Cultures Within...

[Wes Smith]

The first time this thought occurred to me was back in about 1980 when Colleen and I were on vacation. Our trip took us through Oklahoma City on our way home. We happened to drive past the Oklahoma State fairgrounds and saw a sign that read something like: National Miniature Horse Finals. So, we stopped by to take a look. What I saw was unbelievable then, and as I think about it, now. The folks dressed horses up in all sorts of costumes and performed little shows with them. One lady came into the arena and set up a little bedroom area with a television at one side of the room. Then, with the miniature horse dressed in pajamas and sun glasses, they crawled under the covers to watch TV together. Patently weird in my opinion, but I came away with a new insight for me at that time: multiple cultures exist within the culture at large.

Most recently because of some work my son is doing, I became aware of the fact that there are "gold buyers" that purchase gold for 98% of value and melt the gold into chains and jewelry and profit by 15-20%. I would never have known these people existed without Josh having some interest in that niche.

Saying all this for a reason.

I am increasingly convinced that the Church of the Nazarene is one of these fractional pieces of culture within the culture at large. I have a few insights and will admit to some exaggeration, but not much.

1. I felt for many years that what was going on in our denomination was actually bigger than the culture at large. I thought we WERE the culture! On my way to camps, district assemblies and other district gatherings I was convinced that nearly all other cars on the road were headed to the same gathering to which I was headed.

2. A certain "atmosphere" was the goal of our gatherings. There was an intentional commitment to creating a unique "Nazarene-flavored" event that left me feeling like somethingg was happening with us that was not happening in other Christian venues. In some ways that insight was right. We were quite uniquely...Nazarene.

3. Most of my ministry revolved around a conviction that, and this is hard to adequately explain, people were rather intensely focused on my life and ministry to insure that I was on the Nazarene track and committed to Nazarene values.

There are many other examples I could sight. Campmeeting back in Iowa was HUGE when I was growing up. Our trip in 1980 took us into Iowa in August and I stopped by. What I saw was shocking though I had only been gone just about 15 years. I felt like I had time-warped back into the Little House on the Prairie days. One exampe...pastors were wearing suits in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week in hot, Iowa, muggy weather. The majority of women wore their hair in buns. My friend, Tim Tinker, was on campus that day and shook his head with some sadness and said something to the effect, "We are trying desperately to be what we were."

The above paragraph is a great example of a fractional piece of the culture within a fractional piece of the culture.

My thought most recently has revolved around...what is the new culture that largely defines the Church of the Nazarene? And, is it sustainable? Is it something that people will load the family into the car and go to where "something is happening" both in the local church or/and in larger gatherings of Nazarene-dom.

I would come close to staking my life that the future of our denomination depends nearly totally on the issue of what culture emerges out of the transtion that has clearly come upon us. Is that new culture useful, relevant, dynamic and appealing? If not, will the last person to leave please turn out the lights. If it is, rejoice!

You have my utmost amazement if you have read this far. If some dedicated soul has done so, I would love to read your thoughts.

Friend,

Wes

[Jim Chabot]

Great piece Wes!

Over the years I've been privileged and blessed to have been part of a few of these "cultures within."

In my younger days, I held an affinity for Ford Mustangs. All told I had owned thirty of them before I moved on, even owned a Shelby GT350 for a while and a couple of MACH 1's. There was no interweb back then, nor portable battery powered tools or anything like that. We used to have to sit on rocks because chairs hadn't been invented yet. But there was for sure a culture within, there was a group who could sit around all day and talk about Mustangs.

Another interest of mine has been International Harvester Cub Cadet tractors. Back when I was a kid, they were the best of the best, no one around here could afford one. There was a glass company nearby that did have one, a couple of my friends and I would ride our bikes over there to watch them use it from time to time. Eventually when I had bought my own house, I found me an old Cub Cadet to mow the lawn with, and yes I mowed the church lawn with it as well! When my oldest son became of an age where he was interested in mechanical things, he suggested that we "fix up" the old tractor. So the two of us started in working on it, I had it in my mind that we would restore it like an antique car and place it on a pedestal, unbeknown to me, he had plans to mow the lawn with it. I bought him his own tractor to mow the lawn. This project came about the same time as we had discovered the internet and a bunch of fellows who were into Cub Cadets. Who would have guessed? Over time we have been involved in this culture as well, we have travelled as far away as Iowa and Florida and everywhere in between to tractor shows. I've met many folks through this, even met the man who designed the original driveline for the tractor. I now own the very first Cub Cadet which was hand made in the engineering shop. Some of these folks are Christians, some are not, some of them are Republicans and some are not, what we talk about is tractors.

What I have found interesting in these Cultures Within is that I have found myself somewhat immersed before hearing that there are actually others with similar interests, it's an amazing thing. Although, I'm not immersed in it, I have found evidence of a culture within among folks who are interested in sound re-inforcement. I'm not talking about the kid who sits at the console at church, there are folks out there who literally eat sleep and breath this stuff! A little over a year ago, I had the pleasure of meeting the woman who runs the sound at my mom's church. They have a $550K sound system and a 3500 seat sanctuary. We had talked for about fifteen minutes when my mom indicated that she was bored and wanted to go. The sound lady said to my mom, "hold up a bit here, this could take hours, it isn't every day that I run into someone who actually knows the language." Maybe another culture within?

Back to where you were driving at. Amen and amen! Why on earth would we hold any interest for the larger church culture? Who cares? A community of like faith is so much more attractive both to ourselves and to the world around us. I'm glad that this "new culture" isn't prevalent around my little corner of the CoTN, I suppose that it will arrive as the Universities pump out new adherents, but I think we still have time. Until then the lights are still on on Sunday nights! And should this new deal not pan out, well we still have campmeeting!

[Susan Unger]

My thought most recently has revolved around...what is the new culture that largely defines the Church of the Nazarene? And, is it sustainable? Is it something that people will load the family into the car and go to where "something is happening" both in the local church or/and in larger gatherings of Nazarene-dom.

I'm still in the process of discerning what the new Nazarene culture is. One aspect that I know about is that we seem to be less legalistic that what I grew up with and more into compassionate ministries. This kind of culture I can support whole heartedly.

[Wes Smith]

I "think" my point is that "what got us here won't get us there." To me that means that we need not be afraid of a catharsis that will turn us into something outwardly that we have not been while retaining or original dna.

So many organizations cycle from birth to death without giving much thought to "rebirth" along the way.

The small town in Iowa that the Smith family basically calls home had two railroads running through it, the Wabash and the Milwaukee. Both were dynamic and in the case of the Milwaukee Road, dominant, for awhile. They both resisted changes and went the way of the Edsel. I worked for a summer as an agent-operator for the Rock Island RR in the summer of 1967. We typed out messages that came to us from somewhere, tied the message in a string, attached it to a loop frame on a pole and stood by the tracks and held it out where the engineer of the oncoming train stuck his hand out through the window of the locomotive and through the string loop to acquire the message. When change began to happen (elimination of caboose, better forms of communication, etc.) many of the RRs could not turn on a dime (!) and went under.

It seems like the Church of the Nazarene, being a small denomination, could turn more easily. What got us through 100 years will not take us much further, I'm afraid. Being somewhat of a student of organizations, I know it CAN happen. We have to get over our fear of being a butterfly instead of a worm!

Friend,

Wes

[Jim Chabot]

I'm still in the process of discerning what the new Nazarene culture is. One aspect that I know about is that we seem to be less legalistic that what I grew up with and more into compassionate ministries. This kind of culture I can support whole heartedly.

I agree somewhat and I like your description. My worry is that the legalism is still there, it's been morphed over as opposition to personal holiness and into communal holiness. I can still feel it, and I can still ignore it.

[Susan Unger]

I agree somewhat and I like your description. My worry is that the legalism is still there, it's been morphed over as opposition to personal holiness and into communal holiness. I can still feel it, and I can still ignore it.

Yes, I'm sure legalism will never go away completely, and will morph into different forms.

[Jim Chabot]

Yes, I'm sure legalism will never go away completely, and will morph into different forms.

As long as there are folks who seek to control other folks.

Just don't let them!

[Hans Deventer]

Wes,

I really don't know what the new culture is. Over here, we didn't inherit much of the dominant US Nazarene culture. And apart from the very early days (when I wasn't around), there has always been a struggle against personal and local individualism. Which means that each local church on our district has developed in a somewhat unique way, with a general confusion as to what exactly the essentials are to which we should hold on, if at all. Frank Sinatra could have started a religion, "I Did It My Way" is still a "our watchword and song". Has nothing to do with whatever Christ intended for all I can see.

Still, there are enough people who seek to live a holy life, but discussions about what exactly this involves, fail to create much agreement on that question. It all depends one how one reads the Scriptures.

Through the years, in my local church (with apologies for the way this sounds) I've become somewhat of a "Nazarene conscience." For me, this means following the Nazarene Himself primarily. And where I can, I try to steer in that direction.

[Sarah Smith]

We, as a family, got tired of churches that are focused on figuring out what the new dominant culture should be to survive, which is to us just another way of saying the customer is King.

We decided not to pay attention to denominational labels and look for local churches we believe faithfully proclaim and live out the Word.

Now, doing that tends it seems to put one at odds with the dominant culture.

So be it. I'd rather attend where I hear the truth, even if it hurts my feelings sometimes, than attend where the focus is finding out what Sarah wants to hear and saying that.

If those faithful churches flourish or die is God's business. Obedience and faithfulness is ours.

[Scott Moseley]

I "think" my point is that "what got us here won't get us there." To me that means that we need not be afraid of a catharsis that will turn us into something outwardly that we have not been while retaining or original dna.
Wes

So should we keep white patent leather shoes and poly leisure suits?

[Wes Smith]

One way to look at this is that our past was rather dominated by great evangelistic services/revivals.

Reminds me of an interesting story. I was the new pastor at a church and a "revival" had been planned prior to my arrival. No problem, except the evangelist took the first three nights to "skin the sheep." On Friday evening after the service, where the guy had been extremely obnoxious in my opinion, I asked him to come to my office where I simply stated that if he didn't have anything encouraging to say to my new folks, we would just cut his check and cancel the rest of the revival services. There was more to the conversation, but with God as my witness, he came back with the rest of his messages that hardly could have been more grace-filled.

Anyway, we've become radically less revival-services-oriented. The culture has changed.

Decades ago we heard LOTS of doctriinal messages on the subject of the second blessing and entire sanctification. Unless I am delusional, the historic doctrine of the Church of the Nazarene has pretty much gone to wherever the revival meetings went.

My estimation is that easily half of our church buildings are now eyesores in their communities and are peopled by an aging population of saints.

Lillenas Music and NPH are both facing challenges and changes that were pretty un-imaginable say 10 years ago.

Our Universities are nearly all made up of student populations that are less than 50% Nazarene young people.

I doubt there has been a time in our history where our leaders had less authority than now. In the early days of my ministry (early 70's), a GS said "Jump" and you know what we did. Not saying that shouldn't be the case today, but it isn't.

So much has changed and is changing. What are we becoming? What should we become? I would say it would be a tragedy if we came around to a consensus that we should become what we were and it would be equally tragic if we became whatever become by default. Intentionality will be our good friend in these months and years ahead.

Just my personal opinion, but I would advocate for us becoming more aggressive in reaching lost people for Jesus. My ego is not on the line, so don't feel obligated to agree, but I think we have lost our ability to...reproduce. It would bless my heart like crazy if we could somehow agree that we exist to share Jesus with the world and then learn how to do that and then do that! Our Nazarene culture, it seems to me, at least in North America, has become dangerously inward.

Friend,

Wes

[Greg Crofford]

Wes, there is so much in your posts that I could comment on, but I'll admit a temptation to post up for Jim an old childhood photo of me and my brothers on my dad's Cub Cadet. I loved that tractor!

To take a theological turn, in 2003 at a conference hosted by NNU, the late Dr. William Greathouse noted that the biggest task remaining for the COTN is to develop an ecclesiology, a doctrine of the church. With revivalism having run its course, the question is: Who exactly are we? Dr. Greathouse was prophetic in his assessment. What we are seeing now -not just in the U.S. but in Africa- is an attempt to answer that question. From what I can gather through a few stints at three of our Nazarene universities, one attempted answer has been spiritual formation and liturgy. (I resonate with this, and really enjoy a Word and Table service). Here in Africa, the constant temptation for our Nazarenes is what Ken Grider called "neo-Pentecostalism." My strategy as a theological educator working here has been to affirm those strands in our historic Nazarene DNA that address the pragmatic African worldview, and this includes teaching what we believe about divine healing, for example, as well as speaking about the role of spiritual gifts (including tongues as earthly languages). Also, I heavily emphasize our Nazarene DNA of women in ministry, which I believe will help us with retention since so few other evangelical groups here make space for women in ministry.

[Billy Cox]

So much has changed and is changing. What are we becoming? What should we become? I would say it would be a tragedy if we came around to a consensus that we should become what we were and it would be equally tragic if we became whatever become by default. Intentionality will be our good friend in these months and years ahead.

Just my personal opinion, but I would advocate for us becoming more aggressive in reaching lost people for Jesus. My ego is not on the line, so don't feel obligated to agree, but I think we have lost our ability to...reproduce. It would bless my heart like crazy if we could somehow agree that we exist to share Jesus with the world and then learn how to do that and then do that! Our Nazarene culture, it seems to me, at least in North America, has become dangerously inward.

Wes, I think you have already hinted at the correct answer to these questions when you observed the diversity of cultures and communities.

The Church of the Nazarene has never been a monoculture, so the idea that there is one culture that we are moving toward is probably inaccurate. You asked where revivals and second-blessing holiness have gone. I have three words for you..."Olathe College Church". Last I heard they still carry those torches (some would say they carry water), and the denomination seems to be trying to resurrect that past by electing three pastors from that church to the BGS.

If my observation is accurate - and I wouldn't say it if I thought it was baloney - then the denomination is still convinced that change/renewal follows the trickle-down theory, and it will fail. There are other avenues of renewal, and they may very well succeed despite the efforts of those who fear what the church is becoming.

As for evangelism, I think that the church has focused pretty heavily on evangelism for the better part of 30 years, and many of the changes that make old-timers nervous are the direct result of putting all of our marbles into recruitment and barely even mentioning the importance of doctrinal integrity to a religious institution's ongoing existence. We have retention programs like 'Sticky Church' these days that would have been unheard of in the days when everything we paid lip service to was evangelism, soul-winning and church growth.

You may say that we paid lip service to evangelism but didn't do it...fair enough, so imagine how much less we did things that we didn't even talk about - like what holiness means in an increasingly secular culture.

[Sarah Smith]

Wes, I'm wondering if you would be bothered by something that happens spontaneously in our town.

If you are involved in evangelism here, you run with a pretty rough crowd.

But when those from that crowd get saved, the tats get covered and the tank tops and hot pants disappear.

No one is telling them to do so, they just go.

And sad to say (IMHO), it isn't often they see more modest dress modelled in church from the folks that have been saved longer.

But when they experience the second blessing, whatever their denom calls it, we do see a trend to a bit less casual wear for worship. Women do tend to wear skirts or dresses, some everyday, and they tend to reach the knees or longer. Spaghetti strap tight tops go away in favor of comfortable but more modest tops.

As to hair in buns, if the church isn't air conditioned and they have long hair they tend to put it up for comfort and coolness.

Now, this is happening in the Baptist, Methodist, holiness, pentecostal, what have you--even among young Catholics.

If no one is teaching these young people these old fashioned standards, but rather they are adopting them as matters of their own conciences, do you see that as a bad thing?

[Wes Smith]

No. I see that as a VERY good thing. Part of my observation re. the Church of the Nazarene revolves around the fact that I was District SS Chair on 2 districts for a total of nearly 10 years. There is no argument, in my opinion, that the Nazarene Church has lost her ability to reproduce, to have babies. It cannot happen when people refuse to or for some reason cannot buiild bridges to the surrounding communities.

My favorite year in ministry was my last year. Actually for the last 1 & 1/2 years we conducted Celebrate Recovery through our church. We grew in that amount of time from 0 to nearly 100 and above that on our special testimony gatherings. NOTHING I've ever participated in holds a candle to the effectiveness of CR in reaching lost people. These folks were on fire with enthusiasm for the GOD who reached down and embraced them, and you are exactly right, in the context of life shared with other new believers and dedicated saints who gave leadership, the effect on the church was amazing. Not every church can handle it, but I enthusiastically say "AMEN!" to your remarks.

Friend,

Wes

[David Parker]

Interesting thread. Thank you Wes!

I feel like I am constantly living in different sub-cultures. Even within one day. There is a certain level of creative tension/stress involved, but I find it stimulating.

There are the 'old friends' from our old church. Our age or older. Very GOP. Very conservative. Upper middle class for the most part. Interactions tend to be shallow and 'safe'. Boring and comfortable. Not real dynamic spiritually. Into their dinner/game parties and RV trips.

Then there are the 'new friends' from the church we have been attending for 4+ years. Every age group. Every political background. Lower middle class for the most part. Lots of piercings, tattoos, and rough edges. Extremely dynamic spiritually. You even hint you need prayer and they are on you with raised voices and hands and are storming heaven for you.

It is sometimes hard to believe these two different groups share the same faith. Somehow, we manage to fit in well with both cultures.

Then there is my 'business' culture. (I make it work in my own way) The Harley sub-culture. (easy for me to fit in there) The sailing-yacht club sub-culture. (couldn't make that work - I am a non-affiliated sailor), the gun culture, (lots of good people there) and over the years we have done the youth sports thing, (and that is for sure a culture of its' own) and other such things.

I wonder how much of this is the result of an affluent society. Once basic needs are met, many of us look around for that which interests us and are naturally drawn to others with similar tastes. Thing is, there is rarely much overlap and it results in some widely differing sub-cultures in our lives.

[Billy Cox]

My favorite year in ministry was my last year. Actually for the last 1 & 1/2 years we conducted Celebrate Recovery through our church. We grew in that amount of time from 0 to nearly 100 and above that on our special testimony gatherings. NOTHING I've ever participated in holds a candle to the effectiveness of CR in reaching lost people. These folks were on fire with enthusiasm for the GOD who reached down and embraced them, and you are exactly right, in the context of life shared with other new believers and dedicated saints who gave leadership, the effect on the church was amazing. Not every church can handle it, but I enthusiastically say "AMEN!" to your remarks.

Celebrate Recovery is just one example of the congregation 'dispensing' an effective solution instead of suggesting that the solution to every issue is a trip to the altar or upping one's devotional habits.

[Roy Richardson]

It meets a felt need AND a spiritual need at the same time.

[Billy Cox]

I wonder how much of this is the result of an affluent society. Once basic needs are met, many of us look around for that which interests us and are naturally drawn to others with similar tastes. Thing is, there is rarely much overlap and it results in some widely differing sub-cultures in our lives.

I've observed that as well. I look over my Facebook friends from various spheres and times of my life and there is almost no overlap or commonality between them. Every now and then there is a "small world" moment, but not very often.