Beliefs

GSN is a Bible-believing congregation in the Church of the Nazarene:

We believe that the Bible is the inspired and relevant Word of God.
We believe that all people have sinned and need God’s grace and forgiveness which is abundantly available through Jesus’ death on the cross.
We believe God draws us to Himself but the decision to respond is ours. We believe that an individual must repent and trust Christ to receive forgiveness and eternal life.
We believe that as Christians we need to offer our whole lives to God (the biblical word for this is 'sanctification'). When we give ourselves to God in this way, His Spirit can fully mold us into Christlikeness; His perfect love is reflected in our attitudes and actions; and God empowers us to live more abundantly.
We believe that the Church is the Body of Christ, carrying on his purposes in the world.
We believe that God can bring healing.
We believe that Jesus Christ is coming again.
We practice the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Our Distinctives

Every church group has its distinctives: the practices or beliefs that set it apart from other groups. Sometimes this is confusing to people. They say, “If the Bible is true and Jesus was who he claimed to be, why are there so many different churches with so many different beliefs?”

We are optimistic enough to believe that with all the differences in beliefs and practices, most Christian congregations still agree on 90-95% of Christian teaching, and that the other 5-10% we do not agree on falls in this category of “distinctives.” While we get our name from Jesus of Nazareth, you might be asking, "what in the world is a modern-day Nazarene?" Well...

We are not Baptists, but like the Baptists… we believe in calling people to repentance and to witnessing to their new life in Christ through public baptism.

We are not Presbyterians, but like the Presbyterians… we believe in the power of the preaching of the Word of God to bring about change in people’s lives.

We are not Lutherans, but like the Lutherans… we believe in salvation through Jesus Christ on the authority of Scripture alone. We believe in salvation by faith alone and in salvation as a gift of God’s grace alone.

We are not Charismatics (no, we do not “speak in tongues” in our services) but like the Charismatics… we believe in the gifts of the Spirit. God, through the Holy Spirit, gives people the power to live a Christlike life and to make a real difference in their world.

We are not Episcopalians (although John Wesley was a lifelong Anglican) but like the Episcopalians… we take worship seriously. We just choose to be a little less “formal” in our worship services.

We are not Congregationalists… but we have borrowed some of their ideas on local church organization.

We are not Quakers or Moravians… but like these pietistic groups, we believe in living a careful life that testifies to the watching world that we belong to the Family of God.

And we are not United Methodists… although we have our roots in the Methodist tradition that grew out of John Wesley’s revival movement in the 1700's. We have good fellowship with our United Methodist “cousins”, but we are organizationally separate for historical reasons.

WE ARE a warm and friendly group of people who desire, with God’s help, to live the kind of life that brings honor to Him. We look to the Bible as our primary source for direction in our worship and our lifestyles. We are life-centered in our teaching and sensitive to the needs and concerns of others. We give people the opportunity to put their faith into practice through any number of avenues of service. We are honored to take our place among the many who are called Christians. We laugh and cry together, rejoice and grieve together, grow together and walk in faith together. We aim to be a family for all who love Jesus, the Nazarene.

Esther 4:15–17NIV2011

Matthew 16:24–28ESV