Push:
I love Nazarenes, and always will. I have been deeply blessed to be a Nazarene. I take with me a lot of warm friendships, hundreds of gracious acquaintances, and a handful of really good friends. (You know who you are, David and Charlotte, Geoff and Kathleen, Craig and Janet, Dan and Nancy, Kim, Donny and others. Although, sadly, some of you have made your own journeys away from the Nazarenes.) The Nazarenes have shaped me, and I fell in love with the pastoral theology of John Wesley at your seminary. You licensed me for ministry 21 years ago and ordained me eight years ago. I believe that God brought me to you for this reason – to grow me, deepen me, ordain me, and then shape me as a clergyman. If I am a progressive Christian, I became so because of your focus of social justice, equality of the genders, and a deep trust that God is making all things new.
If the Church of the Nazarene (CotN) was one of my chaplaincy students, I would suggest the following areas for growth and development!
Fundamentalism: There has always been a small corner of the CotN that carries a rather simplistic, and even retrograde version of Christianity. My concern is that this camp is growing, and is gaining sway in the denomination, clearly effecting some of the decisions made at the last General Assembly. I want to be a part of a Christianity that recognizes that ‘all truth is God’s truth’ and that embraces the intellectual life as honoring God, and not contrary to Him. The pursuit of science is, for a Christian, an act of worship. God gave us a mind, and it honors God when we use it. Isaac Newton once said that science is “thinking God’s thoughts after Him”. I like that. Sadly, this fundamentalist camp within the CotN has recently taken on a dangerous syncretism of US nationalism and Christianity, in which the nationalism leads. This ‘Christo-nationalism’ is very worrying as it often (not always, but often) embodies values that are contrary to the gospel.
Connectionalism: The CotN blends a congregational approach of autonomy for healthy churches, with a thin layer of unity and oversight that resembles a minimalistic episcopal layer. Yet this structure does not foster meaningful relationships for pastors. There are many postors in the CotN, and more particularly in the New England District that are isolated, lonely and discouraged. There is an urgent need for our District Superintendents to recognize pastoral isolation and to build structures to grow a culture of connecting. This surely involves using chaplains better, perhaps as area pastors, not to be above pastors, but to rather undergird pastors with regular pastoral check-ins. A pathology that I have encountered in this District is favoritism. It doesn’t take long to notice that the DS visits some church many times a year, and other churches have not been visited in decades. The District boards and committees are staffed by the same ‘in crowd’. Teh same candidates are proposed to represent us at General Convention every time. If yo are in, you’re in. If you are out, you’re out.
Abandonment: A wise Nazarene, now gone to glory, once said to me that the CotN kills its wounded. I thought this was hyperbole, yet I know now what he means. Pastors that fall from grace, or who make poor choices are usually separated from their responsibilities…and then ignored until they drift away. This is not the charge of care that we owe those we ordain. We must, and have to do better.
Secrecy: We need more openness, transparency less secrecy in the CotN. The District Advisory Board should meet in public session for almost everything, only going into closed-session rarely. They should publish minutes accessible to clergy and district leaders at least. The district nominating committee ought to be comprised of elected members and not meet in secret, this increasing the favoritism that is plainly happening.
Church Planting: The CotN cannot effectively church plant to save itself. The only church growth that we have seen in the 26 years that i have been with the New England District is with the non-English speaking churches, and that has been mostly in the form of extended family groups. We like to think we do church planting, but we just don’t. we don’t fund of relationally support church planting. period. I know. I’ve restarted a church for 11 years, and now planted a church for 8 years. I’ve experienced that total lack of support from our District. Thank you Kim Richardson for your beautiful and diligent work with me, but we need more that just you Kim. We need a culture that treasure church planters, and pours relational connection and financial backing into the courageous and difficult, apostolic work that we do. Hey, if it hadn’t been for the personal friendship and care of Geoff DeFranca, pastor of Community Chapel in Nashua NH, then Linda and I would surely have called it a day. Thank you Geoff. Your Starbucks coffee visits and Christmas staff parties gave Linda and I enough of a sense of belonging to keep us going when the going got tough.
And yes, I know the ECNH has its problems too. I love progressive Christianity yet the ECNH carries a problematic fraction of liberalism that can render the power of the gospel mute. It has its own classism, I can already see. (Those educated at Yale seem to find ways of mentioning it often.) I am not blind to these traits. Yet the problems I have highlighted in the New England Nazarenes here have led me to a place where I have decided that I need to protect my soul.
For all this, the pull of the ECNH is stronger than the push from the NEDNAZ. I do not make the journey in anger, nor with regret. Those who have failings are my friends. I have long since forgiven them and love them, and I need them to forgive and love me. I still want to see the best for them, and you can perhaps hear my passion for the problems to be addressed. I feel sure that my investments in the NEDNAZ will be nurtured by the Lord. There really isn’t them-and-us. It’s only us. It’s all us. It is all the Kingdom of The Lord Jesus Christ. We are all in it together.