Recently, Holiness Today (HT) sat down with David Wilson (DW), General Secretary for the Church of the Nazarene. Wilson served as both a district superintendent and a pastor before coming into his current role of General Secretary, and he is now in his twelfth year at this position. He will retire from this role on March 1, 2019.

HT: What is the role of the General Secretary’s office in the Church of the Nazarene?

In Matthew 16:16-18, Peter declared a truth received through revelation. Jesus told him that the Church was going to be built in this fashion of declaring revelation. The word Jesus used for Church is ecclesia. This term was not a word Jesus mysteriously pulled down from heaven - it was a common Greek word in that culture. It refers to a group of people who were citizens of a government, called together or out, with authority to make decisions to advance their kingdom. Being a Church is more than people assembling together; we are also given the authority to go out.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”—John 15:5

In this passage in John, Jesus calls His disciples to commit to an ongoing relationship. Christ’s message is extremely clear that within this dependent relationship the disciples will bear fruit. Without this relationship, the disciples will accomplish nothing.

Listed below are some ways to plant the seed of God’s Word in children’s hearts, so they might find their hearts saturated with Scripture and enfolded in Christian fellowship.

Biblical literacy is crucial for teens. Being biblically literate is of vital importance for Christ followers of every age and shapes the faith of young believers in a way that nothing else can or will. However, many teens are swamped with responsibilities, pressures, and expectations that make adequate time for biblical study challenging. As teenagers learn to navigate the waters of adulthood, it is vital that youth leaders and mentors teach the Bible clearly in order to shape their emerging characters without making Bible study seem like just another crushing demand upon their time.

I first fell in love with the Story in a Sunday school class when I was young. I listened with wonder as my teacher told stories of faraway places like Egypt, where a princess could call someone else’s mother to feed her adopted baby that she pulled from the river, and amazing people like the Queen of Sheba, who traveled far to hear the wise King Solomon. I was captivated by the events that forced an expecting young woman and her fiancé to journey to his hometown of Bethlehem during her final stages of pregnancy for a census.

Abstract ideas and experiences can be difficult to relate to or to fully understand until adequate symbols or metaphors are established to bring them into focus. As Christians, we have a distinct message to share. What if the world isn’t hearing that captivating message, not because we aren’t trying, but because our metaphors are inadequate? What if people simply can’t relate?

The term “Gospel” (euangelion in Greek) means “good news,” and the Gospels tell the story of the good news of Jesus’ life. In the church, we speak quite rightly about Jesus’ life as a unified narrative. In the Advent and Christmas seasons, preaching interweaves stories about Jesus’ birth as recorded in the early chapters of Matthew’s Gospel and Luke’s Gospel. Our manger scenes include both shepherds (from Luke 2:8-20) and wise men (from Matthew 2:1-12) even though no Gospel coordinates the visits of both groups of unlikely worshippers.