General Assembly 2005

As I explained in my last post, the Church of the Nazarene holds its General Assembly every 4 years. I served as a delegate to the Nazarene Youth International (NYI) Global Convention, and stayed on to observe the proceedings at the General Assembly.

As a whole, I was very encouraged to see our church operate at a global level. Resolutions were carefully considered at different levels, with the opportunity for debate and discussion. I did not observe campaigning or politicking in regards to resolutions or elections, but that may have been different for those on the floor. Obviously, there were several decisions made that I don't agree with (mandating the words "Church of the Nazarene" on signs and stationery, for one), but I'm going to focus my thoughts on the larger issues of globalization and integration of all members of the church.

By far, I believe that the most earth-shaking decision all week was made by the Global NYI Convention. Recognizing that the Global Convention is not truly global (more than half of the delegates are unable to attend, due to economic and visa issues) the convention adopted a resolution which will allow for the voting bar to be set in such a manner to allow all duly elected delegates to participate in the voting process. A commission was created to determine the best ways to do this, perhaps through satellite or internet. It is my hope that they will be intentional about engaging international delegates in discussion and debate, not just voting.

The church has struggled to truly reflect the international body that it claims to be, particularly at the global legislative level. We have yet to elect a truly international candidate to the office of General Superintendent, and the services at General Assembly feel like a North American church service with many invited guests. Most disturbing is that a large percentage of delegates are unable to travel to the United States to participate in the process.

I am proud of our Global NYI Council for setting the agenda in such a way as to begin to deal with this issue. Dierdre Brower-Latz should receive many "kudos" for her labors at internationalization of NYI and her work to incorporate the youth into the life of the church.

Having said that, we still have a long way to go. The other legislative bodies of the church need to also find a way to include every delegate in the process of debate and voting. I would suggest that we consider moving to a model of concurrent regional assemblies which would deal with most issues which affect the church. Those regional assemblies could work by satellite or internet to discuss the few issues which are truly global in nature.

The planners of the General Assembly must also be challenged to plan our worship to reflect the makeup of the church. No longer is it simply acceptable to play North American music and provide a translation. If we are to be a global church than participants from every world region must be invited to share in the leading of worship: sharing scripture, song, and prayer in their own language and culture. North Americans must occasionally feel like cultural outsiders.

I would also challenge the church to move beyond lip-service to children and youth in the planning of General Assembly. It is not acceptable to say to the teens, "we give you this church," when the Global NYI Council has not been allowed to plan the "teen emphasis" service at General Assembly. Those words ring empty when actions don't support them. It makes no sense for one auxiliary (NMI) to be given a major service in the dome when the other two auxiliaries are placed in merely an advisory capacity to an "emphasis" service. If we are truly an integrated church, then Youth and Sunday School should be involved at the same level as Missions.

There were two other historic moments at General Assembly which must be mentioned here. I was tingling with goose bumps on Sunday night when it was announced that we had entered our 150th world area, the nation of Iraq. To hear the stories of those who had worked to share the hope of the Gospel with those who were hopeless was truly powerful. I was so excited that I didn't leave the RCA Dome without first calling my missions president back home to share the news.

The second historic moment was when Nina Gunter was elected the first female General Superintendant. Cognitively, delegates have known that we must work for gender equality in our leadership, but this has been a difficult road. The Church of the Nazarene has, since it's beginning, affirmed the call of God upon women to pastoral and church leadership. We have understood the general statements found in Acts 2:17-18 and Galatians 3:27-28 to supercede the specific contextual statements made to individual local churches in the Epistles. Despite this position, the church has not seen fit to elect a female until this General Assembly. Dr. Gunter officially begins her work as General Superintendant in just a few days, on August 1st.

The nature of the Church is that we are always growing. Despite the frustrations that I had, I must recognize that growth comes slowly. It is my prayer that we will continue to reflect a multi-generational, bi-gender, multi-nationality church...indeed, that we would more reflect the Body of Christ.

Grace and Peace,

PastorJon