And now the final installment of the Pilgrim Holiness History... Merger with the Wesleyan Methodists--1966-1968.
Time to think about past mergers (and future mergers?)
So, what do YOU think?
keith drury
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6 comments:
Some of us remember the "street fighting" that took place when attempting to merge and/or close schools of higher education in the merger between the Pilgrims and the Wesleyan Methodists. I don't even want to think about such mergers between the Nazarenes and the Wesleyans!
My church body, the AFLC (Association of Free Lutheran Congregations) was formed by 42 congregations that refused to be merged when the Lutheran Free Church (LFC) merged into the American Lutheran Church (ALC) in 1962. The leaders of the old LFC thought they would have more influence in the larger body, but ended up lost in the soup.
The loss of foundational values in the LFC began with a shift in their college that began to value association and academic approval from liberal East Coast and European seminaries. This resulted in a disconnect between denominational leaders and the laity who ended up being dragged into the merger. Yet a core group of visionaries saw the value of core distinctives that they were about to lose. They took action and began a new church based on the old values.
The AFLC is now at a transitional point as the current leadership, who as college students watched their parents pull out of the LFC/ALC merger and begin a new denomination, now approach retirement. That means that a new generation of leaders will soon step into the higher offices bringing for the first time leaders who did not witness or take part in the founding of our association.
thanks for the AFLC description!
I have been very interested in your historical perspective on merger and the Pilgrim Holiness Church.
From my conversations with many former Pilgrims, they felt that much was lost in the merger. Overall denominational growth entered a lengthy period of decline (number of churches, pastors, membership, etc.). Every one of their denominational schools were eventually closed. And most, if not all, of the standards of holy living were ultimately eradicated from the Church.
Frankly, if those of a previous generation could look down the years...I believe that their choices would be drastically different.
You also referenced Dr. Roy Nicholson and his stand against the conservatives of that day (Of course, he himself would be viewed as a radical by the Wesleyan Church leadership today). To be intellectually honest, one would have to include the fact that he underwent a drastic change of heart in later years. He stated that he had "missed God" in the direction that he and others set for the Church.
Surviving Nicholson family members now attend a church affiliated with the Conservative Holiness Movement. Indeed an interesting footnote to history...
For a theological group that prides itself in not being like the world, it looks more and more like the world every day.
It will be interesting to see 10 years down the road what does or doesn't become of the Wesleyans.
Afterall, they do say, those you use as steps on your way up, you pass on your way back down!
The Nazarene Revolutionary Guard has declared a holiness Jihad on all the emergent gibberish coming from our Holy Site in Lenexa. Our Guardian Council has met in executive session to map out a strategy for confronting these religious heritics who are spreading heresy throughout God's Church. Nazbollah Special Ops Units have been activated to converge on our Nazarene Campuses where this heretical nonsense is being propagated.
We call on all of our Nazbollah sympathizers to pray five times a day and face our Holy Mecca in Lenexa. Ask God to preserve our heritage.
We call upon our Revolutionary Council to adopt the recommendations listed last year as we prepared for our march on Orlando.
1. Only Nazarene materials be used in brainwashing the masses.
2. Only southern gospel/Gaither music be used in our worship services.
3. Anyone from a mainline protestant, RCL, Wesleyan, Free Methodist, or Pentecostal Church be banned from any of our services.
4. Our Sacred Book (The Manual) become the 67th book of the Bible.
5. Any captured emergent terrorists be jailed in our secret confinement facility and tortured with 24 hour per day Stan Toler sermons.
6. A total purging of our denomination be made a top priority.
7. Only male pastors who weigh at least 250 pounds be allowed to preach from any of our pulpits.
8. Prohibit Nazarene preachers from preaching on obesity and overeating. Preaching about the sin of drinking and smoking is ok.
9. The Church of the Nazarene declare itself a "Secret Society", so we can keep our denomination pure, and prevent us from being polluted by heritics.
10. Anyone caught using words such as "Eucharist", "Spiritual Formation", "Relevant", or any other emergent phrases be excommunicated.
2010 will be a year of purification for our sacred denomination. Join the insurgency. Join the cause.
Long live Nazbollah! Long live the Revolution! Long live the Nazarene Revolutionary Guard!
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