Hopes and Prayers for the Future of the Nazarene Church
COVID-19 just keeps on ravaging our lives, doesn’t it?
This past week the Board of General Superintendents for the Church of the Nazarene announced that the 30th General Assembly (read: an international family reunion with worship services and business conventions that is held every 4 years) for our Nazarene Church denomination is being delayed from June 2021 to sometime in the year 2023.
In a season of just about everything being canceled or delayed, I found this news to be heartbreaking.
I absolutely love the Church of the Nazarene.
I am a Nazarene pastor’s kid who has received two degrees from a Nazarene university and has served as both a Nazarene missionary and Nazarene pastor. As a third-generation Nazarene, my roots run deep with this denominational family. My grandfather was led out of alcohol addiction and into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ because of a Nazarene neighbor in southwest Ohio (USA) over 50 years ago.
I also grew up in Indianapolis, the home of numerous General Assemblies over the years (especially in the last 3 decades), so I have seen firsthand the Spirit-led decision making at these assemblies as well as the beautiful opportunity to worship, talk, and share meals with our global family.
Thus, I really mean it when I say that this news breaks my heart. I was so excited to be together with my global family in Indianapolis next summer!
But I am also 100% in agreement with the necessary yet difficult decision our denominational leaders have made after undoubtedly numerous hours of meetings and prayer.
The decision to delay this General Assembly is not an easy one, and I want to add my voice to the chorus of those expressing gratitude and agreement for this decision.
We are a global family that centers our identity in being Christian, holiness, missional people.
As a Christian people, we cannot plan an international gathering when we have no knowledge of which duly elected delegates and church leaders will be able to attend from around the world and speak/vote on behalf of the Nazarenes they represent.
As a holiness people, we must also do everything we can to love others and contribute to the worldwide effort to defeat COVID-19.
As a missional people, we must continue to engage in the Mission of God wherever we find ourselves geographically. The 30th General Assembly of the Church of the Nazarene may have been put on hold - but the work of God has not.
And that is why I invite you to join me in - let’s call it - active patience over the next 3 years.
We have much work ahead of us.
As I have been praying for our Nazarene family over the last several days, I am reminded of a Hebrew word we find (amongst other places) in the book of Ruth. The word is transliterated in English as checed (חֶסֶד). In the book of Ruth, we hear this word translated as “deal kindly”. Used as a word of action, it speaks to God's unmerited grace and mercy. And throughout the story of Ruth, we hear it used to describe not only God but also humans who exhibit a loving-kindness and loyalty that goes beyond expectations.
Checed is going above and beyond expectations out of deep love for someone.
Sounds like the Christlike love that led Jesus to the cross, doesn’t it?
And in these days that we find ourselves in, the world needs followers of Christ who are engaged in the checed of God. To look not to our own interests but, out of love, to look to the interests of others.
This is why I am in full agreement with the decision to delay our General Assembly until 2023. Doing so is living out the checed of God. This decision is made out of love for all members of our global family.
We are a global family. And we must ensure proper representation and adequate safety when we gather together next.
And yet, as I stated earlier, we must not disengage from the Mission of God and the work of our Nazarene denomination around the world. As I engage in active patience until our next General Assembly, here are my prayers and hopes for the coming days of our Nazarene family as we move towards 2023.
Join me in my prayers for:
Our Board of General Superintendents and the General Board of the Nazarene Church. Lord, these Spirit-guided leaders have a tall task before them on an average year. And these days are far from average or easy. May you give them protection and endurance during this time. May You give them the wisdom, courage, and strength to continue the work that You and our denomination has called them to. May You protect them from burning out. May You protect their time with their spouses and families. May You protect their hearts. And may You continue to guide their steps as they continue to guide our denomination through this pandemic. Amen.
Our Regional, Field, and District Leadership. Lord, may You be with church leaders as they lead their geographic areas around the world by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit. As they continue to provide leadership during these difficult days, please guide them, sustain their health, and give them strength as they support and resource local churches and local mission work. Amen.
Local Pastors and Church Leaders. Lord, may You be with pastors, lay leaders, and board members as their churches face unimaginable obstacles with no easy paths forward. May our Nazarene sisters and brothers around the world continue to pursue a life of checed as they engage in Your mission in their local communities. Provide them with peace, comfort, and support during this time. Amen.
Nazarene Educational Institutions. Lord, may You be with our Nazarene schools, colleges, and universities around the world during these days. Education is key to our discipleship as Christians, our empowerment of tomorrow’s leaders, and a powerful tool against poverty. Be with our administrators, teachers, and students. Give them the strength to continue through this challenging time for education. May these days breed innovation and progress despite difficult barriers. And may it all be for Your glory. Amen.
General Assembly in 2023. Lord, this delay in gathering together is sad, even as we trust that it is for the best. May You be with our church leaders around the world as they now pivot their work to preparing for General Assembly at a new time and location. We wait in prayerful anticipation in how that General Assembly will bring glory to Your Name! Amen.
Our World. Lord, we believe that You are a God of healing and redemption. As this time of pandemic is ravaging lives and livelihoods around the world, we trust that You are at work nonetheless. May Your work of healing and resurrection heal Your world, and may we be a part of that work. Amen.
As our prayers lead us each into action, especially over the next 3 years, I also have changes that I hope to see our denomination adopt.
My hopes for the future of our Nazarene family include:
We will ensure the participation of all elected delegates in our future General Assemblies through multiple locations. Travel restrictions and logistical problems have, in the past, made it difficult for some duly elected delegates to attend a General Assembly in person. Representing your Nazarene district should not be denied simply because of travel obstacles based on where you are from or where you are traveling to. The provision of a General Assembly location on every Nazarene Region (Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eurasia, Mesoamerica, South America, and USA/Canada) could increase participation of delegates, reduce some travel costs, and honor the delegate elections of district assemblies.
We will become more fiscally-lean in our global operations. The 21st Century has simultaneously brought the expansion of technology on a global scale as well as a decrease in Christianity in particular regions. The financial reality for almost all Christian organizations is that we will be required to accomplish our goals with fewer resources. This is not a new reality for many local churches and world areas, but it is one that must be accepted and addressed by the global church. The good news is that 2020 has shown us how much can still be accomplished through technology. Administrative positions can be fulfilled from anywhere in the world with internet access. For example: rather than spending the money to relocate a finance coordinator to a specific geographic location, that person could stay involved in the local church work where they are and still skillfully handle the finances for a field or region. In other roles, unnecessary duplication can be removed by transferring roles online rather than requiring a person in each geographic location. This leveraging of technology for the glory of God connects with my next hope - decentralization.
We will experiment with further decentralization. I’ve heard it stated that we are “glocal Church.” We are an international church family that is centered on the work and life of our local churches. And this is one main reason why I love the Nazarene Church. We are a global network of predominantly “small” (in numbers, not significance) churches - and the local church is the key to everything we do. As more responsibility and leadership is entrusted to local churches and districts around the world, our denomination would not only save financial resources but also unleash the power of local churches and districts as indigenous leadership pursued the God-driven dreams within their local communities.
We will structure our denominational leadership in the same way across all regions. If you’ve spent any amount of time with our Nazarene churches outside the USA & Canada Region, you know that there are entire layers of leadership within the Nazarene global structure that exist everywhere except for the USA and Canada. If every world region is a mission field and if every world region has equal importance in our Nazarene denomination, then every region should have the same missional infrastructure.
We will reimagine the General Assemblies of the future. Ask yourself the question, what could a future General Assembly look like in the future? Set aside what they have historically looked like for a minute, and dream up what your ideal General Assembly might look like.
Allow me to share with you my dream: A General Assembly that takes place simultaneously at 6 locations worldwide, one in each Nazarene region. This global General Assembly would incorporate some of the best elements of NYC, regional conferences, Work & Witness trips, and our current General Assembly model.
The “host location” (i.e. where the BGS is in attendance) would rotate every General Assembly across regions. We could have 50% of delegates attend in their own region and the other 50% being dispersed across the other five global locations. This still allows for interactions with our global family as well as bringing all our regions into equal status. Decentralizing can open doors for greater participation, lower costs (from shorter travel, fewer visas, and combined conferences), and bring a substantial Kingdom-impact in six cities! Technology can allow for delegate voting worldwide. It can also provide the opportunity to participate in workshops in-person or virtually at any of the 6 global locations. Money commonly raised by churches for individual mission trips and Work & Witness projects can be focused on traveling to an international GA location and be a part of missional church work during the assembly while serving alongside other Nazarenes from around the world. While delegates would have their GA location decided on ahead of time, non-delegate Nazarenes would be welcome from any region to any region!
Obviously, this would present a lot of work to handle the logistics but we are not the only global organization out there - something like this could be done! And such a model would truly allow us to engage the entire world as a global family while also handling important Church work.
More succinctly, my dream is for us to bring even more generations together from even more countries and unleash the power of the Holy Spirit and the people of the Nazarene Church in new cities while also reducing cost and travel obstacles in future General Assemblies.
These are difficult days, but some of the greatest innovations in human history have been birthed from hardship. And this is especially true for the Church.
I share these hopes not simply as critiques of our current state. Rather, I know that the best days for our Nazarene denomination are ahead of us.
And maybe - just maybe - this is the time for our denomination to celebrate and honor what has worked in the past while also acknowledging that some changes are needed as we step into the new future that the Holy Spirit is leading us in to. What has worked in the past did work at that time - and we praise God for that! But that does not mean it is essential or the best approach for this current moment in history.
Let us not allow this disruption to pass without embracing what God might be up to in our churches and in our world.
May we live out the checed of God.
May we rise to this moment.
May we commit ourselves to more prayer.
May we look around us and ask: What might God be up to here?
And may our General Assembly in 2023 be a time of celebrating the new fruit of evangelism and discipleship around the world.
I love the Church of the Nazarene and I believe that the best is yet to come.
#IAMNAZARENE
What are your hopes and prayers for the Church of the Nazarene? Comment below!
