Before I Go, Let Me Say
By William M. Greathouse
Note: This article ran in the July 1989 issue of the Herald of Holiness, the predecessor of Holiness Today. The message is timely, and captures WMG's heart for the Church of the Nazarene.

Editor Wesley Tracy has invited me to write "a sort of general superintendent's valedictory" for this first monthly issue of the Herald of Holiness. Several deep convictions have indeed crystallized in my mind and heart over the course of the years, and I will share some of these. But, first, I want to say thank you to the church.

I owe to the church my greatest debt for introducing me to Christ. With St. Augustine, I confess, "I had not known Christ, except the Church had taught me." Gratefully acknowledging the nurturing influence of that branch of Christ's church into which I was born and baptized, I thank God for the Church of the Nazarene, which introduced me as a teenager to Christ the Liberator. Brought up to believe that every Christian must continue in sin "in thought, word, and deed" until death, I found at a Nazarene home mission altar the truth of Jesus' promise, "If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36, NASB).

The next evening after my conversion, I testified that Christ had "sanctified" me. And He had-initially and outwardly. For, in that saving encounter with Christ, I found: "He breaks the power of canceled sin/He sets the prisoner free" (Charles Wesley). Later, I was to learn that, glorious as is the new birth, it is but the gateway to entire sanctification-the "through and through" hallowing promised in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24.

After hearing General Superintendent J. G. Morrison urge the importance of being a Sermon-on-the-Mount Christian, I began an earnest search for true inward sanctification. After a rather lengthy period of struggle, I found "the rest that remains to the people of God"-the rest of faith, which brought the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

Furthermore, I owe to the church an infinite debt for being an ark of salvation for my family. In the Church of the Nazarene, I found Ruth, the wife of my youth, who for 50 years has followed Christ with me and been my partner in ministry. The church has nurtured and educated my three children-Rebecca, Mark, and Beth-who, with their families, share with me devotion to Christ and the faith of the church. I am a wealthy man!

Finally, I must say thanks to the church for ordaining me and entrusting me with the gospel. Last December, I celebrated 50 years of ministry. The confidence the church has placed in me as a preacher and teacher of the gospel continues to amaze me. Abraham Lincoln once said, "All that I am or ever hope to be I owe to my darling mother." To paraphrase, I owe everything of significance in my life to the church that has taught me of Christ. If God is my Father, the church is my mother!

The message of holiness I received through the Church of the Nazarene remains, for me, the essence of the gospel-God's pure love reigning in the heart and excluding sin. This experience is both the command of the law and the promise of the gospel. To the proclamation and exposition of this message, I have dedicated my life.

MY GREATEST CONCERN
My greatest fear is that his glorious truth that brought our church into existence may become only a shibboleth, a hollow profession without the integrity of perfect love. Four years before his death, John Wesley wrote in The Arminian Magazine: "I am not afraid that the people called Methodists shall ever cease to exist either in England or America. But, I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having a form of religion without the power. And this, undoubtedly, will be the case, unless they hold fast the doctrine, the spirit, and the discipline with which they first set out.

"Preach the doctrine, inculcate experience, urge practice, enforce discipline," Wesley further pleaded. "If you preach doctrine only, the people will be antinomians; if you preach experience only, they will be enthusiasts [fanatics]; if you preach practice only, they will become Pharisees; and if you preach all these and do not enforce discipline, Methodism will be like a highly cultivated garden without a fence, exposed to the ravages of the wild boar of the forest."

These should be solemn warnings for us Nazarenes. To preserve our God-given heritage, we must continue to preach and teach Christian perfection as (1) a doctrine to be believed, (2) an experience to be received, (3) a life to be lived, and (4) a discipline to be enforced.

"The only lesson we learn from history," a cynic has said, "is that we learn nothing from history." In the General Conference of 1828 the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in commenting on the phenomenal growth of Methodism in America, warned that their success would prove their undoing unless they continued to preach their message of entire sanctification.

Fifty thousand or more new Nazarenes join our ranks every year. Our very success in evangelizing the lost will be our undoing-unless we keep the truth of perfect love vital and alive in our churches. I am not afraid that the people called Nazarenes shall cease to exist, either in America or to the ends of the earth. But I am afraid lest they should exist only as a dead sect, having a form of religion without the power. And this, undoubtedly, will be the case, unless they hold fast the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out!

ANOTHER CONCERN
A second and closely related fear is that the Church of the Nazarene may succumb to institutionalism. In the November 2, 1988, issue of The Christian Century, Dr. Leonard I. Sweet wrote:

     There have been many moments in the history of my denomination-United Methodist-when its members
     could have responded to questions about church affiliation with "I don't belong to a denomination, I
     belong to a movement." No more. Just as a college, founded by a denomination, reaches for
     respectability, severs its church ties and becomes a secular university, and just as a colony, settled by
     citizens of a motherland, rebels and becomes a nation, so a dynamic spiritual movement tends to become
     one more institution, one more system, one more bureaucracy. Methodism arose first in England to renew
     the Anglican establishment, which had become an end in itself rather than a means of drawing people into
     the worship and adoration of God. It then was transplanted to America . . . "to reform the continent and
     spread scriptural holiness throughout the land." But now it has itself become another establishment, or
     what the Bible calls "temple religion."*

Although the officially recognized date of the founding of the Church of the Nazarene is October 13, 1908, as a movement, we have already reached the century mark in New England and are rapidly approaching the centennial elsewhere. In many parts of the world, the winds of the Spirit are blowing vigorously and holiness is thriving; in other parts we are rapidly maturing and, in a few, showing signs of advancing age and creeping institutionalism. We are not yet an "old-line denomination," but we are becoming a recognized Protestant denomination around the world. Our grave danger is that we shall lose our sense of mission and cease to be a movement of the Spirit!

     Dr. Sweet warns,
     Once a movement becomes an establishment institution, it is problematic whether it can ever be
     transformed into a movement again. Sociologists insist that once a denomination, always a denomination.
     Maybe; maybe not . . . An establishment strives toward goals and targets; a movement inhabits a vision
     . . . An establishment talks more about our Christ, and less about our church.

Let us wait before the Lord for a fresh outpouring of the Spirit upon our church around the world. While powerful historical forces are unquestionably at work that would mold us into one more religious establishment, the living God who called us into being is more powerful than the determining influences of history. And, if we are willing to pay the price, whatever that may be, the Church of the Nazarene can continue to be a movement of the Spirit and fulfill, in a degree beyond our highest imagination, our destiny to be God's people in these latter days. "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9, NASB).

Breathe on us, breath of God! "Revive thy work in the midst of the years."

*Used by permission of the author.

Herald of Holiness, July 1989
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