Around the Nazarene Blogersphere 11/21/07

Discovering the Impoverished Holiness Reeducation By Greg Arthur One of the really hard questions I have been asking myself since Russia is what does poverty look like? Daniel Clark our trip leader kept bringing us back to this question on our journey. Each orphanage we went to had different elements of poverty, but it was hard to remove the lens of my western culture to look for poverty in all its forms. In some places like… READ MORE HERE An Embodied Faith Story: Faith Alone Is Void of Faith Emergent Nazarenes By Julene Tegerstrand I’m in a women’s small group and I'm the only westerner among 5 Korean women. I'm the Bible study leader who is fumbling her way through the language discrepancies, theological training helps and hindrances, and cultural-age differences. We are studying Romans. It was their choice and now I see it as a terrifically challenging choice and one I’m ill prepared to do justice to in my context. A great position to learn! Last week we looked at Romans 4 where it talks about Abraham’s incredible faith. Even as the promise of God looked beyond hope Abraham grew in his faith. Mysterious! Personally I’ve been wrestling with “faith” language. In the church we throw the word around as if… READ MORE HERE Christians for Christians and NOT Humanity? Indigenous Stranger By James Diggs Christian Charity Raising Money To Feed Non-Gay Famine Victims This “parody” by the onion unfortunately is not that far off from the reality of many Christian relief organizations. The qualifiers, such as helping only “non gay” and “non Muslim” people, may not always be as overt as this parody but it can be sensed in the undercurrent of the objective and mission of many of these organizations. This is one reason why I think Christians should be more involved with secular relief organizations where we can take part in giving aid to others without strings attached and… READ MORE HERE THE PROPHET'S HEART - Death to Legalism Love Wins By Paul Dazet I came across this great article by Kevin Rector (he is a nazarene pastor) - He talks about the need for the denomination to shed it's legalistic stance. I agree wholeheartedly. Thanks Kevin for having the guts to say what needs to be said. For all the readers out there who have an opinion on this issue - please comment. “…..Our denomination in the last 50 years has been mired in the sin of legalism. It has only been in the last 10 years or so that this has really been recognized and the church has begun to repent of this cultural sin. In the "good old days" we had our Special Rules (the old name for the Covenant of Christian Conduct) and as long as you didn't break any of those then you must be a pretty good Nazarene. In fact, for a lot of Nazarenes, the old Special Rules were a sort of litmus test for your holiness level…” READ MORE HERE Get your official Nazarene Nooz 'Manual highlighter' Nazarene Nooz By Ark Rocker Nazarene Nooz secret bunker (NN) -- For a limited time only, get your very own official Nazarene Nooz Manual Highlighter…READ MORE HERE