General Assembly Resolution: Membership and Baptism

In June of this year, the Church of the Nazarene will be conducting its General Assembly.  The General Assembly is the supreme doctrine-formulating, lawmaking, and elective authority of the Church of the Nazarene. During past quadrenniums, I have presented to my district delegation, and through them to the General Assembly, a number of resolutions.  Some of them have passed and impacted the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene.  Some were amended.  Others were rejected.  -  This year I have presented eight resolutions.  I, frankly, do not know which ones my district has sponsored.  However, for any who may be delegates to the assembly, or those who know delegates, I would draw your attention to these and hope that you might support them.

Note: Bracketed text [ ] are words to be deleted from the current Manual. Underlined text ___ are words to be added to the current Manual.

Article II. Local Churches

              23. The membership of a local church shall consist of all who have been organized as a church by those authorized so to do and who have been publicly received by those having proper authority, after having experienced Christian baptism, and having declared their experience of salvation, their belief in our doctrines, and their willingness to submit to our government. (100-107)

 B. Local Church Membership

              107. Full Membership.  The full membership of the local church shall be composed of all persons who have been organized into a local church those authorized so to do, and all who have been publicly received by the pastor, the district superintendent, or the general superintendent, after having experienced Christian baptism, and having declared their experience of salvation, and their belief in the doctrines of the Church of the Nazarene, and their willingness to submit to its government.  The local church leadership shall seek to place every member into a ministry of service and a circle of care and support. (23, 107.2 111, 113.1, 516.1, 520, 532.8, 538.8-538.9)

             704. RECEPTION OF CHURCH MEMBERS

It is expected that prospective members have been baptized and have professed the Christian faith and been instructed in the doctrine and practices of the Church of the Nazarene.  They may come forward to stand before the congregation and the pastor shall address them as follows: . . .

FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:

1. It is generally accepted that, as General Superintendent Emeritus, the Rev’d. Dr. William Greathouse, has said, “In the New Testament church there simply were no unbaptized Christians . . .” (Staples 11) Staples, Rob L. Outward Sign and Inward Grace: The Place of Sacraments in Wesleyan Spirituality. Kansas City: Beacon Hill P 1991.

2. The Church, generally, for over 2000 years has understood baptism as the sign of initiation into the new covenant and the community of faith, the Church.

3.  Jesus and the apostles command baptism (e.g., Matt. 28:19; Acts 2:38; 10:48).

4.  The Scriptures consistently declare the importance of baptism (e.g., Jesus declares that “no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit,” John 3:5; We are “baptized into Christ Jesus,” Rom. 6:3; “. . . we were all baptized into one body,” the Church, 1 Cor. 12:13; and Peter even declares that “baptism . . . now saves you,” 1 Pet. 3:21).

5.  Article of Faith XII. Baptism, paragraph 12, indicates that Christian baptism is “commanded by our Lord,” that it “is a sacrament signifying acceptance of the benefits of the atonement and incorporation into the Body of Christ.  Thus, those who refuse baptism are acting inconsistently with the membership requirements in paragraph 23, which states that they must declare “. . . their beliefs in our doctrines . . .”

6.  The FIRST of our General Rules in V. The Covenant of Christian Character  (par. 21) call us to do “. . . that which is enjoined in the Word of God, which is our rule of both faith and practice . . .”

7.  Most denominations, including the two denominations most like the Church of the Nazarene (viz., The Wesleyan Church and the Free Methodist Church of North America) require baptism prior to membership.  In fact, allowing members who are not baptized places us at odds with orthodox Christianity.

8.  It is surely more important for people to be fully “Christian” than just “Nazarene.”