The Church of the Nazarene is the largest Wesleyan Holiness denomination in the world, tracing its origins to the late nineteenth-century American holiness revival. Rooted in John Wesley's theological heritage, the church teaches that believers can experience entire sanctificatio— transformative second work of grace that cleanses the heart from sin and empowers loving Christian discipleship.
What is a Nazarene church? Heritage in the Wesleyan Holiness revival
To understand what a Nazarene church is, one must examine the broader post-Civil War American religious awakening known as the holiness movement. During the late nineteenth century, many Methodist ministers and lay leaders felt that mainstream Methodism was drifting away from its founding passion for scriptural holiness, becoming increasingly affluent, socially respectable, and liturgical.
In response, thousands of believers gathered across rural camp meetings and urban mission halls under the banner of the National Camp Meeting Association for the Promotion of Christian Holiness, as recounted in our historical overview of the Holiness Movement explained. These reformers sought to rekindle John Wesley's central teaching: that following justification by faith, God calls every believer to consecrate their life fully to the Holy Spirit and experience heart purity. Out of this spiritual revival emerged several new denominations, including the Wesleyan Church, the Salvation Army, and the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana), with the Church of the Nazarene developing as the largest and most institutionally enduring communion.
While sharing Methodist roots and an Arminian-Wesleyan theological perspective, the Nazarenes emphasized aggressive urban evangelism, simple worship without rented pews, and compassionate ministries among the working poor, distinguishing their identity from established mainline Protestantism, as examined in our comparison of Nazarene vs. Methodist differences.
Phineas Bresee and the Los Angeles beginnings (1895)
The human father of the Church of the Nazarene was Phineas F. Bresee (183–915). A respected, experienced Methodist minister, Bresee had served for over thirty years in Iowa and Southern California as a pastor, college trustee, and presiding elder (district superintendent). However, as Los Angeles began experiencing a rapid economic and population boom in the 1890s, Bresee became convinced that wealthy downtown churches were neglecting the thousands of impoverished laborers, immigrants, and homeless families arriving on the Pacific coast.
In 1894, Bresee resigned his prestigious appointment to minister at the Peniel Mission, an independent rescue mission in downtown Los Angeles. When his bishop refused to grant him an evangelistic appointment outside the formal Methodist itinerancy, Bresee chose to step outside the denomination entirely. In October 1895, Bresee joined with Dr. Joseph P. Widney, a prominent physician and the founding dean of the University of Southern California medical school, alongside roughly one hundred working-class believers, to organize a new independent congregation named the Church of the Nazarene.
The name "Nazarene" was proposed by Widney, who argued that Jesus was despised and called a Nazarene because of His identification with humble, ordinary people. The congregation resolved that its mission was to preach the gospel to the poor, establish simple meetinghouses where seats were free to everyone, and proclaim the blessing of entire sanctification. The church experienced explosive growth across Southern California, establishing neighborhood missions, medical clinics, and a rescue home for unwed mothers.
The Pilot Point union (1908): Uniting regional holiness streams
While Bresee was planting churches along the Pacific coast, parallel independent holiness movements were organizing across other regions of the United States. In the East, the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America had formed in 1897 through the merger of several New England and Mid-Atlantic holiness bodies led by Hiram F. Reynolds. In the South and Southwest, the Holiness Church of Christ, led by evangelist C.B. Jernigan, had united thousands of believers across Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.
Recognizing their common theological conviction and shared burden for world evangelism, leaders from these regional bodies began negotiations for a national organic union. In October 1907, Bresee's Western group merged with the Eastern association in Chicago to form the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene. The decisive national gathering took place on October 13, 1908, in a large circus tent in Pilot Point, Texas, when the Holiness Church of Christ voted unanimously to enter the union.
The Pilot Point merger of 1908 is commemorated as the official founding date of the denomination. It achieved an extraordinary feat: uniting Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western American Christians into a single, unified national church only forty-three years after the conclusion of the American Civil War. In 1919, the General Assembly voted to drop the word "Pentecostal" from its official title. While the early holiness movement frequently used "pentecostal" to describe the cleansing baptism of the Holy Spirit, the rise of the modern Pentecostal movement following the 1906 Azusa Street Revival led the public to associate the term exclusively with glossolalia (speaking in tongues). Because Nazarenes rejected speaking in tongues as the necessary biblical evidence of the Spirit's baptism, the church simplified its name to the Church of the Nazarene.
Core Nazarene beliefs: Entire sanctification and Christian perfection
At the center of Nazarene beliefs is the doctrine of entire sanctification, understood as a distinct spiritual work of grace following regeneration. Nazarenes teach that while justification and the new birth forgive personal sins and reconcile a believer to God, the carnal nature (original sin, or an inward disposition toward self-will) remains within the believer's heart.
Entire sanctification occurs when a consecrated believer surrenders their life entirely to God in faith. Through the cleansing baptism of the Holy Spirit, God cleanses the heart from inherited depravity and fills the believer with perfect love for God and neighbor. Nazarenes are careful to clarify that "Christian perfection" does not mean freedom from human mistakes, physical infirmities, errors in judgment, or temptation; rather, it signifies a heart purified of rebellious self-will and governed by holy love.
Other foundational doctrines, outlined in the denomination's historic Sixteen Articles of Faith, include:
- The Holy Trinity: One eternal God revealed in three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- The Holy Scriptures: The inerrant inspiration of the Old and New Testaments in all matters pertaining to salvation.
- Free Will and Atonement: Jesus Christ died for all humanity, offering universal grace that empowers individuals to freely accept or reject God's salvation (Arminian theology).
- Perseverance of Faith: Salvation is conditioned upon continued faith and obedience; a believer may fall from grace and be lost through intentional unfaithfulness.
- Resurrection and Second Coming: The bodily return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and final divine judgment resulting in eternal reward or eternal punishment.
Sacraments, moral standards, and the Nazarene Manual
The Church of the Nazarene recognizes two Christian sacraments instituted by Christ: baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism is administered to both believers and young children (infant dedication or baptism is permitted according to parental conscience), with candidates choosing their preferred mode: sprinkling, pouring, or full bodily immersion. The Lord's Supper is celebrated regularly with open communion, inviting all who repent of sin and trust in Christ to receive the bread and unfermented grape juice.
Practical holy living is guided by the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene, a book of church government, ritual, and ethical guidelines updated every four years by the General Assembly. Historically, the Manual included strict lifestyle prohibitions against tobacco, alcoholic beverages, theater attendance, dancing, and card-playing, reflecting nineteenth-century American revivalist ethics. Over recent decades, the denomination has transitioned toward positive Christian principles of holistic stewardship, temperance, modesty, and compassionate service.
Connectional governance: The General Assembly and global headquarters
The polity of the Church of the Nazarene is representative and connectional, blending congregational autonomy with episcopal superintendency. Local church members elect a local church board and vote on calling a pastor. Local congregations belong to a geographical district led by a district superintendent.
Supreme legislative authority resides in the General Assembly, which convenes every four years. Delegates composed of an equal number of clergy and lay representatives from every world district gather to debate Manual revisions, approve budgets, and elect the Board of General Superintendents. This council of six ordained elders provides global pastoral oversight and spiritual leadership across all world regions. In 2008, the denomination dedicated its international Global Ministry Center in Lenexa, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, having operated its headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, for nearly a century.
Christian higher education and worldwide missionary expansion
From its earliest days, the Church of the Nazarene prioritized Christian higher education to train pastors, missionaries, nurses, and educators. The denomination established an interconnected network of liberal arts universities and seminaries, assigning each American district to an educational zone:
- Olivet Nazarene University (Bourbonnais, Illinois): A premier Midwest university serving the Central educational region.
- Point Loma Nazarene University (San Diego, California): Founded by Phineas Bresee in Pasadena in 1902, now situated on an oceanfront campus on the Pacific.
- Trevecca Nazarene University (Nashville, Tennessee): A historic Southeast institution founded in 1901 by J.O. McClurkan, prominent in music and theological training.
- MidAmerica Nazarene University (Olathe, Kansas): Located adjacent to the denomination's global headquarters.
- Northwest Nazarene University (Nampa, Idaho), Southern Nazarene University (Bethany, Oklahoma), and Mount Vernon Nazarene University (Mount Vernon, Ohio): Serving major regional constituencies across the nation.
- Nazarene Theological Seminary (Kansas City, Missouri): The official graduate school of theology preparing pastors and scholars worldwide.
Parallel to education is the denomination's remarkable global expansion. Guided by early missionary leaders such as H.F. Reynolds and Susan Norris Fitkin, the church committed itself to planting self-supporting indigenous churches across Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia. Today, of the denomination's 2.6 million members across 164 world areas, more than 80 percent reside outside the United States and Canada, transforming the Church of the Nazarene into a truly multinational, diverse Christian fellowship.
Finding a Church of the Nazarene today
In the United States, approximately 600,000 Nazarenes worship across roughly 4,700 congregations, with substantial concentrations across Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Texas, and California, as analyzed in our geographic study of where Holiness and Nazarene churches are located.
Guests attending a Nazarene worship service will experience a warm, evangelical atmosphere featuring passionate congregational singing, prayer for personal and community needs, and practical preaching from the Scriptures. To find an active congregation near you, search our comprehensive national directory of Holiness and Nazarene churches, and read our comprehensive visitor guide to what to expect at a Nazarene church service.