About Us

Mt. Sterling Nazarene Church is a community of believers. What does that mean, the word community? We believe that together in fellowship we grow closer to God and one another. The bible speaks about iron sharpening iron. We believe that together we grow stronger. We are a community of believers.

Nazarene Church strives to be a church without walls. Jesus calls for us to go outside the walls to reach the lost and the broken. It is there that the lost will be found. Nazarene Church makes an effort to be like the church from the book of Acts, to see our city changed.

Nazarene Church highly values our relationships with one another. We look to grow through fellowship, and ultimately growing closer to God. We value the word of God, and the leadership of the Holy Spirit. We look to extend grace to all of the lost and broken, and lead those with no hope to the hope of Jesus Christ.

The mission of the Church of the Nazarene is to make Christlike disciples in the nations.

We are a Great Commission church. As a global community of faith, we are commissioned to take the Good News of life in Jesus Christ to people everywhere and to spread the message of scriptural holiness across the lands.

The Church of the Nazarene bonds together individuals who have made Jesus Christ Lord of their lives, sharing in Christian fellowship, and seeking to strengthen each other in faith development through worship, preaching, training, and service to others.

We strive to express the compassion of Jesus Christ to all persons along with our personal commitment to Christlike living. While the primary motive of the church is to glorify God, we also are called to actively participate in His mission — reconciling the world to himself.

The statement of mission contains historical essentials of our mission: Evangelism, Sanctification, Discipleship, Compassion. The essence of holiness is Christlikeness. Nazarenes are becoming a sent people-into homes, work places, communities, and villages as well as other cities and countries. Missionaries are now sent from all regions of the world. God continues calling ordinary people to do extraordinary things made possible by the person of the Holy Spirit.

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).

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”

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 begins in worship, ministers to the world in evangelism and compassion, encourages believers toward Christian maturity through discipleship, and prepares women and men for Christian service through Christian higher education.

Mt. Sterling Church of the Nazarene has faithfully served Mt. Sterling and the surrounding Brown County community for many years. Located at 400 East Franklin Street in Mt. Sterling, Illinois, the church has been a place where individuals and families gather to worship, grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ, and support one another through every season of life.

Throughout its history, the congregation has remained committed to biblical teaching, prayer, compassionate service, and sharing the hope of the gospel. Generations of pastors, leaders, volunteers, and church members have contributed their time and gifts to build a welcoming community centered on Christ.

Today, Mt. Sterling Church of the Nazarene continues building upon this faithful foundation—honoring those who came before while reaching new generations with God’s love. The church remains dedicated to making disciples, serving its neighbors, and helping people discover the transforming grace of Jesus Christ.

Who we are

About Mt. Sterling Nazarene Church

Mt. Sterling Nazarene Church

Statement of Mission

Nazarene Church Leadership Team

Dave and Leah Kessler

Statement of Beliefs

Mt. Sterling Nazarene Church

TRINITY

SCRIPTURE

SINFUL NATURE

ETERNITY

SALVATION

SANCTIFICATION

THE HOLY SPIRIT

CHRIST'S RETURN

Core Values

A Christian People

A Holiness People

A Missional People

Mt. Sterling Nazarene Church History

Serving the Illinois community

About Mt. Sterling Nazarene Church