We Are a Christian People
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, forgiving each other as we have been
foigiven by God. We believe that our life together is to exemplify the
character of Christ. We stand with Christians everywhere in affirming the
historic Trinitarian creeds and beliefs of the Christian faith and deeply
value our heritage in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition. We look to
Scripture as the primary source of spiritual truth confirmed by reason,
tradition, and experience.
With all the people of God we confess and praise Jesus Christ the Lord.
Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Church, which, as the Apostles' 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).
Jesus Christ is the holy Lord. For this reason, Christ's Church is not
only one but also holy. It is to be holy in its parts and in its totality
holy in its members as it is in its Head. The Church is both holy and
called to be holy. It is holy because it is the Body of Christ, who has
become for us righteousness and holiness. It is called to become holy by
God, who chose us before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and blameless. As Christ's one Body, our life together as a church
should embody the holy character of Christ, who emptied himself and took
on the form of a slave. We affirm the holiness of Christ's Church, both as
a gift and as a calling.
Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Church. For this reason, the Church is not
only one and holy but also universal, including all who affirm the
essential beliefs of the Christian faith. We affirm the apostolic faith
that has been held by all Christians, everywhere and at all times. We
embrace John Wesley's concept of the universal spirit, by which we have
fellowship with all those who affirm the vital center of Scripture, and we
extend toleration to those who disagree with us on matters not essential
to salvation.
Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Scriptures. For this reason, the Church is
not only one, holy, and universal but also apostolic. It is built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets and continually devotes itself to
the apostles' teaching. The Church especially looks to the Scriptures,
which are the Church's only norm of faith and life. The Lordship of Jesus
over the Scriptures means that we are to understand the Scriptures through
the witness of the Holy Spirit as they testify to Jesus. To confirm and
correct our understanding of the Scriptures, we honor and heed the ancient
creeds and other voices of the Christian tradition that faithfully explain
the Scriptures. We also allow our understanding of the Scriptures to be
guided by the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us in repentance,
faith, and assurance. Finally we test our understanding of the Scriptures
by seeking the reasonableness and coherence of their witness to Jesus
Christ.
We are especially called to witness to the holiness of Christ's Church as
embraced in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition. We affirm the principles of
salvation by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior. In
doing so, we continue to affirm that Christ's Church is one, universal,
and apostolic. But our special calling is to hold before the eyes of the
world and the Church the centrality of holiness and to encourage the
people of God to live in the fullness of the Father's holy love. For this
reason we affirm the Wesleyan-Holiness understanding of the Christian
faith and seek to remain faithful to its principal teachings: God's
prevenient grace and the means of grace, repentance, faith, the new birth,
justification, assurance, the Christian community and its disciplines, and
the perfection of love.
We Are a Holiness People
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. To this end 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 and spiritual discipline, ethical and moral purity, and 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. Holiness in the
life of be-lievers is most clearly understood as Christlikeness.
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; consecrate yourselves and
be holy because I am holy" (Leviticus 11:44).
Our hunger to be a Holiness people is rooted in the holi-ness of God
himself. The holiness of God refers to His Deity His utter singularity of
being. There is none like Him in majesty and glory The appropriate human
response in the presence of such a glorious being is worship of God as
God. God's holiness is expressed in His gracious redemptive acts.
Encounter with the God who reveals and gives himself makes worship
possible, and worship becomes the primary way of knowing Him. We worship
the holy redeeming God by loving what He loves.
Our worship of the great and gracious God takes many forms. Often it is
praise and prayer with the faith community. It also expresses itself in
acts of private devotion, thanksgiving and praise, and obedience.
Evangelistic sharing of the faith, compassion toward our neighbor, working
for justice, and moral uprightness are all acts of worship before our God
of blazing holiness. Even the ordinary tasks of life become acts of
worship and take on a sacramental significance as worship of a holy God
becomes our way of life.
Jesus Christ revealed the one holy God to us and modeled worshipful holy
living for us. Jesus informs our understanding of holiness through His
life, sacrifice, and teachings as found in the Gospels, particularly the
Sermon on the Mount. As a Holiness people we seek to be like Jesus in
every atti-tude and action. By His grace God enables believers who worship
Him with their whole hearts to live Christlike lives. This we understand
to be the essence of holiness.
God has also given us the gift and responsibility of choice. Because we
were born with a tendency to sin, we are inclined to choose our own way
rather than God's (Isaiah 53:6). Having corrupted God's creation with our
sin, we are dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). If we are to live
again spiritually God, who calls into being what does not exist, must
graciously create us anew through the redemp-tive acts of His own Son.
We believe that God uniquely entered our world through the incarnation of
His only Son, Jesus of Nazareth, the his-torical God-man. Jesus came to
renew the image of God in us, enabling us to become holy people. We
believe that holiness in the life of the believer is the result of both a
crisis ex-perience and a lifelong process. Following regeneration, the
Spirit of our Lord draws us by grace to the full consecration of our lives
to Him. Then, in the divine act of entire sanctification, also called the
baptism with the Holy Spirit, He cleanses us from original sin and
indwells us with His holy presence. He perfects us in love, enables us to
live in moral uprightness, and empowers us to serve! The Spirit of Jesus
works within us to reproduce in us His own character of holy love. He
enables us to "put on the new self, created to be like God in true
righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:24). To be like God is to be like
Je-sus. Having had the divine image restored in us in God's act of entire
sanctification, we acknowledge that we have not yet arrived spiritually;
our lifelong goal is Christlikeness in every word, thought, and deed. By
continued yieldedness, obedience, and faith, we believe that we are "being
transformed in his [Christ's] likeness with ever-increasing glory" (2
Corinthians 3:18). We participate further in this process as we live a
life of worship expressed in many ways, including embracing the spiritual
disciplines and the fellowship and accountability of the local church. As
a Body of Believers in a specific congregation, we endeavor to be a
Christlike community, worshiping God with our whole hearts and re-ceiving
His gifts of love, purity power, and compassion.
As a Holiness people we do not exist in a historical and ecclesiastical
vacuum. We identify with the New Testament and the Early Church. Our
articles of faith clearly place us in the tradition of classical
Christianity We identify with the Arminian tradition of free grace (Jesus
died for all) and human freedom--the God-given capacity of all to choose
God and salvation. We also trace our ecclesiastical heritage to the
Wesleyan Revival of the 18th century and to the Holiness Movement of the
19th and 20th centuries.
Through the centuries the Holiness people have had a "magnificent
obsession" with Jesus. We worship Jesus! We love Jesus! We think Jesus! We
talk Jesus! We live Jesus! This is the essence and overflow of holiness
for us. This is what characterizes Holiness people.
We Are a Missional People
3a Our Mission of Worship
The mission of the church in the world begins in worship. It is as we are
gathered together before God in worship-singing, hearing the public
reading of the Bible, giving our tithes and offerings, praying, hearing
the preached Word, baptizing, and sharing the Lords Supper--that we know
most clearly what it means to be the people of God. Our belief that the
work of God in the world is accomplished primarily through worshiping
congregations leads us to understand that our mission includes the
receiving of new members into the fellowship of the church and the
organizing of new worshiping congregations.
Worship is the highest expression of our love for God. It is God-centered
adoration honoring the One who in grace and mercy redeems us. The primary
context for worship is the local church where God's people gather, not in
self-cen-tered experience or for self-glorification, but in self-surrender
and self-offering. Worship is the church in loving, obedient service to
God.
Worship is the first privilege and responsibility of God's people. It is
the gathering of the covenant community before God in proclamation and
celebrative response of who He is, what He has done, and what He promises
to do.
The local church in worship is at the core of our identity The Church of
the Nazarene is essentially local worshiping congregations, and it is in
and through the local congregation that our mission is fulfilled. The
mission of the church finds its meaning and orientation in worship. It is
in the preaching of the Word, the celebration of the sacraments, the
public reading of the Scripture, the singing of hymns and choruses,
corporate prayer, and the presenting of our tithes and offerings that we
know most clearly what it means to be the people of God. It is in worship
that we understand most clearly what it means to participate with God in
the work of redemption.
It is with a spirit of hope and optimism that we engage our God-given
mission in the world. It is more than an expression of human concern or
human effort. Our mission is a response to God's call. It is our
participation with God in the Kingdom mission of reconciliation. It is the
church's faithful witness to and expression of the love of God in the
world-in evangelism, compassion, and justice. It is our faith in the
ability of God's grace to transform the lives of people broken by sin and
to restore them in His own image.
3c. Our Mission of Discipleship
We are committed to being-and inviting others to become-disciples of
Jesus. With this in mind, we are committed to providing the means (Sunday
School, Bible studies, small accountability groups, etc.) through which
believers are en-couraged to grow in their understanding of the Christian
faith and in their relationship with each other and with God. We
understand discipleship to include submitting ourselves to obeying God and
to the disciplines of the faith. We believe we are to help each other live
the holy life through mutual support, Christian fellowship, and loving
accountability Wesley said, "God has given us to each other to strengthen
each other's hands." Christian discipleship is a way of life. It is the
process of learning how God would have us live in the world. As we learn
to live in obedience to the Word of God, in submission to the disciplines
of the faith, and in accountability to one another, we begin to understand
the true joy of the disciplined life and the Christian meaning of freedom.
Discipleship is not merely human effort, submitting to rules and
regulations. It is the means through which the Holy Spirit gradually
brings us to maturity in Christ. It is through discipleship that we become
people of Christian character. The ultimate goal of discipleship is to be
transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18).
By studying and meditating on the Scriptures, Christians discover
fountains of refreshment in every thirsty valley on their discipleship
journey Invigorated by the washing of the Word, refined by immersion in
the Word, drinking deeply the truths of the Word, the disciples discover
to their happy surprise that they are being "transformed by the renewing
of [their] mind" (Romans 12:2). The Christian way opens before them like a
high and open road. Nerved by God, they proceed on a way of life that
eclipses mere human and cul-tural values. Refreshed by the fountain of the
Word, disciples give their life away in self-transcending service.
We affirm the life-giving value of the classic spiritual disciplines in
the training of women and men as disciples of Christ. The disciplines of
prayer and fasting, worship, study solitude, service, and simplicity are
at the same time natural expressions and intentional commitments in the
life of the believer. Discipleship requires mutual support and loving
accountability. On our own, few of us will develop the spiritual
disciplines that lead to Christian maturity. We believe that we are to
encourage the mutual support provided through such means as Sunday School
classes, discipleship groups, Bible study groups, prayer meetings,
accountability groups, and Christian mentoring as necessary to our
spiritual formation and maturity. Recognizing the role of accountability
in the Wesleyan class meetings encourages us to support its place within
the contemporary Christian congregation.
3d. Our Mission of Christian Higher Education
We are committed to Christian education, through which men and women are
equipped for lives of Christian service. In our seminaries, Bible
colleges, colleges, and universities, we are committed to the pursuit of
knowledge, the development of Christian character, and the equipping of
leaders to accomplish our God-given calling of serving in the church and
in the world.
Christian higher education is a central part of the mission of the Church
of the Nazarene. In the early years of the Church of the Nazarene,
institutions of Christian higher education were organized for the purpose
of preparing men and women of God for leadership and Christian service in
the global spread of the Wesleyan-Holiness revival. Our continued
commitment to Christian higher education through the years has produced a
worldwide network of seminaries, Bible schools, colleges, and
universities. Our mission of Christian higher education comes directly out
of what it means to be God's people. We are to love God with our whole
"heart, soul, and mind." We are therefore, to be good stewards in the
development of our minds, our academic resources, and in the application
of our knowledge. In this light, we are committed to the open and honest
pursuit of knowledge and truth coupled with the integrity of our Christian
faith. Christian higher education is an essential arena for the
development of the stewardship of our minds. It is intended to be an arena
characterized by the discussion and discovery of truth and knowledge about
God and all of God's creation.
In Christian higher education faith is not compartmentalized, but
wonderfully integrated with knowledge as faith and learning are developed
together. The whole person is cultivated with every area of thought and
life understood in relationship to the desire and design of God. Christian
char-acter and the equipping of Christian leaders for service in the
church and the world are forged in the context of learning about God,
humanity and the world. This commitment of Christian higher education to
the formation of the whole person is critical for the development of
Christian men and women for missional leadership in the church and the
world.
As a redeemed people called to Christlikeness and sent as agents of God's
love in the world, we participate with God in the work of redeeming
humanity Christian higher education contributes significantly to our being
such a missional people-offering the broad range of knowledge-and it is
necessary for effective service to God in our various vocations. Our
faithful participation in God's redemptive work requires that we raise up
men and women of God who can take their place as Christian servant leaders
in the church and in the world.
The world in which we are called to serve is becoming more closely
connected and more profoundly complicated each day. As God's work of
redemption advances in present and future generations, our faithful
witness to the Lordship of Christ and effective participation with God in
the building of the church will continue to require a vital commitment to
Christian higher education.
CONCLUSION
At the turn of the 20th century, the Church of the Nazarene was born!
P.F. Bresee and others were deeply convicted that God had raised them up
for the express purpose of proclaiming to the church and world the gospel
of Jesus Christ in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition. There are unmistakable
marks of providence on this denomination. From a fledgling movement, the
Church of the Nazarene now exceeds 1.3 million in membership and is
ministering in 135 countries of the world.
At the turn of the 21st century, the future of this denomination has never
been brighter! Many believe that we were raised up, not for the 20th
century, but for the 21st century. We are positioned to make a major
contribution to our post-modern world. This affirmation is grounded in our
Wesleyan-Holiness heritage with its radical optimism of grace. We believe
that human nature, and ultimately society can be radically and permanently
changed by the grace of God. We have an irrepressible confidence in this
message of hope, which flows from the heart of our holy God.
P.F. Bresee was fond of saying, 'The sun never sets in the morning." It is
still morning in the Church of the Nazarene, and the sun never sets on our
denomination around the world. We are radically optimistic about impacting
our 21st-century world with the Holiness message! With clarity of vision,
total commitment, and firm faith, we view this new century as our day of
greatest opportunity for making Christlike disciples of all nations.
All Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New
Interna-tional Versions (NIV). Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by
International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing
House. All rights reserved.
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