The Nazarene Church is having its four year general assembly. To be frank, I don't envy a lot of the decisions they're making. It's a sign of how big they are. It's a sign of where they are in their life cycle.
Yesterday they rejected adding a statement against process theology. Hmm, that one has never come up at Wesleyan General Conference. I suppose the argument against making a statement was along the lines of, "You can't kick every barking dog." I think they made a choice not to be that kind of church--you know, the one that defines itself by always saying what it's against.
One of the more interesting decisions was not to divide up the world into separate but equal conferences, like we Wesleyans have. Years ago, in the name of Wesleyans overseas being equal partners in faith, the WC created the possibility of other regions of the world becoming general conferences in a Wesleyan World Fellowship. So far, we have the Philippines, the Carribean, and the Pacific has moved into a partial status.
What no one anticipated at that time (who knows, maybe KDrury did :-) was that the "next Christendom" would quickly shift to the third world. We have seen in Anglicanism, for example, that the third world has become a powerful ballast to the American church, leading to fracture in the Episcopal church. While the North American church still has most of the money, the power has significantly shifted.
The Nazarene Church, by contrast, still has only one general assembly internationally. Further, North America has a much more significant representation on its general board, although it looks like a man from Guatemala will be elected as a General Superintendent today. The assembly yesterday rejected restructuring.
I don't envy them. There is a real clash of cultures within the church. Knowing some of what lies ahead, I probably will post more later in the week...
P.S. The Southern Baptists actually had a very good conference this summer with some decisions I really like. I might mention here sometime...
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3 comments:
Ha - great amendment when it was proposed at Naz GA that the biblical concept of marriage be affirmed as between one man and one woman. Someone suggested they change it to the Christian concept, since Solomon had 500 wives. I will say that the Nazarenes are generally more hermeneutically sophisticated than Wesleyans.
I take that back--the amendment failed. Nazarenes are also unable to read the books of the Bible in context. Genesis 3:24 does not preclude polygamy, since Jacob became one flesh with Leah and with Rachel and with Bilhah and with Zilpah.
United Methodism, on the other hand, likes "to kick every barking dog." Just check out our Book of Resolutions.
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