Outreach and Administration Pastor: Daniel Mattison
About Us
Our Mission – Be and Make Christlike followers of Jesus for the glory of God.
Our Great Commission Partners Jesus said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, NIV)
Jerusalem = Our Community
Riverbend Family Ministries
Community of Hope
Godfrey Church of the Nazarene
Judea and Samaria = State and Region
Illinois District Church of the Nazarene
We partner with 74 other churches for church planting, camps, training, ordination and compassionate ministries Our goal is to give 5.85% of the church’s income to the Illinois District
Olivet Nazarene University
We partner with 743 churches across 11 districts to provide higher Christian education.
Our goal is to give 2.25% of the church’s income to ONU.
Pensions & Benefits USA
We partner with all Nazarene churches in the USA to provide retirement for clergy.
Our goal is to give 2.25% of the church’s income to PBUSA.
Ends of the Earth = World Missions
World Evangelism Fund
We partner with all Nazarene churches globally to take the Good News of Jesus to every people group.
Our goal is to give 5.5% of the church’s income to WEF
Core Values
Christian – As 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).
Holiness – 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, 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, made us for himself, and fashioned us in His 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).
Missional – We 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.
We Believe In one God – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We Believe the Old and New Testament Scripters, given by plenary inspiration, contain all truth necessary to faith and Christian living.
We Believe Human beings are born with a fallen nature, and are, therefore, inclined to evil, and that continually.
We Believe The finally impenitent are hopelessly and eternally lost.
We Believe The atonement though Jesus Christ is for the whole human race; and that whosoever repents and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is justified and regenerated and saved from the dominion of sin.
We Believe That believers are to be sanctified wholly, subsequent to regeneration, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We Believe The Holy Spirit bears witness to the new birth, and also to the entire sanctification of believers.
We Believe our Lord will return, the dead will be raised, and the final judgement will take place.