“Church of the Nazarene? Never heard of it. What kind of church are you? How are you different from other denominations?”

Many Nazarenes know what it is like to be asked these questions by friends and acquaintances who are curious about what kind of church they belong to. People often want to know what Nazarenes believe and stand for. In order to help answer these questions, Nazarene Essentials was produced. Nazarene Essentials, which describes the DNA of our global church, is a new document explaining the basics of the Church of the Nazarene's teaching, history, theology, mission, funding, and connections.

"Nazarene Essentials is a resource available to all churches to help deepen our people's understanding of who we are and what we believe," said David Graves, Church of the Nazarene general superintendent. "It is one of the most exciting resources that has been developed for the global church."

In the year since the Board of General Superintendents released Nazarene Essentials, translators on the Eurasia Region have been working rigorously to complete 18 translations of the publication. Although the denomination was first planted in India more than 100 years ago and spread across Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia over the past century, rapid growth in certain areas of the region over recent years means many members – laity and clergy – are new Christians and/or new to the denomination's doctrines and beliefs, particularly about scriptural holiness.

Written in plain language, Nazarene Essentials is a timely document to help new generations of Nazarenes and new believers understand what the church believes and why.

The translations now available to Eurasian Nazarenes are:

• Completed, printed, and available on the Wesleyan Holiness Digital Library
  • Albanian
  • Croatian
  • French
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Spanish
  • Portuguese

• Completed and available digitally on the Wesleyan Holiness Digital Library (to be printed)
  • Armenian
  • Bulgarian

• Completed and soon to be on the Wesleyan Holiness Digital Library (to be printed)
  • Hindi
  • Marathi
  • Telugu
  • Kannada
  • Oriya
  • Tamil
  • Gujrathi
  • Punjabi

Italian is complete and in the editing process. The document was originally released as the March/April 2015 edition of the denomination’s magazine Holiness Today. For questions about upcoming translations on the Eurasia Region, write to office@eurasiaregion.org.

--Church of the Nazarene Eurasia Region