UR STORY OFFICIALLY BEGAN in 1906 – but was birthed long before amidst tent meetings and revival prayer. It was a time of adventure, exploits and new beginnings. The headlines told stories of Teddy Roosevelt, San Francisco fires and earthquakes, refugees flooding Portland, the Panama Canal, and the first flight of the Wright Brothers. World travelers and leaders were coming to Portland.
Meanwhile, Phineas Bresee was a Methodist pastor who, while ministering in Los Angeles around the turn of the century, became increasingly concerned about the poor, addicted, and outcast. He wanted a church that was for everyone, especially those with significant needs. Bresee became part of forming a new Wesleyan-Holiness denomination, the Church of the Nazarene, a name chosen because it identified with common people for whom Jesus lived and died. Portland First Church of the Nazarene was launched as the fruit of revival tent meetings sponsored by the Oregon Holiness Association. There was a desire to gather and freely embrace the doctrine of holiness and sanctification. Bresee was the first pastor. Over a century has come and gone.
We asked,
"How do we serve our community better?"
In 2019, we believed God had invited us to continue to take a unique direction as a result of asking this important question: “How do we serve our community better?” In years past, we had been the congregations of Portland First, Eden Community, Beaverton Church of the Nazarene (Lighthouse Church), and Casa Del Luz. In early 2020, we united under a new name, Nexus Church, in order to become a hub of disciple-making, missional engagement and service to our community. We put our focus on our community at-large much like founding pastor, Phinneas Bresee, who said, “Let the Church of the Nazarene be true to its commission; not great and elegant buildings; but to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and wipe away the tears of sorrowing… The gospel comes to a multitude without money and without price, and the poorest of the poor are entitled to a front seat at the Church of the Nazarene.”
We’re a part of the Church of the Nazarene,
a Wesleyan-Holiness Denomination that was birthed out of the American Holiness Movement in the early 1900s.
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To learn more about the Church of the Nazarene visit Nazarene.org.
| our core values |
We Are a Christian People
S MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL, we join with all true believers in proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ and in affirming the historic Trinitarian creeds and beliefs of the 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 united with all believers in proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We believe that in divine love God offers to all people forgiveness of sins and restored relationship. In being reconciled to God, we believe that we are also to be reconciled to one another, loving each other as we have been loved by God and forgiving each other as we have been forgiven by God. We believe that our life together is to exemplify the character of Christ. We look to Scripture as the primary source of spiritual truth confirmed by reason, tradition, and experience.
Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Church, which, as the Nicene Creed tells us, is one, holy, universal, and apostolic. In Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit, God the Father offers forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to all the world. Those who respond to God’s offer in faith become the people of God. Having been forgiven and reconciled in Christ, we forgive and are reconciled to one another. In this way, we are Christ’s Church and Body and reveal the unity of that Body. As the one Body of Christ, we have “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” We affirm the unity of Christ’s Church and strive in all things to preserve it.
(Ephesians 4:5, 3).
We Are a Holiness People
OD, WHO IS WHOLE, 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, and producing in us the character of Christ. Holiness in the life of believers is most clearly understood as Christlikeness.
Because we are called by Scripture and drawn by grace to worship God and to love Him with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves, we commit ourselves fully and completely to God, believing that we can be "sanctified wholly," as a second crisis experience. We believe that the Holy Spirit convicts, cleanses, fills, and empowers us as the grace of God transforms us day by day into a people of love, spiritual discipline, ethical and moral purity, compassion, and justice. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that restores us in the image of God and produces in us the character of Christ.
We believe in God the Father, the Creator, who calls into being what does not exist. We once were not, but God called us into being and fashioned us in God’s own image. We have been commissioned to bear the image of God: "I am the LORD . . . your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy" (Leviticus 11:44).
We Are a Missional People
E ARE A SENT PEOPLE, responding to the call of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit to go into all the world, witnessing to the Lordship of Christ and participating with God in the building of the Church and the extension of His kingdom (Matthew 28:19-20; 2 Corinthians 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.
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The nexus team
co- senior pastor
Elizabeth graham
co- senior pastor
JARON graham
ASSOCIATE PASTOR & CONGREGATIONAL CARE
bruce anderson
IGLESIA NEXO
LEAD PASTOR
luis garcia
OFFICE MANAGER & FACILITIES MANAGER
kenna mostul
OUTREACH PASTOR & MINISTRY SUPPORT
shawna rench
KIDS DIRECTOR
amy gillilan
FINANCE ASSISTANT & SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
emily zamora
IGLESIA NEXO WORSHIP DIRECTOR
CRISTIAN
CASTELLANOS
WORSHIP DIRECTOR
brent anderson
MINISTRY SUPPORT & RECOVERY PASTOR
JESSE RENCH
FACILITIES ASSISTANT
JOSE LUEVANOS
