This week, if you are trying to find me, I am in Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky (as of this writing, Lexington), West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and back in Illinois. I am currently in a “traveling” history class learning about my brothers and sisters in Christ from the Restoration Movement aka the Stone/Campbell Movement. I am required to take this class because I am pursuing a degree at Lincoln Christian College and Seminary, a restoration school and this is one of the “have to” classes. I could have taken it as a regular 16 week course but I liked the setup of this class much better.
What I have learned during my time has made me grow to appreciate even more greatly my heritage in the Church of the Nazarene. It has made me grow to appreciate history of the church in general a bit more and to want to grow in my understanding of the church I call home. I have learned that I love the Church of the Nazarene and I am proud (in the right way, of course) to be a part of it (pimples and all).
That doesn’t mean that I dislike these I have gotten to know but rather understand them as a part of the bigger family tree known as Christian or perhaps more appropriately stated, a part of the family of God, for I have come to appreciate that they have a role to play in calling us to be active in the world in an attempt to spread the word of God and to fulfill the Great Commission, in all of it’s aspects. (Remember, the Great Commission is a call to share the Gospel with others but it is based in part on our recognition of the love of God that was freely given to us through the blood of Jesus Christ.)
One more thing I have come to understand is that really all Christians in their different denominations are finite people trying to understand an infinite God, and in doing so, have developed systems that best fit their understanding of God but are so inadequate. To quote my new friend Rupertus Meldenius (repeated by Dr. Phinehas Bresee, et. al) “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.”
From my heart.
