Chestertown Church of The Nazarene

01/25/2026

Due to the snowstorm, Chestertown Church of the Nazarene will be closed to in-person church today, Sunday, January 25th, 2026. We will still be meeting on Zoom to pray and reflect on scripture together at our regular time. You can find information about how to participate in our Zoom on our website.

12/20/2025

Christmas can be a difficult season sometimes. If you or someone you know is experiencing sorrow during the holiday season, join us for a time of worship in the season of long nights. Our Blue Christmas service is a service where we recognize that things are not always “merry” and “bright” there is grief there is darkness but there is always hope and we are not alone.

11/26/2025

Send a message to learn more

10/05/2025

Please join us at our Shelter Expansion Rally this afternoon at 3 pm- Our Pastor James Diggs, who is the Director of the Shelter, will be sharing how you can help open the Shelter a month earlier this year as we head into our winter season!

Are you coming to the Winter Shelter Expansion Rally on October 5th? We'll need your help to add a month to the shelter!

RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1p8DlXVYPFoFZIo3Gdc5EFI9vBdk_0zKqfm3_f7RUuLw/edit

04/20/2025

http://www.chestertownnazarene.org/zoom-church.html
Join us this morning, Easter Sunday, at 11am, in person or by Zoom, to hear "words which sound like nonsense" (Luke 24:11) and learn how this is where discipleship, post-resurrection, really begins.

04/19/2025

The word to pause and reflect on for day 40 of Lent is 𝐃𝐈𝐄

In the verse above, Jesus is primarily speaking of his own death. At first his death will appear as a tragedy, but in the end it will be a triumph. His death will be the ultimate victory of the resurrection power of God over the forces of evil, sin, and death.

Though Jesus’ death is unique, he invites his followers to die as well. Like a seed that is planted in the ground and dies, Jesus invites us to die to ourselves in order to bear good fruit. We are asked to lay down our lives in love to be raised to new life.

The breathtaking message of Good Friday and Easter Sunday is that life comes out of death. The big question facing us as we journey into the events of the cross and the resurrection is this: What do we need to die to this Easter in order to enter more fully into the new life Christ wants to give us?

𝒟𝒶𝒾𝓁𝓎 𝒫𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓉𝒾𝒸ℯ:
Write down your answer to the question above on a small piece of paper, tear it up, and then bury it in the ground.

- Text from the book "Pauses for Lent: 40 Words for 40 Days"

04/18/2025

The word to pause and reflect on for day 39 of Lent is 𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐒𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐄

We all have Gethsemane moments. Perhaps we find ourselves in a crisis of some sort or we wrestle with what God wants us to do or we face the diagnosis of a severe illness. Whatever these personal Gethsemanes may look like, they have a way of challenging our trust in God.

For Jesus, his time in the Garden of Gethsemane is a time of lonely prayer before his crucifixion. It is in Gethsemane that he surrenders his life to God. It is where he falls with his face to the ground and prays, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want” (Matt. 26:39).

May we allow our own Gethsemanes to become opportunities for us to renew our trust and confidence in God’s purpose for our lives.

𝒟𝒶𝒾𝓁𝓎 𝒫𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓉𝒾𝒸ℯ:
Before you go to sleep tonight, slowly make the sign of the cross over your body as an outward sign of your heart’s intention to make Jesus’ prayer of surrender your own in the midst of your Gethsemane moment.

- Text from the book "Pauses for Lent: 40 Words for 40 Days"

04/17/2025

The word to pause and reflect on for day 38 of Lent is 𝐏𝐑𝐔𝐍𝐄

Pruning helps trees bear healthy fruit. It does not make them look more beautiful, but it does make them more fruitful. Unnecessary branches must be pruned, cut off, so that the tree can produce all the fruit it can.

In his striking image of the vine and the branches, Jesus speaks of how our lives need to be pruned by God. Those parts of our lives that lead us to resist Jesus’ way of love have to be stripped away. This pruning is done directly by the vinedresser, the Father, cutting the branches.

This pruning usually occurs when we experience hardship and humiliation. Through difficult times, we are challenged to recognize God’s pruning hand. Only then will we be accepting of God’s cleansing work in our lives instead of resisting it.

𝒟𝒶𝒾𝓁𝓎 𝒫𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓉𝒾𝒸ℯ:
Ask God to reveal to you how selfishness and self-centeredness gets expressed in your relationships. Pray for God to gently prune you of your resistance to love.

- Text from the book "Pauses for Lent: 40 Words for 40 Days"

04/16/2025

The word to pause and reflect on for day 37 of Lent is 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐘

Few experiences can be more painful than betrayal. Many of us have faced betrayal in our own lives—a romantic partner has an affair, a close friend breaks confidentiality, a business partner deceives us. Such acts of betrayal cut painfully into our souls, often evoking anger and hatred.

In the week leading up to his crucifixion, Jesus also experiences betrayal. Peter denies him. Judas kisses him. His other friends desert him. Because of these betrayals, Jesus’ enemies capture him. From that moment on, Jesus enters his passion and faithfully fulfills his calling as the suffering servant-king.

Could our betrayals also become moments to live more passionately into our calling as followers of the Crucified One? What would it mean for us this Lent to move beyond our anger and hatred toward those who have betrayed us?

𝒟𝒶𝒾𝓁𝓎 𝒫𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓉𝒾𝒸ℯ:
Bring the pain of your betrayals to God today. How is God calling you to live with them? Make a solemn commitment that you will always seek to be faithful to the promises you have made.

- Text from the book "Pauses for Lent: 40 Words for 40 Days"

04/15/2025

The word to pause and reflect on for day 36 of Lent is 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑

Many people in this world feel like they are strangers. We may experience this feeling if we are in situations where we have no genuine connections with other people. This sense of disconnect can happen in our places of work, our church communities, and even our homes.

Significantly, Jesus and the New Testament writers emphasize welcoming the stranger. The writer of Hebrews maintains that when we show hospitality to strangers, we may entertain angels unaware. (See Hebrews 13:2.) Not only are we encouraged to make strangers around us feel at home, but we are also reminded that Christ comes close to us when we do.

Welcoming strangers is a basic component of discipleship. Acknowledging this make us more aware both of the strangers around us and also motivates us to reach out and welcome them.

𝒟𝒶𝒾𝓁𝓎 𝒫𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓉𝒾𝒸ℯ:
As you go through the day, look for a stranger in your midst—a new colleague at work, a visitor at church, the person who has moved in down the road. Take the initiative to say hello, reach out with an extended hand, and take an interest in this person.

- Text from the book "Pauses for Lent: 40 Words for 40 Days"

04/14/2025

The word to pause and reflect on for day 35 of Lent is 𝐉𝐔𝐃𝐆𝐄

We have the tendency to constantly judge others. Too often we judge others for faults that we struggle with ourselves. Rather than face these things in our own lives, we see them in those around us.

Jesus addresses our judgmental habits head-on in Matthew’s Gospel by saying, “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?” (7:3). Jesus explains that we must first take the log out of our own eye, and then we will be able to see the speck in the other person’s eye more clearly.

Lent can be a time to confront the logs in our own eyes, to name them, and to call on the Lord for help removing them. Something beautiful happens when we do this: We become less judgmental, more gentle, and more understanding of the struggles that others face. In a word, we become compassionate.

𝒟𝒶𝒾𝓁𝓎 𝒫𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓉𝒾𝒸ℯ:
Write down the name of a log in your eye that you often judge in the lives of those around you. Be as honest as you can. Ask God for the grace and mercy to remove this plank and to deepen your compassion for others who wrestle with it as well.

- Text from the book "Pauses for Lent: 40 Words for 40 Days"