Who we are...
Pastor
Kristi Payne
Kristi and her husband Jay reside in Milford Center, Ohio. Kristi is an Intervention Specialist and currently teaches at Fairbanks Middle School. She has been a public-school teacher for 27 years. After receiving a call to ministry, Kristi completed the ordination process and was ordained as an elder in the Church of the Nazarene in 2013. She has been pastoring at St. Paris since 2017.
Kristi and Jay have 3 children, Tanner, Megan, Seth and one granddaughter, Piper. They love living in the country, their Chocolate Lab, Lincoln and enjoy spending time with their family.
Jay and Kristi minister together with the desire to share the hope of Jesus with others, disciple believers and share the love of Jesus with the community. They believe that the church is never to be defined as a building but is to be a body of Christ-followers who extend His love through service to others.
Pastor
Matt Perdue
Matt is the Youth Director at St. Paris Community Church of the Nazarene. He is married to Emma, and they have a wonderful son named Emmett. Matt began his journey with Christ at the age of 7. After he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior, Matt wondered what was next and came to realize that Christ would take care of those details. Matt chose to follow Jesus and asked the God to lead him in this journey called life, which brought him to St. Paris where he now teaches other students how to accept Christ as their Lord and personal Savior. Matt believes that Jesus wants us to live in such a way that others will notice; to do that, we have to allow Christ to change us so we can be the change.
Matt currently leads our youth program which is called H&F YM (Hands and Feet Youth Ministries). The young people who participate in H&F YM represent the change that Christ has made in their lives by how they treat others everywhere they go.
What we believe…
We Are Christian
As members of the universal Church, we join with all true believers in proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ and in affirming the historic creeds and beliefs of the Christian faith. We value our Wesleyan-Holiness heritage and believe it to be a way of understanding the faith that is true to Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience. We proclaim salvation through faith in Christ alone.
We Are Holiness
We believe that God makes the freedom of a holy life possible through Christ, and calls everyone to live in it. This is a holiness of heart which translates into a holiness of life. We believe in the prevenient, saving and sanctifying grace of God, which transforms our lives and empowers us to live lives that are pleasing to Him.
We Are Missional
God has commissioned His church to spread the gospel to every person. We do this by engaging our community through proclaiming the Gospel, discipling believers, and serving others in ministry. We also actively support mission efforts regionally and across the world.
The Church of the Nazarene is a Protestant Christian church in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition. Organized in 1908, the denomination is now home to about 2.3 million members worshipping in more than 29,000 local congregations in 162 world areas.
We believe in one God–the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We believe that the Old and New Testament Scriptures, given by plenary inspiration, contain all truth necessary to faith and Christian living.
We believe that man is born with a fallen nature, and is, therefore, inclined to evil, and that continually.
We believe that the finally impenitent are hopelessly and eternally lost.
We believe that the atonement through Jesus Christ is for the whole human race; and that whosoever repents and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is justified and regenerated and saved from the dominion of sin.
We believe that believers are to be sanctioned wholly, subsequent to regeneration, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We believe that the Holy Spirit bears witness to the new birth, and also to the entire sanctification of believers.
We believe that our Lord will return, the dead will be raised, and the final judgment will take place.
