While peer pressure may be as old as the hills, these days it’s growing more and more powerful and pervasive among teens. What’s the solution?

We find the key in the Trinity: In community.

Cory, 15, may not have realized that when he made this observation: “When I find myself in situations of peer pressure, I think about my family and the kind of example I’m setting for them, especially my sister. This helps me stay focused on my walk with God and avoid giving in to negative peer pressure.”

On November 6, 2012, millions of Americans cast their votes for those they believed should serve as the next leaders of the U.S. That evening, many sat glued to their screens, participating in what has become a national ritual. Closely watching the results, people celebrated victories and lamented defeats. This scene is repeated around the world during national elections.

I have read and heard numerous stories of women who were told things in their own churches about being ministers. My heart breaks for the many girls who were led to believe that they could not be pastors or preachers because of their sex. At the same time I breathe a silent prayer of thanks that I personally have never heard these things within my own denomination, the Church of the Nazarene.

My husband, Tim, and I have been co-pastoring the church of our dreams for the last three years. But believe it or not, co-pastoring was not in our “life plan.” Early in our relationship we struggled with anxiety about the balance of our individual callings, and how life and ministry would unfold for each of us, together. In our early days of dating and marriage we had seen very few co-pastor models, and the models we had seen didn’t make us crave the opportunity.

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. . . .  A cord of three strands is not quickly broken (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).

Most of the time bulletin boards give me an idea of what a place is about, so I like to check them. Recently a bulletin board prompted me to answer a very familiar question: “If you could go back in time, what Bible story would you like to experience?” My answer would not always be the same, depending on the circumstances in which I find myself.

As a child, one of my favorite Bible stories was Joshua’s great victory over the five kings of the Amorites when he asked God to help his army win a battle before attaining a much-deserved night’s rest.

Almost 22,000 Korean Nazarenes look to him for leadership. President of the largest Nazarene university in the world. Korea Nazarene University (KNU) and pastor of one of the largest Nazarene churches in Korea, Shin, Min-Gyoo certainly has his hands full. Extremely busy but also mild-mannered and quick to laugh, Shin chiseled out time to chat with Holiness Today about life and the Korean church.

You’re both a university president and a full-time pastor. How do you balance two such demanding jobs?

In 1994, I deployed to Haiti with the 28th Combat Support Hospital in support of Operation Uphold Democracy. Physicians were deployed from various reserve units throughout the U.S. to give us the full complement of doctors that we needed. One doctor, a surgeon, brought his guitar on the deployment. He would play his guitar to reduce stress and relax. He also volunteered to play his guitar during our Sunday worship services.

It was in the middle of my second term as regional director for the Eurasia Region when I was approached by a young European leader with the question, “Is there a Nazarene way?”

With all the evangelistic efforts around us, the question was pertinent. Is there one uniform way in which Nazarenes evangelize, plant churches, disciple, and have fellowship with one another? The immediate response, given the reality of our diverse Nazarene family who worships in thousands of churches in more than 159 world areas, was “No, there is no uniform way in which we celebrate.”

It was in the middle of my second term as regional director for the Eurasia Region when I was approached by a young European leader with the question, “Is there a Nazarene way?”

With all the evangelistic efforts around us, the question was pertinent. Is there one uniform way in which Nazarenes evangelize, plant churches, disciple, and have fellowship with one another? The immediate response, given the reality of our diverse Nazarene family who worships in thousands of churches in more than 159 world areas, was “No, there is no uniform way in which we celebrate.”