1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, NIV

“We Are Just Too Busy.”

These are words we often hear in the church. From balancing work schedules to helping family and friends, to making sure our kids are actually bathed and their homework is correctly completed, we live busy lives. But there is this call on our lives: to be the faithful presence of God to our communities.

Rebecca Jones (RJ1), Robbie Cansler (RC), Melissa Brussa (MB), Rachel James (RJ2), and Sarah Riley (SR) join in the conversation. 

HT: What does it mean to be a woman clergy member today?

RC: A sense of “otherness” exists because it seems as though colleagues are unsure of ways that we should relate with one another.

From its inception, the church of Jesus Christ has been called to go “into all the world.” As the earliest disciples learned, the Matthew 28 Great Commission did more than expand the geographical presence of the church. It also communicated a call to expand the cultural and linguistic dimensions of the Kingdom of God.

In the Church of the Nazarene, one of the greatest tools we have to evaluate and guide our faith is the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.

The gospel often travels faster than our customs and culture. Such is the case in the Northern regions of Argentina, among the Wichi and Qom tribal peoples, where JESUS Film showings have pierced patches of spiritual darkness. These tribal people form some of the few surviving South American Indian groups in Argentina.

Their history is one of tribal wars, fear, shame, and many gods. In the age of the Spanish conquest, these tribes were pitted against each other as the Conquistadors used them as a strategical advantage.

The gospel often travels faster than our customs and culture. Such is the case in the Northern regions of Argentina, among the Wichi and Qom tribal peoples, where JESUS Film showings have pierced patches of spiritual darkness. These tribal people form some of the few surviving South American Indian groups in Argentina.

Their history is one of tribal wars, fear, shame, and many gods. In the age of the Spanish conquest, these tribes were pitted against each other as the Conquistadors used them as a strategical advantage.

On one of my first trips to the Asia-Pacific Region, I had the opportunity to preach in chapel at Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary. I also preached at Philippine Theological College in Baguio, Philippines, and the Nazarene Bible School in northern Myanmar. I met passionate and talented young adults preparing to be pastors in the Church of the Nazarene. I also realized the tremendous need for professors, pastors, district superintendents, and laity to mentor this next generation of leaders.