As a result we believe that human sexuality is meant to include more than the sensual experience, and is a gift of God designed to reflect the whole of our physical and relational createdness.
As a holiness people, the Church of the Nazarene affirms that the human body matters to God. Christians are both called and enabled by the transforming and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit to glorify God in and with our bodies.
Our senses, our sexual appetites, our ability to experience pleasure, and our desire for connection to another are shaped out of the very character of God. Our bodies are good, very good.
We affirm belief in a God whose creation is an act of love. Having experienced God as holy love, we understand the Trinity to be a unity of love among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Therefore, we are made with a yearning for connection with others at the core of our being. Our creation as social beings is both good and beautiful. We reflect the image of God in our capacity to relate and our desire to do so.
The people of God are formed as one in Christ , a rich community of love and grace. Within this community, believers are called to live as faithful members of the body of Christ. Singleness among the people of God is to be valued and sustained by the rich fellowship of the church and the communion of the saints.
To live as a single person is to engage, as Jesus did, in the intimacy of community, surrounded by friends, welcoming and being welcomed to tables, and expressing faithful witness. Their beautifully worded statement resonates with The Wesleyan Church views that have been clarified through the years in our Discipline and in other position statements. I commend the Church of the Nazarene, its leaders, and its scholars on thinking well theologically and living well on mission in this area.
They match their words and deeds in a way I admire. No one person speaks for our entire denomination. I want us to value a variety of voices speaking with nuance and different perspectives.
However, as the General Superintendent, it is my role to bring clarity and ensure we are not doctrinally or missionally out of sync. Our variety of perspectives lie within the parameters of our doctrine. They should also be communicated within the parameters of civility and the fruit of the Spirit. Donate Today. Wear your pride this year. Shop Now. You are leaving HRC. We further wish to reemphasize our call to Nazarenes around the globe to recommit themselves to a life of holiness, characterized by holy love and expressed through the most rigorous and consistent lifestyle of sexual purity.
We stand firmly on the belief that the biblical concept of marriage, always between one man and one woman in a committed, lifelong relationship, is the only relationship within which the gift of sexual intimacy is properly expressed. While this question is enormously complicated, there seems to be a consensus that emerges from our passionate pursuit of Christlikeness that can guide us in these kinds of situations.
To quote: "The Church of the Nazarene believes that every man or woman should be treated with dignity, grace, and holy love, whatever their sexual orientation. Having said all of this, I would not attend the event. However, the answer to your question requires prayerful consideration as well as the Lord's wisdom.
The Holy Spirit was given to us so that we might receive his counsel, guidance, and remembrance of all that Jesus taught. Without belaboring the point, we can responsibly infer that Jesus understood marriage as a divine institution between a man and a woman. To acknowledge marriage as any other arrangement seems contradictory to the Scriptures and to the witness of our Lord.
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