Preach, Teach, Live, Win

That subspecies of fundamentalism, the "holiness" church, lays such stress on goodness, consecration and sanctity that most Christians boggle at the thought of meeting the standards. But the Church of the Nazarene has no fewer than 405,000 members who are willing to try. Last week, at its 16th quadrennial general assembly, more than 22,000 of them squeezed into the Portland, Ore., Memorial Coliseum for a mammoth communion service. Six hundred ministers, most of them dressed in business suits rather than clerical garb, distributed the wafers, along with 45 gallons of grape juice in tiny plastic cups, to the faithful.

"Heart Holiness." The Memorial Coliseum was decorated for the occasion with banners that read "Preach, Teach, Live, Win" and "In the Power of the Spirit"--slogans that sum up the Nazarene way of life. Conservative in doctrine, the church interprets the Bible literally, believes in "heart holiness"--that God's gift of the Holy Spirit allows man to overcome his inclinations to ward evil and achieve perfection on earth. In pursuit of perfection, the hymn-loving Nazarenes do not smoke, drink, go to movies or even read the Sunday papers. Many families have altars at home, regard a 10% tithe as the floor rather than the ceiling to church donations. Among major U.S. churches, they lead the nation in Christian giving, with a per capita average of $147.78 per year, compared for example, to $88.08 for United Presbyterians.

The Nazarene Church grew out of the 19th century's holiness movement, a frontier-wide rebellion against the formalism of mainstream Protestant churches. Organized in 1908 by a group of dissident ministers, many of them Methodists and Baptists, the church is strongest in small Midwestern towns, but missions are now scattered from India to Peru.

A New Goal. As their church approaches middle-age, some Nazarenes worry that the light of faith may be dimming slightly. "Already we're showing hardening of the arteries," said Dr. Samuel Young of Kansas City, board chairman of the church's six general superintendents (roughly equivalent to bishops). "We're at the stage when we start to slow down." To halt any decline, the Nazarenes are considering merger with such like-minded groups as the Pilgrim Holiness Church, the Free Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Nazarenes will vigorously pursue their home visitation program aimed at rooting out unchurched believers and luring more children into Sunday school. That gave rise to a glowing new Nazarene slogan: "One million souls for Christ," by 1968. Judging by past performances, it is a not impossible goal; there are 824,000 Nazarene youngsters in Sunday schools already.

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