Why I am a Nazarene
Jun 25 '02
The Bottom Line I am a Nazarene because of what the Church teaches. I cannot be otherwise. It teaches a doctrine of compassion, love, and kindness.
In the EpinionAddicts Soapbox, we get into a fair amount of religion discussions. (And yes, it is possible to debate religion in a civil manner, I would invite you to come see.) After several threads, one member (emeleel) came up with the excellent idea of explaining what it was we believed so that we could better understand the arguments that were being made.
In response to that challenge, I wrote the following essay to explain the heritage and beliefs of a church that I continue to hold great affection and love for.
I am a member of the Church of the Nazarene. It is the church I grew up in and I attended a Nazarene college for a year and a half.
I. History of the Nazarene Church
Our Founding
The Church of the Nazarene is a very American church and much of our rules and regulations can be traced to the era in which we were founded—the early 1900s.
In October 1895, Phineas F. Bresee and Joseph Widney organized a Church of the Nazarene in Los Angeles. The church was formed around the doctrine of entire sanctification and the belief that sanctified Christians should follow Christ’s example and preach the gospel to the poor.
Dr. Phineas F. Bresee was a Methodist minister who was encouraging a holiness revival within the Methodist Church. He was successful until a bishop was assigned to his area who was anti-holiness.
Bresee also took issue with the church placing missions in poor areas, but not giving the poor their own church. He formed the church with the goal of ministering to the poor. It was said of him that he often took money with him when he went out on his pastoral rounds, but that he never returned with any, having given it away to anyone he met who was in need.
On Sundays (and the members would come to the church for the entire day, having services in the morning, eating dinner together, fellowshipping in the afternoon and then having an evening service), he would stand in the foyer greeting people before the service. If he saw people arrive who looked embarrassed about the way they were dressed, he would rush to greet them enthusiastically, put his arm around them, and escort them to the best seat in the sanctuary.
Even in 1895, the church allowed for the consecration of women as deaconesses (a title we no longer use) and we ordained both women and men as ministers. Before the Holiness Church of Christ in Tennessee merged with the Nazarene Church in 1908, they had ordained three women as ministers. Our founder was fond of saying, according to folklore, “Some of our best men are women.” Women played major roles in the holiness movement and when we start naming the names of our church parents, the lists are filled with women who were ministers, deaconesses, evangelists, and missionaries.
The founding members of our church strongly believed that you shouldn’t adorn either churches or your body—not because it was sinful, but because it was a poor use of resources. That money, they felt, should be going into ministries for the poor.
That church later merged with two other regional denominations, each having a Wesleyan context. The Association of Pentecostal Churches of America, the Church of the Nazarene, and the Holiness Church of Christ were brought together and merged officially on October 8, 1908 in Texas (Pilot Point to be exact) We moved our Holy Land, er, capital, to Kansas City, MO. The merged organization was called The Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene. (As a side personal note, it was my great-great-grandfather who was the layman in Chicago that contacted Bresee and set in motion their church merging with the other two to form the Church of the Nazarene denomination.)
In 1919, we changed our name to drop the “Pentecostal” because of the new associations that had become attached to the word Pentecostal. We are part of the Pentecostal movement; however, we do not encourage (nor forbid) speaking in tongues. It is a gift of the Spirit, but not one on which we place a lot of emphasis nor one we believe is essential. I’ve never heard anyone in a Nazarene church or service speak in tongues. We also don’t dance in the aisles—or anywhere else for that matter. (Well, actually, we didn’t until the past decade when it was finally agreed that husband and wives could dance together. Stay tuned, it will continue to lighten up.)
Our Heritage
If you were to back us up a little further, we can trace our roots through various movements which we recognize as paving the way for our existence. Our antecedents include the Holiness Church of Christ of 1894, the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America (1887), the holiness movement of the 19th Century, and the Wesleyan movement of the 18th Century, including the Anglican Church.
Back up even further, and we claim heritage from the other Christian churches (including the Catholic Church) throughout the ages. The Church of the Nazarene calls itself a branch of the “one, holy, universal, and apostolic” church. We seek to be faithful to that universal history and—like nearly every other Christian religion—claim the history of the people of God as presented in the Old and New Testament as our history and heritage. (We like to joke that Jesus was a Nazarene—it even says so in the Bible.)
We believe that all people of God through the ages who have been redeemed through Jesus Christ are our brothers and sisters—no matter what church they do or do not attend. We acknowledge and accept as expressions of our faith the ecumenical creeds of the first five Christian centuries. We try to be apostolic and we administer sacraments, though the role sacraments play are a matter of debate for Wesleyans. (FYI: Nazarenes are Wesleyans—not the denomination, but the faith, so I will sometimes use Wesleyan when I’m referring to the beliefs of the Nazarene Church.)
We believe that our branch of the church has a special calling and that is why we exist separately. Our calling is to proclaim the doctrine of sanctification and to live a Christ-like life of service to others.
I mentioned that we are a very American church (though we have many international churches as well) In our manual exists the following statement:
“We believe that people function in a society and that laws are needed for the society to operate efficiently. The form of government and the laws developed in the society are important to the individual and the church. We believe that the American form of democratic government is the finest yet achieved, and fully support its ideals. The importance of the individual, the right of all persons to achieve, and the belief in guaranteed civil liberties are central to American heritage, and are in line with the teachings of the Bible.”
The Church Today
We have 1.2 million members in more than 11,800 churches in the United States, Canada, and 135 other countries.
We claim to be the largest denomination in the Wesleyan-Arminian tradition. As of 1999, we are a member of the World Methodist Council, a fellowship of 100 denominations that trace their spiritual and theological lineage to the Wesleyan Revival. Another common tie is that they are all evangelical churches. The denominations most closely related to us are the Wesleyan Church and the Free Methodist Church (of North America and of Canada).
II. Theology or Doctrine of the Church of the Nazarene
As a Nazarene, I believe that God calls Christians to a life of holiness. God cleanses our heart from original sin (the act of justification, achieved only through God’s grace and accepted by us only through faith) and fills us with love for God and all humans. When we have been filled with the Holy Spirit, we then devote our lives to serving God by serving others.
Many people refer to the doctrine of entire sanctification as achieving perfection on Earth, and in some ways that’s true—however it isn’t a perfection that we achieve through works. Entire sanctification is an act of God’s grace only and that it is the Holy Spirit who works through us to make us perfect. We believe that the grace has been extended to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Compassionate ministries are extremely important to Nazarenes. It is commanded that we love others and we display that love through service. In that love and service, we believe, all else is fulfilled. A Nazarene Church with no compassionate ministries is Nazarene in name only. Our concept of service and God is based on the belief that we are to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
I mentioned earlier that we were the largest church in the Wesleyan-Arminianism movement. While many have heard of John and Charles Wesley, James Arminius isn’t nearly as well known. He lived in the late 1500s and takes an approach to Christianity that was common to several Eastern church fathers in the 400 and 500s.
One of the great theological battles of our time has been between Calvinism and Arminianism. Although the word Arminianism isn’t nearly as well known as Calvinism, it is the theology that has been mostly triumphant in America. The Calvinists are moving away from much of their 5-point doctrine—in practice if not in words. While I will defend Arminianism as Biblical, I’ll also note that most people have made the switch because it has more secular appeal. Those who are unchurched and unversed in theology can much better understand a God who gives them a choice about their salvation rather than to believe that they are either eternally condemned or saved based on God’s whim.
Statement of Faith
Our statement of faith has 16 basic articles. They are:
* One Triune God.
* Jesus Christ as God-man.
* The Holy Spirit as ever present and ever active.
* Plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, they provide the final authority for instruction and guidance in Christian living.
* Original sin and personal sin. Actual and personal sin is the “voluntary violation of a known law of God by a morally responsible person.” It is NOT mistakes, shortcomings, faults, failures, infirmities, or deviations from perfect conduct—this is extremely important to understanding the rest of our doctrine. We primarily define the law of God as the law of love.
* Atonement through Christ’s death. Atonement is given automatically to children and the irresponsible (meaning those who have certain mental disabilities or who have never heard the message of Christ) but that those who reach the age and state of responsibility must repent and believe.
* Free agency (including the ability to fall from grace and apostocize).
* Repentence.
* Justification, Regeneration, and Adoption: God justifies us through grace—the act is instant and immediate. We are regenerated (known in common parlance as being “born again”) as a work of God who spiritually “quickens” us and gives us a “distinctively spiritual life, capable of faith, love, and obedience.” God adopts us and we become children of God. All of these things happen instantaneously upon condition of repentance.
* Entire sanctification. This is a biggie, so I’ll explain it more below. This is the article that separates us from most other denominations.
* The Church is both the body of Christ and a historical organization that organizes itself in culturally conditioned forms. We believe the Church is called to holy living, evangelism, discipleship, and service. However, you can be a part of the Church regardless of whether you ever step foot in the building.
* Baptism is a sacrament “signifying acceptance of the benefits of the atonement of Jesus Christ.” Baptism is a symbol of the new covenant, it bestows no benefits in and of itself nor is it necessary for consecration. We will baptize infants, but we don’t encourage it (and yes, that’s part of our official statement of faith). Baptism can be sprinkling, pouring, or immersion depending on what the person being baptized wants.
* Communion is a sacrament that should be taken only by those who have faith in Christ. We leave it up to the individual to determine whether they are eligible to participate.
* Divine healing. (Though we also believe God heals through medical science.)
* Second coming of Christ.
* Resurrection of the dead, future judgment and everlasting life (either in heaven or in hell).
Entire Sanctification
First, let me state that we think the holiness doctrine (another name for entire sanctification) goes beyond the Nazarene Church. It doesn’t belong just to us, the holiness movement, the Wesleyans, or even the Eastern Church thinking that inspired it. It is more than a doctrine, it is a truth about how God works in the world. We believe it to be universal truth and as such, has always been true—acknowledging that different people use different language to describe it.
The doctrine of holiness is an old one. It begins with Leviticus where God says, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
Now, to definitions.
Entire sanctification is an act of God that takes place after regeneration. Regeneration is what makes us free from original sin. Sanctification brings us into a state of total devotion to God and is love made perfect in us.
How does sanctification happen? Through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit cleanses our heart from sin and empowers us for life and service.
Other words for sanctification include Christian perfection, perfect love, heart purity, baptism of the Holy Spirit, the fullness of blessing, and Christian holiness.
We do maintain a difference between a pure heart and a mature character. The pure heart happens instantaneously. The mature character comes from a lifetime of growth in grace. Entire sanctification makes us want to grow in grace and plants the desire, but we have to nurture that desire and pay attention to holy living. If we don’t, we become a poor witness and frustrate the grace within us, which can cause the ultimate loss of that grace.
Mind, sanctification is not necessary for heaven. That’s not the point. Regeneration is “sufficient” if all a person is worried about is getting their ticket to the afterlife (some theologian whose name I don’t remember called that “cheap grace.”). Entire sanctification is about how we should live and what God has called us to do. It is about living a richer, more fulfilling, more satisfying, holy life. It’s about living the will of God. We also believe that sanctification is an absolute requirement.
No true Nazarene would ever sport the bumper sticker, “I’m not perfect—just forgiven.” Never mind the shallow spirituality of the statement, it is a sentiment that denies the core of who we are as Nazarenes.
Christian perfection is possible because of the Holy Spirit. I would again refer you to our definition of sin. We are not saying that a sanctified person will never make a mistake, have character flaws, shortcomings, or failures. We are saying that a sanctified person will never purposefully transgress God’s law of love.
In 1916, Benjamin Warfield wrote:
"No moral attainment is too great to be pressed on them as their duty, no moral duty is too minute to be demanded of them as essential to their Christian walk. The standard the Apostle has before him, and consistently applies to his readers, falls in nothing short of absolute perfection, a perfection which embraces in its all-inclusive sweep the infinitely little and the infinitely great alike....the Apostle had been engaged, as is his wont in all his epistles, in enumerating a number of details of conduct which he wished, especially, to emphasize to his readers. They are not chosen at haphazard, but are just the items of conduct which the particular readers with whom he is at the moment engaged required most to have urged upon their attention.
But the Apostle would not have his readers suppose that their whole duty was summed up in the items he enumerates. As he draws to the close of his exhortations he therefore breaks off in the enumeration and adjoins one great comprehensive prayer for their entire perfection: "But may the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly: and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved perfect without failure, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you who also will do it."
Holiness, or sanctification, is loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and loving your neighbor as yourself. It is living that love every single day.
How can you know if you are sanctified? The Holy Spirit’s fruits will be borne in your life. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23a).
III. Structure and Organization of the Nazarene Church
Once again, we are an American church and our organization reflects that. It also reflects the concerns the founders had about the hierarchy of the Methodist Church. We are a mix between episcopacy and congregationalism.
Each individual church is governed by a board who the congregation elects. The board calls the pastor and has the ability to fire her or him. The overall church cannot interfere with the calling of a pastor (well, not officially, they can make strong recommendations. There was an incident in my home church where the district superintendent did step in and try to direct the decision. That is, however, contrary to the spirit and law of the Nazarene Church.)
Each individual church is part of a district and sends representatives to that district. The districts belong to a region, the regions belong to the international church.
There are six elected representatives who serve on the Board of General Superintendents (They’re called our “generals”) and each one represents a region. The board is responsible for the administration of the church worldwide. They also interpret the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene, which is our policy guide.
All formulation of doctrine, making of laws, and church authority rests in the hands of the General Assembly, subject to our church constitution. The General Assembly meets every four years with elected representatives from all the districts. The Assembly elects the Generals and the General Board, which carries out our corporate business.
IV. Practices and Rules of the Nazarene Church
Now, here is the part where people start raising their eyebrows when it comes to the Nazarene faith.
Our rules.
This is also where we could have a long discussion about fundamentalism.
I’m not going to do that. Instead, I’m going to tell you my position and the position held by many others within the denomination. You can look at our creed as a three-tiered structure (are we Trinitarians, or what?).
Tier One: Statement of Faith, it is acceptance of this statement that makes you a Christian.
Tier Two: General Rules, acceptance of the general rules is what makes you a Nazarene.
Tier Three: Specific Rules, rules that provide guidelines to holy living and are a help. They must be accepted if you are going to hold leadership positions in the church.
We believe that the rules are guidelines for a holy life. Breaking the rules do [I]not[/I] constitute a sin because sin can be defined only by the Bible. We see the compliance with these rules as evidence of one’s commitment to God and holiness. However, we also believe in the importance of the individual conscience and its relationship with God.
The official wording is this:
“It is further recognized that there is validity in the concept of the collective Christian conscience as illuminated and guided by the Holy Spirit. The Church of the Nazarene, as an international expression of the Body of Christ, acknowledges its responsibility to seek ways to particularize the Christian life so as to lead to a holiness ethic. The historic ethical standards of the church are expressed in part in the following items.”
General Rules
General rules are what you must agree to before becoming a member. Most of our specific rules are linked to these general rules.
Do everything that Scripture tells us to do, including:
* Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.
* Evangelize.
* Be courteous to everyone.
* Help other Christians.
* Do good to the bodies and souls of others, especially feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and visiting those in prison.
* Support the church with tithes and offerings.
* Attend the ordinances of God (such as public Worship, reading scripture, communion, private meditation, family and private devotions).
Avoid evil of every kind, including:
* Taking God’s name in vain.
* Profaning the Sabbath.
* Sexual immorality (and we include an awful lot in that, including dress, talk, and what we view).
* Any habits that are destructive to physical or mental well-being.
* Quarrelling, taking revenge, gossiping, slandering, or spreading words that injure others.
* Dishonesty, taking advantage in buying or selling, bearing false witness.
* Pride in dress or behavior (we are to dress with simplicity and modesty).
* Music, literature, and entertainments that dishonor God.
Abide in the fellowship of the church and be active in its outreach and witness.
Specific Rules
The specific rules of the Church are as follows (as of the mid-1990s).
The Christian Life:
* Live a new life in Christ
* “The Church of the Nazarene purposes to relate timeless biblical principles to contemporary society in such a way that the doctrines and rules of the church may be known and understood in many lands and within a variety of cultures. We hold that the Ten Commandments, as reaffirmed in the New Testament, constitute the basic Christian ethic and ought to be obeyed in all particulars.”
* Seek the aid of the Spirit because it is impossible for us to make a complete catalog of all the evil in the world. Develop a sensitivity to evil that transcends the letter of the law.
* Learn to discriminate between good and evil.
* Education is of the utmost importance for the social and spiritual well-being of society. Public education should be supplemented with holiness teaching in the home.
* Avoid entertainments that are subversive to the Christian ethic. Although my parents did not forbid the attending of movies, I grew up surrounded by people who believed it was wrong to do so. It’s why I have attended so few. I’m even comfortable arguing why a person who is pursuing a holy life should avoid movies, even though I haven’t accepted it as necessary for myself. John Wesley’s mother told him, “whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things, whatever increases the authority of your body over mind, that thing for you is sin.”
* No lotteries, whether legal or illegal as they are detrimental to society.
* No membership in oath-bound or secret orders or societies.
* No dancing (in the late 90s, this was modified to forbid “All forms of dancing that detract from spiritual growth and break down proper moral inhibitions and reserve.”) (Nazarene joke: Why can’t married couples have sex standing up? A-It might lead to dancing.)
* No drinking alcohol, selling alcohol, voting for or licensing alcohol, or influencing anyone to have alcohol. (This is another issue from which we have backed down slightly. Drinking in moderation no longer carries as heavy a proscription as it did in the days when Bresee was a leader in the Prohibitionism party.)
* No using tobacco or illegal drugs in any of their forms or trafficking in them.
* No unprescribed use of hallucinogenics, stimulants, and depressants.
* Family ties are to be cultivated. Marriage is defined as “mutual union of one man and one woman for fellowship, helpfulness, and the propagation of the race” Marriage is morally binding as long as both parties are alive.
* Divorce is an infraction of the teaching of Christ, but is not beyond the forgiving grace of God. We recognize that some have divorce thrust upon them against their will or are compelled to resort to it for legal or physical protection.
* We oppose induced abortion when used for personal convenience or population control. We do not oppose abortion where the mother or child’s life is in danger.
* Responsible opposition to abortion means that we are compelled to initiate and support programs designed to care for mothers and children. We are to provide love and care to anyone faced with an unwanted pregnancy.
* Human sexuality is an expression of holiness and beauty that God intended for his creation. We believe that human sexuality achieves fulfillment only as a sign of comprehensive love and loyalty.
* We are to avoid all pornographic material.
* Sexual intimacy outside the covenant of heterosexual marriage is a distortion of the holiness and beauty God intended for it. (We take a rather strong stance against homosexuality—something I am grateful is in the specific rules, not the general rules nor doctrine. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to call myself a Nazarene anymore.)
* We must be good stewards of our time, money, and talents.
* Our minimum financial obligation is a 10% tithe. We are also encouraged to make freewill offerings.
* The church is obligated to support its ministers. We urge weekly payments.
* We are to make wills and testaments so that our money is distributed in a fashion consistent with holiness after we die.
* We should elect only those church officers who profess the doctrine of entire sanctification, bear witness to a holy life, are in harmony with the doctrines, policies, and practices of the church, and who attend church and tithe faithfully.
* We used to say no bathing/swimming in public places and no swimming of men and women together. We still encourage people to remember that modesty becomes holiness and to exercise judgment when swimming or sunbathing in public.
Special rules can be amended by a two-thirds vote at a General Assembly.
Ethical and Moral Positions
On modern issues, we take the following stances:
Genetic engineering and gene therapy: We support genetic engineering to achieve gene therapy, recognizing that it can cure and prevent diseases and disorders. We oppose genetic engineering when it is used for eugenics or to promote social injustice.
Euthansia: We believe this is incompatible with Christian faith.
Allowing to Die: It is permissible to allow someone to die by withholding extraordinary measures or artificial life support.
Organ Donation: We encourage all members to establish organ donation through living wills and trusts. We also appeal for moral and fair distribution of organs.
Discrimination: Of one blood we were all created. Each individual, regardless of race, color, creed, or gender should have equality before the law. We include in this sufferage, equal access, and equal opportunity.
Abuse of the unempowered: Absolutely verboten. Since this is such a hot topic right now, I’ll quote our position statement: “When placing people in positions of trust or authority, the Church of the Nazarene will presume that past conduct is usually a reliable indicator of likely future behavior. The Church will withhold positions of authority from people who have previously used a position of trust or authority to engage in sexual misconduct or abuse of the unempowered, unless appropriate steps are taken to prevent future wrongful behavior. Expressions of remorse by a guilty person shall not be considered sufficient to overcome the presumption that future wrongful conduct is likely, unless the expressions of remorse are accompanied by an observable change of conduct for a sufficient length of time, to indicate that a repeat of the wrongful misconduct is unlikely.”
Responsibility to the Poor: The Church should keep itself simple and unconcerned with wealth. We must identify with the poor and act in solidarity with them—not simply give money from our comfortable homes. We must perform acts of charity, but we also must struggle to provide opportunity, justice, and equality for the poor.
Women in Ministry: Women should use their God-given spiritual gifts in the church. Women may be elected and appointed to positions of leadership in the Church of the Nazarene.
Church and Human Freedom: Political and religious freedom rest upon the Biblical concepts of the dignity of man as God’s creation. We encourage people to be active in political activity and in safeguarding freedom. We are encouraged to elect people who believe in freedoms and that are answerable only to God and their constituencies when carrying out a public trust. We also resist any effort by any religious group (including our own) to invade the principles of freedom or to garner special favors from the government. The role of the church is to be prophetic and encourage the people of the nation to be righteous—not to legislate it.
War and Military Service: The ideal world condition is peace and we should seek to achieve it. However, we also recognize the presence of evil in the world and the necessity of nations to go to war to defend its ideals, freedom, and existence. The Church of the Nazarene is committed to peace, but believes the individual’s ultimate allegiance is to God and therefore will not bind its members conscience as to whether they should join the military or not. They do say that Christians are bound to serve their country in ways compatible with a Christian life. We recognize and accept conscientious objectors to certain forms of military service and maintain a register of members who choose to record their convictions as conscientious objectors.
Creation: We believe in creationism. We also accept all scientifically verifiable discoveries in geology, for we believe God is the Creator.
Baptism of the Holy Spirit: The only evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the cleansing of original sin. Prayer language (or tongues) is not acceptable as evidence of baptism though may in rare instances be present as a gift of the Holy Spirit.
V. The Church of the Nazarene and I
There’s something a little fear-inducing about announcing to everyone that you believe in Christian perfection. The connotations of those words in common parlance are so different from the theological meaning. It is also easy to call us hypocrites because achieving a mature character does take time. It is easy to call us self-righteous if we start worrying more about other people’s holiness than our own.
I once had an acquaintance of several weeks with whom I had never discussed religion ask me if I was a Nazarene. I looked at her rather amazed and asked her how she knew. She said she figured I was because I had long hair and wore neither jewelry nor makeup. I had to blush—my long hair and lack of makeup is a sign of my vanity, not the fruits of a holy life. But that I am a Nazarene there can be no doubt. Why? Why do I embrace the doctrines discussed above?
Three Reasons
First (though not most importantly), the Church of the Nazarene is my heritage. There have been ancestors of mine in the Nazarene Church for almost as long as there has been a Nazarene Church. My father jokes that he had a choice between being a writer and being a preacher as those were the only two career options for men in his family. He joked, but it wasn’t far from the truth. (He chose to be a writer, by the way.) I’m a fifth generation Nazarene—and the church is less than 100 years old. I am part Native American because my great-grandfather married a member of the mission church he founded in Michigan among the tribe.
Second, I have a connection with the Church. My husband teases me because every time we drive by a Nazarene Church in any state, I’ll say, “Oh, hey, that’s the church where so-and-so goes,” or “Look—that’s the church so-and-so’s father is pastor of.” We’re a small enough denomination that we’re still pretty closely connected, especially given that I grew up in the church and have many relatives who minister in churches or work in Nazarene organizations. In fact, I once got lost in central Michigan and pulled into a church that was open because voting was going on so I could get directions. As I walked down the hall, I saw a plaque with the founding members of that particular church on it. My great-grandfather was the church’s first pastor.
Third, I have yet to find a doctrine or church that so closely matches what I believe. I find the entire Nazarene doctrine to be uplifting, compassionate, loving, and filled with truth. I would find it impossible to believe otherwise—and I’ve spent several years looking for a different faith.
Personal Indecisions and Questing
Why, given the above, did I look for a different faith? Because I was dissatisfied with the direction the Church has taken. There are many who say that we have abandoned our mission of holiness to join the fundamentalist movement. The fundamentalists are much more widely accepted than we are and much more visible. Many of our churches seem to have forgotten that holiness is our first priority and mention it only in passing.
I was reading this past weekend about how the holiness movement was one of the three major factors that contributed to the evangelical scandal (of which the author was referring to a specific problem with evangelicalism that would be too large to go into here. Suffice it to say he wasn’t condemning all of evangelicalism, just some of the effects fundamentalism has had on it) and the anti-intellectualism that has pervaded much of religious society today. (The other two were the Pentecostal movement and dispensationalism.) I was rather sorrowful to note that considering the importance our founders placed on education (Bresee helped found the Nazarene University in Pascedena, California) and affirmation of the doctrines and intellectual foundations of our faith.
Then there was the conservative movement that infiltrated every church that calls itself fundamentalist (and again, we could get into long discussions about that definition--I refer to those churches which embrace the five fundamentals as described in "The Fundamentals" written in the late 1800s). Nazarenes have somehow forgotten their heritage and joined the conservative movement to the point where many displayed a hatred toward liberals. There used to be room for both conservatives and liberals in the church because we were an organization committed to holiness, serving the poor, and social justice—not one party or the other’s political agenda. Now, a liberal will get mighty uncomfortable in most of our churches.
The individual church I grew up in was considered very liberal by others in the district. This isn’t something I knew until I went away to one of my church’s univerisites. I was a liberal Democrat because my religious beliefs compelled me to be (still do). I would refer you back to the history and theology of our church. We are a church that believes in pursuing social justice, helping the poor, providing programs for women and children, keeping religion out of government, and encouraging laws to repeal those things that we believe harm society (such as tobacco, alcohol, gambling). From the beginning of our history we have given women an equal place in the church and spoken out against racism and discrimination. Our founders and the people who influenced them were abolitionists. We’re a church of social justice, service, and welfare. Our early preachers preached against riches and the love of money. All of these values directed me toward the Democratic party, not the Republican. However, the important issue was that there used to be room for both.
Culture Shock within One’s Own Culture
I won’t go into my entire college experiences in detail. I went there with a calling to be a missionary. I left there not wanting to return to the Nazarene Church despite still believing in their teachings. Suffice it to say that I ran into many people—students, professors, and administrators—who preached the ascendancy of the specific rules over the statement of faith and general rules. In fact, many of them maintained that there was no difference and that to break a specific rule was equivalent to hating your brother.
Let me take abortion as an example. In the church where I grew up, people had a very active approach to abortion, but it was also very personal. If they knew of a girl or woman who had an unwanted pregnancy, they offered to take her in, they hooked her up with adoption agencies, they offered to pay for her medical expenses, they even offered to take the child in themselves. If she decided to have an abortion anyway, they prayed with her and helped her mourn the loss of her child.
When I got to college, women who got pregnant were condemned as wh*res and harlots. You could get expelled from school if you were unmarried and got pregnant. There were rumors that that happened even to girls who were assaulted. I got into a rather heated argument with my history professor in class one day. (This was the same professor who taught us that all Democrats were going to Hell.) He was teaching that abortion was never right in any circumstances (never mind that that statement contradicts the Nazarene Manual). I challenged him on the Big Three: mother or baby’s life in danger, cases of rape, and cases of incest. His arguments were that abortion still wasn’t justified. In the first case, he claimed, medical science has advanced to the point where this doesn’t happen anymore—women never have their lives endangered if they go to the hospital. In the second case, he said, women who are raped can’t get pregnant because if they are afraid, the body gives off a chemical that kills the sperm. If her body doesn’t give off that chemical, then it wasn’t really rape. As for the third instance, he simply shrugged and said the unborn baby shouldn’t be made to suffer because of someone else’s crimes.
That is just one example of many. I dropped out of college after a year and a half, suffering a nervous breakdown that left me hospitalized. The Nazarene churches that I’ve attended since then reminded me too much of college. In just the past few months I have again found a church that I'm comfortable attending--one that preaches holiness. Except for an anti-Catholic incident on the first Sunday, I have been encouraged by what I have seen and hope to make it my church home.
I spent several years turning my back on holiness, somehow confusing the rightness of the life God calls us to with the hurtfulness of the people who are trying to live it. It took marrying a devout Catholic (the same Catholic that my college told me I had no business dating as we would be “unequally yoked”) for me to be brought back to my roots. Thankfully, I serve a merciful God who is eager to forgive.
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I am hoping that the church I have found is committed to holiness and recognizes that our calling does not give us any right to condemn anyone else because we think they aren’t being holy enough. It doesn’t give us any right to consider ourselves as more holy than anyone else. We are sanctified through the act of God and His Spirit. It is a gift that we should carry with humility. It is not a gift that makes us better than anyone else.
I disagree with several of the specific rules of the Church. I find our stance on homosexuality to be a transgression of God’s law of love.
Although my parents were not strict on the rules (they believed I needed to embrace them of my own free will), I chose to take on a leadership role in the district youth, so I followed the rules. I didn’t go to movies, dance, or drink. I did play face cards, but I never gambled with them. I followed the rules of modest dress and didn’t listen to secular music. These rules really were helpful and I think my teenage years were a lot happier because of them.
Do I follow those rules now? No. I drink in moderation, I go to movies (although the Church has now lifted that rule as an absolute restriction), and I dance. (In fact, that was one rule I broke while in high school. The man I later married asked me to the Homecoming Dance. In fact, the way he asked was, “So, can Nazarenes go to Homecoming Dances?” My answer was, “No, but I might. Let me get back with you.” After prayer, consulting my youth minister, and a lot of hard thought, I agreed to go. I’m glad I did—I think God had something in mind. :D ) I even play the lottery sometimes, though I’ve mostly given that up because I agree with the Church stance.
I am a Nazarene because of what the Church teaches. I cannot be otherwise. We have a doctrine of compassion, of love, of kindness, and one that calls us to a higher life. It is a life of obedience. It is a positive doctrine of a loving God who has commanded us to love each other.
There! If you’ve managed to read this whole thing, you know now as much or more about the Nazarene Church as many of its members.
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Epinions.com ID:
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Member: Bridgette
Location: Lansing, Michigan
Reviews written: 526
Trusted by: 483 members
About Me:
I have many loves: family, books, theater, writing, and the many communities I belong to.
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