since the beginning (thereby implying that the beliefs of his opponents are heretical innovations) and that it is this teaching which has been publicly verifiable (seen, heard, even handled) and passed on to those to whom he is now writing.

This message is that God is light and in him there is no darkness (v.5).  With this summary statement, the writer turns to a series of alternating and escalating statements which describe the relationship between light/truth and darkness/falsehood in the life of the believer.  The writer begins the alternating pattern with a darkness/falsehood statement.

"If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth." v. 6

"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."  v.8

"If we say we have not sinned, we make him (God) a liar and his word is not is us." v.10

Each statement escalates in severity.  If we claim fellowship with God but walk in darkness then we lie.  If say we have no sin then we lie to ourselves.  If we say we've never sinned then we make God a liar.

Interlaced between these statements of darkness/falsehood are statements of light/truth, each meant to counter-balance the darkness/falsehood statement that comes before it.  

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of his Son cleanses us from all sin." v.7

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." v.9 

 These statements are dialectical.  They are meant to stand in tension with one another.  We can almost imagine each sentence tugging on the others.  As long as each statement continues to pull its weight then a balanced view of the Christian life will emerge.  But if we begin to lean on one statement or group of statements too hard then the tug-of-war will be thrown out of whack and we will end up with a distorted view of the Christian life.

On the one hand, v.6 and 7 make plain the expectation that a Christian is to walk in light rather than darkness.  That is to say that being a disciple of Jesus requires a certain kind of living, it requires "practicing the truth" and avoiding sin.  On the other hand, v.8 and 10 tug back the other direction so as to make it equally plain that avoiding sin is not the same thing as saying that we don't sin or have never sinned.  Finally, v. 9 gives another tug back in the direction of v.6 and 7 by reminding us that if we confess our sins God really does forgive those sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This brings into clearer focus what it means to "walk in the light".  It is not sinless perfection.  If it were then confession would be failure.  Instead, the recognition and confession of our sinfulness is the very thing that allows God to forgive us and cleanse us and thereby make righteousness possible.  Confessing our sinfulness allows God to work in us in such a way that further sin can be prevented in our lives.

As a people who believe in a doctrine of Entire Sanctification, we Nazarenes would do well to meditate on these verses day and night, letting them soak into the deepest parts of our existence.  We are a people who are optimistic about the extent of transformation that is possible by God's grace in this life.  When 1 John says that we can be cleansed from all unrighteousness, we take that to mean that God frees us from all of sin's power in this life so that it really is possible for us not to sin, to really live righteously in this world.  However, as these verses remind us, that is not the same thing as saying that we will never sin again once we are entirely sanctified.  Too often in our tradition entire sanctification has been confused for a spiritual plateau, a place where spiritual growth levels off because one has already reached the highest possible state of holiness.  As a result, confession has become somewhat of a lost art in our denomination since there has at times been an implicit expectation that those who are entirely sanctified shouldn't have anything to confess.  This in turn has led to an abundance of legalism and self-righteousness.

This is not to say that we should give up on our hope of transformation, sanctification, and righteousness in this life.  1 John clearly calls believer to "walk in the light" and to be "cleansed from all unrighteousness". It is to say that such sanctification is not a state that we reach once and for all but a path we must continually walk and the means to staying on this path of light is not pretending that we have no sin.  For the concealing of anything will only require that we seek out even more darkness.  But if we remain on the well lit path then even our darkest deeds will be exposed and it is that exposure itself which will eliminate the darkness.  It is the exposure of our whole selves to the light of Christ that makes our cleansing from all unrighteousness possible.

Reflecting on NYC

Twelve years ago I went to Nazarene Youth Congress in Toronto, Canada as a student entering my senior year of high school.  In addition to being a lot of fun and an overall spectacular event, this was a time when God spoke to me.  It was one of the first of many nudges toward a call to ministry.

Last week, three of our teens, our NYI president, and myself attended Nazarene Youth Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.  Although I had shared with others several times how impactful NYC had been in my own life and how I believed it would do the same for our teens who were going, I had no such expectations for myself this time around.  After all, I figured, this was a teen focused event and I am now nearly 30.  I have experienced 7 years of theological education, 4 years of pastoral ministry, and ordination as an elder in the Church of the Nazarene since I was a student at NYC, not to mention the normal growth and maturity one expects to gain from 12 years of life, 8 years of marriage, having 2 children, and living in 4 different states.  Not that all of this makes me "old and wise" by any stretch of the imagination.  It is simply to say that there are many ways in which I am not the same person I was 12 years ago.  This was a teen event and I am no longer a teen nor am I especially in tune with youth culture.  My sole purpose in going was to be present with our teens and to see what God would do in their lives.  

But I guess when God decides he is going to show up and work in the lives of those who are present, it doesn't really matter if you are part of the "target audience".  My expectations no longer mattered.  The event organizers' expectation didn't matter.  It only mattered that God was present.  And God was present.  For some brief, sweet, almost dream-like moments the glory of heaven was manifested in a basketball arena in Louisville, KY.  I went for our teens.  I left having experienced God's presence in a way that I have not for a very long time.

Much like 12 years ago, this NYC was more a nudge down a path where God has already been leading than it was any kind of final word.  I was not given a blue print for the rest of my life or some radical new direction for my congregation.  I simply got to experience the intimate presence of God and that was enough.  For months now, I have been begging God in prayer to pour out his Holy Spirit in fresh and undeniable ways on our congregation; to make his presence among us evident.  I'm honestly not even sure what I expect that to look like.  I just know I am hungry for God to show up and do something, to transform lives in the way I believe it is possible for only God to do, to demonstrate that God's Word and God's Spirit really can create and shape a holy people.  I have been longing for something to happen that can not be attributed to me or the work of our church but only to a movement of God, something that can only be called revival.  I believe that is what I witnessed in Louisville last week.  This certainly hasn't satisfied the longing I've had for God to do something in our church and our town.  Instead, it is yet another nudge down the path to trust that God can and will work among his people if we will continue to seek.

I suppose that in my moments of greatest honesty I would admit that at the center of my low expectations coming into last week was a fear; a fear that runs much deeper than the realization that I'm not quite as a young as I used to be.  It was a fear that perhaps I was more naive 12 years ago than I would like to admit; that maybe 12 years ago it was more the hugeness of the event that was talking than the voice of God, that maybe there was more "smoke and mirrors" than I remembered and that now 12 years later I would see through the smoke and mirrors and be disappointed.  At this point in my life, my faith can not be a blind one.  I have seen too much in the Church that is fake and disingenuous.  I've had too many moments that caused me to roll my in eyes disgust and frustration at our attempts to be puppeteers rather than prophets.  As a result, I've sometimes become slow of heart to real and genuine movements of God.

But last week was different.  Yes, the music was exciting.  Yes, the worship services were technologically impressive.  Yes, there were emotionally charged moments.  Yes, the speakers were gifted communicators.  Yes, we were often tired and overworked.  And yes, I'm sure there were teens more concerned with members of the opposite sex than with what God was doing.  These are all things of which I am normally a little wary in worship, especially worship involving teens, since I think it can leave them vulnerable to emotional manipulation rather than the leading of the Spirit, a "worshiping" of the worship experience rather than worshiping God.  But last week was different.  While all of those elements were present, I believe God's Spirit was genuinely present as well.  There was no sense of pretension, no goal to whip the crowd into an emotional frenzy, no sense that if a certain number of people didn't come forward to pray then the night wasn't a success.  From the outset there was a freedom and depth of worship calling us to a life of service and sacrifice that said this was a movement not merely of light and sound and charged emotions but of the living God.  Quite in contrast to looking through smoke and mirrors and finding disappointment, last week I looked through the lights and loud music and found the face of God, the same God whose voice I heard 12 years ago.  Thanks be to God for showing up in Louisville, Kentucky last week and for letting this pastor be there to witness it.

Sacred Trust

Last Thursday night, I was ordained as an elder in the Church of the Nazarene.  As I have reflected on my ordination over the last several days, there is one word that comes to my mind repeatedly: trust.  While ordination is an event filled with much meaning and significance, perhaps what it signifies more than anything else is that Christ's Church has placed its trust in you.  After seven years of education and three years of applications, interviews, and full time ministry, the Church has in effect said "We believe David Young to be a trustworthy steward of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

Of course, this sign of trust on the part of the Church does not come as a surprise.  I committed myself to be a minister of the gospel 10 years ago and have been on this path ever since.  I have been pastoring a congregation for 3 years already, my calling as their spiritual leader being a substantial gesture of trust to a 25 year old in its own right.  And I've known for several months that I had already been approved by the ministerial credentials board of our district, meaning that barring some unusual event I knew I would be ordained on July 15th, 2010.  And yet, in spite of all that, there was still something surprising, unexpected, subtly grace-filled about the ordination itself.  While it was expected, I know it was not earned.  In that sense, it was like the wedding anniversary of a strong marriage; while you've always expected that person you committed yourself to years ago to be by your side you still find yourself surprised by the grace that is their presence in your life.  While you expected nothing less, you also know it is infinitely more than you deserve.   

Even while I have oriented my whole life around this calling, it is difficult for me to comprehend that the Church has entrusted to me the same gospel which Christ entrusted to his apostles so many years ago; that Christ's Church has said "Yes, we believe, as you do, that the God who created and redeemed us has called you to this ministry"; to think that this apostolic faith passed on faithfully for centuries has now been laid on my shoulders by those who had it laid on their shoulders by others who had it laid on their shoulders...  It is exhilarating.  It is humbling.  It is terrifying.  It is affirming.  It is a sacred trust that I will not forget nor forsake but by the grace of God will give myself to as long as I shall live.

Our Part for Haiti

We have to do something.

This seemed to be the one thought that ran through my head as the images of Port-au-Prince ran across my TV screen. It's not that I'm an unusually compassionate person. Like anyone who follows the news, my mind and heart are too often numbed to the images and reports of pain and suffering that make their way from around the world into my living room on a daily basis. In fact, it was one such report that came flooding back to my memory as I watched these new images of devastation and death. It had told how people in Haiti were so poor that they were resorting to making cookies from mud just so they would have something to quell the sharp pains of a woefully empty stomach. Now they had to deal with a massive earthquake too? We had to do something.

At first, the "we" I had in mind was only my wife and I. I wondered what we could do, how much we could give in order to lessen the suffering of our Haitian brothers and sisters. However, as the magnitude of this tragedy became more apparent it wasn't long before I began to realize that my role as a minister necessitated that I call upon my congregation to respond. We dedicated our entire worship service last Sunday to those who are suffering in Haiti. Our church board also made personal pledges that added up to over $2500 for Haiti relief through Nazarene Compassionate Ministries and we are expecting much more to be given by the rest of our congregation in the weeks ahead. Some in our church are working with others in our town to collect items for orphanages in Haiti. Still others are considering how we can continue to help Haiti recover in the months and years ahead.

We know that whatever our church contributes will be an immeasurably small portion of what is needed in Haiti. We are grateful that it is not our task alone and that so many countless others are responding with such generosity and compassion. On the other hand, we also know that however small our part might be, it is still our part and it is not to be left to someone else. As much as our actions are meant to help those in Haiti, those same actions are also exercises in breaking through the numbness of our own hearts and minds to the suffering of those around us and around our world. I once heard a preacher say that compassion is when you see someone else hurting and you hurt with them so badly that you have to do something. It is our hope that our acts of solidarity with those who are hurting in Haiti, however small those acts might be, will be a step toward shaping us to be the kind of people who see the suffering of others and know that we have to do something.

Article X

Below I have posted the revision of our tenth article of faith in the Church of the Nazarene recently adopted by the General Assembly in Orlando, Florida. It must now be ratified by two thirds of the districts around the world. If that happens, then these changes will appear in the 2013 version of our manual.

Brackets indicate a deletion. Underlining indicates an addition.

X. Christian Holiness and Entire Sanctification
13. We believe that [entire] sanctification is [that] the [act] work of God[, subsequent to regeneration, by] which transforms believers into the likeness of Christ. It is wrought by God’s grace through the Holy Spirit in initial sanctification, or regeneration (simultaneous with justification), entire sanctification, and the continued perfecting of the Holy Spirit culminating in glorification. In glorification we are fully conformed to the image of the Son.
We believe that entire sanctification is that act of God, subsequent to regeneration, by which believers are made free from original sin, or depravity, and brought into a state of entire devotement to God, and the holy obedience of love made perfect.
It is wrought by the baptism with or infilling of the Holy Spirit, and comprehends in one experience the cleansing of the heart from sin and the abiding, indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, empowering the believer for life and service.
Entire sanctification is provided by the blood of Jesus, is wrought instantaneously by grace through faith, preceded by entire consecration; and to this work and state of grace the Holy Spirit bears witness.
This experience is also known by various terms representing its different phases, such as “Christian perfection,” “perfect love,” “heart purity,” “the baptism with the Holy Spirit,” “the fullness of the blessing,” and “Christian holiness.”
14. We believe that there is a marked distinction between a pure heart and a mature character. The former is obtained in an instant, the result of entire sanctification; the latter is the result of growth in grace.
We believe that the grace of entire sanctification includes the divine impulse to grow in grace as a Christlike disciple. However, this impulse must be consciously nurtured, and careful attention given to the requisites and processes of spiritual development and improvement in Christlikeness of character and personality. Without such purposeful endeavor, one’s witness may be impaired and the grace itself frustrated and ultimately lost.
Participating in the means of grace, especially the fellowship, disciplines, and sacraments of the Church, believers grow in grace and in wholehearted love of God and neighbor.

In my opinion, the revision of this article represents a major step forward in our expression of one of our core doctrines as Nazarenes. I think the wording is a little more wholistic than the previous wording in that it sets entire sanctification within a larger understanding of holiness. I also appreciate that this revision more explicitely connects holiness to the idea of being Christ-like. Additionally, the final sentence is an important step in the right direction (though it could be a little smoother grammatically for the sake of clarity). I see it as a significant return to our Wesleyan roots to affirm that holiness is nurtured by the means of grace in general and the sacraments in particular.

However, I also think that this article could continue to be improved in a couple of ways.

1) I would like to see the third paragraph, about the baptism or infilling of the Holy Spirit, completely eliminated. To say that we are baptized or in-filled with the Holy Spirit only once we are entirely sanctified seems to imply that we did not receive the Holy Spirit when we first believed which is certainly not a biblical idea. The book of Acts records repeatedly that believers received the Holy Spirit upon their conversion. In Galatians, Paul asks the church there if having begun with the Spirit they are now being perfected by the flesh? Paul's point is that the Spirit has been with these believers since they became believers. John Wesley even stated that while some in the Methodist movement used this language to describe entire sanctification, it was not really accurate in its depiction of God's work and Wesley himself avoided the phrase for that reason.

2) I would like to see the language of "instantaneous act" reconsidered. In the second paragraph, entire sanctification is desribed as an "act" of God, implying a single crisis event. Again in section 14 it is said that a pure heart is obtained in an instant while a mature character is the result of growth in grace. In my view, the emphasis on entire sanctification as an instantaneous, distinct second work of grace comes from two things. One is that this was simply the experience of a lot of good Nazarenes. Many people experienced entire sanctification in a clearly distinguishable moment in their life separate from their initial conversion. I think the other reason this language is important is because it reminds us that entire sanctification is not the same thing as simply maturing as a human being. It is something that God does in us with our cooperation. But it is not something that just occurs naturally if we are a Christian long enough. This is important and is an emphasis that should not be lost. However, I think that there are ways that we can talk about that without having to put everyone in the box of having to experience a distinct second act of God that is somehow qualitatively different from others acts of God in our lives. It may well be that it takes three or four or five distinct acts of God for us to continue on the path of maturing holiness. Furthermore, it is difficult to find scripture that supports the idea that there must be this distinct second act. Scripture certainly urges us onto perfection/maturity and expects that is not something we do on our own but do only through God's grace but it does not insist that this happen in a distinct second work of grace. I think that we can find ways to talk about God's continuing work of grace to make us holy and entirely sanctified without insisting that it always be a decisive two step process.

My General Assembly Top 10 Moments

The 27th General Assembly of the International Church of the Nazarene, the major legislative body of our denomination which meets every four years, was held last week in Orlando, Fl. I had the tremendous privilege of attending thanks to the generosity of the church where I pastor. Here were some of the highlights of the event from my perspective.

10. Lack of "Concerned Nazarenes". There is a group that calls themselves "concerned nazarenes" whose concern is over what they consider to be the heresies of the emergent church movement influencing the Church of the Nazarene. If you are not familiar with the emergent movement, I've written a little bit about it here and you can learn more about it at emergent village. Leading up to General Assembly, it sounded as if there might be a significant group of concerned Nazarenes who would make their voices heard at General Assembly. There were indeed "concerned nazarenes" present, easily identified by the polo shirts they had embroidered with the name of their group. However, it became quickly apparent that they were a very small minority among those present at assembly. While I still consider these concerned individuals to be my brothers and sisters in Christ and do not in anyway wish to exclude them from the fellowship of our denomination, I am glad to know that their voice is not the dominant one in our denomination. The emergent movement raises some valid criticisms of the modern day Church in North America and those of us in the Church of the Nazarene would do well to take those criticisms seriously as we follow Jesus.

9. Dr. Middendorf's Sermon. On our first night at assembly, Dr. Middendorf preached a relatively simple and straightforward message from Philippians 3:7-11. While there was nothing radical or surprising about his message, it was good to hear one of our General Superintendents affirm that one of our highest expressions of Christ's resurrection power at work within us is when we as a church practice solidarity with the suffering and broken in our world.

8. Workshops. There was a vast array of workshops about a variety of topics to choose from in the week leading up to assembly. It was encouraging to participate with fellow Nazarenes from around the world in considering how we can better live out our calling as the Church. I wrote in detail about one of those workshops here.

7. Cocoa Beach. Ok, so it would be dishonest if I didn't list going to the beach as one of my favorite activities of the past week and a half. On the very last day of our stay in Orlando, after all the business was concluded we were able to take a trip to Cocoa beach and had a great time there. There are some pictures here as well as some other pictures of Hannah throughout the time we were in Orlando.

6. Seeing Friends. One of the great things about going to the biggest event in our denomination is that we got to see a lot of friends from seminary and college and the churches we grew up in. It was great to catch up with some friends and colleagues in ministry that we hadn't seen in a while.

5. Dr. Diehl's honesty and transparency. Dr. Diehl spoke about healing in his sermon on Saturday night and had a time for people to come forward to be anointed for healing at the end of the service. So often messages about healing are completely unrealistic and disingenious in that they focus solely on miraculous stories of physical healing without acknowledging the real pain and suffering that continue to exist in our world. Dr. Diehl spoke confidently about God's ability to heal us in all kinds of ways, not just physically. But this confidence was given an uncommon depth and grace when he also spoke of the loss of his son to cancer just a year ago. Dr. Diehl was inspiringly honest about his hopes for his son when God began to speak to him about having a healing service at General Assembly. He believed that he would be able to call his son up on stage in that service at assembly as a powerful witness to the fact that God heals. Instead, Dr. Diehl's son lost his battle with cancer. Dr. Diehl's openness before a crowd of thousands was a powerful reminder that often we have to trust that God's healing power extends even beyond the grave.

4. The Revision of Article X. For the past two years, the Board of General Superintends had been working on a significant revision of our tenth article of faith on Entire Sanctification, an important part of our identity as Nazarenes. Unfortunately, I was not able to see the whole revision since the resolution was submitted too late to be printed for guests and therefore only the delegates got to see it in its fullness. However, what I did see of it looks very promising. It seemed to articulate a more wholistic understanding of holiness and entire sanctification. I hope to see the revised article in its entirety in just a few weeks at District Assembly since two thirds of the districts in the church must now ratify the change after having been adopted by the General Assembly.

3. International Church Committee Resolution. The ICC proposed major revisions to our Manual to help our church become more truly global in its mission and polity. Due to the fact that the Church of the Nazarene began primarily as a North America denomination, our organizational structures and modes of thought are still very North American in many ways despite our reality of being a global church. Allowing large sections of the manual to be regionalized will aid our church in becoming a more truly international denomination on every level. Nazarene Communications Network has a good summary of the ICC resolution here.

2. Sharing Communion with thousands of fellow Nazarenes. Sunday morning was by far the largest worship service during our time in Orlando. I haven't seen officials numbers for attendance but the enormous room of the convention center we were in was packed. It was a unique experience to have the opportunity to share in the Lord's Supper with that many brothers and sisters in Christ in one place at one time.

1. The Election of Eugenio Duarte to the office of General Superintendent. Easily the most exciting experience of this General Assembly was being present on Tuesday morning for the election of our first General Superintent from outside the United States. When the ballot was read and everyone realized that Eugenio had recieved enough votesto be elected, the enitre room exploded with cheers and applause. Fellow delegates from his home region of Africa immediately swarmed him and began to lift him up on their shoulders. Some were even running to him with the flag of his homeland of Cape Verde. This was a moment when the Church refused to be held captive by the constraints of its past and took a bold step forward into a new and hopeful future as a truly global denomination.

We also elected David Graves and Stan Toler to the Board of General Superintendents along with Duarte. These three join the three remaining generals; Jesse Middenorf, Jerry Porter, and J.K. Warrick. Other notable events of this General Assembly included the opening service Wednesday night when delegates from around the world entered carrying the flags of their nations, the announcement that Nazarene Youth Congress 2011 will be in Louisville, KY, the election of our first Nazarene Missions International President from outside the U.S. (Jennifer Brown of Jamaica), and the participation of international delegates in the Nazarene Youth International Convention via videoconferencing.

You can view a complete list of actions taken by the assembly on various resolutions at this link.

General Assembly Update

I thought this update might be too long for a facebook status.

As of Monday night, we haven't elected any new General Superintendents yet but we are getting close to electing the first new one of this assembly and more importantly there seems to be a good chance we will elect our first GS from outside of the U.S. As I stated in my earlier status, 64% of our members live outside the U.S. but our leadership has been slow in reflecting this reality with less than half our GA delegates coming from outside the U.S. and no general from outside the U.S. It is extremely important that our church elect leaders from other parts of the world who understand their own culture where God is moving in new and exciting ways.

At the conclusion of business tonight, Eugenio Duarte was the leading vote getter. I found a short article in Holiness Today about him here. He already has 400+ votes and only needs about 250 more to be elected.

The second most votes went to Gustavo Crocker. Read about him here.

John Bowling, the president of Olivet Nazarene University, received the third most votes. It was a significant drop off from there.

There will have to be many more ballots cast before we have three new GS's but things are looking promising.

Perhaps even more importantly, the assembly passed the resolutions of the International Church Committee. This was a committee designed to help the Church of the Nazarene consider how it's church polity and organizational structures need to adapt to our international constintuency. The committee concluded that minor revisions to our organization and polity were no longer sufficient to adequately address the needs of our global denomination. The assembly adopted the committee resolution that Manual sections 100 - 384 be reviewed and re-written so that we can be a truly global denomination and no longer built around a North American framework. Some are saying that this is the most significant legislation of the assembly and it's adoption alone makes this GA an enormous success. I urge you to read more about the work of the ICC here.

Good things are happening here in Orlando. It makes me excited and hopeful for the future of our church. Hopefully, I'll be able to share with you tomorrow that we have elected our first General Superintendent from one of the international delegations.

Postmodernism and Wesleyanism

"If you died tonight and found yourself at the gate of heaven and Jesus asked you 'Why should I let you into my heaven?'what would your answer be?"

If you've been aroud the Church for a while then you've probably heard this question or one like it before. While it is difficult to nail down the exact differences between modernity and postmodernity in this major cultural shift that is taking place in our culture, this question does a pretty good job of summing up the modern approach to evangelism in particular and Christianity in general. It is designed to encourage someone to think about their eternal destination and thereby lead them to a decision for Jesus. It represents a form of Christianity in which the central question is "How do I get to heaven?"

I attended a workshop here at General Assembly today entitled "Postmodern and Wesleyan?" in which the presenters discussed what Christianity in our Wesleyan heritage as Nazarenes might look like in a postmodern age. I found the most insightful part of this workshop to be when the presenters offered postmodern alternatives to the opening question above. A question like:

"If you were to live for another 40 years, what kind of legacy would you want to leave behind?"

or even better...

"If you believed in a God who was working and active in our world, wouldn't you want to be a part of that redepmtive work?"

These questions represent a Christianity that is not solely focused on heaven or hell but what God is doing now, in this life. As a result, they resonate much more closely with a postmodern generation and, in my opinion are much closer to Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God come to earth. Its not that heaven isn't important. It's just that Christianity shouldn't be boiled down to a ticket to heaven. We believe in a lot more that that. Our hope runs much deeper and wider than that.

In fact, thinking about the way that God works in our world (i.e. inhabiting our flesh through Jesus and continuing to inhabit our lives through the Holy Spirit) should remind us that while certain evangelism techniques might help us present the gospel more concisely, those techniques should never be about a gimmicky, used-car-salesman, kind of offer designed to get someone to agree with our cognitive beliefs about Jesus despite their better judgment. As the Church, we've got to stop looking for short cuts, easy answers, and magic bullets. We've got to stop trying to find the formula that will automatically turn everyone we meet into a Christian and start actually speanding time with people, loving people, building long-lasting relationships, and showing others what it means to be a community centered around the crucified and risen Lord and shaped by his Spirit. After all, that's the example that Jesus himself gave us.

2009 Annual Report

Yesterday we had our Annual Church Meeting and Elections here at our church. You can listen to the podcast of my Annual Report on the player below or you can read the written text of the report by clicking here.

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Contagious Holiness

Cleansing is central to the episode recorded in Mark 1:40-45. A leper comes to Jesus and says "If you are willing, you can make me clean". Jesus responds "I am willing, be cleansed". Mark then tells us that "Immediately, the leprosy left him and he was cleansed". Finally, Jesus tells the former leper that he must go show himself to the priest and offer for his cleansing what Moses commanded.

In first century Judaism, it would have been difficult to find categories that were more important than that of clean and unclean. Ritual cleanliness and purity were almost synonymous with holiness and therefore with Israel's understanding of its mission as God's people. To be unclean, like the leper in this story, was to be excluded from participation in God's covenant relationship with Israel.

In this passage, Jesus seems to simultaneously challenge and uphold these notions of purity and cleanliness. As has already been noted, cleansing is central to the story. It is important that this leper be made clean. Furthermore, after the man is cleansed, Jesus tells him to go show himself to the priest and take actions in accordance with the law of ritual purity.

Nevertherless, Jesus' response to this leper is not completely in line with first century Jewish standards. The standard response would have been to avoid the leper completely. Instead, Jesus is moved with compassion and reaches out to touch the man. This contact with the leper should have made Jesus unclean but what actually happens is the reverse. Jesus makes the leper clean.

Passages like this one can and should go a long way in guiding those of us in the so called "holiness tradition." Too often, our ideas of holiness are much like those of Jesus' contemporaries. We try to maintain a certain level of purity by keeping ourselves separate from everything in the world that might make us unclean. While holiness is certainly an important and essential part of our mission as the Church, we should not underestimate the power of Jesus at work within us to make clean those with whom we come in contact. If Jesus' touch has been powerful enough to cleanse us, why shouldn't we assume that it will be powerful enough to cleanse all those to whom we reach out in Jesus' name? A truly scriptural holiness ethic should not lead us to separate ourselves from the world with all of its impurities. It should lead us to engage our world with the love and compassion of Jesus.

Celebration

The centennial celebration at our church has been consuming a considerable amount of my attention these days. It takes a lot of planning and coordination by a lot of different people in order for a celebration like this one to take place. So first, let me extend a word of thanks to those many people who have made this celebration what it is.

In addition to thinking about our centennial celebration, I’ve also been doing a lot of reading in the Psalms lately in preparation for my next series of sermons after the centennial. This has been an interesting mixture since so many of the Psalms themselves are little sonnets of celebration. Although celebration is by no means the only note sounded in the great chorus of the Psalms, various tones of celebration do reverberate throughout the Psalter. The Psalms celebrate God, God’s mighty acts of deliverance for his people, God’s glorious artistry in creation, and the work that God does through his people as they follow God’s teaching and instruction. So many of the Psalms are verbal celebrations of life lived in God’s grace.

All of this has served to remind me of the importance of joyous celebration in the life of the Church. Genuine celebration is truly a significant part of the Christian life because when we pause to rejoice in what God has done for us, as the writers of the Psalms do, then we are overwhelmed with the various ways in which God has blessed us beyond measure. Celebration is the natural outpouring of the grace of God in our lives.

Of course, to say that the Christian life is one of celebration does not mean that every moment of the Christian life is set to the tune of angelic harps. It doesn’t mean that we should become a “happy clappy” church, a term Jess and I often use in jest to describe churches which seem to ignore the darker realities of life by just playing more cheerful worship songs. There are genuine tragedies in life, as we all know, and they should not be covered over with a fake smile and religious pretense.

The beauty of the Psalms is that they recognize that genuine happiness and celebration do not come by ignoring life’s tragedies but by embracing them as God embraces us. Celebration takes place among God’s people because we know that we do not face life’s darkest moments alone. Instead, we can give thanks because the one who has himself conquered death walks among us and richly blesses us with his words of life. That new life is what leads to our celebration.

So let us remember that, although the Christian life is a cross-shaped one, this does not make it a somber one. We can carry that cross as a symbol of our celebration because of the kingdom that it represents. Let our life together as a church be a celebration in anticipation of the new creation for which we hope.

Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty expanse.
Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with harp and lyre.
Praise him with timbre and dancing; praise him with stringed instruments and pipe.
Praise him with loud cymbals; praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord!

100 Years

A momentous day of celebration is quickly approaching in the life of our church. On October 5, the Church of the Nazarene will be celebrating its centennial as a denomination. This centennial celebration will be a remembrance of the uniting of several holiness groups that began in 1907 and culminated at Pilot Point, Texas in October of 1908. Since that time, the Church of the Nazarene, which began as an American denomination, has become a global church preaching the gospel of Christ around the world.

As we look back over the last 100 years of our existence, it is a time to give thanks for God’s faithfulness to us and the faithfulness of the saints who have gone before us. God has been faithful to our ancestors in the faith, leading and guiding the Church by the Holy Spirit. This celebration is a reminder that we are not the first ones to walk this journey of faith. There are so many faithful disciples who have walked this path before us, serving as living examples for us of what it means to be a disciple of Christ Jesus.

Of course, we are not likely to be the last to walk this journey of faith either. Therefore, remembering our heritage and identity is also a chance for us to consider how our past should guide us into the future. As we look back to that point of unification at Pilot Point we must remember that our unity as a denomination did not come easily. As is the case any time you attempt to bring together diverse groups, the various holiness groups that united to become the Church of the Nazarene had some substantial differences of opinion which could have served as insurmountable obstacles to unification. In response to these disagreements, Phineas F. Bresee, probably the most important leader in the unification process, was known for following the maxim “in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity.”

I believe that this simple principle will continue to be important for us in the next 100 years of our existence. The culture in which we live seems to become increasingly diverse with every passing day. As new technologies make it easier for us to communicate with people across the globe, we continue to become more aware that there are various way of seeing the world and understanding our life in it. There are a remarkable number of perspectives on God and his kingdom as announced by Jesus, outside the Church and even within it. As a result, it will be as crucial as ever that we take the time to understand who we are as God’s people in Jesus Christ. Only then can we begin to discern together by the guidance of the Holy Spirit what is essential to our faith and what isn’t.

This means that we will unashamedly proclaim the gospel in its fullness and we will be careful to hold our brothers and sisters accountable in the essentials of the faith. However, it will also mean that we will honestly confess where we have allowed our culture or our own personal preferences to impose heavy burdens on the gospel which only drive people away from the kingdom of God. Above all, it means that in all things we will be a people characterized by love because more than anything else, that is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

District Assembly

Last week was an interesting week in my life and the life of the Illinois District of the Church of the Nazarene. We had our District Assembly last week and there was one matter of business which was a particularly important decision for our district - the sale of Nazarene Acres, our district campground. The financial insolvency of the campgroud led to the same vote being raised a few years ago. Of course, there are many strong ties to a church campground which has been a part of the life of a district for so long. Many people first began to follow Jesus at that campground and then watched their children and grandchildren do the same. That would be enough to keep any faithful Christian from wanting to severe connections with such a place. So when the vote came before the assembly several years ago, it was decided that the motion would be tabled for a few years to see if a certain number of volunteer hours and a certain amount of money could be raised in order to save the campground. Those years passed and the volunteers hours were raised but the monetary goal was not even close to being fulfilled. As a result, this momentous decision came before the assembly once again this year.

We spent much of Thursday afternoon hearing questions of clarification and then arguments for or against selling the campground. The original motion also underwent two amendments; the second of which was my own. The first amendment called for 25% of the proceeds from the sale of the camp be used as an irrevocable and perpetual trust to provide scholarship money to help kids go to camp. I found this to be a well intentioned amendment since the sale of the campground will probably result in kids having to pay higher fees for camp in the future. However, I found the idea of an irrevocable trust into perpetuity to be an objectionable idea (as did a few others it seemed) since perpetuity is a very long time. Certainly, setting aside money for camp scholarships is an excellent idea now but will camping still be a viable ministry in 50 or 100 years? It very well could be but if at some point it is not then the district would be left with a sizable sum of money which was designated to a specific ministry when that money could be better used elsewhere. So I found myself, much to my own surprise, speaking to the assembly about just that matter. With some help from some others better versed in legal and financial matters than myself, we had a written amendment to the amended motion which called for the District Advisory Board to place 25% of the proceeds in an endowment for camp scholarships while still giving the DAB the power to use that money for other things in the future if they saw fit.

(This point in the process was actually somewhat humurous. As another gentlemen and I were trying to get the amendment into writing, the entire assembly was waiting for us to finish since the presiding General Superintended wanted to have the amendment in hand before the assembly could actually vote on it. After several moments, I hurried to the front with the amendment leading the GS to say something along the lines of "here comes our man now, riding on a white horse to help us". This was not exactly the level of involvement I expected to have in just my second District Assembly. Nonetheless, I was happy to have been able to contribute in, at least what I felt, was a meaningful way to the business of the assembly. I also had the privilege of sharing my report earlier on Thursday as well as offering the benediction after Dr. Spruce's report on Wednesday night. )

Ultimately, the motion to give the District Advisory Board the authority to sell the campground was passed by a substantial majority, though not without significant dissent. There were actually several people sitting near me who were brought to tears by the sale of the campgrounds. Although I recognize the deeps connections that many have to this campground, I consider this decision on the part of the assembly to be an important step in the right direction for our district. In my opinion, it is not just a financial issue. It is a matter of keeping our mission and identity as the Church clearly before us. It is a matter of making something that was once good into a sacred relic of glory days gone by at best and an all out idol at worst. In making this decision, I think that the Illinois District has made a small declaration that it values faithfulness to God over anything else, even if there is sometimes a question as to what that faithfulness might look like as new challenges and opportunities continually arise within the ministry of the Church.

Nazarene Acres and Theology as Conversation

Last night, I attended a stop on our District Superintendent's Listening Tour. This is very similar to the Listening Tour that I conducted here for our local church last summer. Dr. Spruce is having several meetings around the district to give the pastors on the district a chance to talk to him about what we think is important for our district. Of course, it will not be surprising to any of you on this district that our campgrounds, Nazarene Acres, was the dominant topic of discussion. It has become a well documented fact that Nazarene Acres is unable to operate in the black, financially speaking. Every year a substantial amount of money is being taken out of the district's savings in order to subsidize the campground. This has worked for several years but obviously is not a fiscally responsible practice. If the campground can not be consistently budgeted for then eventually it will deplete the district's savings entirely and will put us in debt. In fact, if it were not for the sale of certain properties elsewhere on the district, we would be pretty close to that point already. Of course, the campground has also been a vitally important point in the spiritual journey of many people on this district. For many, it is where the journey started. As a result, it is difficult to think of selling the campground because of the great impact it has had on them and the potential for impact it could continue to have on others.

As this discussion continued, we were reminded that the campground is not an isolated issue. It is, in fact, only an issue at all because of the way it is bound up with the mission of district as a whole. In other words, we could decide as a district that the campground is so important that we would simply budget for all of its expenses. Of course, anyone who has worked with a budget before knows that budgeting more money for one thing automatically means budgeting less for something else. So the question of the campground is not so much a question of whether the campground is good or bad, obviously it is good. It is a question of stewardship and how we can best spend the money we have in accomplishing the mission of the district; "developing growing, multiplying, holiness churches and pastors". Does owning the campgrounds as oppossed to renting it or some other form of running a campground ministry help us accomplish our mission as a district?

I think it is questions like this one where theology really happens. Often theology is thought of as something found in dense textbooks, technical terms, and abstract ideas that have nothing to do with real life. Or perhaps we think of theology as dogma and doctrine; a list of unquestionable propositions. In fact, we probably do not think of theology as something that "happens" at all; it is more idea than event. However, I think any time the Church sits down and begins to discuss a proper course of action based on who God is and who we are as the Church, then theology is happening, even if it is about things as worldly as money and property. Of course, such discussion, in order to be truly theological, will have to go much deeper than the money and the property. Such a discussion will have to be rooted in who we believe God to be and what we believe he has called us to be, which are not easy questions themselves. It is for that reason that the textbooks and abstract ideas, the dogma and doctrine are important. They allow us to consider how the Church has sought to answer these questions of who God is and who we are throughout the ages of our existence. By studying what those before us have said, by discussing the same questions ourselves, and then facing the concrete problems that lay before us as a church or a district or a denomination, we are joining a conversation that has been going on for centuries.

As a leader, it is always tempting to assume that your ideas are the right ones and that they should be implemented with little or no discussion. I do not believe that most ministers and church leaders develop this kind of attitude because they are arrogant or close-minded (though there is no question that those things come into play occassionally). Instead, I believe it is often born out of passion for the Church and wanting to see it move forward so that we can reach out to our world in meaningful ways. However, if the leaders of the Church take this approach, if we ram our agendas and plans through to fruition, avoiding the conversations that need to take place along the way, then I believe we have failed to be the Church in some way. We will have failed because I believe that process of dialogue, those theological conversations, are often as important (sometimes more important) as the end result of a certain agenda. Of course, engaging in dialogue might mean that our plans will be rejected but I believe that it is a risk we must take if our plans are to be worth anything. We must trust that those with whom we dialogue also have the Church's best interest at heart. We must also trust that God's Holy Spirit is at work in these conversations, leading the Church just as the Spirit did at Nicea, Chalcedon, and throughout history.

We are truly fortunate on this district to have a District Superintendent who believes in the importance of dialogue and conversation. Dr. Spruce has studied the financial reality of the campground carefully and he has proposed some possible courses of action. However, he refuses to simply impose a certain course of action. Instead, he continually listens to the voices around him through things like the Listening Tour. There will also be specifically a Nazarene Acres Tour, in which pastors and lay people can join in the conversation concerning the campground. (The tour stop closest to us will be at Decatur First on May 17th at 1 p.m. for anyone who is interested.) Let it be our prayer that this will be a truly theological dialogue as we wrestle with the role of the campground within the larger mission of the district.