The name of the denomination comes from the biblical description of Jesus Christ, who had been raised in the village of Nazareth, Israel, and using the demonym of Nazarene. Jesus, and later his followers, is called a Nazarene in several bible verses, as well as many bible translations, such as the NASB Bible and KJV.[18] It was first used in October 1895 by Dr. Phineas F. Bresee's church based in downtown Los Angeles, California. Dr. Joseph Pomeroy Widney It was first recommended by Dr. Joseph Pomeroy Widney, a former president of the University of Southern California and an influential figure in the early days of the Church of the Nazarene on the West Coast. The denomination started as a church that ministered to the homeless and poor, and wanted to keep that attitude of ministering to "lower classes" of society. Bresee's west coast portion met with similar holiness churches based in south and along the east coast of the United States. The southern churches were under the name Association of Pentecostal Churches of America. To reflect the both denominational tributaries the newly formed merged church operated under the title the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene. The term "Pentecostal" in the church's original name soon proved to be increasingly problematic. Inside the Wesleyan-holiness movement, the word was used widely as a synonym simply for "holiness". However, the rise of 20th century Pentecostalism, especially after 1906, new meanings and associations, "particularly in regards to charismatic gifts like speaking in tongues,"[19] attached themselves to the term – meanings that the Pentecostal Nazarenes rejected. In 1919, at the fifth General Assembly in Nashville, the Church voted to remove the word "Pentecostal" from the church name, returning to Breese's Los Angeles' Church name, simply as Church of the Nazarene.[20]

Education with character