Singing, “We will climb mountains in your name and the enemy is defeated in front of us,” several dozen attendees of the Eastern Mediterranean Field Conference gathered for worship and vision-casting meetings, deeply conscious of the conference’s theme, “For such a time as this.” 

With the Middle East in a state of upheaval and the relatively few Nazarene churches trying to help thousands of the region’s million refugees from war-torn areas, the pastors and lay leaders who gathered March 18 to 21 were aware of their need for unity, shared goals, and working together as they never have been before.

“Teamwork is important, and I need to establish a team from this group, from different churches, countries and backgrounds, but we need to hold the same vision,” said Khalil Halaseh, a longtime pastor in Jordan and new strategy coordinator for the field, which also includes the Holy Land, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus, and two secure access countries.

Halaseh called the conference so he could put into motion his four-part plan for the field, starting with developing leaders, who will go on to the second point of making disciples; the disciples move the plan to the third point of starting cell groups, which eventually will mature into the final part of the plan to plant new churches.

The conference of Nazarene leaders was blended into a John Maxwell EQUIP leadership training event that attracted more than 100 leaders from various denominations in Jordan. Halaseh has been an EQUIP trainer and organizer in Jordan for several years; he is stepping down from this responsibility as he takes up the field’s leadership role, replacing the retiring Lindell Browning, who has led the field for more than 30 years.

During several conference sessions, the Nazarene leaders and pastors were invited to stand and share their thoughts or challenges in their ministry. One man said, “God is shaking the field because he wants to awaken the church.”

Another man said that half of his congregation had immigrated because of violence and threats to them as Christians, and he wondered if they should close the church or if he should immigrate, too.

Halaseh cited the historical situation of Israel in the Old Testament biblical book of Nehemiah, when Jerusalem lay in ruins because it had been invaded and sacked by the Babylonians and the Hebrew people had been forcibly removed to Babylon for a generation. Nehemiah, the cup-bearer to the new king of the Persians, had it in his heart to return to Jerusalem with the captives and rebuild the city and its gates. Halaseh compared the story to the situation today in the Middle East.

“The field is broken down and the gates are burned,” he told the group. “What is happening in the field is not because of politics. The Lord wants the field to be one in unity. It is time for us to put weaknesses and broken relationships of the past behind.”

Lo’ay Jawabreh, a pastor at the Jabal Amman Church, said he was struck by the fact that Halaseh focused on Nehemiah. 

“January through March this year, the focus [in our church] was on Nehemiah. This is encouraging for me.”

Jawabreh said that he was glad the conference made space for thinking together about the field’s goals and next steps.

Samir Nazha, a volunteer chairman on the board of the Nazarene schools in Jordan, said it was a pleasure to be part of the conference, “because I can know all the people from the Middle East, so we can know what they are doing and sometimes we learn from them and maybe they learn from us.”

Pastor Andrew Salameh, the district superintendent for Lebanon, said, “I think this is very important, this is our first meeting with Khalil. It was good to hear from him his vision and passion and heart. I felt from his first introduction that he’s looking forward to our working together, and we can be more united and plant more churches and not be distracted. Although the Middle East is not stable, we believe God has called us for such a time like this, to make a difference.”

Maryam, a pastor’s wife in Egypt, said that for the past five years she and her husband have been praying for unity with the other Nazarenes on the field, because they have felt alone in their ministry.

Another pastor, echoing the conference’s theme that they were put in the field by God for this time in history, said, “It is now an open door. We don’t need to have a worship service and then go home. We need to go out to the community.”

--Church of the Nazarene Eurasia Region