Inspired by the compassionate roots of the Church of the Nazarene’s beginnings, a resolution passed this past July 2009 at General Assembly in Orlando, Florida USA to include a new paragraph in the Nazarene Manual, “Covenant of Christian Conduct” section. Section (A) “A Christian Life” now contains:

33.3. The Church of the Nazarene believes this new and holy way of life involves practices to be avoided and redemptive acts of love to be accomplished for the souls, minds, and bodies of our neighbors. One redemptive arena of love involves the special relationship Jesus had, and commanded his disciples to have, with the poor of this world; that His Church ought, first, to keep itself simple and free from an emphasis on wealth and extravagance and, second, to give itself to the care, feeding, clothing, and shelter of the poor and marginalized. Throughout the Bible and in the life and example of Jesus, God identifies with and assists the poor, the oppressed, and those in society who cannot speak for themselves. In the same way, we, too, are called to identify with and to enter into solidarity with the poor and not simply to offer charity from positions of comfort. We hold that compassionate ministry to the poor includes acts of charity as well as a struggle to provide opportunity, equality, and justice for the poor. We further believe the Christian’s responsibility to the poor is an essential aspect of the life of every believer who seeks a faith that works through love. We believe Christian holiness to be inseparable from ministry to the poor in that it drives the Christian beyond their own individual perfection and toward the creation of a more just and equitable society and world. Holiness, far from distancing believers from the desperate economic needs of people in this world, motivates us to place our means in the service of alleviating such need and to adjust our wants in accordance with the needs of others.
(Exodus 23:11; Deuteronomy 15:7; Psalms 41:1; 82:3; Proverbs 19:17; 21:13; 22:9; Jeremiah 22:16; Matthew 19:21; Luke 12:33; Acts 20:35; 2 Corinthians 9:6; Galatians 2:10)

In response to General Board action, The USA/Canada, Mission/Evangelism department appointed a Blue Ribbon Commission to explore what Christian life, our Nazarene roots, and our Wesleyan heritage have to do with compassion, holiness, and care for the poor, and recommend ways to strengthen Christlike compassion in the lives of today’s Nazarenes. One recommendation was to emphasize compassion more strongly in the Manual.  In 2001, a statement on “Responsibility to the Poor” 903.4 had been added to the final pages of the Manual appendices. Motivated by this Christian responsibility as integral to Christian holiness and character, the Commission, along with the East Ohio, USA, District, The Eurasia Regional Council, and the USA/Canada, Mission/Evangelism department asked this General Assembly to move this important statement into the body of the Manual and, particularly, to the section that describes how Nazarenes are called to live as Christians within the Church of the Nazarene.

Back to our Roots
Our Nazarene founders had much to say and do with regard to Christian holiness. This holiness was wrapped up in how one is called to live with one’s neighbor, and more specifically how Christians are called to love persons who are poor and marginalized within society. Our own Manual of today describes these historical beginnings as follows:

In October 1895, Phineas F. Bresee and Joseph P. Widney, with about 100 others…organized the Church of the Nazarene at Los Angeles. At the outset they saw this church as the first of the denomination that preached the reality of entire sanctification received through faith in Christ. They held that Christian sanctified by faith should follow Christ’s example and preach the Gospel to the poor. They felt called especially to this work. They believed that…their expenditures of time and money should be given to Christlike ministries for the salvation of souls and the relief of the needy. They organized the church accordingly.
—from the Church of the Nazarene’s Manual “Historical Statement.”

Echoing the holiness preaching of John Wesley, our Nazarene founders likewise lived and preached holiness in word, thought, and deed. Wesley himself wrote that the Gospel of Jesus Christ knows “no holiness but social holiness.”  This very notion of holiness exudes responsibility to the Christian life, care of one’s neighbor, and orienting all of one’s life toward service and care of others in the name of Christ. Like Jesus’ own life and ministry, this holiness spurs us on to share love and good news with those marginalized in our societies. We are called again and again to ‘the least of these’, whomever that may be in our neighborhoods, communities, and world.

We model our lives after Christ who is the origin of our Christian conduct and discipleship.
Jesus instructed his followers, “…‘You shall love your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’ this is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is life it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-39 NRSV).

Wesley patterned his life after care and responsibility to the poor within his own society. He abstained from buying expensive clothing and foods, and went without in order to be able to give to more abundantly to those in need. This was the very motivation for beginning the Holy Club in his days at Oxford. While discussing Christian holiness and being accountable to one another, the Holy Club pooled their resources together to be able to provide for orphans and widows. Throughout his life, Wesley came to understand the simple motivation to extend love to neighbor as arriving out of his own salvation. This holiness and this responsibility toward others are as simple as Paul’s words to the Galatians: what counts is “faith working through love” (5:6 NRSV). This became the central thrust of Wesley’s own Christian character.

Likewise, Phineas Bresee’s motivation for beginning the Los Angeles Church of the Nazarene in 1895 was this very passion for holy love and Christian responsibility to neighbor.

The following mission statement appeared in the minutes of the founding of the Los Angeles Church of the Nazarene, October 1895 before any organizational notes or even the statements of faith.

We seek the simplicity and the power of the primitive New Testament church.  The field of labor to which we feel called is in the neglected quarters of the cities and wherever else may be found waste places and souls seeking pardon and cleansing from sin.  This work we aim to do through the agency of city missions, evangelistic services, house-to-house visitation, caring for the poor, comforting the dying.  To this end we strive personally to walk with God and to invite others so to do.

We too, out of our motivation to seek and pattern our own lives after the holiness of our Lord Jesus Christ, are also called to this same love and responsibility to our neighbor. We are called to go and bring the love of Christ to places no one else will go. In so doing, we follow our Nazarene founders to the neglected quarters of the city and the teachings of John Wesley out to the abandoned countryside.

For, first, God works; therefore you can work.
Secondly, God works; therefore you must work.¹

This is our call; let us live out our faith working in love.