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.