Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

The Rev. Rick Bailey, pastor of Christiansburg First Church of the Nazarene, has been working on a sermon for the church's centennial Sunday. The sermon will include the history of the Nazarene church and an outline of its mission statement.

CHRISTIANSBURG -- This day marks a milestone for the Church of the Nazarene, a global Christian denomination that celebrates its centennial today across 24 time zones.

Nazarene churches throughout the New River Valley in Christiansburg, Floyd, Pulaski and Dublin will celebrate with special services and events today.

The Nazarene emerged in 1908 from a unification of various Wesleyan-Holiness denominations at Pilot Point, Texas, to evolve into an international church made up of 380 districts worldwide, 75 percent of which are outside the United States and Canada, according to the church's Web site. The church has a total of about 1.4 million members, with more than half living outside the United States and Canada.

The Rev. Rick Bailey, pastor of Christiansburg First Church of the Nazarene, said the large numbers of international members the church has is a result of missionaries the Nazarene has sent out since 1908.

"It brings a lot of diversity," Bailey said. "For years, we have always sent missionaries to the field, and now the U.S. is becoming a field of its own. I think all of this growth around the world is just a growth of spreading the holiness message that God has called us to since the beginning."

That message is one Bailey describes as having an emphasis on living a holy life based on sanctification by grace through faith. The message originated with the holiness movements that arose in the 1830s.

The Rev. Stephen Gordon, pastor at Pulaski New Life Church of the Nazarene, said the diversity of the church is a bittersweet situation.

"On the sweet side, the Church of the Nazarene has been very missions-involved from its outset, and many of the groups that merged together to form the church already had missionaries in the field at the time -- we've always reached out to other nations," he said.

"The bitter part of that is what we are seeing on the mission field is exceeding what we see here at home -- the hunger and thirst for God seems to be greater there than in the U.S. I think that reinforces the need for the church to refocus its energy here, but to keep the balance in knowing that we are a global denomination because Jesus' command was to go into the entire world," he said. "We have to find ways to make ourselves relevant to a society that doesn't believe the church really is relevant anymore."

Bailey described how the church's diversity transcends international borders because the message is the same across all nations.

"The Nazarene centennial marks a marriage of existing holiness families that created a new one," he said. "We were predominantly an American family then, with relatives in other nations. Today we're an international family, and no single language, nationality or race claims the majority of the membership. It's about consecrating your life to God and being a holy people."

Christiansburg First Church of the Nazarene is a relatively young church itself, founded in 1992 with a new building being built in 1997. Bailey has been the church's pastor since 2002, and he said he plans to deliver a centennial-themed service and give out heritage awards to members who started the Christiansburg church. The church will also host a dinner after the services and a special communion service tonight.

Pulaski New Life Church of the Nazarene will also celebrate with a centennial service by giving out a heritage award and by hosting a dinner after its services, and Gordon said there will be a choir and other special singing at the church. There are also members who plan to stand and give testimonies about how the church has been influential in their lives. The church was founded in 1954, and Gordon has been its pastor since 2001.