A history of the Church of the Nazarene in continental Europe.

Abstract

The Church of the Nazarene, founded in 1908, has been the largest evangelical holiness church in the world. The church's ministry reached post World War II Europe and remains active there today. This thesis describes the emergence and growth of the Church of the Nazarene on the "European Continent," including names, dates, places and significant events instrumental in the formative years. Some analysis as to success or failure of the Nazarene Church in Europe has been attempted. Succeeding chapters deal with the missionary perspective of the Nazarene Church, successes and failure, and work in Italy, West Germany, Denmark, European Nazarene Bible College, Holland, Portugal, France, Switzerland, Spain, with a concluding chapter taking a future look at Nazarene in Europe. Emphasis has been placed in the text on definitive material including graphs and statistics with some personalities highlighted, but the five Appendixes include historical data, personal letters, personalities and statistics of the Nazarene Servicemen's Retreat, structure of the mission work, and sketches of the personal lives of some missionaries. Great emphasis has been placed on the exhaustive selected bibliography, including all public announcements of Nazarene mission work in Europe. The Nazarene, an outgrowth of Methodism, with international headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri has a continuing interest in the development of the indigenous church in Europe. Emphasis has been placed on those native persons that will lead the Nazarene in future years.