Emergent Nazarenes - Latest Comments

Re: Gay Marriage - The Last Stand?

Worshipthenazarene — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:30:34 -0000

The Biblical standard of marriage between a man and a woman cannot be changed "because" it hasn't been kept by heterosexuals the way the Lord intended. Comparing two wrongs don't make a right, "two sins (even one or more) don't equal changing righteous to sin" Talking about "confused thinking" Remember, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever... He doesn't change and certainly the law of the Creator of mankind cannot be changed based on the fact that human beings fail daily.

Re: Where art thou going, oh Church of the Nazarene?

Anthony — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 11:07:17 -0000

I think theologically the CotN is has at it's core the resources to not only survive in the future, but actually influence the future direction of the greater Christian church.

This begins with Wesley. Our heritage within the Wesleyan tradition is what give me hope that the CotN will find it way. But it requires a break from evangelical/fundamental influences which turns Christianity into a belief based religion.

Wesleyan's theology was deeply relational. While Wesleyan had strong beliefs and convictions about God and the Bible, they all were subservient to an actual relationship to God and others. The more a belief or conviction was in service to the promotion of love or relational holiness, the more tightly Wesley held to these beliefs.

I see the CotN serving as the model of a Church which emphasis deep commitment in the service of deep love. This is very rare among Churches. Too often deeper the commitment leads to greater the hostility towards others. Or for us progressives, the greater the desire to avoid hostility, the weaker our commitment and convictions must become.

Whether the CotN has gone too far down the mainstream evangelical path to express this Wesleyan vision, I don't know. But I do know of many individual Nazarenes, in whom every day I am humbled by both the strength of their convictions and the depth of their love. They are what give me hope that the CotN is still relevant.

Re: Denomination Caves To Concerned Nazarenes

John Knight — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 02:13:38 -0000

This was an April Fools joke parody back in 2009. The post clearly says so on the bottom.

Re: Denomination Caves To Concerned Nazarenes

Terry Schmelzenbach — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 19:11:53 -0000

My James.... How do you interrupt things so twisted ? I have been open minded until reading your Farewell post. I know many of these Godly men and they have not been removed . You are misguided and thus have surely done some harm to the Kingdom.
To live a holy life requires constantly looking at yourself. I inwardly seek holiness everyday to outwardly Share Jesus Christ my Lord.
I appreciate someone who is concerned about our denomination
as a Holiness Church. But you twist ,make things up, take great leaps and I believe state untruths.

Re: Where art thou going, oh Church of the Nazarene?

SWM — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 01:06:22 -0000

No, the Emergent Church is mainstream.

Re: Denomination Caves To Concerned Nazarenes

Terri Knoll — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 14:57:21 -0000

I'm actually glad I left the denom because of people like you. You will answer for this one day and that gives me hope. If the spirit of God is moving even a tiny bit in someones ministry, you sir, are guilty of blasphemy by calling anyone apostate. May God have mercy on your soul.

Re: Concerned “Nazarenes”, Direct Answers, the Articles of Faith and Rob Bell’s Dust

Juliadneal — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 14:05:25 -0000

Of course Concerned Nazarenes believe in the Articles of Faith.
But what is of concern here is the validity of scripture. And whether or not scripture agrees with scripture.

Re: Where art thou going, oh Church of the Nazarene?

kborger — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 07:48:03 -0000

Just wanted to take a moment to share that while there are many in the Nazarene church who hang on to the church of their youth and are vocal in attempting to make sure the church does not change from the 1950's era, there are many who are seeking to be a part of a church that is first a foremost focused on Jesus. I am a part of a project that is just in its infancy, but our hope is to bring the mission field success in Africa and South America here to the US. We are currently seeking, praying, and learning just how that might work. My partner and I are leaders of a church of about 80, but we are gearing up to start planting churches. We have many small communities within what we would claim our sphere of influence in addition to our own community. Many of these communities are too small to support a full time pastor and don't have the jobs to support a bi-vocational pastor so if there was a church there it has been closed. We are working on creating a network of churches that share resources and provide assistance to lay pastors who will pastor a church in their home or in any facility they are able to procure.

May God bless your ministry and may you seek to bless and honor God in all you do.

Re: Gay Marriage - The Last Stand?

J_hutsler — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 09:08:41 -0000

My friend
I'm afraid you miss the point
When in a war spiritual or otherwise you give no ground to the enemy no matter how poor the ground is
It is not about Our current behavior that matters it is about what Our Father expects of us
It is not right when we do wrong and it is not right when others want to call wrong right
You say 35% of American Chtistians get divorced
Are you do ready to dismiss the 65% that get it right?
There was a time when Adam and eve had 2 sons 50% of them commuted murder and 50% of them gave an offering acceptable to the lord
Listen brothers and sisters in Christ
It is not what we do it is what He has already done for us
We all have fallen short and are redeemed through repentance
But how can you repent if you believe your evil deeds are good
It is not Chritians that say marrage is between Man woman and God
It is God who says it and it is God who expects us and commands us to obey and up hold his commands
Even as we son he expects us to repent and receive the blessing of his forgiveness and healing
We should not want to steal that opportunity from any other sinner
Amen
Jonny

Re: Where art thou going, oh Church of the Nazarene?

Joshua Vance — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 23:18:57 -0000

The identity of the CotN is grounded in the following 3 words which seem to be perfect for a maturing church:

Christian | Missional | Holiness

...but without you and the many like you, the CotN is headed for extinction my friend.

Thank you for your continued thoughts and insights into a brighter future as God continues expansion of the Kingdom of Heaven, here.

Re: Denomination Caves To Concerned Nazarenes

Timothy Erts — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:34:08 -0000

Amen if only it were true. You heretic!

Re: Gay Marriage - The Last Stand?

Anna — Sun, 13 May 2012 16:15:44 -0000

I think we should legally allow gay marriages. God does not want us being bigoted. This is not a moral issue it is a equal rights issue. If we say one group of people cannot marry then what is to stop the government from regulating how we live our daily lives. If you do not approve of homosexuality you can say all you want but please do not prevent people from practicing their civil rights.

Re: Where art thou going, oh Church of the Nazarene?

mrdcbrush — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 10:43:14 -0000

Hey Jeremy, the Donnie you mention is one and the same. We are gearing up for a summer launch of the site and our ministry in earnest, right now we are incubating some content to launch with. The end goal is an education focused ministry on peacemaking from and for the Wesleyan traditions.

Thanks for following up!

Re: Where art thou going, oh Church of the Nazarene?

Jeremy D. Scott — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:46:50 -0000

Only just now saw this. Thanks, David.

I'm just plugging along, really. I've got no crusade save the love of Christ. The CotN has some things that are hindering, but nothing in my area that's enough to make me jump ship. Ships are sinking everywhere. I believe in and love the Church. My tribe is the CotN. So what? :-)

But I really commented because I'm interested in your new site/endeavors. I assume that the "Donnie" you're doing this with is the guy that had planted the Naz church in Gardner? Let us know when it goes live.

Re: Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy

Elaine Eskew — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 07:33:05 -0000

This also true in most mainline denominations, revision not eradcation. Elaine Eskew

Re: General Superintendents Statement

Maloney_Terry — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:10:10 -0000

The Generals need to lead and speak like generals in war!
They are not doing that!

Re: General Superintendents Statement

Maloney_Terry — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:06:54 -0000

You are on target, but when Paul dealt with those who would add something to Jesus Christ for spiritual health, he was blunt,and straight forward. In my humble opinion the emergent church is dealing in hearsy. I can only seek the Living Word and Inspired witten word, to find my way through the chaff.

Re: A Covenant of Kindness

NazaGay — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:42:27 -0000

I completely agree with you on the GLBT.

Re: General Superintendents Statement

World Area Nazarene — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:14:36 -0000

Wow, I'm a Nazarene in another world area, I have no idea all of this is going on in the church. Here we are in our church, focusing on reaching out to our community, trying to disciple souls for the Lord, and all of this is taking place. We are working in the vineyard, and believe me, the Christian Covenant of Conduct or Character, doesn't bother the person who really needs Jesus.

The American Church of the Nazarene obviously has a lot of time to waste. Your country is dying morally and spiritually, and you have so much time to divide the church further over DOCUMENTS. Go out there, and win the lost at any cost, forget all this POLITICS, look at the history of the church, it has only served to hurt us when we fight and divide over these issues. A day will come when all of this will wither, but GOD will ask us to account for what we have done for him. Do you think he cares about DOCUMENTS.

Re: Denomination Caves To Concerned Nazarenes

Paula Coyle — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:06:54 -0000

Since they believe they can rid themselves of sin in this life, yes, they are.

Re: Denomination Caves To Concerned Nazarenes

Paula Coyle — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:05:07 -0000

Wow, that's a Christian way to respond. No wonder people are trying to look elsewhere if this is how the traditional Nazarene church behaves.

Re: Denomination Caves To Concerned Nazarenes

Paula Coyle — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:03:59 -0000

oops i didn't realize my original post did post, so the first one could be deleted.

Re: Denomination Caves To Concerned Nazarenes

Paula Coyle — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:03:22 -0000

You'd best look elsewhere for truth. But I am glad they resisted this change. The Nazarene church has been off the rails for a while and you are right to question them, but emergent is not the way to go. You are merely exchanging one moralism for another.

I just listened to Nina Gunter's message from the 07 missions conference. What a purpose driven/church growth vision casting train wreck that was. How people figure that is an exemplary woman to follow (never mind that women are not supposed to be pastors) is beyond me.

All the catch phrases were there. She used that overused line that EVERYONE uses for their own denomination (because they learned it from the false church growth gurus) "the Nazarene church is perfectly poised for 1957."

Good grief. What a joke. She also used the "Famous last words - we never did it that way before" (that straw man is also way overused) and I said it about 1 second before it came out of her mouth because I've heard it so many times before. "We never did it that way before" isn't a good reason NOT to change something, granted. It's also an equally bad reason TO change something.

And then she used this line which was a loose paraphrase of about how we can't keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. I"m like YEAH SO WHY DON'T YOU TRY TELLING US ABOUT JESUS NOW? (sorry for the yelling, I get a little frustrated when people miss the main point of the Scriptures - John 5:39-40)

The entire sermon was about US human beings. (particularly, Nazarene church people). It certainly did nothing to inspire me, being a non-nazarene Christian. Her equating Reformed theology with the emergent church was utterly ridiculous as well. While there may be some overlap, Reformed people dabbling in emergent are doing so by being contrary to their professed belief. She quoted Augustine favorably and then blasted Calvinism/ Reformed theology as if it was some damnable heresy. She's just a hireling, beating the sheep.

Re: Denomination Caves To Concerned Nazarenes

Paula Coyle — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:56:35 -0000

I'm glad they resisted this change. Unfortunately their false teaching in other areas isn't going to save them. Entire sanctification is a terrible heresy. They are way off track. I listened to Nina Gunter's sickening vision casting message from 2007 just a bit ago and it's full of the signs of church growth nonsense. She ought to try preaching the gospel. I heard nothing about Jesus, just about the church and what we as church members all have to DO. You'd best look elsewhere for truth anyway.

Re: A Covenant of Kindness

iris — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 05:10:51 -0000

I was looking for this particular information for a very long time. Thank you and best of luck.