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Historical Statement Toward a Global Church
The Church of the Nazarene had an international dimension from its beginning. By the uniting assembly of 1908, Nazarenes served and witnessed not only in North America but also as missionaries in Mexico, the Cape Verde Islands, India, Japan, and South Africa—living testimony to the impact of the 19th-century missions movement upon the religious bodies that formed the present-day Church of the Nazarene.
Expansion into new areas of the world began in Asia in 1898 by the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America. The Pentecostal Mission was at work in Central America by 1900, in the Caribbean by 1902, and in South America by 1909. In Africa, Nazarenes active there in 1907 were recognized as denominational missionaries at a later date.
Subsequent extension into the Australia-South Pacific area began in 1945 and into continental Europe in 1948. In these instances, the Church of the Nazarene entered by identifying with local ministers who already preached and taught the Wesleyan-Holiness message: A. A. E. Berg of Australia and Alfredo del Rosso of Italy.
In developing a global ministry, the Church of the Nazarene has depended historically on the energies of national workers who have shared with missionaries the tasks of preaching and teaching the word of grace. In 1918 a missionary in India noted that his national associates included three preachers, four teachers, three colporteurs, and five Bible women. By 1936 the ratio of national workers to missionaries throughout the worldwide Church of the Nazarene was greater than five to one.
The world areas where the church has entered reached a total of 116 by 1997. Thousands of ministers and lay workers have indigenized the Church of the Nazarene in their respective cultures, thereby contributing to the mosaic of national identities that form our international communion.
Distinctives of International Ministry
Historically, Nazarene global ministry has centered around evangelism, compassionate ministry, and education. The evangelistic impulse was exemplified in the lives of H. F. Schmelzenbach, L. S. Tracy, Esther Carson Winans, Samuel Krikorian, and others whose names symbolize this dimension of ministry. Around the world, Nazarene churches and districts continue to reflect a revivalistic and evangelistic character.
The international roots of Nazarene compassionate ministry lie in early support for famine relief and orphanage work in India. This impulse was strengthened by the Nazarene Medical Missionary Union, organized in the early 1920s to build Bresee Memorial Hospital in Tamingfu, China. An extensive medical work has developed in Swaziland, and other compassionate ministries have developed around the world.
Education is an aspect of world ministry exemplified early by Hope School for Girls, founded in Calcutta by Mrs. Sukhoda Banarji in 1905 and adopted the following year by the Church of the Nazarene. Outside North America, Nazarenes have established schools for primary education and for specialized ministerial training. There are graduate seminaries in the United States and the Philippines; liberal arts institutions in the United States and Africa; one teacher training college in Swaziland; one junior college in Japan; three nursing schools in Swaziland, Papua New Guinea, and India; and over 40 Bible/theological institutions around the world.
The church has prospered as these components of its mission have developed. In 1997 the Church of the Nazarene had an international membership of 1,216,657, distributed in over 11,900 congregations.
As a result of this historical development, the denomination is poised today with an unfinished agenda of moving from "international presence" to an "international community" of faith. Recognition of this fact led the 1976 General Assembly to authorize a Commission on Internationalization, whose report to the 1980 General Assembly led to the creation of a system of world-region areas. The number and boundaries of the original world regions have since changed. The current ones are: the Africa Region, the Asia-Pacific Region, the Canada Region, the Caribbean Region, the Eurasia Region, the Mexico-Central America Region, the South America Region, and eight regions in the United States1.
1. A more complete history of the Church of the Nazarene may be found in Timothy L. Smith, Called unto Holiness, Vol. 1: The Formative Years (1962); W.T. Purkiser, Called unto Holiness, Vol. 2: The Second 25 Years (1983); and J. Fred Parker, Mission to the World (1988).
The information displayed on this page is from the 1997-2001 Manual and has been used with permission from the General Church Secretary. Relevant changes arising out of General Assembly held 2001 will be updated in the near future.
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