Schedule of anniversary events
Sunday services at 10:30 a.m.
Oct. 2: Speaker Dr. Doug VanNest for Celebration Kick-off.
Oct. 9: Former pastor Rev. Michael Norris
Oct. 16: Allison Spear concert
Oct. 23: Former pastor Rev. Don Boesel
Oct. 29: 5 to 8 p.m. catered banquet, $15 reservations. Speaker Rev. Mike Hancock and music by Rev. Bruce McGraw
Oct. 30: 100th Celebration Service, recognition of former pastors, celebration music, fellowship in Family Life Center
How to go
What: 100th Anniversary Celebration
Where: First Church of the Nazarene, 7031 N. Main, Dayton
When: Sundays in October and Saturday, Oct. 29
More Info: (937) 278-6555, daytonnaz@clearwire.net
The First Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene of Dayton opened just three years after the Nazarene denomination was started in Texas. The first service was held with 26 members on Oct. 11, 1911, in a hall on the Lewis block of Fifth and Jefferson streets.
In March of 1919, “Pentecostal” officially was removed from the church name.
Its 100th Anniversary Celebration of the First Church of the Nazarene will be going on during the entire month of October.
In anticipation of this momentous occasion, the church and its Family Life Center have been undergoing major refurbishing. The heating and air conditioning units have been updated. A new roof was put on the sanctuary. The bathrooms, kitchen area, and fireside room of the Family Life Center were updated. The parking lot was repaved. New paint covers all the outside trim, and all carpeting in both buildings has been replaced.
“I have been here five years as of June. We started preparations shortly after I came,” said the Rev. Stanley Ward. “There were several major projects that needed to be done. We not only did these things for the 100th celebration, but we have pride in our church. We want to look our best for the community.”
A “Brief History” of the Dayton First Church of the Nazarene is almost 40 pages. There are three living pastors from the church: Ward, Mike Norris and Don Boesel. Norris and Boesel will participate in the celebration as special speakers on Oct. 9 and 23, respectively.
Norris served as pastor from 1975 to 1981, when he moved his family to Mt. Vernon, Ohio. He then served as reverend for First Church of the Nazarene.
Boesel resigned in 1997 after 16 years as pastor to move to Temple, Texas, to become the leader of the Harlingen First Church of the Nazarene.
Both have since retired from the ministry.
Ward left a pastorate of the Wadsworth Church of the Nazarene in the north Canton area in 2006.
“I’ve been a Nazarene pastor for 37 years. It’s a tremendous privilege just being in the pastorate myself all these years,” said Ward. “I’ve seen churches come and go, and many churches don’t make it past 50 years. So being part of a church with this history is really a momentous accomplishment.
“We do believe the church is actually a body of Christ. It’s important for people to understand we’re not a segregated group of people. We just have a particular focus as a denomination and calling people to live a holy life.”
The denomination is just a little over 100 years itself; it was founded in 1908 in Pilot Point, Texas. A number of independent churches from across the nation came together to form the Church of the Nazarene.
“We are a part of what we call the Wesleyan movement that began in the Methodist Church. We are an offshoot of that,” said Ward. “We emphasize not only that we need to be saved from our sins by accepting Christ as our Savior, but that God calls us to live a totally committed holy life.”
All through the century, various leaders, members and congregations of this particular church have come through hardships and kept the church going.
About a year before the official opening of the church, one of the men who planted the seed for a Nazarene church in Dayton, Rev. Ared Garrigus, perished with his wife when a passenger train collided with a freight train near Cincinnati. Plans for the church continued. After a two-alarm fire at its sanctuary at 2128 Howell Avenue in January 1948, services were held at Westwood Grade School until a new sanctuary could be built at 3317 Hoover Avenue.
“The Church of the Nazarene has one of the largest missionary organizations of any denomination. We’re in over 100 world areas, with 700 plus missionaries around the world,” said Ward. “I feel that what the church represents is more important than ever now.”
Contact contributing writer Pamela Dillon at pamdillon@woh.rr.com.
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