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Divine-Human Synergism in Ministry
Dennis Bratcher
A paper presented to the Breckenridge Conference on Clergy Preparation I. Introduction II. Synergism: A Biblical and Theological Base III. The Church's Mission and Ministry: A Recovery of Balance IV. Divine-Human Synergism in Ministry Footnotes Bibliography
I. Introduction
The Issue In Context
The Church
In this series of conferences begun last year, we are in process of reflecting on the direction and focus of the ministry and ministerial training in the Church of the Nazarene as our community of faith moves into the twenty-first century. We have attempted to approach our task from two complimentary perspectives, caricatured last year as the "field" of hands-on work and the "realm" of reflective inquiry (although I think there are serious problems inherent in such an artificial dichotomy of responsibilities). -1- From our initial attempts, it has become obvious that we face a multiplicity of issues in such an endeavor. The range and diversity of these issues arise partly from the variety of theological, historical, and practical concerns operating with each of us as individuals and partly from the assumptions and perspectives imported from particular arenas of ministry.
One common element that keeps reappearing in various forms is the issue of the nature and mission of the Church. This issue is not unique to our enterprise in these conferences, as the new eleventh Article of Faith on "The Church" adopted by the 1989 General Assembly demonstrates. Since the Church will be focus of one of our sessions in this conference, we have already realized that this issue is a crucial one if we are to understand what we should be about in ministry.
The topic for this morning's discussion is "Divine-Human Synergism in the Ministry." The topic could be taken in several directions. I have

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