The statement of mission for the Church of the Nazarene is “to make Christ-like disciples in the nations.” Of central concern to us as Nazarenes is what does it mean to be Christ-like?

Any definition of Christ-likeness must include the compassion that characterized Jesus’ ministry. Christ’s compassion was incarnational. In his book, Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life, Henri Nouwen captures this essential element of Christ’s compassion when he declares that compassion asks us “to go where it hurts, to enter into places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.”

In this contextual understanding it is clear that compassion is more than just general kindness or tenderheartedness. The writer to the Hebrews demonstrates this element of Christlikeness: “he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15).

Christ-likeness is to have the same attitude of Christ. “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:5-7).

The solidarity expressed in compassion is not a bending down towards the underprivileged from a position of privilege, it is not reaching from lofty positions to those who are less fortunate, it is not having pity nor sympathy for those who simply couldn’t make it. Compassion is not something we do but it is a call to become. Compassion is a call to incarnational living. When we become compassionate, the natural outflow of our lives will result in acts of compassion. Scripture commands us to be compassionate as our Father in heaven is compassionate. Jesus identifies with the marginalized in Matthew 9:36, “he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” To be Christ-like is to not only embrace compassion, it is to embody compassion. We cannot make Christ-like disciples in the nations without compassion becoming essential to who we are.

The USA/Canada Mission Evangelism Committee issued the following statement :

We the UCME Committee of the General Board of the Church of the Nazarene, believing that expressing the compassion of Jesus in practical ways to the marginalized of our society is central to the Gospel and integral to the making of disciples, do hereby encourage all our people and churches in the US/ Canada Region to embark on ministries of practical compassion to the poor, widows, orphans, immigrants, addicted, imprisoned, and otherwise marginalized in their communities as God directs. We believe that taking the fragrance of Jesus through deeds of mercy to persons in need will ease their pain, deepen our discipleship, and bring glory to our Lord.

We would also encourage the Board of General Superintendents to incorporate the call to compassionate works of mercy as a vital dimension of holiness as a core value of the church.

To do anything less would serve to hinder our mission ; “to make Christ like disciples in the nations .”

by Althea Taylor
coordinator
NCM USA/Canada