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What We Believe

We affirm historic Christian orthodoxy as reflected in The Apostles’ Creed. What we believe is a generous orthodoxy that embraces not-yet believers and allows anyone to belong before belief. We are a community of grace in theological dialogue with the past, the present, and the future, attempting to understand and live the gospel faithfully in our time.

The Apostles’ Creed (ca. Year of our Lord 215)

We believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

We believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. AMEN.

However, we do not think the best way to discover a community’s beliefs is to read them on a page or click a link. Rather, the best way to discover what a community believes is to watch them, or join them and learn from the inside. We are an ever-growing church as we seek to follow Jesus in faith and freedom.

What is the Church of the Nazarene?

Christianity is built upon the reality of Jesus of Nazareth – God’s Messiah. We believe in Jesus by faith, but Jesus is a fact that is universal to the church that belongs to him. The church is a Jesus movement. We believe that we were raised up by God to proclaim Jesus Christ in the city of Brunswick, county of Glynn, all of Coastal Georgia, and to the entire world.

The Church of the Nazarene is a part of the “one, holy, universal, apostolic” church.

We confess our history to include:

  • the people of God recorded in the Old and New Testaments;
  • the people of God through the ages (those redeemed through Jesus Christ in whatever expression of the one church they may be found).

We confess our faith through:

  • the ecumenical creeds of the first five Christian centuries;
  • our particular calling to proclaim the doctrines of prevenient grace and sanctification,
  • the preaching of the Word,
  • the administration of the sacraments,
  • concern to raise up and maintain a ministry that is truly apostolic;
  • practices for Christ-like living and service to others.

We are orthodox. Orthodoxy (in its lower case form) means that it is the classic Christian faith that is held by the universal church. We seek to be the New Testament church in all of its simplicity and power. We believe and attest that we are the very same faith held by the earliest witnesses to Jesus of Nazareth. We believe that our faith is defined by the Holy Scriptures and embraces the truths of the New Testament itself.

Our doctrinal core is summed up in the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed.

We are faithful to a historic Christian faith that predates the organization of the Church of the Nazarene on earth. We are a Christian-Protestant-Wesleyan-Holiness people:

  • in the tradition of the universal church,
  • the Anglican Confession,
  • the ministry of John Wesley,
  • and the preaching of the early Methodists.

We are not a sect, nor even a new denomination. We believe we are part of the faith of our spiritual ancestors in today’s world.

Why the name “Church of the Nazarene?”

Dr. J.P. Widney, a former president of the University of Southern California, was one of the two most influential men in the early days of the Church of the Nazarene on the west coast, along with Phineas Bresee. It was Widney who recommended the name Church of the Nazarene. He explained that the name had come to him one morning after spending the whole night in prayer. He said that the word Nazarene symbolized “the toiling, lowly mission of Christ. It was the name that Christ used of Himself, the name which was used in derision of Him by His enemies, the name which above all others linked Him to the great toiling, struggling, sorrowing heart of the world. It is Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth to whom the world in its misery and despair turns, that it may have hope.”

Read more on our general beliefs by clicking here.