“FAITH LIVED IN WORSHIP” (1)
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Apr 3, 2024
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“FAITH LIVED IN WORSHIP”
The Church of Nazarene was developed in the 19
th
century around the third awaking period somewhere between 1889 and 1910 by evangelical Christians, it is a Methodist based denomination. From what I can gather, the Church of Nazarene was develop by Dr. Bresee and Dr. Widney through a collection of teaching of a man named John Wesley. The missions of the Church of Nazarene were to provide a more Christ like disciples in the world. What the Church of Nazarene believes in is “One God” which means the “The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirt.” All people sin and will continue to sin, although all humans are made in God’s image. My
understanding is the Church of Nazarene was developed in an attempt to refocus the Methodist teaching to more on serving those in more impoverished areas. Community outreach seems to be very important to the Church of Nazarene. What the specific Church of Nazarene defines as community outreach to my understanding is anything that can help bring people together and know the love of God. I attended the service that revolved around Lint, they called it the season of surrender. The pastor spoke about surrounding ourselves in order to find our new selves, he challenged our perception of evil. How did we come to perceive certain images as being evil, his example was the snake. We associate the snake with evil due to the circumstances of the garden of evil. However, in Deuteronomy Moses was instructed to place a bronze snake on a pole and healed all
those who looked at it. He discussed how humanity has been bitten by evil and how we suffer from sin. We have stopped lifting up God and holding him at the highest regard. What I took from this sermon was that as a nation given the turmoil, we are in we need to turn to God and ask
for forgiveness in order to find healing and peace. This made me think back to some of our
assignment of faith and this is faith. We have to trust in something bigger than our selves. We have to trust God has our best interest in mind.
The mission statement was presented as a “Who are we?” this statement suggests the congregation values, “being with God, being with one another, being with others, and living generously.” This statement rang true throughout the service I attended. As I walked in, I had numerous people walk right up to me with a greeting as well as a hug. Many members of the congregation were older individuals. As I mentioned previously, I realized when I was leaving there were two different services, the first was a traditional service. This is the one I attended, it was geared more towards the older generations, whereas, in the later morning there was a second
service that was more contemporary. I kind of regretted not attending the second service as well, just to see the difference in how the sermon was delivered as well as the make-up of the congregation. However, throughout the lobby of the church, there were fliers inviting the congregation to community activities such as pickle ball and cook out, they also were asking for volunteers to coach summer softball and baseball for the kids' youth group. I noticed there were 15 members of the congregation who had volunteered. This was an amazing thing to see. I am unsure if those who volunteered had kids playing on teams or not, but it was great that so many individuals had made a choice to give their time to others. There was an older woman, who provided me some time after the service. We spoke about the church, the mission statement, and the upcoming activities. I chose to speak with her opposed to the pastor for two things she was at one point the activities coordinator and she has been attending the Church of Nazarene since 1962. She was like a walking encyclopedia when it came to the history of this church and activities. I asked her how the church had changed over time and what made her stay a part of this church. She stated, “we have attracted so many new
people and we have only become closer over time.” She went on to mention that she had struggled with some health issues earlier in the year, but never had to spend a night alone or go to a doctor's appointment alone due to so many members of the congregation stepping up and being there for her. This just brings the mission statement and the values this church as full circle
for me. I had not been in church in so long, it was at times very uncomfortable. I had not anticipated how formal the first service would be. I think with the contemporary service I may have felt maybe a little less under dressed for the setting. However, everyone welcomed me with open arms. What I really enjoyed was the community outreach that the church had put together. During the service the pastor had taken a few minutes to express his gratitude to the congregation, from what I understand they had set a six-month goal to reach a certain amount of money in order to have a new projection screen installed to help show the words to the hymns the singers, and the pastor as he gave the sermon. Another thing I really found amazing was the softball and baseball organization they had put together. I had asked they pastor if this league was only open to members of the church, he let me know anyone can participate and if they could not afford the gear such as gloves or good shoes, then church would provide them. I thought that was amazing. I was just dumbfounded that they pour so much time and effort into the community and surrounding areas. I think this caught my attention so much because I have a son who plays organized sports and I have not given my time to coach just due to work schedules
and the excuses of “being too tired” but there are people who have chosen to dedicate their time to a whole community of children. Given everything, I learned about this church and their mission. How much they give back to the community and to each other, it just changed my whole perspective on generosity, compassion, and altruism.
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Reference Ingersol, S. (2004). Methodism and the Theological Identity of the Church of the Nazarene. Methodist history, 43, 17-32.