In Church of the Nazarene at District Assemblies across the world, delegates are being elected for the annual Nazarene family reunion known as the 2017 General Assembly.  As these individuals are being chosen I offer three considerations for the newly elected representatives to prayerfully ponder as they prepare for General Assembly:

1)    International delegates must be more engaged before the General Assembly.  97.48% of the manual resolutions proposed for 2013 Manual came from the USA/Canada caucus (155 of the 159 resolutions).  Either the international church doesn’t care about such matters or doesn’t feel their voices are heard.  If it’s the former, let’s quit having general assemblies and simply vote for leadership roles electronically; save everyone the cost and time to gather; and let the USA/Canada office argue over the nuances of the manual.  If it’s the latter, then international delegates must embrace their role and offer meaningful manual resolutions for consideration. We need to hear and learn from our international brothers and sisters.

2)  National diversity on the General Board is guaranteed through the election process,  but gender diversity is not expressed in leadership roles throughout the church.  Please don’t think by simply electing a female General Superintendent we have done our duty as it relates to gender equality. The General Board, university presidents, directors and senior leadership roles in the Church of the Nazarene are heavily male dominated. Can you name five women in highly placed leadership roles in the church?  Me neither.  Let’s do something about this.

3)  Can the General Assembly theme of One Body, One Spirit, One Hope be achieved when we have Six Heads?  Maybe its time to consider that One Body and One Hope is best accomplished when there is One direction and One Leader. Our antiquated leadership by committee structure (the Board of General Superintendents) has been an ineffective model for casting vision and oversight for a while.  We’ve given these godly leaders an impossible task and removed any real authority from them.  Consequently, we are bearing the fruit of an ineffective system (a downward attendance trajectory and less engagement with the culture).  Maybe its time for the newly elected delegates to consider taking One bold step with One Heart and One Spirit by saying, “We need One Godly Leader.  We need a modern day Moses, Joshua or Nehemiah to courageously lead the way through the wilderness of secularization and the challenges of the 21^st century.”

May this lead to meaningful conversation as the church thinks and prays before we gather in Indianapolis in 2017.

I’ve been waiting for two and a half years to write the following six words:  There is a Chipotle in Flint!  

I love Chipotle. Silly Qdoba fans think that the restaurants are similar, but that is like saying a Ford Pinto and a Ferrari are similar or that a 13 inch, black and white Philco TV with rabbit ears and 65 inch LG OLED TV are similar. Besides missing a “U,” Qdoba will also be missing me, now that Chipotle in in town.

I cannot say with certainty but I believe there might be a Chipotle franchise in heaven (that and Chic-fil-A, of course). I also cannot say with certainty that the opening of the restaurant is in response to our church wide prayer “In Flint as it is in heaven.”  But I do know, it’s an answer to my prayers.  Luke was not writing about Flint and Chipotle, but it sounds like my sentiment with his words, “So there was great joy in that city” (Acts 4:8). Did I mention that I love Chipotle?

Chipotle isn’t the only good thing happening in Flint.  In things much more important than a barbacoa burritos (which I highly recommend, by the way), I am convinced that God is doing great things in the city.

Ours is a city with many needs but also many opportunities.  For instance, in response to the water issues some friends of some friends of mine who own a water filtration business (Aquaoxfilters.com) contacted me to see if our church would like a free church-wide system.  Central’s water is from Detroit, but our partner church Joy Tabernacle is in the heart of the city and in the center of the crisis.  To make a long story short, thanks to the generosity of AQUAOX and the hard work of Pastor Todd Womack and the plumbing skills of Central church’s Rick Marshall, Joy Tabernacle will have the water filtration system installed on Saturday. What a blessing for Pastor McCathern and the people of Joy Tabernacle to have clean filtered water!

Long ago, I heard a missionary say, “You can’t tell a thirsty person about Jesus until you’ve given him or her a cup of cool water.”  I never imagined the missionary’s comments would be true for where I lived in America.   But here we are and not surprisingly God is bringing people together to meet our clean water needs and spreading the Gospel.  Now I think Luke’s words truly are appropriate!  So there was great joy in the city! (Acts 4:8)