 Bresee’s Legacy
"Are we hiding behind our walls . . .
behind our "forts and barricades?"
Phineas Bresee took the “Go!” in the great commission literally. He rushed into village centers with a passion for the freedom-giving gospel of Jesus flaming in his soul. And while our barns (as his building was called) tend to lure us back into seclusion, Bresee sternly warned against what he called “forts and barricades.” Listen to him: “we need a marching, conquering army, who sleeps on their arms and in the morning presses the battle, filling the world with the redeemed...”1
This passion infused the early Nazarene mission with the grit of the “Go!” and it must be rekindled and reclaimed for this Century. The Kingdom of Heaven is alive! able to grow anywhere;2 it must not be contained by artificial parameters. Bresee saw the entire church as organic,3 and its people an army4 commissioned to “Love God; Love a neighbor.”5
In LA, we serve a multi-cultural, multi-language population. Our villages are ubiquitous and, like Bresee’s, are filled with lost people. Many have never heard the good news! When we plant and water, God gives the growth.6 It’s always been this way. So we’re convinced harvests don’t begin in barns, but in the fields.7 And God will meet us in the fields!
We must, “Go!” When LA’s population was 102,479 in 1900, LA’s Nazarenes numbered 1,000. Now in 2009, it’s 4 million to just over 2,000. Between the years when Bresee organized LA First8 and LA Westchester,9 there weren’t many clues hinting toward an urban sprawl which would eventually encompass 469 sq miles! Our voice is regressively lost in silence behind walls. Will we take the gospel to villagers who do not enter our buildings (barns)? They work in offices and restaurants (village centers), wait at bus stops (muddy buggy paths), and hang at Starbucks (today’s saloon). They fill our schools and our streets. They need Jesus.
1. Bresee yearned for invasive voices – on mud-packed buggy paths and at the entrance to every local saloon. He continued, "There is far too much building fortifications for little bands to fortify themselves in the enemy's country." July 3, 1899.
2. “It seems now a foregone conclusion that the holiness forces of this country will be very soon largely united in one organic body.” October 2, 1908.
3. Mark 4:3, 11, 14.
4. Luke 7:11.
5. Bresee’s unofficial mission statement.
6. 1 Corinthians 3:6.
7. Proverbs 24:27
8. 1895, Century one.
9. 1905, Century two
10. 2009, Century three.
*Published in part in The Communicator, 2009 June/July, Nazarene Publishing House.
© 2009. By Paul Huddle and John Huddle.
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