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Proclaiming Christ

We Stand Amazed

As a seminary student, I sometimes attended Berkeley, CA Church of the Nazarene, founded by Phineas F. Bresee. On this particular occasion a fellow seminarian attended service with me. After we sang “I Stand Amazed in the Presence of Jesus the Nazarene,” this non-Nazarene friend of mine joked that this hymn had an “unfair advantage” through its seeming linkage of Jesus Christ the Lord with a particular denomination: “Jesus the Nazarene.” Maybe the rhyme scheme of “Jesus the Presbyterian” or “Jesus the Methodist” or “Jesus the Baptist” would be trickier to negotiate?   

In eight years as adjunct instructing dozens of Nazarene Bible College students, I have often felt “Amazed” by the faithfulness, the sacrifice, the tenacity of the students entrusted to my care. I am much the better person, and I hope the better instructor, for the experience. I have never met one in person, so, now, I “see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.”   

What do graduates of Nazarene Bible College have to look forward to? “Not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth” as Paul analyzed those Corinthians. However, graduates go forward to the waiting world, to “proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”

In the 15-20 classes I have thus far instructed with Nazarene Bible College, these students have been among the most efficacious Christian witnesses vouchsafed. As with John the Baptist in Grunewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece, NBC students have consistently pointed to the Crucified Christ.

Dr. Roderick T. Leupp, has been an NBC Adjunct Professor since 2013 in Christian Theology