100th Centennial Story - Reflections from the Centennial Celebration editor-in-chief

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Global Ministry Center

By, Gay Leonard, Centennial Celebration editor-in-chief

From an inconspicuous beginning under a white tent on the Texas prairie 100 years ago to a global family of more than 1.8 million members across every inhabited continent, the Church of the Nazarene has been driven by a consuming passion to make Christlike disciples in the nations. This mission gave cause for an unprecedented, once-in-a-lifetime worldwide celebration of God's blessings on the Church of the Nazarene at our Centennial - 100 years of spreading the message of holiness.

Over four years of planning culminated in a joint celebration across 24-time zones on October 5, 2008. In local churches and jointly in city, district, and national celebrations, Nazarenes worldwide were enabled to participate. Many continued an extended celebration into the 100th year in district and regional festivities, conferences, lecture series, and ministry outreach.

News of how we as a Nazarene family celebrated has been published in NCN News in "Sharing Our Stories - Building Our Collective Narrative." We have written a new chapter in our family history with exactly 100 stories of Centennial observances.

As a global family we celebrated under the banner of "Out of Many One, Out of One Many," emphasizing both our diversity of cultures, languages, and nationalities and our solid unity as people of one message and one mission

For the first and only time in the 100-year history of the Church of the Nazarene, on one Sunday we joined as one, united by watching the same DVD, by sharing the same scriptures and sermon, and especially by the sacred breaking of bread and drinking of the cup, as the culturally diverse family of the Church of the Nazarene united as one around the world at the Lord's Table.

The Centennial also gave opportunity for reinforcing our beliefs to newcomers and long-time Nazarenes as we shared our Core Values and Articles of Faith and preached the truth of holiness. Nazarenes worldwide gained a first or a new appreciation of our history and the proclamation of our mission, resulting in countless baptisms, new members received, and new churches planted.

Truly Nazarenes are a creative people, contextualizing the resources to their individual cultures and worship styles, resulting in parades, contests, Heritage Award presentations to local church heroes of the faith, and of course fellowship and eating, which we Nazarenes know how to do!

But of special note are the opportunities local congregations took to gain exposure for the Church of the Nazarene and to minister to their communities in ways that would not have taken place without the Centennial Celebration emphasis. The outreach ministries continue to amaze us.

All this was made possible by a global team. As Centennial Celebration editor-in-chief, I express deep gratitude to:

• A group of talented authors who wrote and creative graphic and video designers who produced the print and media resources.
• Regional directors, regional Centennial Celebration coordinators, regional literature committees and translators, and district superintendents who went far beyond expectations to make it possible for Nazarenes worldwide and in countless languages to participate in the Centennial.
• Children's Ministries, NYI Ministries, and Sunday School and Discipleship Ministries International, who created lessons, videos, and ministry outreach activities; Lillenas Publishing Company who created "One," an original Centennial musical; and Nazarene Publishing House and America's Christian Credit Union, our two official sponsors of the Centennial Celebration, without whose help we could not have resourced all our churches without cost.
• Local churches and pastors who included their congregations in a global celebration and 99 of you who sent your stories to join with me in building our 100-story collective narrative.

As Nina G. Gunter said in the valedictory of the Centennial in the General Assembly worship service Sunday evening, June 28, comparing Nazarenes today to Joshua and the Israelites crossing the Jordan River into the Promised Land:

We Nazarenes, people of 155 world areas, stand on the bank of the river with more than a century of blessing and achievement behind us, and we look across the river to our future. We ask God, "What's next?"
 
O Nazarenes, nearly two million of us, God is calling us to move out into the next 100 years. Unless we are willing to step out on faith, we are not likely to make much progress in these cross-over times in the life of our church.
 
Like the end result of the miraculous crossing of the Jordan River, God was magnified and the people were energized and motivated. One hundred years from now, may God be magnified and new generations of Nazarenes be energized and motivated.

To God be the glory for what He has done through the Centennial and what He leads us to do in the next 100 years.

Gay Leonard
Centennial Celebration editor-in-chief

Note: For story No.99, click here: Chapman's Chapel traces its history to its centennial and beyond

For all Centennial stories, see the NCN News Centennial collection by clicking here.

 

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