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The stated goal or mission statement of the Church of the Nazarene is
to "make Christlike disciples in the nations." |
Prayer for learning |
In a sermon at New York's Madison Avenue
Presbyterian church, George Buttrick described the inward coronation of Christ in people's hearts
as taking place "among confession, and tears and great laughter." |
"What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching." -- 2 Timothy 1:13
Teaching and learning in the School of Theology and Ministry at Southern Nazarene University is grounded in and shaped by the statement of faith in the sixteen Articles of Faith of our denomination, the Church of the Nazarene. Those brief affirmations of belief asked of church members are our "faith statement." Below are some explanatory thoughts on some of the doctrinal positions expressed in the Nazarene Articles of Faith.
We clearly affirm the full deity and humanity of Jesus
Christ. In our classes, we make clear that, in Christ alone, the Eternal God has definitively and
finally revealed Himself. Jesus Christ is God incarnate. Thus, to be Christ-centered is also to be
God-centered. Jesus both is and preached the gospel. He is uniquely the Heavenly Father's Good
News, the Gospel of God.
For us, Jesus is Lord of all, the Savior of the world who in
the cross and His resurrection met and conquered death, hell, sin and the grave. Christ has put to flight all powers of
evil, and by the Holy Spirit Christ now makes His victory available to all His disciples.
At SNU, we focus attention on Christ rather than on the
disciple. While the individual disciple is important, we want to steer students away from the
errors of subjectivism, introversion and isolationism. The New Testament order is: first, our
being "in Christ" and, secondly, "Christ in" us.
We try to inspire in students a love for Sacred Scripture
-- both the Old and New Testaments. We present a comprehensive picture of the biblical
narrative. We introduce students to the structure of the Bible so that they will not be lost in nor
discouraged by the Bible's size and complexity.
The doctrine of the Scriptures that the membership of the
Church of the Nazarene embraces is our norm ("Whatever is not contained therein is not to be
enjoined as an article of faith"). The Old and New Testaments inerrantly reveal the will of God in
all things necessary for our salvation. Those writings are authoritative in all things related to faith and Christian
practice.
The movement of which we are a part is not fundamentalist
in its doctrine of the Scriptures. Among other things this means that the authority of the
Scriptures is soteriological (concerned with salvation). Salvation, of
course, includes both Christian faith and practice. Hence, where the Scriptures speak on matters
of ethics -- how the life of Christ is manifest in the Church and His disciples -- they are
authoritative. [ more on authority of Bible
]
We teach the central importance of the Church as the
body of Christ. It is in the Church that one comes to know what it means to be a Christian. John
Wesley's statement that "There is no holiness but social holiness" has become an important
theme for SNU's School of Theology and Ministry. It is within the koinonia (or fellowship of
believers) produced by the Holy Spirit that one learns the whole story of God. [ more on Wesley ]
The Body of Christ has a history which helps us understand
today what it means to be Christian. So, we show students the major elements of Church history. We want our students to develop an appreciation for the
triumphant saints who have paved the path for us. [ see church
history PowerPoint ]
The Wesleyan Order of Salvation guides our thinking
and teaching. The reality and meaning of prevenient grace,
conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit, justification by grace through faith
alone, regeneration as initial sanctification, growth in grace, entire
sanctification, and eventual glorification are very evident as themes in our classes.
We make clear that all persons everywhere are called to be
Jesus' disciples. In this regard, we are explicitly Arminian.
We believe that Christ radically changes people who come
to Him. We don't think that God merely looks at repentant sinners in a different way. We believe
in a genuine regeneration of the penitent sinner. Before a person can be truly raised to new life in
Christ, he or she must be crucified with Christ. Life in Christ means life in and through the
resurrected and reigning Lord.
At SNU, we teach that Christians can
live in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit witnesses to Jesus Christ as the Promised Messiah and draws persons to Him. The Holy Spirit is the
Divine agent of justification, regeneration and sanctification. He makes victory over sin normative for Christian life, and facilitates life-long growth in grace. We
seek to teach students the meaning of entire sanctification and urge them to make the promise
their own. [ How entire is entire? ]
We clearly teach the importance of the fruit of the Spirit in
the lives of believers. All Christians everywhere are to show the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Such
fruit is normative and singular. The primary and dependable evidence of the Holy Spirit is His
fruit in the lives of obedient disciples.
The gifts of the Spirit are several. They
are not uniformly distributed to all members of Christ's Body. The gifts of the Spirit are given for
witness and service in Christ's Church and in the world. The fruit of the Spirit must always
govern them. [ What about speaking in tongues?
]
We lift up the hope of the Second Coming of Christ when He will consummate His inaugurated
Kingdom. The relationship between the inauguration of the Kingdom of God in Christ's person, and His return in glory will
be made clear in our classes. The Second Coming of our Lord is cause for hope, joyous
anticipation and watchfulness among His disciples. On the other hand, the Second Coming must
never become the subject of fruitless speculation. It must never be viewed as scintillating
entertainment, a reason for fear among God's people, or a topic that assumes a life of its own.
Our soteriology -- belief about salvation -- is holistic and firmly grounded in the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. [ essay on Matthew
24:14 ]
We emphasize to students the essential role of water baptism and the Lord's Supper as sacraments formative of the Church's identity and as means of God's grace. Water baptism is the appropriate public demonstration of commitment to the community of faith. We teach that the Lord's Supper celebrates the central reality of the Incarnation -- God the Son come in human nature. [ devotional thoughts on Holy Communion ]
We teach that Christians worship the One God who is
triune -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We were created to
worship God and to enjoy Him all the days of our lives. Worship of God and service to Him is
the center of Christian life. All else flows from that worship.
In articulating our beliefs, we lean on the
time-honored phrasing of the Apostles' Creed as well as the Nicene
and Chalcedonian Creeds. In our classes, Christ is presented as the author and Lord of His
Church.
Nazarenes teach that Christ calls and empowers believers for service in the Church and in the world. Although God does not call all persons to ordained Christian ministry, He does call and empower all believers for Christian ministry. Every believer has a ministry to exercise before God and for others. Toward that end, God equips Christians through the gifts of the Spirit: "There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" (1 Corinthians 12:4-7 NRSV).
The movement of which SNU is a part was born in a
revival that joined love for God and love for persons -- with special reference to the poor and disenfranchised. Phineas
Bresee and other early Nazarene leaders insisted that Christian holiness included a love for
and practice of justice and mercy. True to his Wesleyan heritage, Bresee thought that Christian
salvation addresses the whole person. Both Wesley and Bresee thought that the compassionate
Christ who brings good news to the poor, gives light to those who sit in darkness, and sets
captives free is the Christ by whom all Christians should be discipled. The Church of the
Nazarene that Phineas Bresee envisioned was one that would carefully take its instructions from
Matthew 25. [ more on compassionate ministry
]
Our belief as Nazarenes is that following Jesus must include
believing that the gospel is good news for marginalized people, for victims of abuse, for
prisoners and their families, for the illiterate, and for victims of tragedies that threaten to destroy
them.
We want to show how complete and holistic the Gospel of
our Lord is. [ Come share the dream ]
"You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine." -- Titus 2:1
 | A brief, succinct statement of orthodox Christian fundamentals is "The Apostles' Creed." [ read more ] |
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Howard Culbertson, 5901 NW 81st, Oklahoma
City, OK 73132 | Phone: 405-740-4149 - Fax:
405-491-6658
Updated: February 9, 2019