“The years teach much which the days did not know” (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Experience).

Bertha Munro’s autobiography was published in 1970 by Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, a former publishing trademark of Nazarene Publishing House (now The Foundry Publishing). She titled it The Years Teach:

"The Will of God." The phrase has a rather solemn ring to it, don't you think? Maybe it's because most disciples of Jesus Christ I know are striving to understand and earnestly seek the will of God. Authentic disciples are serious about finding it, surrendering to it, praying according to it, obeying it, and living in the center of it.

"I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it" (1 Corinthians 11:18). Paul's first letter to the Corinthians gives the distinct impression that leaders and laity in the church of Corinth didn't like each other. You almost get the sense that Paul's not sure he likes them either.

What is the secret to unleashing the full potential of the church? How do we call forth a congregation's full measure of creativity and love so we can fulfill the Great Commission in our communities? The answer begins with the leadership team. Today's most effective churches are those developing team-based leadership. Leadership is a function, not a position. That function is much larger than any single person.

Through most of his life, Samuel Carl Winston Vassel knew little of the cityscapes of New York. Born and raised in Jamaica, Vassel is the son of Christian ministers. Both his father and mother were clergy in the Caribbean holiness movement, pastoring congregations in Jamaica. Vassal followed in his parents' footsteps.

Nothing detracts more from the radiance of true Christian holiness than the judgmental spirit of legalism. Legality, the condition of conforming to law, is desirable. "Legalism," however, is a dependence on keeping law as the means of salvation. It is an excessive bondage to the letter of the law, which overlooks the law's purpose and fails to be motivated by love.

This is a poor substitute for genuine Christian faith.

Nina Gunter, general director of Nazarene Missions International (NMI) shares with Holiness Today readers about her passion for missions and how the church around the world can work together for the cause of global evangelization.

Q. We are looking towards the Thanksgiving Offering for the World Evangelism Fund (WEF). Why is this important to the life of the church?

Roberta Bustin can't remember exactly when the ecology laboratory became part of the building that's now home to the Nazarene ministry in Tigmandru, Romania. It occurred some time after space was designated for a doctor's office and before the upstairs classroom became a sewing workshop. The church ministries have developed in response to specific needs in the 1,500-person village, so besides space for traditional church ministries, the building needed room for science, health, and employment training.

Within the holiness tradition, we confess the transforming work of God that we call entire sanctification. What does this confession mean for our own lives?

This concept can mean different things to different people. So is everyone right in his or her own interpretation, or does this concept have a specific meaning? 

Everything I know about humor, I learned as a child growing up in a small parsonage with seven siblings. Life wasn't easy, but it was usually fun, probably because both of our parents had delightful senses of humor. Their use of humor often diffused anger and eased tensions, whether caused by interaction with my brothers and sisters, or perhaps when I was on the receiving end of some form of discipline.