The Church of the Nazarene: A Church in the Wesleyan Tradition
by Wes Tracy and Stan Ingersol

This information, which was featured in the 2001 General Assembly issue of Holiness Today, provides a brief synopsis of our history, core beliefs, and missional commitments.

WHERE WE CAME FROM
The Nazarene lineage runs through the English Reformation, the international spread of Methodism, and the Wesleyan-Holiness Movement of the United States.

The Church of the Nazarene emerged as a union of various Wesleyan-Holiness denominations and by 1915 embraced seven previously separate North American and British bodies.

Phineas F. Bresee shaped the church's form of governance.

Hiriam F. Reynolds nurtured its identity as a church committed to global missions. Other early leaders included C.W. Ruth, C.B. Jernigan, William Howard Hoople, Mary Lee Cagle, George Sharpe, J.O. McClurkan, Susan Fitkin, R.T. Williams, J.B. Chapman, and H. Orton Wiley.

The church has had an international dimension from its beginning. By intention, it is today an international church comprised of more than 380 districts worldwide, three-quarters of which are outside the United States and Canada. Nazarenes number nearly 1.4 million. Over half live outside the United States and Canada.

WHAT WE BELIEVE AND TEACH
We believe that we are only one part of Christ's Universal Church and share with believers in other communions one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.

With other Protestants we affirm the priority of salvation by grace alone through faith in Christ, the priesthood of all believers, and the Bible as a final rule of Christian faith and practice.

We believe that the Old and New Testament reveal God's will for all persons concerning sin, salvation, and new life in Christ.

We affirm that Christ's death atoned for the sins of all people and that this grace is effective for the salvation of each person who accepts it.

We believe that Christians are justified and sanctified by faith alone.

We believe that the Lord’s Supper and Baptism are Sacraments, or, “means of grace.”  By participating in these practices whole heartedly, we receive divine grace from God.

We believe that Christ's sanctifying grace is received initially in the new birth (regeneration), when the Holy Spirit plants a new principle of spiritual life within, and that sanctifying grace increases as we live life through the Spirit. We affirm that entire sanctification is a gracious provision and possibility for all believers, in which the heart is cleansed of all sin and overflows with love for God and neighbor.

OUR MISSION
The Church of the Nazarene is a "Great Commission" church. Our members therefore seek to witness faithfully and attractively to all people so that the life of Christ within the believers will draw others to the love, worship, and service of God.

We are called especially to preach the gospel to the poor. The basic vehicles through which we carry out our mission are corporate worship, evangelism, compassionate ministry, Christian nurture, and education.
Because the whole people of God constitute "the Church," and because each Christian is called to ministry by virtue of his or her baptism, every believer in the Church of the Nazarene has a role in carrying out the mission to which we are called as a corporate body.