General Assembly Resolution: Women in Ministry

In June of 2027, 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 nine resolutions to my district delegation.  -  If you are a district superintendent or a delegate from another district, I would draw your attention to these and hope you might consider supporting them.  If you are not a ds or delegate, but you know a ds or delegate from a district other than SWID, please consider sharing these resolutions with your superintendent and/or delegates.

Note: Strikedthrough words are to be deleted from the current Manual. Underlined words are to be added to the current Manual. 

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  501. Theology of Women in Ministry. The Church of the Nazarene supports the right of women to use using their God-given spiritual gifts within the church and affirms the historic right practice of electing and appointing  of women to be elected and appointed to places of leadership within the Church of the Nazarene, including the offices  orders of both elder and deacon. . . .

 

 FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:

1.  The language of rights is foreign to Scripture, but arises out political language, particularly in the Western world. 

2.  No one, whether a woman or a man, has “a right” to be ordained.  Rather, we affirm that God calls certain women and men to the ordained ministry.  We seek to ordain only those women and men who profess a call from God. 

 3.  These changes only deal with the language of rights.  They do not in any other way change the substance of our theology of women in ministry.

 4.  We understand elders and deacons to be holy orders, not merely an office.  In contrast, the general superintendency is an office held by certain elected elders (cf., 305.2).