Beliefs

We are one of more than 30,000 congregations that are part of the global Church of the Nazarene in more than 160 countries and we share the Core Values of our denomination: Christian, Holiness, Missional.

Christian

By this we mean that we share the historic faith of Christianity found in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds and in the Articles of Faith of most Christian denominations.

We believe in the Triune God who is one but who has revealed himself in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We believe that God is personal and relational and desires a relationship with every person.

We believe in the full deity and full humanity of Jesus Christ and in the personal reality of the Holy Spirit.

We believe the Holy Scriptures communicate God’s saving message to us and are our reliable authority in all matters related to faith and Christian living.

We believe that all humankind naturally lives with self at the center of their lives and thus fails to live in the relationship with God for which they were created.

We believe that apart from God’s help we are forever trapped in isolation from God and God’s best for us, but through a faith commitment to Jesus Christ we can be delivered from our self-centered lives into life in relationship with God.

We believe the love and grace of God is extended to every person by the provision Jesus Christ made in his death and resurrection. By turning from our own selfishness and trust Jesus Christ, we can experience a new life, being freed from the old patterns of self-destructive acts of sin.

Holiness

By this we mean that we share the heritage of the Holiness Revivals that began in the Methodist Church and swept across many denominations in this country in the late 19th century. From this heritage we hold these convictions.

We believe our new life in Jesus Christ opens the door to a life of transformation. Following our moment of faith in Jesus, we believe there is another moment in which we present our life completely to Christ in order to live under his authority which enables us to experience his transforming power.

We believe that Christian experience is more than a change of mind. It includes constantly seeking for and receiving from God wholeness and holiness, first in our intentions and thoughts, and then, in ever increasing measure, in our words and daily lives.

We believe this ever-growing relationship with God is accompanied by assurance that is grounded in both the Scriptures as well as the inner witness of God's Spirit.

We believe that all who live in this relationship with God through Jesus Christ have an eternal future. This future includes both the fulfillment of God's purposes in creation as well as the accountability of all persons endowed with the power of choice.

Missional

By this we mean that we are to participate in God’s mission to restore all creation so that it can fulfill his divine purposes for creation.

We believe that God calls us to share his love and grace and his provisions for deliverance from our self-destructive sins with every person with whom we have contact.

We believe God desires the body of believers in Jesus Christ, known in the New Testament as the church, to be a community that offers grace and love to the people around us and to people around the world.

We believe God calls us to embody the love and virtues found in Christ in all our interactions with people and with creation.

History

Ministry Yesterday

In 1966, a small group of worshipers met in an elementary school at 87th and Lamar. For the most part, they were church leaders and members from Nazarene churches in Kansas City, Mo. They felt a calling to be God’s instruments in bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the growing suburbs of what was then southern Overland Park and its surrounding communities. 

They understood that this growing community would need church leadership and that the Overland Park Church of the Nazarene would be there to provide it. By October, 1966, the congregation, now numbering 80, bought property on the northwest corner of 91st and Lamar and built the first of three buildings there. They were respected for their Christian convictions and their strong and deep roots in the Holiness Movement in general, and in the Church of the Nazarene in particular.

As an outgrowth of an English as a Second Language outreach program God brought into the Overland Park Church of the Nazarene a significant group of Mandarin speaking persons mostly from China and Taiwan, including many believers. The church chose to integrate our Mandarin speaking and our English speaking friends as thoroughly as possible and the results of that decision are clear today in our worship and discipleship programs.

Ministry Today

Overland Park Church of the Nazarene is actively engaged in living out its mission to be a community of grace that confesses “Jesus Christ is Lord.” The words “community” and “grace” as well as the phrase, “Jesus Christ is Lord” provide the guidelines for the ways we are re-visioning church and ministries as we emerge from the COVID pandemic that began in 2020.

We are a community. Our community is diverse: old and young, American in culture and Asian in culture, highly educated and those pursuing education, among just a few evidences of our diversity. But we are a community that shares a common purpose of proclaiming the gospel of Christ and learning to live with respect and mutual love for each other.

We are a community of grace. Our operating mode is friendly welcome of each other. This is seen in our Wednesday evening fellowship meals and in the lively conversations that occur in the sanctuary and online before and after Sunday morning worship.

We are a community of grace that seek to make Jesus Christ the Lord of our lives and of our congregation. Our discipleship activities are deeply rooted in the reading, study, and application of Scripture. We draw on the deep wells of historic Christian traditions of belief and worship. We understand that Jesus’ Lordship means that he must be the final word on the rightness of our thoughts, our words, and our actions.

We experience God’s faithfulness to us in many ways:

·        A recent very successful Capital Campaign

·        Scripture-based worship built around the historic four-fold pattern of worship.

·        The reading of Scripture in both English and Mandarin as central to our worship

·        Discipleship activities for all age groups available both face to face and by Zoom

·        Live streamed services that enable those who are not able to be present in our church building to genuinely be part of our congregation

·        The purpose of our worship and discipleship is to equip us to participate in God’s mission to redeem the world

·        The opportunity to be part of a global system of missionary work including several missionaries from our local congregation

Ministry Tomorrow

Because God calls us to be a community of grace that confesses “Jesus Christ is Lord” we are responding to this call by the power of God’s Spirit as we:

·        Worship God, consecrating our whole lives to

·        Grow together in Christlike character and

·        Equip God’s people for lifelong ministry so we may

·        Serve others in Christian love and compassion as we

·        Share the good news of Christ with all people

To take our mission and our charge seriously calls for continual openness to God. It calls for communal change, but that change starts in our own hearts. God is calling YOU to be a person of grace who will confess that “Jesus is Lord.” God calls each one of us to take up our cross daily and follow Him—to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves. We pray that we are transformed by the vision that God has given us. We pray that people would come to know the life-changing power of the Cross and the work of the Holy Spirit. We pray that lives would be transformed, relationships strengthened, forgiveness would flow freely, worship would saturate everything we do, and the church would make a difference in the community around it!