Throughout my life, I have often shared my Christian faith with others. Even as a child, I found ways to talk about Jesus.

These days, I admit to wrestling increasingly with this aspect of being a Christian. As an adult, I have regularly experienced humiliation and ridicule for sharing my faith. Traditional methods of presenting the gospel have become more challenging with each passing year. Jesus promised suffering for those who choose to follow Him. The problem comes when suffering seems to be, at best, unnecessary, and at worst, counterproductive.

As a local church youth pastor, one of my priorities is to facilitate the process of helping students move from owning their parents’ faith to owning it themselves. Most of my students enter our ministry having attended church for as long as they have lived. They know all the Sunday school answers and can recite all the basic Bible stories they learned on the flannelgraph countless times while growing up in church. Ask them how those stories affect their lives though, and you’ll see a lot of blank stares.

The last words Julia said to me as I left her little house were, “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to make this gift.” As I headed back to the airport, I began to think about how Julia had modeled generosity, not only in her gift, but in her life and attitude about giving. 

This summer, Carmen Ringhiser, managing editor of Holiness Today, and I enjoyed the unique privilege of interacting with pastors and leaders from three Church of the Nazarene educational zones at Pastors and Leaders Conferences (PALCONs). We hosted a booth in the exhibit halls and spoke with numerous attendees at the three conferences. Many of them happened to be my former university students. What a time I enjoyed renewing friendships and catching up on the Lord’s work in our lives during the years that had separated us.

How do you know God’s will for your life?

A lot of times, teens get the idea that God is going to reveal His plan for your lives just like a Google search. Ask and you’ll get an answer. But it’s not that simple.

Teens have to realize that God may lead you into experiences that will eventually create a direction or call.

One college guy, Jake, said that God had “called” him to missions. He had never gone on a mission trip (not even one day of outreach work). He had taken a language class in high school but hadn’t really kept up with it.

Wherever you go, travel is a good way to understand the prevailing state of affairs. I have spent a great deal of time traveling and have noticed with apprehension that many times the means of transportation I frequent are in sad states of disarray. Airplanes are often delayed for much-needed “on-the-spot” repairs; roads are being fixed almost endlessly; even many bridges have already passed the proper deadline for the needed maintenance.

HT: What are pastors talking about now?

JB: Context. Each community has its own distinct features and characteristics. The idea that a church can just be the same everywhere is not reality. No standard way exists of doing church anymore. Some of my colleagues are asking, “When do you reach the point where you are no longer Nazarene?”

Economic factors are not the same in every community and that affects each ministry.

HT: What’s the best thing about being a district superintendent?

DS: The opportunity to see young, gifted, called pastors find a place to serve. Also, to write “permission slips” to help them live out and see those callings fulfilled.

HT: Do you find yourself mentoring pastors?

How can we as Nazarenes understand what it means to be Nazarene? We are people who are not just separated from something, but we are connected to something. Here are five aspects of our theology and heritage that connect us as partners in faith.

1. Embrace our Wesleyan heritage.

One of the best things we can do is to embrace our Wesleyan heritage, connect to compassionate ministries, and be missional. It is encouraging to see local churches forming meaningful partnerships in their communities and launch their own missional ministries.

Four years before his death John Wesley, founder of Methodism, wrote in the Arminian Magazine: “I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having a form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case, unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit and discipline with which they first set out.”