The Church of the Nazarene includes Christians worldwide who express the holiness belief of faith and sanctification through the Holy Spirit in their personal lives and work.
These six aspects show the development of the church:
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1.
The Church of the Nazarene traces its roots to the Methodist evangelical revival in England during the 18th century. Brothers John and Charles Wesley created the Methodist movement to emphasize the importance of receiving the Holy Spirit in order to live a moral and successful life. Their preaching included the idea of entire sanctification, a personal blessing through God's grace by experiencing spiritual perfection.
2. By the 19th century, many members of the Methodist religion noticed a decline in the emphasis on spirit-filled practices that included devotion to God through the Holy Spirit and the sanctification that followed. Critics complained that Methodist ministers had been turning away from the true teachings of the Bible and focusing more on the formalities of church affairs.
3. This lack of attention to Biblical and spiritual importance for practicing Christians led to a break from the Methodist Church by many leaders and members. A group of ministers left the Methodist Episcopal Church to found the Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1843 to focus on the Wesley approach in their faith. Other ministers and Protestants followed and joined what became known as the
Holiness movement.
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4. The Holiness movement began to spread among many denominations of Christians throughout the nation. They formed their own churches when rejected by conventional establishments and merged together for united celebrations. In 1867, The National Holiness Association, which would later become the Christian Holiness Partnership, drew around 10,000 worshipers to its camp meeting in Vineland, New Jersey and then more than 20,000 to its meeting the following year in Manheim, Pennsylvania.
5. The Church of the Nazarene was the result of grouping together Christians who were following the holiness doctrine and left their Protestant churches to form their own small groups or organizations. Dr. Phineas F. Bresee, who had been a Methodist Church elder, organized the first Church of the Nazarene with a congregation in Los Angeles in 1895.
6. The nationwide and later international, Church of the Nazarene was organized in 1908. It united large churches associated with the Holiness movement following national conferences. The Association of Pentecostal Churches of America, the Holiness Christian Church and the Holiness Church of Christ were among the entities that joined to form the Church of the Nazarene.
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