The
Hope of the Believer . . . Restoration Review, Vol. 31, No. 2, February 1989 Visiting
Other Churches: New Series, No.2... THE
NAZARENES: CALLED TO HOLINESS I
have made it a point to take notice how a church responds to my visit, not
only while I am on its premises but afterwards in some kind of follow up.
While I found no church unfriendly while attending its service, it was the
rare church that was enthusiastically friendly. Surprisingly, the larger
churches appeared to be more friendly, possibly because they have more
visitors and are better organized for that purpose. I can only conclude that
most churches need to improve in projecting themselves as warm and friendly.
I am suspicious that smaller churches have an inferiority complex, for they
appear to be awkward in welcoming a visitor. Since the average Denton church
(of a total of 70) would have an average attendance of no more than 50 or
60, with visitors very rare, a visitor definitely feels that he is being
looked at with a "What's he doing here?" attitude. It was common
for me to be the only visitor present. So, one conclusion I have drawn is
that the average church does not have many visitors. As
for follow-up, only one church in ten made any effort to contact me further.
Two churches, both Baptist, were bold enough to call at my home, and that
without calling in advance. I got the impression that such a chore was
turned over to the young people. They were inexperienced and it was poorly
done. I don't believe that "cold-turkey" home visitation is either
wise or effective. In fact I was leaving the house on my way to visit
another church when one Baptist party showed up! Only
one phoned me as a follow-up method, but several wrote me a warm letter of
welcome, inviting me to visit again. These were mostly the larger, better
staffed churches, and it was always the pastor that wrote. Most churches
make no provision for a follow up, for the visitor is not asked in some
manner to leave his name and address, such as signing a visitor's card. I
like visitor's cards, and always sign them, and I am pleased to identify
myself as a member of the Church of Christ. I like to surprise people! But
it is not uncommon for even a larger church to make no effort to get a
visitor's name and address. If
I were to grade the churches I have visited in this regard, the First Church
of the Nazarene in Denton would make an A. Not only was I warmly received,
as if by a family, when I visited (I didn't feel on the spot as I often
do!), but there was also a sincere and meaningful follow-up by way of a
letter from the pastor, and that straightway. While such letters often seem
routine and perfunctory, this one spoke from the heart and without apology.
One paragraph read:
Not
only did he invite me to return but to consider his church as a church home.
I got the impression that he meant business when he wrote, "I invite
you to consider becoming involved in the ministry of First Church of the
Nazarene. There are some really exciting days ahead for us at First Church.
We offer you the opportunity to experience personal growth in Jesus Christ'
to become involved in the excitement of a growing church and to be an
integral part of our church family." The
visitor's card was impressive. It had a detachable portion that I filled out
and put in the collection plate. The part I kept provided considerable
information about the Church of the Nazarene under the title "That you
may know us better." It told me that they have 8,625 congregations
throughout the world, 838,136 members, 1.2 million in Sunday School, and
4,086 pastors. They have 620 missionaries in 84 countries, and their
worldwide radio program is carried on 286 stations. They are also on 400
Spanish—king stations, 54 in Portuguese, and six in French. They have a
publishing house that turns out 60 million copies of periodicals and 750,000
copies of books each year. They have 34 Bible colleges, 10 liberal arts
colleges, and 400 special schools around the world. They also have campus
ministry programs at public colleges and universities. This
kind of information acquaints the visitor with the church he is visiting,
and leaves the impression that the denomination is serious about what it is
doing and will be around for a while. The independent churches and the Bible
churches do not have this advantage in that they have no roots and no
denominational structure supporting them. They are usually built around a
gifted preacher, and one gets the idea that their survival depends on him
staying around. No Presbyterian has such insecurity, for she knows that
pastors come and go over the years, but that both the congregation and the
denomination will remain much the same, decade after decade. The
roots of the Church of the Nazarene are Wesleyan. They are today in spirit
something like the Methodists were in their camp-meeting revivals two
centuries ago. They emerged from a movement that sought to preserve the
Wesleyan doctrine of "entire sanctification," which it believed
the Methodists had neglected. Beginning in 1886 a number of Pentecostal and
Holiness churches grew out of this movement, all the way from Providence, R.
I. to Los Angeles. There were such groups as the People's Evangelical
Church, the Holiness Church of Christ, and the Association of Pentecostal
Churches. A union of sorts was effected at the turn of the century, forming
the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene. In 1919 the name was changed to the
Church of the Nazarene. They
have always been both pentecostal and holiness, but pentecostal in the sense
that they believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit as "the second
blessing," and the sanctified life that this implies, but not in the
sense of speaking in tongues. The pastor of the First Church in Denton told
me that speaking in tongues would be out of order in his church. But I
noticed that some of them raise hands in prayer and praise. Some Nazarene
churches are more "demonstrative" in this regard than others,
which is the only real difference between the two Nazarene churches in
Denton. The
Nazarenes are generally mainline Protestant in doctrine, and so their
Articles of Faith are not all that different from most churches. Their
uniqueness would be in what they emphasize. They not only believe that the
Holy Spirit is part of the Triune Godhead, but that he sanctifies believers.
They believe in original sin and that it continues to exist in the believer
"until eradicated by the baptism of the Holy Spirit." In a radical
departure from Calvinism, they believe in free agency, and that even though
the Christian possesses "the experience of regeneration and entire
sanctification" he may fall from grace and apostatize, and unless he
repents will be eternally lost. While they believe in the second coming of
Christ, they take no position on the nature of the millennium. While
they generally baptize only believers and by immersion, they also allow for
sprinkling and pouring. If parents request it, they will baptize children,
but advise baptism again when the child becomes a believer. Divine healing
is an article of faith, but it is not emphasized. The
most distinctive plea of the Nazarene Church, and one that the rest of us
should consider more seriously, is the life of holiness. This is their logo,
their central doctrine — "called to holiness." This emphasis may
be why their history is one of unions rather than divisions. Unlike most
denominations, one does not find a variety of Nazarene sects. Here in Denton
their two churches are united and do things together. And yet they are not
ecumenical in the usual sense. "The National Council of Churches is too
liberal for us," I was told. They are separatists but not sectarian.
They recognize all other churches' baptism in accepting members. Their
doctrine of holiness or "Entire Sanctification," which is given
more space in their Articles than any other doctrine, is also called
"Christian perfection" and even "The baptism of the Holy
Spirit." They distinguish between a pure heart, which comes in an
instant when one is born again, and a mature character, which is growth in
grace unto perfection. A Christian is to set his mind upon "the
holiness without which no one shall see the Lord," as the Bible puts
it, or entire sanctification, and if he does not have this desire to grow in
grace unto holiness he is not truly a Christian. In
spite of its Wesleyan roots, the Nazarene Church is organized more like the
Presbyterians than the Methodists. It is not episcopal. Like the
Presbyterians, it has four levels of government: the Local Church, the
District Assembly, The Region, the General Assembly. There are elders and
trustees at the local level, a district superintendent at the district
level, and general superintendents preside over the General Assembly, but in
all the judicatories the local church is represented. The Region is a
cluster of districts, sometimes embracing large sections of the world. Practically
speaking, I asked the pastor at First Church how he was hired and how he
could be fired. The local church calls its own pastor with the assistance of
the district superintendent, and this by secret ballot by all voting
members. The local church has final say, the superintendent having only veto
power, for he can always say "I don't want him in my district."
The pastor is fired the same way, not by the elders or trustees or
superintendent, but by a 70% vote of the members, again by secret ballot.
The exception to this is in the event of a morals charge, in which case the
district superintendent as a representative of the General Assembly can
immediately strip him of his ordination credentials, and he's through
(period). I
was deeply impressed with my visit to both of the Nazarene churches. I found
sincerity, warmth, and (this is rare in Denton churches!) a sense of
urgency. The members were participants and not mere auditors, sharing and
praying together out of common concerns. Historically, the Nazarenes have
appealed to a lower economic class, "a church for the poor," which
may be why they have continued to grow while mainline churches have
seriously declined, that along with their conservative, evangelical message.
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