Digital Nazarene

A Nazarene Wrestling with Digitally Expressing the Great Commission

Tag: connection

  • Mystery Lost

    Mystery Lost

    We are not stewards of certainty. We are pilgrims of mystery.

    Preston Ulmer

    Being within the “evangelical” realm of Christianity, I have long been in a church culture that promulgates certainty. It would be nice if that certainty was just about Jesus.

    It also amazes me that much of “evangelical” culture rails against the Enlightenment, but uses Enlightenment practices and thought processes to prove itself and the faith.

    Over time (and not much of it, either), other things were introduced into the “evangelical pantheon”. Sex, evolution, science (in general), and politics. Certain practices within the wider tradition of Christianity were considered questionable, dangerous, or heretical. This despite many of the reformers who themselves had practices that now are under fire by those who claim to step in their chosen reformer’s footsteps..

    Certainty Kills

    I was reading Friendship Beyond Belief: How I Learned to Love and Listen to Doubters by Preston Ulmer in the January/February 2026 issue (it’s Loving and Listening to Doubters online), and he caught my attention with…

    …most of us have not been prepared to embrace a faith that stays committed in the face of uncertainty. Instead, we’ve been told that the stronger our certainty, the stronger our faith. Ironically, that kind of faith can become ossified and brittle and often looks to the rest of the world like close-mindedness or stubbornness.

    Preston Ulmer

    This put something I’ve been wrestling with as a pastor, particularly in my current calling. Certainty eliminates mystery. Certainty kills mystery. What’s wrong with a bit of mystery?

    Mysterious Call

    I have long had a sympathy for the mysterious aspect of Christianity. I find comfort in the truth that I do not know it all. I hold many things with firmly, and yet hold them flexibly.

    In the Church of the Nazarene, the Eucharist (e.g., Communion, Holy Supper, etc.) is only done once per month. Even as I say that, some churches do it more often, some hold to the Manual minimum of once a quarter.

    My early church experience was Anglican then Lutheran, and I still struggle with once per month, and I’ve been part of the Church of the Nazarene longer than either of the other two traditions (or both put together). John Wesley’s calling the Eucharist a “means of grace” struck me as affirming that the Eucharist is a mystery.

    Discussions within the denomination include too often weakens the power (and I think aligns with a memorialist perspective). Then there are those of us who are on the more spiritual (real) presence or further still to consubstantiation.

    It gets particularly interesting as the denomination, as a whole, is reaching back in to is Wesleyan identity. With the Wesleys (John and Charles) being Anglican (Church of England) clergy, the symbolic is losing sway, and the mystery is regaining ground.

    Mystery As Welcoming

    There are three strands of Christianity that are growing in the West: Assemblies of God (Charismatics), Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox. All 3 have participative experience as part of their worship expressions. Yes, Charismatic is distinctly different from Roman Catholic and Easter Orthodox. And I am basing this on anecdotal evidence rather than statistics.

    All 3 also have a high mystery content. Yes, again, the charismatics are different than the other two.

    I think that the mystery is attractive to many younger people (not just me), because in the era of science and computers we seek something that transcends data points. Some people find that in nature (with or without God). Some people find that in music (again, with or without God).

    I am not certain of a lot of things. I don’t know if this makes me a bad pastor. I’m sure for some it does. I don’t know if this makes me an even worse Christian. I’m sure it does for some.

    I find the mysterious helpful. In a book from my childhood

    At last she stood up, gazing across the lake; she could not see its farther shore. “It is so large,” she said.
    Luthe rose to stand beside her. “No, not so large,” he said, “but it is a private sort of lake, and hard to see. Even for me.” He was quiet a moment, looking across the water. “I think perhaps the reason I stay in this particular uninhabited valley of all the uninhabited valleys in the Hills is that it comforts me by reminding me of things I cannot do. I cannot see the farther shore of the Lake of Dreams.”

    Robin McKinley, The Blue Sword

    I think I’d be okay, like Luthe, in a place like that. In some ways I am. Other areas, I grant, I’m no different than anyone else.

    Americans (the US ones) want their surety. And, yet, in their desire for surety, they still desire the unknowable.

    Perhaps…just perhaps…we might be willing to once again live in the mystery that is walking with God.

  • New Nomads: Digital, Physical, and Both.

    New Nomads: Digital, Physical, and Both.

    It wasn’t that long ago that nomads were viewed as unstable and untrustworthy. Stability of address was part of an identity, and thus provided more assurance to ones worthiness and trustworthiness.

    However, recently that has somewhat changed. A person, for example, who remains at the same job/company for years is not the person many companies are looking for. The companies are looking for the hungry (and sometimes the desparate) to bolster the organization.

    The other reinforcement of the nomad is the freedom provided by digital. At 61, Nicky Maidment became a digital nomad. There is Katie Macleoud, who has “worked from home” in 78 countries as of 2022.

    Both Nicky and Katie are blessed with digital jobs that are easily convertible to the nomad lifestyle.

    I have an acquaintance that is travelling the world doing her job remotely. In the short time I’ve known her, she has already moved 3 times.

    Building Albatrosses1

    When we build churches and church communities, we generally build around physical locales. We don’t really trust the nomads.

    The gatherings should be, in many respects, a safe place for people, and strangers are disruptive.

    On the other hand, we are called to love the stranger. We are also called to love the nomad.

    I remember a conversation years ago in regard to college ministry. I was told we were wasting church resources on people who were just going to move away. This conversation (and the church) were in a college town.

    I wonder, how (not if) the church building, and our concept of church community, has become an albatross. Are we weighed down? Are we unable to move, adjust, go, because we are weighed down?

    Places is Good

    I don’t seek to diminish the local church. I’m a “local” church pastor. However, this seeming blindness to the world moving around us may not be good for the kingdom.

    I don’t argue (too much) that physical is better. In most cases, I do think it is ideal. I’m not, however, going to hold onto that too hard.

    Digital has places, too. Facebook, Twitter, X (the transition from Twitter to X is causing me to think of them differently, now), Mastodon, Bluesky, Instagram, YouTube are all different places. I’m not comfortable in all of them.

    Serving Nomads

    What is interesting, perhaps telling, is that my denomination, The Church of the Nazarene, has a strong missional drive. It’s not that we don’t seek out nomads.

    One of my favorite stories is Church on Camelback. To reach nomads, the Church of the Nazarene put the “church on a camel.”

    Yet, we struggle with the digital nomads. In reality, as digital networks change, the people move. It used to be Facebook. Then it was Instagram. Currently, it’s TikTok. If things continue as expected, TikTok will be banned from the US, and the people will go…where?

    Church on Camelback showed that the church is capable and even willing to go to the people. It’s only, however, with a certain framework.

    Return to Office

    I have to admit that when the big companies began to insist that their employees come back to the office now that the COVID era is mostly over, I suspected that many in the church said, “yes!”

    Things need to go back. Except, that we have yet to see what happens when the workers do return to the office. Some will go back grudgingly. Some will go back mostly willingly. What will they do?

    Some believe that those big companies are doing this on purpose to get rid of their higher paid people to bring in foreign workers. Some believe that this will ultimately reduce overhead. I believe that they will lose a lot of their institutional knowledge, and hire people back as contractors (for more money).

    These contractors? They’ll be nomads.

    Nomadic Church

    The church can’t presume buildings. Maybe, someday, we can get back to them, but it might be a very long while.

    These nomads deserve spiritual homes in their travels. Are we bowing to their selfishness? No. We’re honoring their nature.

    There’s nothing wrong with that. So, why is digital so different?

    1If you are unfamiliar with the albatross concept, it comes from the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The general concept, in usage, symbolizes a psychological burden. Often it’s supposed to be a curse or guilt or shame.