What we Believe

Northwest Church of the Nazarene – our local church:
We are a church that believes that Jesus taught us to love God with all of our hearts, all of our souls, and all of our minds. He then commanded us to love each other as ourselves. Everything we do, we do with this in mind. We are spurred to action because Jesus commanded us to heal the sick, care for the poor, the widows, and the orphans. We exist to have a personal relationship with God and to transform our world around us.

Church of the Nazarene – Our Denomination:
The Church of the Nazarene is the largest Holiness denomination in the world. The Church of the Nazarene is a Protestant Christian Church in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition.  Organized in 1908, the church is now home to more than 30,000 congregations in 162 world areas. We believe that Christians can experience a deeper level of life in which there is victory over sin, power to witness and serve, and a richer fellowship with God, all through the infilling of the Holy Spirit. The Church of the Nazarene is a Great Commission church. We believe that God offers to everyone forgiveness, peace, joy, purpose, love, meaning in life, and the promise of heaven when life is over by entering and experiencing a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We are called to take this message to people everywhere.

As a part of the Church of the Nazarene, Northwest Church abides by the doctrines and principles of our denomination. Although we may all be different in worship and format, each Church of the Nazarene has same set of values and beliefs.

This is what it means to be a part of the Church of the Nazarene:

The mission of the Church of the Nazarene is to make Christ-like disciples in the nations.

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Core Values of the Church of the Nazarene:

Our Core Values are the essence of our identity and support the vision of our denomination and help shape our culture.

We Are a Christian People

As members of the Church, we join with all true believers in proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We are especially called to preach holiness and to remain faithful to the principal Wesleyan-Holiness teachings: God’s prevenient grace and the means of grace, repentance, faith, the new birth, justification, entire sanctification, assurance, the Christian community and its disciplines, and the perfection of love.

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We Are 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 and our neighbors, and producing in us the character of Christ.

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We Are a Missional People

We are a sent people, responding to Christ’s call 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, worshiping, evangelizing, discipling, and preparing for service.

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These are the beliefs Northwest Church of the Nazarene hold to be true:

We believe in one God-the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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 man is born with a fallen nature, and is, therefore, inclined to evil, and that continually.

We believe that the finally impenitent are hopelessly and eternally lost.

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

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

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

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Church Board statement on discrimination:

The church board stands wholeheartedly by the denominational stand on discrimination.

Manual Church of the Nazarene – Paragraph 915

Discrimination.

The Church of the Nazarene reiterates its historic position of Christian compassion for people of all races. We believe that God is the Creator of all people, and that of one blood are all people created.

We believe that each individual, regardless of race, color, gender, or creed, should have equality before law, including the right to vote, equal access to educational opportunities, to all public facilities, and to the equal opportunity, according to one’s ability, to earn a living free from any job or economic discrimination.

We urge our churches everywhere to continue and strengthen programs of education to promote racial understanding and harmony. We also feel that the scriptural admonition of Hebrews 12:14 should guide the actions of our people. We urge that each member of the Church of the Nazarene humbly examine his or her personal attitudes and actions toward others, as a first step in achieving the Christian goal of full participation by all in the life of the church and the entire community.

We reemphasize our belief that holiness of heart and life is the basis for right living. We believe that Christian charity between racial groups or gender will come when the hearts of people have been changed by complete submission to Jesus Christ, and that the essence of true Christianity consists in loving God with one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength, and one’s neighbor as oneself.

Therefore, we renounce any form of racial and ethnic indifference, exclusion, subjugation, or oppression as a grave sin against God and our fellow human beings. We lament the legacy of every form of racism throughout the world, and we seek to confront that legacy through repentance, reconciliation, and biblical justice. We seek to repent of every behavior in which we have been overtly or covertly complicit with the sin of racism, both past and present; and in confession and lament we seek forgiveness and reconciliation.

Further, we acknowledge that there is no reconciliation apart from human struggle to stand against and to overcome all personal, institutional and structural prejudice responsible for racial and ethnic humiliation and oppression. We call upon Nazarenes everywhere to identify and seek to remove acts and structures of prejudice, to facilitate occasions for seeking forgiveness and reconciliation, and to take action toward empowering those who have been marginalized. (2017)