About Us

Here at Ashland Church of the Nazarene, we are a faith community, ready to greet you in Jesus' name. Here, you will discover opportunities to encounter Jesus not only as your Savior and Lord, but to grow as a follower of Christ.

For our location and service times, please click here.

Core Values of the Ashland Church of the Nazarene

We are a Christian People
As members of the Church Universal, we join with all true believers in proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ and in embracing the historic Trinitarian creedal statements of Christian faith. We value our Wesleyan-Holiness heritage and believe it to be a way of understanding the faith that is true to Scripture, reason, tradition and experience.

We are a Holiness People
God, who is holy, calls us to a life of holiness. We believe that the Holy Spirit seeks to do in us a second work of grace, called by various terms including "entire sanctification" and "baptism with the Holy Spirit" - cleansing us from all sin; renewing us in the image of God; empowering us to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves; producing in us the character of Christ. Holiness in the life of believers is most clearly understood as Christ likeness.

We are a Missional People
We are a "sent people", responding to the call of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit to go into all the world, to the Lordship of Christ and participating with God in the building of the Church and the extension of His kingdom (2 Corinthains 6:1). Our mission (a) begins in worship, (b) ministers to the world in evangelism and compassion, (c) encourages believers toward Christian maturity through discipleship and (d) prepares women and men for Christian service through Christian higher education.

We are a Relational People
We intentionally build loving relationships with each other modeling the example given by Christ with the disciples and seekers. We worship together, grow together, work together, pray together and eat together. We laugh, cry and play together. We are the family in faith. We also intentionally build loving bridges with seekers by investing in their lives. We seek to know them, hear them, love them, pray for and with them and encourage them. We show God's love in personal, practical and exceptional ways. We are more than friendly, we want to make friends. Faith is not a product to isolate but loving relationships to integrate. We are called to love God and neighbor. Each neighbor becomes nearer and dearer to us. Ashland Church of the Nazarene is its people, living and loving.

Ashland Church of the Nazarene's Mission

“Becoming champions in Christ, Building champions for Christ.”

Ashland Church of the Nazarene Principles

Transformational Leadership
    Leaders who both model and mentor others into the likeness of Christ are demonstrating reliance upon the Holy Spirit indwelling within us in purity and power. Each minister and ministry team have the freedom to operate under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and within the stated mission, vision, core values, strategic principles and dynamics of the church. Leadership empowers and assists others into successful ministry with just enough parameters and administration as necessary but not cumbersome.

Spiritual Vitality
    All ministries have their source and expression in Christ. As we become children of God by being saved from sins, we continue becoming spiritually vital through receiving the person, gifts, and fruits of the Holy Spirit. We recognize this truth that it “is not by (human) might, nor by (human) power, but by my (Divine) Spirit, says the Lord.” Spiritual vitality is life-giving and life-changing.

Becoming
    Becoming champions in Christ means making our spiritual needs a priority in intentional ways. We posture ourselves attitudinally and practically so that we may experience help in living victoriously. Therefore, we employ the spiritual formation practices and disciplines like baptism, the Lord’s Supper, footwashing, prayer and fasting, study and meditation, simplicity and solitude, submission and service, confession and worship and guidance and celebration. Our small group ministry, “Champion Life Groups” is a relationship-driven model that is grace-centered and Scripturally-faithful in building champions, typically through home-based weekly gatherings. The Sunday School and Discipleship Ministries International, Nazarene Missions International and Nazarene Youth International all converge and cooperate in “Becoming Champions in Christ; Building Champions for Christ.”

Building
    We facilitate faith by encouraging the weak, and challenging the self-reliant into full surrender to the Lordship of Christ. We intentionally engage and include others into the life of the community of faith. We want to receive the faith and then to pass it down in others. Whereas faith may be personal, it is not private. The Christian faith is to be lived out authentically and assertively. We model and we mentor. Just as The Word became flesh (incarnation), so Christians “flesh out” their faith by applying Biblical truth in everyday life and facilitating others to do the same. Building champions for Christ is a responsibility and an outgrowth of one's own becoming a champion in Christ. Persons are never objects to conquer but subjects to honor and serve. We facilitate and celebrate Christ being formed in us as a body. This process is spiritual and relational, requiring yielding to Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Ministering
    Recognizing that God sets apart some for full-time or “professionally-compensated” service does not negate the truth that every Christian is a minister. The method of separating clergy and laity tends to erode the biblical truth of the priesthood of all believers. All Christians are to minister, whether compensated or set apart in the hierarchy of the church or not. Each believer is called to exercise his/her essential ministries within the body of Christ. No believer is to be passive or excluded from vital ministry. Each believer is to “press forward” in understanding his/her gift(s) and to exercise them. No minister is valued more than another, but as each part does its work, the body of Christ is built up in love. Each believer is set free to serve his or her Lord.

Community and Diversity
    Since the Lord's prayer begins with “our”, it is a “we prayer”and not a “me prayer.” We fail if our faith is reduced to private. We are called to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. We are called to bear one another's burdens, fulfilling the law of Christ. We recognize that there is variety in the human body as there are different parts with different functions. The same is true spiritually. No person is to mimic another. We are called to model and mentor, but never mimic. We do not reproduce “cookie-cutter” Christians. We celebrate the mosaic pattern of the church made up of men and women from every ethnicity, culture, nation, age and language. However, we do not embrace professing Christians who claim the Lordship of Christ but do not do what He commands. Persons who, after understanding, refuse to yield to clear Scriptural truth or whose lives bear witness to darkness rather than light, self-exclude from those who call themselves Christian. However, all seekers are encouraged and welcome to worship the Lord Jesus Christ regardless of spiritual need. Our prayer is that the Holy Spirit will bring to genuine repentance and faith in Him. We champion the soul of every person, praying for Divine assistance.

Authority
    Bewaring of the unaccountable life, Paul instructs us to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ in Ephesians 5:21. No person is to lord it over another through domination or intimidation. However, we are to “lead and bleed” for others. Greatness is not decided by power or position but in submission and service. Learning to be the servant of all is Christ's call to each Christian. Because God is a God of order and peace and the devil brings defiance and chaos, God has established authority in the church. The church is accountable to the lead pastor in following Christ and Scripture. The lead pastor is also accountable to the authority established in Scripture and in The Manual of the Church of the Nazarene

. We support the Manual of the Church of the Nazareneas it gives detail in doctrinal, governmental, and other specific areas. We believe that God's authority protects and blesses a church and models unity to the world. Conflict is to be resolved biblically, humbly, gently, kindly, and persistently. We seek an experience for God's people reflected in Psalm 133.

Ashland Church of the Nazarene Dynamics

Organism
    We recognize that the church is an organism requiring organization for its needs. We are alive in Christ. An organization exists as a means to a greater end. While statistics are important and will be keenly observed, we recognize that true growth is spiritual and relational. The fruits of the Spirit are cherished more than numbers on the ledge of a board. As Paul said, we want to know Christ and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings and so somehow to attain to the resurrection of the dead. We believe the church is called to be salt and light in the world as agents of truth facilitating revival and renewal. Numerical and financial growth tend to follow a spiritually healthy church. We endorse the research of Natural Church Development which has discovered the eight quality characteristics of a healthy church which are empowering leadership, gift-oriented ministry, passionate spirituality, functional structures, inspiring worship services, holistic small groups, need-oriented evangelism, and loving relationships. We test our health in these eight areas, seeking to become healthier by focusing on any area of need. As summarized by Rick Warren, we seek in becoming warmer through fellowship, deeper through discipleship, stronger through worship, broader through ministry, and larger through evangelism.

Hopeful
    We don't believe we are called to be pessimistic. Although we see the demise of marriage, family, faith, and culture, we have historical proof in Scripture, history and present day of God's redemptive power. We believe that the answer to the wound in the human heart caused by sin is healed by the forgiveness offered by Jesus Christ through his shed blood. We believe that a Christian does not have to be conquered by sin but can be conquering sin and expressing love through yielding to the indwelling Spirit of God. This hope does not inspire confidence in the flesh (human) but confidence in Christ. We do not believe that it is either impossible not to sin on one hand or impossible to sin on the other hand. We simply believe that God can write his love-law on our hearts and mind to enable and equip us to live for him in humility and grace, repenting if we sin. Repentance is necessary when one violates the intention or expression of God's love in this world. Revival and healing come when we surrender to Christ individually, as a church, family, country and world. We are people with a hope!

Technologically Attentive
    We embrace any technology that offers a better method in delivering the gospel and resist any method no longer effective in delivering the gospel. We are loyal to Christ and Scriptural truth. We will by any ethical means necessary, including ancient or modern ones, present Jesus Christ. We do not believe, at this time, that any technological medium is inherently sinful or sacred. We don't necessarily have to use the newest technologies, but we are willing to for a soul's sake. We will not fall behind technologically but be perpetually current. While we celebrate God's work and workers in the past, we will not allow the church to be reduced to a museum. We will demonstrate a frontier mentality because mission supersedes maintenance.

Giving
    We join minds, hearts, wallets and purses. We celebrate sacrifice and commitment. We believe that God desires excellence in building and grounds, and in ministries. “Good enough” is not in our vocabulary. God expects the first and the best in our giving and in quality work. We give cheerfully! We are in God's business, the greatest business in the world. Join us in becoming champions in Christ and building champions for Christ because it is not only fun, it is worth the sacrifice!

Church of the Nazarene

For more information about the Church of the Nazarene you can visit our district
web site or the Church of the Nazarene's web site.

North Central Ohio District
Nazarene Headquarters

(Bold and italicized words are summary and/or action phrases).

VISION

MISSION

CORE VALUES

STRATEGIC PRINCIPLES

DYNAMICS

BECOMING

We are a Christian, holiness, missional, and relational people making Christ-like disciples in the nations. We will passionately pursue becoming champions in Christ because He is the source of our salvation and the model of healthy faith in every relationship.

Becoming Champions in Christ

Christian Holiness

Transformational Leadership Spiritual Vitality Becoming

Organism Hopeful

BUILDING

We will passionately present the relevance of the Christian faith through creative grace-based ministries. We connect disciples together in the kingdom business of building champions for Christ

Building Champions for Christ

Missional Relational

Building Ministering Community and Diversity

Authority

Technologically- Attentive
Giving