I am a Concerned Nazarene

There is a great article by Kevin Ulmet, pastor of Nashville First Church of the Nazarene that appears in Holiness Today. I highly recommend all my Nazarene brothers and sisters give it a read.Here is a brief excerpt.

I have been in Nazarene ministry now for 30 years; I wouldn’t change a thing if I could. I love the Church of the Nazarene more now than I ever have in my life.

But today, I am a concerned Nazarene.

Doctrinal Heritage
I am concerned that our precious Articles of Faith, those 16 grand biblical statements of doctrine based directly on Scripture, and our Wesleyan-Arminian and Holiness Movement history that have guided us well for over a century are under attack. Not from those outside our Christian faith, but from those inside.

These are people who believe we have been and desire us to be again who we never have been—a church in the Fundamentalist/Reformed tradition or at least the spirit and tactics thereof. John Wesley, Phoebe Palmer, H. Orton Wiley, and William Greathouse would blanch in concern today if they knew the insidious theological and ecclesiastical battle going on through the Internet, driven by categorization, guilt-by-association, and “gotcha” tactics that more represent radical politics than anything remotely biblical, Christian, or certainly holiness.