I feel a lot of what you are saying. Definitely the younger generation is checking out--how much of that is what the Nazarene Church is doing and how much is generational angst at difficult things, I don't know. I wonder if it's some of both. I went through hell and back as a 20-something Nazarene pastor, but didn't have cultural winds pushing me to exit stage-right as a result.
I do know if you have questions now as a 20-something pastor about--for instance--the LGBTQ question, you are coming with a cultural roadmap older generations don't even understand. And if we are shutting down the question on the face, then we are indeed forcing them to go away. This is sad and not holy.
I have wanted to leave the Nazarene church many times because of our dysfunctions (I think I can name them all), but have what I can only call a calling to stay and attempt to be an example of engaged, gospel, holiness mission that transforms--to continue in the spirit and practice of Wesley--genuine, delightful holiness in which people "are at ease in themselves" (to quote Wesley) and the people structures that sustain it.
I am a "Tim Keller centrist" (my own term), so in a sense don't really have a home. I am not Progressive and I am certainly not fundamentalist. I am certainly someone of the via media. If the progressive vision becomes the Nazarene vision, we've abandoned who we are as holiness people and traded it for a cultural vision. If the fundamentalist vision becomes the Nazarene vision, we've abandoned who we are as holiness people and traded it for fear and legalism and Pharisaical self-righteousness under the guise of "morality and righteousness." In both cases, we'd have taken plausibility structures foreign to both the tenor and spirit of Scripture and our model in Wesley. It's a tension at this point--a tenuous one. I genuinely don't know what will happen, but want to lead one of the "happy congregations" you note.
There were many times over the years when I thought of leaving the denomination before I did. I thought I could be a reforming voice and made myself stay. It was circumstances in the local congregation that finally made us switch to the UMC. But the intervening decade has made it clear that I couldn’t go back.
John,
GenX (lifer) Nazarene pastor here.
I feel a lot of what you are saying. Definitely the younger generation is checking out--how much of that is what the Nazarene Church is doing and how much is generational angst at difficult things, I don't know. I wonder if it's some of both. I went through hell and back as a 20-something Nazarene pastor, but didn't have cultural winds pushing me to exit stage-right as a result.
I do know if you have questions now as a 20-something pastor about--for instance--the LGBTQ question, you are coming with a cultural roadmap older generations don't even understand. And if we are shutting down the question on the face, then we are indeed forcing them to go away. This is sad and not holy.
I have wanted to leave the Nazarene church many times because of our dysfunctions (I think I can name them all), but have what I can only call a calling to stay and attempt to be an example of engaged, gospel, holiness mission that transforms--to continue in the spirit and practice of Wesley--genuine, delightful holiness in which people "are at ease in themselves" (to quote Wesley) and the people structures that sustain it.
I am a "Tim Keller centrist" (my own term), so in a sense don't really have a home. I am not Progressive and I am certainly not fundamentalist. I am certainly someone of the via media. If the progressive vision becomes the Nazarene vision, we've abandoned who we are as holiness people and traded it for a cultural vision. If the fundamentalist vision becomes the Nazarene vision, we've abandoned who we are as holiness people and traded it for fear and legalism and Pharisaical self-righteousness under the guise of "morality and righteousness." In both cases, we'd have taken plausibility structures foreign to both the tenor and spirit of Scripture and our model in Wesley. It's a tension at this point--a tenuous one. I genuinely don't know what will happen, but want to lead one of the "happy congregations" you note.
Thanks for writing.
Grace+peace.
Thanks, Scott!
There were many times over the years when I thought of leaving the denomination before I did. I thought I could be a reforming voice and made myself stay. It was circumstances in the local congregation that finally made us switch to the UMC. But the intervening decade has made it clear that I couldn’t go back.
It is a sad situation that is happening everywhere.