The Church of the Nazarene

and Its Mission

The Church of the Nazarene is the largest denomination in the classical Wesleyan-Holiness tradition. The doctrine that distinguishes the Church of the Nazarene and other Wesleyan denominations from most other Christian denominations is that of entire sanctification. Nazarenes believe that God calls Christians to a life of holy living that is marked by an act of God, cleansing the heart from original sin and filling the individual with love for God and humankind.


We are a Great Commission church. As a global community of faith,

WE ARE COMMISSIONED TO TAKE THE GOOD NEWS OF LIFE IN JESUS CHRIST TO PEOPLE EVERYWHERE and to spread the message of scriptural holiness across the lands. 


THE CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE BONDS TOGETHER INDIVIDUALS who have made Jesus Christ Lord of their lives, sharing in Christian fellowship, and seeking to strengthen each other in faith development through worship, preaching, training, and service to others. 


We strive to express the compassion of Jesus Christ to all persons along with our personal commitment to Christlike living. While the primary motive of the church is to glorify God,  WE ALSO ARE CALLED TO ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE IN HIS MISSION – RECONCILING THE WORLD TO HIMSELF. 


The statement of mission contains historical essentials of our mission: EVANGELISM, SANCTIFICATION, DISCIPLESHIP, COMPASSION. The essence of holiness is Christlikeness. Nazarenes are becoming a sent people-into homes, work places, communities, and villages as well as other cities and countries. Missionaries are now sent from all regions of the world. GOD CONTINUES CALLING ORDINARY PEOPLE TO DO EXTRAORDINARY THINGS made possible by the person of the Holy Spirit. 

The Founding of the Church of the Nazarene

The Church of the Nazarene traces its anniversary date to 1908. Its organization was a marriage that, like every marriage, linked existing families and created a new one. As an expression of the holiness movement and its emphasis on the sanctified life, our founders came together to form one people. Utilizing evangelism, compassionate ministries, and education, their church went forth to become a people of many cultures and tongues.


https://nazarene.org/founding

Core Values

A Christian People

As members of the Church Universal, we join with all true believers in proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ and in affirming the historic Trinitarian creeds and beliefs of the Christian faith. We value our Wesleyan-Holiness heritage and believe it to be a way of understanding the faith that is true to Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience.

We are united with all believers in proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We believe that in divine love God offers to all people forgiveness of sins and restored relationship. In being reconciled to God, we believe that we are also to be reconciled to one another, loving each other as we have been loved by God and forgiving each other as we have been forgiven by God. We believe that our life together is to exemplify the character of Christ. We look to Scripture as the primary source of spiritual truth confirmed by reason, tradition, and experience.

Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Church, which, as the Nicene Creed tells us, is one, holy, universal, and apostolic. In Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit, God the Father offers forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to all the world. Those who respond to God’s offer in faith become the people of God. Having been forgiven and reconciled in Christ, we forgive and are reconciled to one another. In this way, we are Christ’s Church and Body and reveal the unity of that Body. As the one Body of Christ, we have “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” We affirm the unity of Christ’s Church and strive in all things to preserve it.
(Ephesians 4:5, 3).

A Holiness People

God, who is holy, calls us to a life of holiness. We believe that the Holy Spirit seeks to do in us a second work of grace, called by various terms including "entire sanctification" and "baptism with the Holy Spirit"-cleansing us from all sin, renewing us in the image of God, empowering us to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves, and producing in us the character of Christ. Holiness in the life of believers is most clearly understood as Christlikeness.

Because we are called by Scripture and drawn by grace to worship God and to love Him with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves, we commit ourselves fully and completely to God, believing that we can be "sanctified wholly," as a second crisis experience. We believe that the Holy Spirit convicts, cleanses, fills, and empowers us as the grace of God transforms us day by day into a people of love, spiritual discipline, ethical and moral purity, compassion, and justice. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that restores us in the image of God and produces in us the character of Christ.

We believe in God the Father, the Creator, who calls into being what does not exist. We once were not, but God called us into being, made us for himself, and fashioned us in His own image. We have been commissioned to bear the image of God: "I am the LORD . . . your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy" (Leviticus 11:44).

A Missional People

We are a sent people, responding to the call of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit to go into all the world, witnessing to the Lordship of Christ and participating with God in the building of the Church and the extension of His kingdom (Matthew 28:19-20; 2 Corinthians 6:1).

Our mission begins in worship, ministers to the world in evangelism and compassion, encourages believers toward Christian maturity through discipleship, and prepares women and men for Christian service through Christian higher education.

Agreed Statement of Belief

WE BELIEVE in one God—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.


WE BELIEVE that human beings are born with a fallen nature, and are, therefore, inclined to evil, and that continually.


WE BELIEVE that the atonement through Jesus Christ is for the whole human race; and that whosoever repents and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is justified and regenerated and saved from the dominion of sin.


WE BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit bears witness to the new birth, and also to the entire sanctification of believers.


WE BELIEVE that the Old and New Testament Scriptures, given by plenary inspiration, contain all truth necessary to faith and Christian living


WE BELIEVE that the finally impenitent are hopelessly and eternally lost.


WE BELIEVE that believers are to be sanctified wholly, subsequent to regeneration, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.


WE BELIEVE that our Lord will return, the dead will be raised, and the final judgment will take place.


The Articles of Faith of the Church of the Nazarene: https://nazarene.org/who-we-are/articles-faith