INTERVIEW: Joining the Mission of Jesus: An interview with Ed Stetzer

use our prophetic voice as the people of God. Our dilemma as pastors and leaders in local congregations is that in a world that has become so polarized around politics and cultural norms, what is the pastor to say on a Sunday morning about the issues of the day? Should we be silent? Should we be selective and only speak where there is agreement in our congregations? Should we only speak to those issues that affect us personally?

Just like those in the early Church, who often disagreed on how to confront the values and politics of the Roman Empire, today’s churches wrestle to balance between being places that are welcome to all while still offering an instructive and prophetic voice. Ours is a 2,000-year-old dilemma.

What Can We Do?

The Church must always seek to create a “faithful presence” in the community it serves. As the “light of the world” and a “city on a hill that cannot be hidden” (Matt. 5:14), congregations can prayerfully engage with issues facing our world. Here are a few suggestions: 1. Form study groups in your congregation around issues that affect your local community. Addressing issues from climate change and the environment to high crime rates, study groups can explore biblical, Christ-centered approaches and present their findings to the congregation.

2. Never allow a position on a political or social issue to become an excuse to exclude someone.

Emphasize that you are a people of inclusion and a people of the via media—the “middle way.” This means that we can recognize and validate differences of opinion but challenge anyone who defines another’s faith by mere political orientation.

3. As a pastor, inform yourself on all sides of an issue. You may hear opinions that send you up the wall and you may find solidarity with individuals who validate or agree with your political views, but strive to remain curious and current. 4. Invite diverse speakers into your congregation.

Create a climate of hospitality where outsiders are welcome, and let them express their views on topics. Seek understanding, which begins with listening.

5. Discuss approaches with your board and get consistent input as you move into this arena of engagement. This increases “buy in” among the leaders and the members of the congregation.

6. On all issues, be transparent and communicate in a spirit of honesty to build trust and confidence in your ministry.

As followers of Jesus, we are a diverse group of people whose differences can be even more acute among the faithful. We should not fear these differences but allow them to sharpen our own positions, anchored in compassion and grace. We are an assembly, an ecclesia, that cannot ignore the issues of our day. We can’t put our heads in the sand, praying these critical issues never touch our congregation. That is naïve and dangerous.

As we approach hot topics within and outside the church, we should communicate with a spirit of grace, forgiveness, and tolerance. We are a called-out community that boldly proclaims the love of Jesus. The closer we are to that truth, the closer we are to the One who is the way, the truth, and the light.

JAMES E. COPPLE has a Master of Divinity degree and doctoral work in the history of education and Christianity. He has published in the fields of substance abuse prevention, treatment, crime prevention, education and global HIV/AIDS and has worked on diverse political campaigns. Copple lives in Washington, DC, and owns his own government relations and grant writing firm.

The Blessings of Abraham:

A MODEL FOR LATINO PASTORAL CARE

The Blessings of Abraham 1 model for care is found in the context of the Old Testament patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their relationship as father, son, and grandson. Its biblical context is well known: • First, God promised His blessing to Abraham: “I will bless you; . . . and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2–3). “I will surely bless you . . . and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed” (Genesis 18:17–18). • Second, God extended the blessings given to Abraham to his son Isaac: “I am the God of your father Abraham . . . I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham” (Genesis 26:24). • Third, Isaac, as a “bridge person,” extended this Abrahamic blessing to his son Jacob: “May God Almighty bless you . . . May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham” (Genesis 28:3–4).

The blessings of Abraham reached his son Isaac, his grandson Jacob, and even his descendants. It bound three generations and their descendants together. This transgenerational blessing presupposed strong historical family ties and affirmed them.

The Blessings of Abraham model, when applied to pastoral care geared to Latinos and Latinas, will maintain its transgenerational characteristic. Newer generations, although susceptible to assimilating the different values of the North American dominant culture, tend to maintain a strong sense of familismo, or family pride and solidarity, inherited from their Latino culture. 2 In this regard, those within the Hispanic culture in need of pastoral care will most likely feel encouraged whenever they are reminded that, as with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God still honors the extended family. The Latino individual or family will be told again and again that through the binding and bridging together of the transgenerational family, God can intervene, even in historical proportions, to bless any family member in physical, moral, or spiritual crisis.

A BLESSING FOR FOREIGNERS

In Genesis 12, the Lord preceded His blessing to Abraham with this command: “Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” Indeed, the blessing God gave Abraham was a blessing for a “foreigner” and his descendants (Genesis 23:4). It was a blessing for an immigrant generation and its foreign-born children and grandchildren. In this respect, The Blessings of Abraham pastoral care model will also make the most of the opportunity to minister to those who perceive themselves, or are perceived, as foreigners. North America is still a land of immigrants. And from the standpoint of pastoral care, “God calls us to respect, protect, assist, evangelize, disciple, and love all the immigrants near us.” 3

The Church of the Nazarene in North America has a long history of serving the Latino immigrant family. Pastoral care has been provided through churches planted and developed among Spanishspeaking immigrants in the neighborhood. The Blessings of Abraham model implies a continuation of God’s grace through Abraham, native from Ur of the Chaldeans, to Isaac the Canaan nativeborn son, and to Jacob, the grandson, also born in Canaan. God interacted with all three generations, although each generation must have developed its own identity as inhabitants of a new country. As a pastoral care model, it was a shifting transgenerational model.

Following that shifting transgenerational nature of our model, Latino pastoral care will be open and expectant regarding the work of God among Latino people both in the foreign-born generation and in the ever-growing native born second and third plus generations. There are important differences among these generations in language, education, income, and intermarriage. 4 However, pastoral care providers will assist Latinos and Latinas best if the larger transgenerational picture is kept in mind and extended family-related ministries continue to be strengthened.

It is only logical that each pastoral care setting will embody its own way of doing ministry. Priorities and needs may also vary. But if we keep in mind that

North America is still a land of immigrants. And from the standpoint of pastoral care, “God calls us to respect, protect, assist, evangelize, disciple, and love all the immigrants near us.”

the Blessings of Abraham model encompasses the concept of a blessing for the foreign-born generation as well as for the native-born generation, one approach for implementing this model among Latino generations in any given local church setting might include ministries like the following: 5 • A homeless shelter for immigrant women with children that provides an after-school program and an environment where both mothers and their children are exposed to the life-transforming power of Christ. • Assistance for immigrant women struggling in abusive relationships, including shelter, hope, and encouragement through Christ, and legal assistance. • Equipping immigrant couples, parents, and children to set priorities, improve communication, and make decisions that will lead their families towards financial freedom.

Jesus, in asserting His authority to extend His kingdom blessing to the “foreigner” centurion and his family in Mathew 8, suggested that His healing work on the centurion’s son was indeed a transgenerational “feast” blessing that could be enjoyed even with “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (v. 11). Here we may have a promise for us today: Latino pastoral care conducted after The Blessings of Abraham model (the bridging and binding of generations) should always carry with it Jesus’ blessings. Jesus also said that Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing His day (John 8:56).

A BLESSING FROM FOREIGNERS

Some Christian traditions may tend to make pastoral care an end in itself. Faithful to the evangelical tradition, The Blessings of Abraham model for pastoral care ministries will be missional in nature. According to Genesis chapters 12, 17, and 18, the transgenerational blessings God promised to Old Testament patriarchs was both for them and from them to others: “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you;” and again, “through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.” The Bible makes it clear that these Abrahamic blessings would include the saving work of men and

women everywhere beyond race, ethnicity, culture, language, gender, and social class (see Romans 11).

A Latino local church or a Latino ministry within an inclusive church that enjoys strong pastoral preaching, teaching, leading, and discipling in combination with strong compassionate emphasis in healing, sustaining, guiding, and reconciling people to one another and to God should prove to be a healthy, growing church or ministry. We expect that God´s saving and sanctifying work in the life of Latinos and Latinas will become a channel of that blessing to others. It will be a model that moves outwardly and inclusively without strain.

Here are some guidelines that may assist in church development as part of a Latino pastoral care model: • It will be holistic, geared to serve the whole person: body, mind, soul, and spirit (remember John Wesley in 18th-century England). • It will be cross-cultural and cross-linguistic, where Spanish-English, English-Spanish, and other language usage and cultural pattern combinations prevalent in the target community are enthusiastically employed (remember Phineas F. Breese’s cross-cultural work in Los Angeles). • Ethnically, it will be a ministry by Latino/ as or for Latino/as, but inclusively, it will normally be from Latino/as to non-Latino/as.

In a “racialized society,” 6 Latinos and Latinas as mestizo people can become a channel of saving and sanctifying blessing to those who are not of their own ethnicity and culture as they are trained to do such work in an inclusively accepting, embracing, and celebrating atmosphere.

The Blessings of Abraham pastoral care model, when placed within the context of the Old Testament patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, will be a Latino immigrant, transgenerational, compassionate, and friendly model for all pastoral care ministries. But, above all, it will be a church development model for the new inclusive church. The 21st century must be the century of this type of church. 7

JUAN VAZQUEZ-PLA is an ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene and director of the Synergy Ministries, dedicated to promote cooperation in the advancement of Christianity (http://synergymediaservices.com).

1. I am indebted for the main ideas of this pastoral care model to Daniel A. Rodríguez in his book, A Future for the Latino Church: Models for Multilingual, Multigenerational Hispanic

Congregations, 167-179. 2. Ibid, 173. 3. “The Immigrant Among Us,” by General

Superintendent Jerry D. Porter, in Holiness Today,

May/June 2012, inside cover. 4. “The Rise of the Second Generation: Changing

Patterns in Hispanic Population Growth,” by Roberto Suro of Pew Hispanic Center and

Jeffrey S. Pasel of Urban Institute, 8-9. http:// hablamosjuntos.org/resources/pdf/phc_projections_ final_%28october_2003%29.pdf. Accessed on

October 25, 2012. 5. Daniel A. Rodriguez, op. cit., 119-121, discusses these and other pastoral care ministries as being implemented by the New Life Covenant Ministries

Church in Chicago, pastored by Wilfredo De Jesús.

Bill Wiesman, editor of A Holy Purpose: Strategies for Making Christlike Disciples (Kansas City: Beacon

Hill Press of Kansas City, 2011), highlights the Latin

American First Iglesia del Nazareno of Owings

Mills, Maryland, pastored by Walter Argueta, who is enthusiastic about their “many community activities,” 176-182. 6. For an explanation of the concept of a “racialized society” see the “Introduction” of Divided by Faith:

Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in

America, by Michael O. Emerson and Christian

Smith, 1ff. 7. United by Faith: The Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race, by Curtiss Paul

DeYoung, et al. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 2. See also chap. 8

PHINEAS BRESEE AND THE WOMEN OF THE CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE

By Di a ne Lecler c

Christian historians and ecclesiastical analysts often overlook the contribution of women clergy because they mistakenly see women preachers and female ordination as a later 20 th century phenomenon that brought in the second wave of feminism. However, the Holiness Movement was squarely in the middle of the first wave of feminism in the 19th century. The movement was vocal and active on issues of equality such as abolition and the rights of non-whites, immigrants, the poor, and women.

Nearly all denominations that arose from the Holiness Movement affirmed the full equality of women and their right to ordination, including the Church of the Nazarene. Yet so many people do not know this history or the Wesleyan-Holiness theology on which human equality is founded.

Susie Stanley’s exceptional book, Holy Boldness: Women Preachers’ Autobiographies and the Sanctified Self, 1 shows that hundreds of women were preaching with an empowered sense of calling in denominations associated with the Holiness Movement. Phoebe Palmer was its matriarch. Donald Dayton wrote: “It was . . . the denominations produced by the mid-nineteenth century ‘holiness revival’ that most consistently raised feminism to a central principle of church life. This movement largely emerged from the work of Phoebe Palmer.”²

Palmer’s The Promise of the Father (1859), a defense of women in ministry, anticipated many interpretative moves of 20th century feminist exegetes. But the isolated pronouncements of any figure, even one as revered as Palmer, would not persuade an entire religious movement to take a controversial stand on women’s roles. Rather, the Holiness Movement’s endorsement of women’s equality is rooted more profoundly in the 19th century Holiness Movement’s articulation of

its doctrine of entire sanctification. Holiness theology made it possible for women to understand themselves as “entirely sanctified” and thereby adopt new roles in radical disjunction with their pasts. Nancy Hardesty wrote:

Christians were not only justified before God but were also regenerate, reborn, made new, capable of being restored to the Edenic state. For women, it made possible the sweeping away of centuries of patriarchal, misogynist culture in the instant . . . The argument that “this is the way we’ve always done it,” holds no power for someone for whom “all things have been made new.”³

Nazarene women clergy represent a long tradition of women preachers in the WesleyanHoliness Movement.

The synthesis of holiness theology with revivalism can be seen clearly in the emphasis on the instantaneousness of sanctification. Holiness theology also modifies Wesley in its adoption of John Fletcher’s linkage of entire sanctification with “the baptism of the Holy Spirit,” by taking the image and popularizing it. Baptism language linked holiness with Pentecostal power. Women who had experienced entire sanctification were empowered to accomplish that which exceeded their human limitations. In holiness theology, women have equal access to the “Pentecostal power” available through the Holy Spirit. The Church of the Nazarene and Bresee, specifically, stood squarely on this interpretation of Pentecost.

Catherine Booth (Salvation Army) and B. T. Roberts (Free Methodist) wrote treatises on women’s right to preach in 1861 and 1891, respectively. These works, with the rise of holiness theology, allowed women to fulfill this special requirement of God. Preaching was the inevitable step after testimony, and ordination was the next step after preaching. All this was based on a belief in equality that arises from more than socio-historical factors. Wesleyan-Holiness theology gave rise to practical application. Wesleyan-Holiness women preached in

The Church of the Nazarene stands out as a particular case in which women’s preaching and leadership succeed.

an environment that allowed them to thrive. Such egalitarianism was central to Holiness identity.

The Church of the Nazarene stands out as a particular case in which women’s preaching and leadership succeed. This was due partly to Phineas Bresee’s strong leadership. But before Bresee supported this stand for the denomination, he had already been influenced by many women in his own life.

Bresee had models of strong women in his family. His mother, Susan Brown Bresee, moved with her son’s household from parsonage to parsonage in Iowa and California and was a charter member of Los Angeles First Church of the Nazarene. His daughter, Sue, was also part of his new movement. The strongest female in Bresee’s life was his wife, Maria, who worked tirelessly alongside him for 55 years. During some of their years in Iowa, she endured a hard life, raising children while her husband was away. In California, she helped Phineas as he endured the emotional turmoil of changes, rejections, and the responsibility of leading a new denomination.

After his family moved to Southern California, Phineas Bresee became more deeply involved in the Holiness Movement and met women in positions of church leadership. He grew acquainted with Amanda Berry Smith, the famous African American evangelist and wrote, “She preached one Sabbath afternoon, as I never heard her preach before, in strains of holy eloquence and unction . . . The Lord opened heaven on the people in mighty tides of glory.”⁴

Later, in the Church of the Nazarene, preaching by women ceased to be an unusual occurrence. The following women represent the many opportunities given to Nazarene women to preach as evangelists, pastors, and mission workers. Such interactions caused Bresee to once proclaim, “Some of our best ‘men’ are women!”

LUCY PIERCE KNOTT⁵

Lucy Pierce married William S. Knott in 1882. In 1887, they and their three children moved from Kentucky to Los Angeles, where they met Bresee. They followed Bresee to several Southern California churches and were charter members of Los Angeles First Church of the Nazarene. Bresee noted that Lucy Knott was a “minister” among young women. He called her “pastor” of the Mateo Street mission, which was later organized into a church. “As a preacher and leader in the church, she has shown peculiar ability.”⁶ He noted the effectiveness of her evangelical efforts and powerful work with small groups. She was licensed to preach in 1899 and was ordained in 1903. Her congregations loved her.

MAYE McREYNOLDS

In 1899, Maye McReynolds experienced entire sanctification when she heard Bresee preach at a revival, and she soon joined the Church of the Nazarene. Employed by the railroad, where she daily encountered Spanish-speaking people, she felt compelled to work among them in Southern California. She was ordained in 1906 and served as pastor of the Mexican mission and later of the first Nazarene Mexican church. According to author Rebecca Laird, she was a “confident, bold woman with great compassion . . . [with] a radiant spirit [as] a devoted missionary, preacher and leader.”⁷

At the third General Assembly, it was “moved and seconded that Sister McReynolds, who has been for years recognized as superintendent of our Spanish Mission in the Southwestern part of the country, be recognized as a regular district superintendent and seated in the assembly as such. Motion carried.” 8 She appeared in the official picture taken at the assembly of the general and district superintendents.