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The Assembly has gathered after committee meetings; Talmage Johnson, an emerti General Superintendent, is currently reading from Psalm 122 to begin the morning. After his "devotional" they will announce the results from the fifth ballot. I have found out a litle about Dr. Duarte. He is a native of the Cape Verde Islands -- a place that had a very strong Nazarene presence from the 1960s on. He was ordained in 1981 and has a Masters in Leadership from Azuza Pacific University. He is the director of the African Region; speaks English, Portugese, and four African languages. He is a very soft spoken and gentle person by all accounts. He seems a wonderful gift to the church.

Report # 6 General Superintendent Report:

Need 631 to elect

Duarte: 613 votes
Crocker 118
Valvassoura 50
Bowling 39
Graves 29
Verne Ward 20

I was wrong! One more ballot. My guess is that after the first election, the dynamics will radically shift. It is interesting that the North American delegates have dropped. Whether that will continue after the first non-North American election will be interesting to see. We will see depending on how Crocker and Valvassoura do in the first vote after the election of Duarte.

Ballot 7

959 valid; 639 to elect

Duarte 783

New GS!! The Assembly continues a standing ovation for several minutes. The African delegation literally hoisted him up on their shoulders in jubulation. He is having trouble making his way toward the podium because of the depth of emotions of his followers continue to surround and embrace. him. The group of the delegation surrounds him as an African song breaks out in the background. Duarte moves to the platform and warmly embraces the General Superintendents with a strong hug. Honestly I am fighting tears back from my eyes as the acapelo African melody now rings over the convention before Dr. Jim Diehl announces Dr. Duarte elected as a General Superintendent.

Here is his acceptance speech:

"My elder sister told it to our parents; and they chose for the youngest child the Nazarene school that had just arrived. It was later when I became a teacher at that very school at an age that I would not be allowed to sign the official documents; the pastor would sign for me. As I went for my first pay, I heard the conversation between the church treasurer, Fabia and the pastor. And I understood that I had embraced a missional church. And this is what a missional church gives you. (applause). It gives you someone who does not feel adequate, but who has no right to say no to the Lord. (applause) During 31 of the 44 years that I have been part of the Church of the Nazarene, it has always been the case that the church teaches me how to serve. That all I know, and that's all I can do, is to serve. I am willing to serve you. (applause) Thank you very much for trusting me; thank you for trusting the mission that you invest in; thank you for trusting Africa (applause).

He has shifted languages now in expressing thanks.

The rest of the votes are read. I have no idea what while happen from there. Dr. Duarte has taken a seat at the table with the Board of the General Superintendents. He has no jurisdiction, but he is immediately embraced.

Next Ballot will be ballot #2 for the 38th General Superintendent. This keeps the codes from before. Write in ballots are valid at any time if a name is not on the compiled list -- this allows the ballot to remain open as required by the Manual. All ballots are completely open.

Report on GS Ballot

Needed to elect: 635

Crocker 251
Bowling 153
Valvassoura 118
Graves 85
Ketchum 33
Seaman 30
Verne Ward 29
Bustle 24
Vassel 21
Benefiel 20
Sarmiento 17
Saenz 14
Jossie Owens 13

It will be interesting to watch what happens between Crocker and Bowling and Valvassoura. Crocker's votes jumped up again substantially -- which suggests that some of those voting for non-Americans shifted their vote to him. Bowling was elected four years ago, but declined the position after election because of his obligations at Olivet and fund raising. I don't know anything about Valvassoura. Jossie Owens with 13 is the highest woman; Carla Sundberg was not far behind, if the Assembly decides that a woman GS is important to the church. Ketchum is a conservative candidate from middle United States. The next ballot will be interesting and set a trend.

Meanwhile, you'll have to follow the results at other sites. I need to catch a plane and fly back to San Diego. Obviously this ends my live blogging, but I will follow the actions of the Assembly and try to blog daily on my observations, along with other events in life.

Posted by johnwright at 7:07 AM | Comments (8)

Voting for the General Superintendents has begun. First, resolutions involving the number and nature of the office needed handled. All proposed changes were soundly defeated, about 70% to 30%. Then incumbent GS's were voted upon.

The first thing that I looked for was the incumbent votes -- particularly Jesse Middendorf, whom the extremely conservative/fundamentalist Protestant activist group, Concerned Nazarenes, had personally gone after. If there was to be a strong conservative move in the Assembly, I thought that it would be present there.

Dr. Middendorf had the highest percentage re-election:879 yes; 41 no. Dr. G. K Warrick was re-elected with the second highest percentage: 867 yes; 58 no. Dr. Jerry Porter had "weakest" showing, with still well over 95% yes: 853 yes; 65 no. I would guess that the buzz during assembly created by "Concerned Nazarenes," if anything, had a negative effect on their cause. I think that it is save to say that American fundamentalism, with the internationalization of the church, is not going to happen this quadrenium and probably, without deep cultural and theological shifts, will not happen to the Church of the Nazarene like it did with the Southern Baptists. We just are too anchored in the larger Christian catholic tradition and too international to be coopted by a political/theological interest group isolated in the midwest and south of the United States.

The first two ballots for new General Superintendents have been cast. In the first ballot, the six leading vote getters were:

Crocker 166
Bowling 144
Duarte 144
Valvassoura 112
Graves 101
Bustle 99

Of these, three of the top four were not from the United States and Louie Bustle has
been head of the missions for the Church. It shows the intent of the assembly to move toward a non-North American as a General Superintendent.

The second ballot showed a large drop off of many on the ballot. I couldn't get the numbers as it went so quickly: Here were the top three:
Crocker 165
Duarte 156
John Bowling 113

Duarte moved up; Crocker stayed about the same and Bowling fell off substantially. This trend continued in the results of the third ballot:

Duarte 224
Crocker 214
Bowling 109
Valvassoura 89

629 ballots needed for election. It is a long way, but my guess is that Duarte or Crocker will be the first General Superintendent of the three to be elected. We are becoming international, not only in numbers now, but in authority. The North American focus/perspective of the church is going to be harder and harder to sustain.

The fourth ballot is taken: 633 to elect

Duarte 342
Crocker 221
Bowling 90
Valvassoura 83

The fifth ballot is in. One more ballot tonight and will announce first thing in the morning:

Duarte 481
Crocker 184
Bowling 65
Valvassoura 62
Graves 37

My guess is that tomorrow morning they will announce Duarte as a new General Superintendent. I'll see if I can find out some information about what that means.

My guess is that they are going to try and get an election tonight to announce for news -- particularly with a non-North American. After the next ballot it will be apparent whether Duarte's momentum will continue. My guess is two or three more ballots to elect him. I just met him last night very briefly and know nothing about him except he is the newly named regional director of the African region.

A third area of voting -- of which status I am not aware, but of significance -- is the formation of a shorter "global Manual." This is tricky work, for the Manual is like an old building that has various types of interrelationships that have formed over the years. It seems to me that they are about to make a mistake in not having any rites in the Manual. This could be a serious issue, as the Membership Rite defines the relationships between various parts of the Manual. If you get regional variations of the Membership ritual, you will basically get different churches. Moreover, if you don't have a common baptism and Eucharistic ritual, of course, the connection of the Church with the church catholic and the communion of saints becomes endangered. Also tricky is what behaviors are "contextual" and which ones are not. I believe that the decision was made to provide a version of this for approval at the next Assembly.

Now they are working through district polity. Pretty dry stuff. Now they are making sure that the district secretary when they change positions, pass on the records to their successor. Practical problems with legislative cures!

That's it for tonight! Good energy here and an interesting evening. We begin a 10:00 in the morning, East Coast time.

Posted by johnwright at 5:30 PM | Comments (8)

This morning the Assembly proper began. After various introductions, formalities, and clarification of rules, the General Superintendents began the Assembly as required by a “State of the Church” address. This address represents the work of the Board as a whole rather than any one GS as in the services and sermons. The address possessed deeper reflection, was more tied in with our tradition, and had more thickness in Christian convictions than the sermons during the convention. It tied together trends over the last decade, and tried at the same to keep the church united in mission and resources. Jesse Middendorf read the address in a measured tone, supplemented by power points. Likewise, the delegates and the observers were measured in their responses.

The address attempted to express that the General Superintendents had heard concerns from local pastors about use of the finances of the church for its centralized structures for a more congregational emphasis, but sought to limit this movement toward congregationalism through common mission and resources. The financial concerns of the church were an underlying theme that kept emerging. A key point came when the report stated that the General Superintendents had “thought it time to update the language of the mission of the church in light of biggest [structural] changes in 60 years.” I don’t think that the structural changes are quite as significant as the decision to move to the internationalization of the Church of the Nazarene, but they are extremely significant. Whether or not the General Superintendents have the authority to state a mission statement from that provided in the Preface to the Manual (I do not think that they do), they obviously had consulted with business leaders and practices in coordinating mission and structure. As General Superintendents, they understand their role to be an executive board of a business to articulate the mission of the business and then develop the appropriate structures in order to unite the business personnel in commitment to this vision from the “top” to the “bottom” of the organization. This, of course, represents a major secularization of the church at its top level – without its awareness. More on this later in the post.

The stated mission statement by the GS’s is “To make Christlike disciples in the nations.” It was argued that this language preserved the essence of language of holiness, and shows the commitment to “the doctrine and experience of experience of entire sanctification” as a surrender of will to the will of God, Moreover it looks to move people through the process of building and sustaining Christian franchises (and here the influence of Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church was apparent). The mission means that one must incorporate believers into membership, equip them for ministry, and then deploy them as “Christlike disciples” to recruit others into the organization. It was expressly articulated that the local congregation was the church, in line with Warren’s Congregationalist ecclesiology. No von Balthasarian sophistication in talking about the Marian and Petrine poles of the church. The issue instead is framed as “local bureaucratic” versus “centralized bureaucratic.” The address tries valiantly to keep a “balance” between these two poles. A series of changes were announced – my understanding is that these are done and do not need the approval of the Assembly. General Superintendents are moving toward “single jurisdictions” for two years over specific organization structures in the church before moving on to new assignments. The move from “International Headquarters” to the new “Global Ministry Center” was announced – while it was intimated that some of the financial struggles have arisen from this move, it was not explicitly stated. Instead what was emphasized was the cutting of personnel and staff to make sure that the “Center” did not have to dip into general operating funds to pay on this $25 property. Likewise, they announced the change in the budget formulae for support of the central bureaucracy from its franchises. The report emphasized that this reduces budgets from local congregations again, as has consistently happened from 1980 on. According to the report, at budget levels of 1980, the general budget would have been $68 million this year, rather than the $48 it was, and will shrink more in the future. Scattered applause accompanied this announcement -- most likely from the United States mega-church pastors who have pushed for this reduction.

The announcement of the structural changes led to a discussion of the coming transition in the church tied to changing demographics. It was plainly stated that “this is Africa’s moment” and that the movements of Christianization had run its course in the United States and the UK in 1965. What was happening in Africa resulted from the missionary zeal and practice of these days. The report addressed nine countries where the 50% of the increase in world population will occur before 2050. The structural changes were clearly meant to address these new situations. The GS’s tried to refocus the church on Africa without alienating the significance of its Euro-American base. Again, balance of good management.

At this point the Report moved to the Articles of Faith. From what I understand, several proposals to change several of the Articles of Faith are on the agenda – some even recommended by the General Superintendents. This is interesting for how it relativizes the Articles of Faith, and shows, to my mind, that these are not confessional statements for cognitive assent for membership, but presuppose the evangelical, orthodox, and catholic faith given to the saints. Of particular interest, as might be expected, is article 10 on Entire Sanctification. It was emphasized that the Articles of Faith should not be changed hastily, and that it is difficult to change them, as it should be. I thought that the report had a good and valid understanding of the nature of doctrine. The report quoted J. B. Chapman, long time GS in the mid-century, on doctrine: “Doctrine is not a goal within itself. The goal is God and right relations to him and stand before him. But doctrine is like a highway that leads to the goal.” The report immediately followed with a similar statement from Samuel Young, of the same generation as Chapman: “The goal is not to promote a doctrine but what the doctrine means. Correct doctrine itself does not constitute the life of God in the souls of individuals. But if we would direct a great multitude to God we must have sound and pure doctrine.”

This seems to me very astute. For those who argue that the Church of the Nazarene is “non-creedal,” it affords a clarification. To be “non-creedal” is not to confess the Creeds; but it is not to make creeds/doctrines ends in themselves, but forms individuals linguistically to God in God’s revelation in Christ by the Spirit. Doctrine is not expressive of an experience, but formative of experience. This is a position very similar to George Lindbeck and Hans Urs Van Balthasar – and Augustine and Newman, etc.

Changes are coming to Article 10, supposedly only clarification of language, not substance, it was argued (which, of course, cannot be wholly true). There is a valid distinction between form and content, but they are also deeply related so that a change in form will represent a change in content. The Board of General Superintendents called “to retain passion for doctrine and experience of entire sanctification,” (to semi-strong applause), and to reaffirm it as the distinguishing tenet of the Church of the Nazarene.

Here is a profound problem. A doctrine of holiness cannot be that which makes us “distinguishing”’; it must be that which makes us Christian – our doctrine of holiness must speak from the core of the Christian tradition, lest it make us idiosyncratic, schismatic, and heretical. Once holiness becomes what “distinguishes” us, it has shifted categories from “truth” to “identity” – exactly what the report did -- doctrine becomes “a distillation of our theological identity, not a negotiable commodity” – the church’s identity is the negotiable commodity in this understanding. Doctrine is that which gives us our own “branding” or “experience” as franchises in connection with each other.

The report did not recognize the tremendous shift from the understanding of doctrine by Chapman and Young to what the present Board of General Superintendents articulated. No longer about truthful speech to form us to God in response to God’s self-revelation in Christ, doctrine is now a sociological category to provide group cohesion and identity to compete in the world with other groups, Christian and otherwise, that have other “identities” – theology as identity politics, managed by the administrative, executive core of the church.

Even here deep anchorage in the Christian tradition came out. Amid the institutional cynicism toward the church, the report said rightly that “only adequate response to cynicism of the age to the church is the purification of the heart,” the distinct holiness of the church’s witness in the world. This tension between the life of the church as a doctrine-identity shaped business and as a holy witness in the world who has learned to speak about and life truthfully from, through, and to God is not resolved in the address.

The address ended with a final discussion of finances and mission – the major concern of the Board of General Superintendents. A contrast again was drawn between mission and structure (content and form). The changes were to bring about more mission and less structure. Yet the GS’s emphasized that this should not be interpreted as no structure. Rather structures become ways of continually assessing efficiency of mission within all layers of the “denomination”. Structure serves mission with six characteristics. Structure should be missional, connectional, relational, affordable, accountable, and flexible. In light of this the Board of GS’s spoke wisely against, it seems to me, a resolution from the General Board to reduce the number of GS’s, before study of the full range of implications. It is interesting that the church's structures are now pragmatically named according to sociological/organizational function rather than considering them as "one, holy, and catholic;"

The address returned to the vision: “What is the vision? A disciple-making church, an international community of faith in the Wesleyan-holiness tradition.” We must intend that the vision be actualized, externally focused (market aware), driven by theological tradition (our branding), flexible in methodology (appropriately local), and baptized in prayer and fasting (some applause). We therefore can hand off to a new generation by identifying and empowering them to take the lead for the future.

Two closing interpretive comments. (1) The work was impressive and showed the Board of General Superintendents genuinely responsive to local congregations to help empower the type of “missional” and “connectional” renewal movement within the church catholic (as Wesley said) that we are; and (2) the ecclesiology is strongly deficient, a deficiency grounded in a weak Christology and a sense that ignores apostolicity in considering the structure of the church. The address stated that we are “not just another organization; we are an international holiness communion.” This language is promising in direction, but the leaders do not have adequate language to make this more than a pragmatic administrative procedure to guide the identity of a “religious need-meeting” business through the struggles between right-wing and left-wing Hegelian forces fighting to shape this “identity.” Only if we can regain a sense of catholicity and partcipation in the communion of the saints can we escape the pragmaticism embedded in "structure" versus "mission" where we continually have to redo structure in the endless repetition of the new and improved. We desperately need the language of the apostolicity and catholicity of the church; we are an international holiness communion only in so far as we participate in the “communion of saints,” those who have time-fully participated through Christ in the Eternal Triune God.

Posted by johnwright at 12:33 PM | Comments (81)

The Manual of the Church of the Nazarene instructs that General Assembly, held every four years, begins on Sunday with a service of the Lord’s Supper and a full day for worship and devotion. This section of the Manual was read this morning by Jesse Middendorf after a very long, grandiose, loud orchestration piece as the call to worship. We knew it was a call to worship because first announced over the sound system was “Life from the 27th General Assembly of the Church of the Nazarene in Orlando Florida” for the internet audience. Until the Manual explanation by Dr. Middendorf, the introduction to the service again seemed very much based on a televised or movie award show that wants to tell its audience that “they” are part of “history” by watching the show.

The Convention Hall seemed about 7/8s filled – the platform claimed 25,000 persons were there. This was the number registered in the previous weeks for the General Convention, so I don’t know exactly how many were there. I could not see the platform from my location; the large screens pulled you straight ahead into the service through the video screen. The highlight of the service for me was singing “Holiness unto the Lord.” Of course, the music score of the song reaches back to early 20th century “marches” and sounds cornball today (which, of course, is why it is good to sing). It is made for gospel piano, not contemporary large orchestra. The triumphalism of the lyrics has to deal with the datedness of the score in a delicious irony. The orchestra background could not take away from this irony, but added to it; the song became a proclamation of faith in the Triune God through Christ rather than the desires of a new majority to come in and take control of “history.” Immediately following we confessed the “Apostle’s Creed” together. In these two acts one could find witness to the Church of the Nazarene as a renewal movement within the church catholic with the charism to call the whole church to holiness -- what I think is best about our tradition.

If yesterday morning’s service was the “left-wing Hegelian” service, today’s was very much the “right-wing Hegelian” service. As good liberalism, the end result of a Hegelian dialectical system is individual liberty. The difference between the left and the right is how this end is to come to be in the struggle that is history – human agency of the market or government as guided by the Spirit working its way through history to an end of history.

The sermon was given by Dr. Paul Cunningham – who is retiring after many years of service to the church. My adult life in the Church of the Nazarene has been deeply affected by Dr. Cunningham. He was a friend of Jerry Falwell, and I remember when he was an “observer” for the United States in some elections in victories of rightist regimes in central America in the early 80s. His were the hands laid on Kathy for her ordination. While we would differ deeply “all the way down,” I deeply respect his faithfulness and labor and energy devoted to the church.

This was particularly poignant as the uncontrolled shaking of his hand was evident today in his sermon. Whether this is Parkinsons or some other illness, I do not know. No one has announced that he is ill, to my knowledge. But I will pray for him as he faces this new challenge in life that he will ultimately lose – but win at the same time.

The sermon took the benediction in the middle of Ephesians to speak of the “greater than we can imagine” God. The passage was interpreted through Cunningham’s pastoral experience of overcoming financial need through his own and his church’s giving to missions. At times the sermon moved toward talking about the Christian virtue of generosity, but more was the way the divine worked through the structures of society, like a wealthy banker and the city council, to help the financial situation of the congregation and advance the cause of evangelism. The message was that if we will be generous in working with the social structures of the world around us, God as a Force works with those to advance the cause of the Good within history for a separate, but ultimate eternal end. The structure of the sermon was a mild version of the prosperity gospel, with appropriate qualifications to keep it from a formula. The sermon was actually on the "revelatory" aspect of his experience through the church, not God's revelation in Jesus as witnessed to in Scripture. .

I had heard this story several times before – maybe going back to over 25 years ago to my seminary days when he spoke in chapel. The background, however, for this “final sermon” of a General Superintendent is the financial situation of the Church of the Nazarene. The “Great Recession” and the move of the International Headquarters and the resistance of “mega-churches” to pay their apportionments have led to drastic cutbacks. The Church of the Nazarene has recalled around 85 missionaries from the field in the last two years; Seminary’s budget has been drastically cut; headquarters had a 15% cut in their budgets last year with an additional 10% this year. Higher education institutions are stretched, some with the uncertainty of enrollment; others by loss of enrollment over the past several years.

The service then moved to the Lord’s Supper. Dr. Cunningham began with the familiar, for us at Mid-City, call to the Table from the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene – the oldest, unchanged part of the ritual. He then asked that the servers distribute the elements. I waited for the prayer of consecration or at least the words of institution. None came. He presented the elements with words given for partaking the elements.

We need to see this in light of the underlying right-wing Hegelian presuppositions. One remembers the death of Jesus from the past to participate in the dialectic that moves into the future. One does not participate “in the life of Christ to your souls comfort and delight” in which the temporal participates in the eternal through the body and blood of Christ in which the past and future become present. Everything remains in the realm of the immanent.

The service raises interesting questions. If the Manual requires the Lord’s Supper to begin the Assembly, and the Lord’s Supper has not been validly celebrated, what does that do to the proceedings following? What does this do to the ecclesial status of the Church of the Nazarene when its General Superintendents, an English translation for the Greek word, episkopos, the overseer or bishop, does not validly oversee the Lord’s Supper, the very rite for which they bear their authority in the first place – to ensure the integrity of its practice for the unity of the church. What outside a few, no one noticed what had happened.

Tomorrow the business of the assembly begins. The weekend has reinforced my hypothesis that the Church of the Nazarene in the United States is caught in this dialectic between the right wing and left wing Hegelians with administrators trying to manage the struggle into a creative force for the increasing market size of the church. My guess is that this is what will unfold in this week. A very conservative group, “Concerned Nazarenes” has stirred things up by their presence and attack on “emerging church” and “open theism” in the church, with an underlying push toward establishing biblical inerrancy as normative for the church – themselves getting sucked into the dialectic in their extreme form of Protestant evangelical piety, but losing any credibility because the goal is to manage the dialectic, not let the struggle to break into the open. Of course, the dialectic will not be managed but will manage as both the left and the right need each other for their own justification. The only way to “manage” the dialectic is to find a center outside of it where the God has revealed God’s own Self in the temporal in Jesus Christ, participated in through dying and rising with Christ in baptism, the celebration for the baptized of the Lord’s Supper as the center of worship, whose integrity is sustain through the office of the elder ultimately under the General Superintendent, and the reading of the Scriptures in light of this revelation of God in Jesus for the sanctification of the body of Christ in the world today.

Finally, the weekend has witnessed the profound impact that internationalization of the Church of the Nazarene will have. The movement is there and noticeable; demographically it will increase. Unfortunately, it was largely invisible today in the service – except for one verse of a song sung in Spanish. The internationalization of the Church of the Nazarene will be more evident tomorrow. I am not sure how this will affect the dialectic, whether or not those outside of North America, participate in the same cultural/philosophical/theological dynamics.

Posted by johnwright at 9:18 PM | Comments (6)

We arrived at Assembly this morning about 6:15 am, Pacific Standard Time. Yes, I was and am very sleepy. When I returned to my brother’s house last night, my nephew, Danny, and I went on a run; Kathy went right to be, exhausted with her fibromyalgia and the exertion of the day. When we got here today, Kath went immediately to the children’s bible quizzing. The children’s quizzing on the Saturday before the assembly brings many families to the assembly who would not otherwise come – over 1800 quizzers, and 3300 family members this year. Most likely the past success of children’s quizzing in drawing people was one factor that led to Orlando as a site. I wonder how many families will blow off going to the Communion Service tomorrow morning for Disney or Sea World?

Several reflections on last night. Perhaps it was Jerry Porter’s own insistence, but the progress in incorporating a world presence was remarkable when compared to four years ago. Each General Superintendent is “given” a service. Retiring GS’s receive the more major services. The Church of the Nazarene is changing from its white Midwestern North American-base. This is occurring, not only through its missions/international outreach, but our presence with immigrant communities in the United States. Continued demographic changes and growth rates will accelerate this transition over the next twenty years.

There was a “Multicultural Service” that I attended this morning. I was a little late, due to sloth in getting up and moving. When I got here, Gustavo Crocker, from Guatemala, had just begun preaching; later Sam Vassel, past of Bronx Bethany Church and a native of the Bahamas, gave a second sermon. Both preachers focused interesting on the Book of Acts and the role of the Spirit. Dr. Crocker spoke from Acts 3 – the healing of the beggar at the gates of the Temple. He spoke “in celebration” of a Spirit people – including the Church of the Nazarene in their first centennial. This too was a theme from this service different from last night. The multicultural emphasis looks to the origins of the Church of the Nazarene for its legitimacy; multiculturalism also serves as a cipher for a type of “social action” or “wholistic ministry.” Dr. Crocker spoke of the Church of the Nazarene, like Acts 3, moving to the “last, least, and lost.” With these, however, they did not go because they had a lot of wealth, but the power of the risen Christ. Finally, as the beggar, now healed, accompanied Peter and John into the Temple, the Church asked “the last, the least, the lost” to go “with them.” Crocker noted that Bresee found the passage very significant about a “Spirit-filled church” and that these characteristics were in the very DNA of the Church of the Nazarene. Dr. Vassel spoke on Acts 2 – how the baptism with the Holy Spirit brought about a “unity of diversity” among a “Spirit-filled” church. After the second sermon, a Covenant Prayer” was led by the Haitian Director for USA/Canada and the pastor of Port S. Lucie Haitian Church. The language of this prayer invoked the language of human rights to produce a litany of repentance. If one is a long time reader of this blog, you know my concern about such language grounded in an Enlightenment parody of its earlier Christian source – a type of de-ecclesializing that presupposes liberal-democratic nation-states as a norm for Christian social-action and influence. The service ended with the same type of “religious humanism” with the song “Stand by Me” from the internet site, playingforchange.com. It portrayed street musicians from throughout the world connected through technological resources to sing the same song.

Here is the “progressive” wing of the Church of the Nazarene -- not very prominent (only one GS was here and at a secondary time -- going back to two services of the old camp meetings). In contrast to last night they invoke the past of the church for their agenda. One sees the impact of Tom Nees and Ron Benefiel and other “left-wing evangelicals” from the 60s influence as it has moved into the multicultural and missions and “compassionate ministry” emphasis of the church. Here they can be incorporated and recognized by the church bureaucracy, white, middle-American in origin and perspective and establish a lobbying place within the hierarchical structure of the church. Common with last night was the emphasis on the experience of the Spirit as central to the Christian life as manifested in certain types of behavior supported by the church. There was a little more thickness to Christology than last night – but largely expressed in terms of the Spirit. Rather than small cell groups, the worship service promoted a type of common transcendental humanism of the Spirit that manifests itself in the church, particularly engaged in social action for liberation.

If last night represented a type of right-wing Hegelian corporate church, here is the left-wing Hegelian “identity-and-difference” corporate church. One finds this mix to some degree in all North American “denominations” unless one side has made life so uncomfortable for the other side that they have left. The Church of the Nazarene increasingly characterizes these same social/historical dynamics of the "right/left". Without a strong sense of catholicity, the communion of saints with the historic tradition and its Christological center that Hegel took and emptied of its transcendence into a flow within history, there is not much an option except to form a coalition in which the struggle between these two poles becomes managed in the name of “unity” by the ecclesial officials as the “denomination” moves into the future for a progress of its institutional interests within history.

It is apparent to me that the “General Conventions” that occur before Assembly are exactly that – conventions of various interest groups within the broader coalition that will then meet in the General Assembly. The conventions provide an opportunity to push the Assembly on way or another in its course for the next four or five years. It is a good thing that the Manual requires that the Sunday service be a service of Word and Sacrament to remind the church that it is not a coalition of interest groups within a religious not-for-profit organization empowered by the Spirit, but the body of Christ in the world that participates in God through the divine crucified and raised body of Christ through partaking of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper. We’ll have to see how the historical forces and struggles within the Church of the Nazarene becomes manifest in this service tomorrow – and how God will use even these struggles to glorify God.

Posted by johnwright at 11:08 AM | Comments (12)

The Friday service has begun. One looks up at the "platform" and can see the influence of Charles Finney and the "awakening" service with its emphasis on "new measures." The room is a convention hall -- concrete floors, stacking padded seats -- and very large. I am impressed by how many are here (in the thousands), but the room swallows us. To keep our eyes fixed on the front there are three lighted circles suspended above the podium -- showing lavender and pink images. MTV, Grammy Award type television shots move larger images in front of us from the platform. In the middle is a "podium"; a 10 person vocalist group leads music (very loud), with live background orchestration. A childrens choir stands off to a side in front. Farther off to the side is a massive cross. Flags from nation-states across the world stand farther to the side.

The difference between the platform and the side children's choir is interesting. All on the "main" platform are North American -- largely Northern European in background, with four African Americans and two (?) from Latin countries. Most are between 25 through 45 (I'm too old!). The children, meanwhile, represent a much wider swath of persons from across the world -- all dressed in white t-shirts, though still largely North American of Northern European descent. The music represents a version of "Christian top 20 type music." One chorus was sung in Spanish; the rest in English. As within the Finney service the music moves to a quieter level for prayer.

An African pastor, The Head of Compassionate Ministry from the Horn of Africa, with an Ethiopian hat on, begins prayer with loud cries of "Hallelujah." He gathers us to pray with repeated "hallelujah's" and begins to pray extemporaneously in his native tongue, with intermittent "hallelujah's". He slips now into English, proclaiming repeatedly "Jesus, you are Lord. Willie Pierre from Haiti immediately comes on the screen, speaking of compassionate ministry. He emphasizes that compassion is identifying with people, not providing in need.

Nina Gunter controls the platform. 10% of the offering with go to compassionate ministry in Haiti. The offering is taken with a song about a Grandfather remembers with his grandson. The contrast between this and the picture of the pastor walking with members into those poverty stricken in Haiti is marked. The children's choir helps sing, covered by the taped music before. It seems to be an offering to motivate the elderly for financial support of the church.

A video advertisement for the "One Heart-Many Hands" project appears -- volunteer labor from around the area during the assembly. Various cheers rise up from those who participated. They have, according to David Wilson the General Secretary of the Church of the Nazarene, expressed "social holiness" in their volunteer labor (Wesley would be surprised to hear his phrase for the meeting of the Methodist Societies used in this fashion, though United Methodists would not be surprised to hear the phrase used this way!). What is interesting is how the works of mercy have been translated into acts of "service", much like singing has been translated into "worship." These are probably related shifts, though now is not the time.

Dr. Nina Gunter introduces Dr. Jerry Porter, who will be preaching, with a bio. In the Finney tradition, there is "special music", followed to be followed by the sermon. The emphasis on evangelism and "reaching the world" through personal evangelism and compassionate ministry seems an underlying emphasis -- recognizing a link while making a strong distinction between them.

Discipleship is the theme of his sermon. I really like Dr. Porter, a very gracious person. It is apparent that we will hear a variant of his sermon that he preached during the ordination service at the So Cal district assembly, which I already blogged upon. Dr. Porter seems to have taken the theme of discipleship, and as the "vision-maker" for the church as a General Superintendent, seen it has his responsibility to have this "vision", represented in this sermon, deeply set within the people. Perhaps he used the Southern California assembly as a "warm-up" for this sermon. We are now applauding Nazarene martyrs. It is a bit strange, but perhaps apt. We should probably pray at this time, rather than applaud. Still I am glad this happens. The service will continue through his seven points to try and persuade people to engage in small groups.

The General Assembly services becomes a rallying point for the General Superintendents to put forward their executive "vision" for the organization of the Church. Preaching is to promote a vision for the church. One thing that is interesting is that we have had no Scripture reading in the service. Dr. Porter consistently refers to Scripture. "Baptism is the body of Christ embracing the new believer." Baptism is something that humans do; not what God does to humans -- it is a chance to use to bring others into the church. It is about an organization assimilating another person into the organization; it is not about the God the Father uniting the believer in the death and resurrection of Christ by the power of the Spirit. The vision for the church is about the sociological techniques for the long-time assimilation of persons into the church as part of nurturing the individual and growth of the organization.

The congregation seems to enjoy Dr. Porter, yet seem not to be deeply engaged with him. They are responding to a convention address, not to a sermon. Another interesting aspect is the rather incidental reference to Jesus in the sermon. Christianity is about human effort via the sociologically in-formed church to achieve a type of personal growth and institutional vitality. We end with the same survey about Southwestern Regional practices within individuals within the church.

The music group slips into the background as we are called to fulfill our mission: to make Christlike disciples. Rather than a personal "altar call," we have a communal call to implement the vision as our own through all seeing a song that summarizes the seven points of the address -- behaviorally-imprinting it into our neural networks with a tune from The Sound of Music. Salvation comes through the implementation of the "discipleship" chain -- of course, a chain disjoined from apostolicity and the passing down "the faith given to the saints" -- what the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene states that our mission is..

"Let's create discipleship chains in our churches." This will allow the Church of the Nazarene to grow.

Dr. Porter ends with calling up area pastors: all from no Anglo-backgrounds who have implemented this program. The pastors are calling up their "disciples" to the platform as the lights rise. So we do have a version of an altar call, as "I have decided to follow Jesus" is struck up and Dr. Porter implores these members to come to the front to show the audience the results of the program.

The Church of the Nazarene has taken its revivalistic background, had it transformed by the church growth in the 70s-90s, and now life out its "new measures" through contemporary business management practices. The General Assembly services are about transmitting the "leaderships" vision to other key franchise members. The same techniques for "personal decision" no become that given to implement the business vision of the church.

I'll be back some time tomorrow. I hope that this is helpful to get a "feel" for what goes on here in Orlando.

Posted by johnwright at 4:12 PM | Comments (7)

Hello from Orlando, Florida! I'm sitting in the back of the "sanctuary" while the NYI convention votes on various resolutions. Kathy and I arrived last night around midnight local time. We are staying with my brother, north of Orlando. Kathy is now working at the Women's Clergy booth. Interesting, here first contact there was a man who came up and asked her how she could support women in ministry. I hope over the next few days to keep up with the affairs and share my impressions and analysis with the proceedings. Hopefully the wireless network will keep up.

First, however, in the rush to leave, I never got to blog on going downtown Tuesday. It was an interesting evening. I had missed the previous Tuesday so it was good to be back. The "neighborhood" welcomes us wonderfully -- so much better than we deserve. The previous week a member had died over night of a heart attack -- no CNN coverage for him. He still had his medical braclet on -- having been just discharged from the hospital -- we are not sure why he was in. My guess is that he didn't have health insurance and so was discharged straight to the streets. He had been downtown in the past, but had not spent much time there lately. To add to the ambiguity, the word on the streets from one of his friends said that when he died, he had several hundreds of thousands of dollars of banknotes in his pocket. We have no way to confirm this. Next Wednesday when I get home, we will have a funeral for him on the backside of the the post office.

Second, as we passed out sandwiches on the streets, a stabbing took place about two blocks away -- I don't know if anyone that I know was involved. "Neighborhoods" have their own dynamics; even in close proximity, they radically change. By the time I got there, with Cody Ellis and my friend, Jonathan Tran, the police had pretty much cleared the area. The policeman said something like, "It was just some homeless guys settling a dispute like they do." We left. Again, the ambiguity and tragedy of the situation struck me deeply. Just presence of other persons there could have changed the dynamics so that the violence could have not occurred. Such is life and death among the poor in downtown San Diego.

Now to Orlando. As I listen to the NYI resolutions, it seems that most are just dealing with changing their polity to fit with the internationalization of the church. Now an interesting point has arisen: term limits for the officers. The resolution was to remove these; a person spoke against. The vote was taken and declared passed by the chair; it written vote was requested, however, and they are now in the process. At stake is the nature of NYI leadership -- does it pass on from one person to the next or does it become a "expert office" for efficient oversight and programming. Yes, 507; no 292 (?). Without a 2/3s vote, the resolution was defeated. Polity is hard to change.

Impressions about the site. I was looking for a "downtown" convention center. The site, however, is south of the city in a designed, self-contained "commercial" district. If I might guess, Orlando had several advantages: easy air access (and cheaper) from within North America and connecting flights from outside North America. Second, geographical proximity (relative) to Europe, South America, and Africa for delegates. Third, my guess is that it was also helped by church leaders that the location would encourage the middle- and upper-middle class members of the churches, and their clergy, (and the Kansas City workers) to come as part of a vacation package -- come to Disney World and throw in services at Nazarene General Assembly. Monday was initially to be an "off" day to allow this, but with the "Great Recession" it is now filled with business. Displays in the display area are much smaller and more modest than four years ago.

The convention center is absolutely massive and cavernous. At the registration desk supposedly 25,000 people have registered. Of course, these will come and go. It feels a lot like Comic-Con to me -- large room with lots of seats with screens to project the platform with a commerical/convention boothes close by, and small rooms for seminars interspersed. Perhaps it is just because it is Friday, but it feels a little like "overkill" -- much more facilities than is needed. It will be interesting to see how this works out on Sunday -- probably the highest point of attendance for the morning service. The "touristy" feel is all around.

Today the assembly delegates are all in their committees preparing for next week's sessions. Tonight there is a service. Tomorrow morning at 9:00 am there is a "multicultural service" -- begging the question why all worship services here are not "multicultural services" -- maybe they will be? There is a marked increase in the visibility of persons from outside the United States -- though it is still very white, middle class, midwestern/southern in cultural feel and majority on site. Amid $9.00 sandwiches in the convention center, I smiled when I walked in to find a middle-aged white man finding a place in an "information booth" to eat his peanut butter sandwich -- such is the economic and cultural background that has proved what I think is the strength of the Church of the Nazarene in the United States. Amid the attempted glitz and hype of the displays and the touristy feel of the setting, some still quietly attend to be part of the church -- not a convention. Financial resources are stretched that even in its promotion, undercut its "convention" feel. For such a witness, just when I entered the building, I give thanks.

Hopefully I'll be able to continue through next Tuesday, both from services, conversations, and then the first day and a half of the Assembly proper. While the world deals with the tragedy that was the life and death of Michael Jackson, the Church of the Nazarene gathers as part of its Methodist background in General Conference.

Posted by johnwright at 10:58 AM | Comments (21)

Yesterday was my half century mark. I ran a little; read and proofed Jonathan Tran's superb upcoming book with Blackwell, The Vietnam War and Theologies of Memory: Time and Eternity in the Far Country; we went to an Indian buffet for a late lunch; I napped; taught a class and bible study at church; and had ice cream cake.

It is a little strange turning fifty. I don't feel "that old" but notice that I have memories of events that stretch farther and farther into the past. For instance I remember listening to Oscar Robertson playing NBA basketball for the Cincinnati Royals. More and more persons look younger than I do when I go out in public. It is interesting to realize that I received my PhD 20 years ago now.

One surprise was that I received notification that I had an article published yesterday in the on-line journal, Didache Faithful Teaching, entitled “When Did Relationship Replace Repentance and Faith?” You can find the link at
http://didache.nts.edu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=767&Itemid=

I initially gave the paper in a public lecture at Azusa Pacific in the spring of 2008, a lecture to address both pastors and the academic environment. Give is a click and see what you think! For my birthday!!!

Posted by johnwright at 7:38 PM | Comments (3)

Last Thursday was District Assembly. I found it much like joining to an extended family reunion. I walked in and found people whom I had not seen in a long time, but have shared life with in a significant way; I greatly respect the a core of pastors who have been on the district for a long time, faithfully ministering, persons like Tom Taylor, Dwayne Edwards, Steve Rodeheavor, Robyn Hyde. After settling in for while, though, one goes through a different phase as one listens to the discourse going on. One wonders, “Did I show up at the right place? Surely these can’t be my people!?” Then as one listens longer and harder, one hears the family characteristics behind and deeper the newest programs, events, formulas, and languages. One is humbled that God has brought me into such a family, filled with such foibles, some foibles that I fully share, some that I’ve rejected, but other new ones that I’ve developed myself.

The programmatic language that was used does not adequately speak to the strength and depth of the Christian witness of the congregations of the district. Though church growth language has disappeared, it has been absorbed implicitly into the language of the district. The underlying language about the church seems to imply that congregations are institutions that mediate certain “faith” or “experiences” to others and seek to sustain these relationships in configurations that keep institutional vitality to the churches. The assembly was ultimately about promoting a new method – of course, placed in line with the Methodists and then apostles and Jesus – “The Masters Plan” drawn from the largest Nazarene congregation in the world from Columbia. The Masters Plan takes small group sociological dynamics to provide coherent social support in an increasingly individualized world to sustain and multiple certain type of “personal experiences”. Jesus’ calling of the twelve is taken out of the context of God’s restoration of Israel and placed into a method for sustaining involvement in the congregation and recruiting new members into it. It shows how strongly present in the Church of the Nazarene Charles Finney’s Lectures on Revival still rules; we were repeatedly told that if we had a “more effective method,” to share it, but if not, try “The Masters Plan.” The language of the Assembly was orchestrated then to market this “new/old” method for congregational health, growth, and church multiplication.

I’m not against such programs – the church needs way of coordinating its witness that are culturally appropriate. The concerted effort of the District and General Superintendent provides a unifying focus throughout the district in ways that we experience as significant. Besides, what type of pastor could ever object to more intentional prayer of a congregation and finding creative means of planting new congregations and, particularly in the Methodist/Nazarene tradition, accountable discipleship? I do worry, however, that these “programs” become overlays that become more important than the practices to shape congregation’s unique witness in the world as directly recorded in Scripture. Discipleship then becomes a cipher for therapeutic social support rather than receiving the fruits of the Spirit through engaging in the works of mercy; “sharing my faith,” a privatized experience, becomes more important than proclamation of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. One wonders whether the Masters Plan “works” in a South American context undergoing its own form of individuating modernity based in a Christendom model rather than the post-Christendom society that is become Southern California.

I recognized this in the role of the ordination service. District Assembly finds its historical origins and rationale in the Annual Conferences begun by Wesley and his Methodists to keep his renewal movement within the church catholic faithful to its mission. This origin has long been forgotten; though the fact that the old structure still governs its discourse is more than is apparent. It just can’t quite be reduced to a motivational seminar (which is often less motivational than the Annual Conference structures were meant to be!). As American Methodism moved from a “movement” to a “church-type movement,” the Annual Conference/then District Assembly became the appropriate gathering of the church/renewal movement to ordain elders for sacramental responsibility, authorized preaching, and overseeing specific congregations – even as we have transformed the reason for ordination, these basic practices still keep the Church of the Nazarene tied to the historic Christian tradition as a renewal holiness movement within it. It is the district who authorizes ordination, on the recommendation of the elected elders to the Board of Credentials. This is not theologically insignificant; ordination rises out of the context of a local congregation and is finally granted, not by a select body of clergy (though not without them), but out of the election of the wider church. According to Stan Ingersol, this would be part of our polity that moves us back into the early Christian practices of apostolicity for our polity.

The service recognized “retirement” of an elder, our own Bill Zumwalt, for his years of service of the church. One does not “retire” one’s credentials in the Church of the Nazarene – Bill still is an elder; “retirement” is the name we give to kicking in a small church pension system by which we share as a community of goods for the care of those who have served the church without being able to build equity to sustain them as their “youthful vigor” diminishes and full time service of the church becomes physically difficult – though I think Bill and Nancy still have sufficient vigor to move back to San Diego to help us! It was wonderful hearing the long standing ovation for Bill and Nancy for their service, hearing the summary of their life in the church.

Then, appropriately, the new district licensed persons were given their first license. I think this was wonderful -- if only God would give us persons who would emulate Bill Zumwalt as elders of the church! Then the ordination service itself began.

The big surprise was that the sharing of the Word. We did not receive an ordination sermon, but a sermon/exhortation on the discipleship portion of the Master’s plan. Several times it was mentioned that survey results told the GS that Nazarenes on the region pray, but few are involved in “discipleship” – networked, hierarchical small support groups within a congregation. I had been surprised that the GS never preached during the day. My guess is that he withheld his sermon because he thought, correctly, that he would have a larger representation from the whole district at the ordination service. The ordination service therefore provided the context for the implementation of the programmatic concerns of the General Superintendent – as responsible business executive over his group of franchised small businesses for the growth of their market share.

This is not to take a cheap shot at the GS – our bishop is an amazing person, deeply concerned for the Christian witness of the church, a person who upholds his office with dignity and humility, wonderfully reflective. What it does say is that under such an ecclesiological model of the post-church growth, business administration model of general and local congregations, ordination becomes increasingly unintelligible as a practice internal to the ongoing life of the church. Sandwiched into an already begun ordination service, the sermon stuck out as unrelated. As I listened in the sermon where baptism was exhorted as significant, it was apparent that Christ’s ordained sacraments were secondary to the practices of Kali, Columbia’s Church of the Nazarene’s development of a transferrable discipleship program to our So Cal context. The “sacraments” become reduced to a “measure” for the transference of God’s grace (a means of grace) that are secondary to the “discipleship” program that can keep people involved in the local congregation to compensate for the fact that for every ten new members that come into the Church of the Nazarene, four leave and go elsewhere, either out of the faith or to new congregations. My response is that we have to stop privatizing grace to subjective “experiences” so that the gathering of the congregation becomes merely incubation rituals for inner experiences of “faith” or “Christ”; we need to let our individual bodies in faith be taken up into the body and blood of Christ so that we, by Word and Sacrament, might be made the body of Christ in the world to engage in the works of mercy and devotion. Of course to do this, we will need to recover the significance of ordination.

The significance of ordination was there for us to see – and was the missing piece of language that would help us to account for what it going on. It was the most remarkable testimony to a lack of careerism. The best word in the Christian tradition that captures the continual Spirit that elders possessed was voluntary poverty, the social displacement from material and social security for love of Christ and the mission of the church. One cannot place “voluntary poverty” into the language of an franchise not-for-profit business program, but only of the gospel.

Just a brief list of those who so evinced this practice. Perhaps most dramatically was Larry Ross, who gave up a stable congregation as a mid-career pastor to take on a “new start” in a desert location for a small church without funding to help it become viable again. Rev. Ross dipped into retirement money himself to do this – a bold move given the financial drops and the pittance of the “worn-out preachers” pension in the Church of the Nazarene. Then there was Tom Taylor. Rev. Taylor has labored hard to oversee one of the most stable, but not ingrown, congregations on the district during the past decade. To take the time and energy and transfer members of his congregation to start a church 50 minutes away in the mountains at Big Bear when he could stay fulfilled and busy overseeing and growing his congregation and responding to its demands risks more than is apparent. Robyn Hyde, who oversees an inner-city congregation in San Bernadino, has taken on another charge as well for a near-by struggling congregation. Rev. Hyde’s San Berndino Cornerstone is very much as sister congregation to us in the poverty stricken area and social problems that are now San Bernadino; his staff is absolutely wonderful. To extend himself into more responsibilities with the energy, compassion, and devotion to Christ is amazing, given the high needs he faces at Cornerstone. It is also a witness to his growing up of wonderful persons like Tim Isser, traveling himself the path towards ordination. I love these folk.

It is the pastor at Escondido Church of the Nazarene, Tom Fry, whom I haven’t gotten to know. Escondido has become the location of anti-Spanish language overt economic, structural racism in San Diego County. Yet a declining Anglo congregation has opened a tutoring program in their building for Spanish-first-language children. Rev. Fry was visibly moved by the devotion of the mothers of these children to their children, and is actively searching out a way to embrace them in Christ. Plans are underway for a joint Spanish-language congregation to join the English-congregation there – very much aware of that this could boomerang back upon the Anglo congregation because of the anti-latino/a sentiment of the surrounding white population.

It is the witness of the pastors who have joined us from Kali, Columbia. They were recruited to initiate the Masters Plan here. And so they have, though with radical modifications because of the new cultural environment and an underlying love for Christ and the people. There is Diego Forero who was an upper middle class executive in Kali, who took a charge in Hesperia of all places to start a small church; Rev. David Penn welcomed and supported in amazing ways. The voluntary loss of social support and finances to reach those Spanish-language persons eeking out a life in Hesperia (the only way to live in Hesperia is to eek); Rev. Penn’s infectious enthusiasm to support across linguistic and cultural boundaries is amazing. Yordan Mitrovitch, a young man who left Kali to pastor in Southern California is likewise amazing. He and his wife are stranded here, unable to return home because of Visa issues. As I inquired about their situation with her after the ordination service, her eyes misted over in pain for the inability to visit her family. Yet on they serve Christ here, voluntarily dislocated, enfolding their sufferings into Christ’s.

Finally, we ordained Loyda Ruiz Vicencia. She has come to us from Chiapas, Mexico and been assigned to one of the most out of the way, poor areas in the district. Her husband held her beautiful three-year old daughter; the cultural and gender shift was remarkable and beautiful to behold. She has engaged the area in witness to Christ, and the results are humbling.

Here is the strength of the witness of the Church of the Nazarene. Not in our slickness or the ability to implement smoothly programs established for suburban congregations. Not in sophistication of theological language or even immersion in the historic Christian tradition. Not in the ability to mediate the tradition into a language of historicism or process ontology or even Tillichian existentialism. The strength is our tradition as a holiness movement for renewal within the larger church catholic that often occurs despite our selves. It is persons participating in the love of God the Father through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit that leads to an unassuming, even inarticulate living out of the gospel because what else is life for?

When I hear “sophisticated” academics rip on elders of the church for clerical arrogance or bloated bureaucracy or authoritarian control or philosophical/scientific ignorance or moral malfeasance – those words that come much too easily from the mouth of academics formed by their guilds into people who think that they can “make a difference” in the world if only people would listen to them, I want to point them to such as these that God has given the Church of the Nazarene – people who still exist, though we don’t have the language to recognize the depth of their witness and service to Christ and the church, even at our “Annual Conferences.” But again, that is the way the kingdom of God is – like yeast. To such as these belong the kingdom of God.

Posted by johnwright at 11:14 AM | Comments (1)

Last night the streets were somewhat sedate. It is the beginning of the month – those with limited income have moved to the Single Room Occupancy hotels for a few nights of rest behind a door – one of the little secrets is that many of the so-called “homeless” are forced to live on the streets part of the month because of the inadequacy of their fixed incomes. The depths of connection with those who have built their own neighborhood around the post office grow – we’re now known as “the sandwich people.” I have come to admire those who live with such dignity in such a situation, and pray to expand our presence there.

Meanwhile I’m heading toward finishing my introductory and concluding chapters to my interviews from years back with George Lindbeck, David Burrell, and Stanley Hauerwas. My reading and reflection in these years have shown me how deeply culture and institutional structures shifted in the 60s to form the current “left-right” continuum, and to make cultural discourse – and theological discourse – about “identity” defined by praxis rather than commitments to the Transcendentals of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness – which, of course, Christians find unified as One in the Triune God.

This came to mind as a colleague left the new Journal of the American Academy of Religion in my office yesterday and I sneaked a peak at it. It had the presidential address from the 2008 meetingby a Yale Divinity School faculty. It’s embeddeness within a leftist American civil religion is remarkable – and uncritical as she attempts to build a rationale for the study of “religion” in a world void truth, beauty, or goodness and thus balances on the edge of nihilism.

The address reads as a homily on a text from a 1934 by an author from the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston. The president exhorts the scholars of religion to “walk across the rim bones of nothingness” which means “we take all that we have learned, all that we hope to say, research, and teach, and place it in a space of the ultimate unknown where the immensity of our world drops from our scholarly teeth into a global creation where we recognize that our scholarship, our form of the conversion vision, can be up to good use in the fiercely mundane as in the fastidiously erudite.” The essay continues to develop a little more thickness in describing about walking the rimbones of nothing: “our scholarship should also help map out strategies for creating a more just and free society and world.” Enlightenment notions of scholarship no longer prevail as "objective"; "subjectivity" now rules. Passion precedes reason and reason must produce passion to free individuals to create their own values: “It is increasingly imperative that we engage religious discourses in the public realm—both in the United States and in international contexts, because we live in an increasingly polarized world in which religion matters as beliefs and practices and is a key element in identity formation and meaning making and sometimes nations-building for people.” The practical, activist, personal visions ultimately drive scholarship: "we can do relevant scholarship, excellent teaching, learning and activism with dancing minds that point to that vital triumvirate of love, justice and hope. We are then moving from concepts in hermeneuctical, historical, pastoral, theoethical, discourses to tools that demystify and deconstruct that help build and enlighten.” The Kantian background rules without intervention. The Pauline, faith, hope, and love becomes transformed into the “triumvirate of love, justice, and hope”; the theoethicial has replaced the theological. The liberal nation-state rules and scholars of religion serve this idol from a scholarly activism of the left. Scholarship of religion finds its pay-off in the “conversion” of the world: “To drop, no, to be committed to scholarship that is rigorous, accessible, and can be used as tools for insight, knowledge, and wisdom to build a more just world within worlds – this is truly a conversion vision.” Christian language again receives its parody by being secularized and absorbed into the play within immanence so that we may, by human activity, “build a more just world within worlds.” Religion plays its role to support civil society to sustain and advise the state in order to build a just society. All we need to do is strike up the organ and replace “Just as I am” with “We shall overcome” and the revivalist call would be complete.

What strikes me about this is how deeply American the address is – and how deeply it seems to fit an academic society that originated in 1964 – when the American Academy of Religion was founded (although it claims on its website a much deeper history); it was not recognized by the American Council of Learned Societies until 1979. What I find more fascinating is that this address is by a member of Yale Divinity Schools faculty – and represents the deep changes that have occurred from the formation of the American Academy of Religion. Seminaries have become more interested in study of “religion” to build a more “just” nation-state system rather than to initiate students into the Christian tradition for the upbuilding of the church.

Such discourses are deeply embedded in 20th century mainline Christian academic discourse. Dietrich Bonhoeffer while in his fellowship at Union Seminary described the “theological scene” in the United States, a description that well described the address on “walking on the rimbones of nothingness,” except that contemporary address has been stripped even more of its Christian language though the liberal Protestant/revivalist Protestant structures still lie behind it.

Bonhoeffer had to write a report on his first semester of study to the German Church Federation Office, recently published in his works, volume 10: Barcelona, Berlin, New York 1928-1931. The young Bonhoeffer wrote, “Being introduced to the ecclesiastical and theological circumstances of the United States as a fellowship recipient at Union Theological Seminary in New York has all the advantages and disadvantages that emerge for foreigners insofar as they get to know a foreign country from the location of the most incisive critique. The critique from the bulwark of Union Theological Seminary is as notorious as it is venerated and is directed as much at political, social, and economic circumstances as toward theological and ecclesiastical conservativism. It is in part radically and passionately open, and in part a slow but steady process of decline, which leads to the seeping of pragmatic philosophy into Christian theology. The seminary is a place of free expression between all members, which is made possible by the civil courage unique to Americans and by the lack of professional constraint in personal contacts” (pp. 305-6).

Bonhoeffer divides his observations into several sections. Concerning the students he wrote, “The unreserved nature of living together prompts one person to be open to another; and in the conflict between a resolve for truth with all its consequenes and the will to community, the latter wins. This characterizes all American thinking, something I observed especially with regard to theology and the church; they do not see the radical claim of truth on the way one structures one’s life. Community is thus based less on truth than on the spirit of fairness” [i.e., justice]. One does not say anything unfavorable about a fellow dormitory resident as long as he is still a good fellow. This characteristic and pedagogical spirit—and anyone who has sensed it can say a great deal about this—leads to a certain leveling of intellectual standards and accomplishments. . . . Hence there is a little intellectual competition and little intellectual ambition, as a result of which seminars, lectures, and discussions tend to assume a rather harmless character. It is more a cordial exchange of opinions than an undertaking on behalf of knowledge” (pp. 306-7). Concerning the faculty, Bonhoeffer recognizes the absence of even the ability to understand theological dogmatics. He notes, “the theological spirit at Union Theological Seminary is accelerating the process of secularization of Christianity. Its criticism is directed essentially at fundamentalism and to a certain extend also at the eadical humanists in Chicago; such criticism is healthy and necessary. But the foundation on which one might rebuild after tearing down is not able to support the weight. The collapse destroys it as well” (p. 309).

Bonhoeffer perceptively noted the uncritical rule of pragmaticism in the theological discourses. In the pragmaticists, and “especially James, I also found the key to the modern theological language and concedptual forms of liberal enlightened Americans. The destruction of philosophy as the question of truth, and its recasting as a positive individual discipline with practical goals . . . alters the heart of the concept of schoalrship, and truth as the absolute norm of all thinking is restricted to what proves to be ‘useful in the long run.’ Thinking is essentially teleological, aimed at serving life. . . . Truth is not ‘valid,’ but rather ‘works.’ And that is its criterion. Thinking and living take place visibly here in very close proximity. . . . . God, too, is not valid truth, but rather ‘effective’truth, that is, he is either active in the processes of human life or he ‘is’ not at all . . . . Whereas James himself still wants to leave space outside human beings for the real existence of God, especially in Chicago the pragmatism of James and the instrumentalism of Dewey have been developed further into radical immanent ethical humanism” (p. 311).

Concerning the church and preaching, Bonhoeffer notes that “In America one wants to preach to the present and identifies a sermon to the present as a political-social and apologetic sermon. . . . One is initially astonished to find that such sermons can be heard in almost the same form in community church—which is not a ‘Christian‘ church – as well as in a synagogue . . . as well as in a Methodist or Baptist church. .. . The enlightened American, rather than viewing all this with skepticism, instead welcomes it as an example of progress” (p. 313).

Bonhoeffer’s observations are fascinating – how even then he notes the deficiency in the way the United States had distorted the church into a “left” and a “right”, “mainline” and “fundamentalist” wings, and how the academy justified itself through its criticism of the “right” with a myopic view of its own presuppositions in its emptying the Christian tradition of claims of truth in order to join the social experiment that had become the “United States.” To read the latest AAR presidential address shows how deeply embedded this tradition has become in Christian education institutions that themselves produce, as Bonhoeffer says, “the theological spirit” that “is accelerating the process of secularization of Christianity.”

Posted by johnwright at 1:22 PM | Comments (6)