Church of the Nazarene

The Church of the Nazarene was begun in October of 1895 by a group of people who desired a church that welcomed an American holiness emphasis. They invited a recently unemployed Methodist minister, Phineas F. Bresee, to be their pastor. They named their new church Church of the Nazarene and began to work towards becomming an international denomination for holiness people. Almost immediately they began to plant other churches. In 1907 they invited a group of churches from the eastern USA to join them. In 1908 they invited another similar group from the southern states to join them. They have been growing ever since through their own evangelistic efforts and merging holiness groups.

They are still very committed to Christian holiness although a deeper understanding of John Wesley and their own biblical scholarly research has refined their beliefs without much internal opposition.

Their other interests include higher education and missions. As of 2003, they have eight universities in the United States and several more internationally and are ministering in almost 200 world areas.