Statistics are part of the Church of the Nazarene. The groups that united at Pilot Point had kept meticulous records for years. At each annual assembly, leaders carefully preserved membership data, finances, and even lay leader addresses.

The First General Assembly of the Church of the Nazarene in 1907 emphasized the vital role the Sunday School plays in the lives of people: "It is necessary that each teacher be in possession of 'perfect love' as a definite experience, that each pupil may have a living object lesson." The Sunday School has long been on a journey of communicating the doctrine of holiness.

Q: Sometimes I've heard preachers talking about God waiting for a certain amount of prayer before He'll meet a need, such as church growth or bringing a lost child to salvation. That sounds a lot like we have to do works to persuade God to act in grace. How can that be?

Andrew Twibell from Muncie, Indiana, is a senior biology/pre-med major at Olivet Nazarene University (ONU) in Bourbonnais, Illinois. He is serving his second year as the ONU student body president and has been elected as the co-chair of the Nazarene Student Leadership Association. After graduation in May, he plans to attend medical school and pursue a master's degree in religion from ONU.

Q: Name a defining spiritual moment. A:

Kitty Voges has spent 22 years as personal secretary to the Africa Regional Director, and also manages the Africa Regional Office. She is married to Peet Voges, the World Mission Communications coordinator for that region. The Voges have three grown sons.

Q. Where were you born and raised?

A. Florida, Johannesburg, where we still live.

Q. What has been the best part about raising three boys?

"Are you sure that's what you want?" The voice within my mind was firm but gentle.

"Oh yes Lord," I replied, "I want more than anything to be consumed by you, by the fire of your presence."

"You do understand fire, don't you?" the Lord replied.

"Of course I understand fire," I replied indignantly. I'm an adult. Of course I understand fire, I thought to myself.

A good friend of mine is a sailor. By sailor, I don't mean someone who pilots motor-powered boats. He is a purist who prefers the song of the winds filling the sails to the din and throb of a motor in his boat.

Once while sailing in Florida's Tampa Bay, he somehow sailed outside the currents and ran aground. He was anchored fast as the sand and mud imprisoned the keel. Nothing in his experience and skills as a sailor would free his boat from the mud's grasp. The only obvious solution was a tow off the sandbar by a wretched powerboat.

I was overcome with shock, grief, and uncertainty as I listened to our pastor of 17 years announce that he had accepted a call to another church. As I stole the occasional glance around the sanctuary, it looked as though the rest of the congregation had a similar reaction. After the service, although the tears flowed freely, nobody seemed quite sure what to do or say.

Although the district superintendent (D.S.) helped answer a few basic questions regarding Nazarene polity in the case of pastoral transitions, most people remained anxious and uncertain about the upcoming search.

Holiness and active participation in meeting the needs of others have always gone hand in hand.  In the Old Testament, God called His people to be a source of healing and light to the nations: not just in doctrinal purity, but in service to those who were in need. 

In the Levitical law, for instance, God’s people are given the following command: “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.  Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you.  I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 23:22). 

"Ships that pass in the night/ only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness," Longfellow wrote in his epic poem, Emma and Eginhard. He speaks of the minimal signals given to vessels on the ocean which pass each other in the blackness of night with "only a look and a voice/ then darkness again and a silence." The two boats going to different destinations proceed on their own singular missions, each with little regard for the well-being or final port of the other.