Nazarene Education from an African Perspective,” in TELOS: The Destination for Nazarene Higher Education,

Abstract

Foreword by Gregg A. Chenoweth Pull up to the kitchen table. Let me introduce you. You don’t know each other, but should. It’s not because those across this table are famous. They have no posse, no brand. You won’t see them on an infomercial. But you still ought to know them for an important reason: They are your family. Reader, meet writer. Writer, meet reader. The church kin may be spread across generations, cultures, and nations, but they are grafted onto the same vine, sharing the same work, representing the tribe—your tribe—in places beyond. This family is not new or small. The Church of the Nazarene is now a century old with 1.7 million members in 160 nations, a denominational diaspora. The family keeps learning. Since its birth, the denomination established schools everywhere, more than ten in the first decade. The man who titled the denomination “Nazarene” was a dean at the University of Southern California, and a Harvard University panel concluded that the denomination’s churches are “inconceivable” apart from its schools.1 Today, more than 50 educational institutions dot the globe, serving more than 30,000 students. A little heads-up here: families worry about each other. In the beginning, we were small, strong on mission, but weak on credentials. By age 100, one wonders if we have so credentialed ourselves we’ve lost the founders’ passion. Other denominational schools have gone that way before us. It’s legendary. People sometimes lose their faith but keep their jobs. Concerns abound these days. Consumerism in higher education chips away at our liberal arts’ ideals. Theological fundamentalism and theological liberalism encroach on some academic areas. The andragogy demanded for adult student programs rubs against a historic practice with traditionallyaged, residential students. Costs are putting a Nazarene higher education out of reach for too many.