Unheard Of...
Anyone who is a regular reader of this blog
probably realizes that I am an evangelical Christian. I'm a lifelong member of
the Church of the Nazarene (a reference to Jesus being from Nazareth, hence "the
Nazarene"). Every four years there is a general assembly of laymen, pastors, and
district superintendents from all over the world to elect new leaders as needed
and consider matters of church governance.
First, a digression. The "Nazarene
Church" has pastors rather than priests, although the job descriptions probably
overlap. Local churches elect a board from among the layman for local church
governance (and what we call board members would be known as deacons in other
church denominations). The church is organized into districts which contain many
churches, and local pastors "report" to a district superintendent (DS). A DS is
the rough equivalent of a bishop in other church hierarchies. Finally, the DS's
report to a board of General Superintendents, composed at this writing of 6 men.
The general superintendent is roughly equivalent to a Cardinal in the Catholic
hierarchy. Note: there is no equivalent of the Pope in Nazarene hierarchy; the
"generals" serve as a board to oversee church
operations.
One of the items of
business during a general assembly is to elect new general superintendents if
openings occur due to retirements. And now we come to the unheard of stuff: this
past week, the assembly elected John C. Bowling, currently president of Olivet
Nazarene University (one of the many universities run by the church). And
Bowling, after requesting time to consider and praying about it, declined,
saying that he did not feel released from his assignment at ONU. So he declined
the new assignment. This is the first time in over 100 years of church history
that this happened.
This is not the
end. As voting continued, a new name, Nina Gunter moved ahead in the voting, and
was announced as one of the new general superintendents. And this is the other
historical first: the first time a woman has served as a general
superintendent.
This really gives me
some hope for my denomination. Not only do we have men who are big enough to
forgo ego and decline a top spot in the church leadership, but we actually are
admitting that women are capable of serving in top leadership
spots.
The only milestone remaining in
this area would be to elect a non-American as a general superintendent. This
would only make sense, since the Nazarene Church is a world-wide church with an
emphasis on missions. A general from Africa or Brazil would be a huge step, but
one that would be very positive for the church.
Posted: Fri - July 1, 2005 at 05:33 PM