In June of 1951 a precious couple, Lewis and Polly Clark opened their home to a group of people interested in starting a holiness Church in Cleveland, TN. The group met to pray and seek the LORD's direction. On December 14, 1952, Cleveland First Church of the Nazarene was formed in Lewis and Polly's living room with 18 charter members and their children. .
During our more than 70-year history, 25 people have answered a call to ministry, several still serving in a ministry capacity today, including our current Lead Pastor. During the 1970s, then Pastor Rev. Charles Haynes was heard all across the Bradley County area on WBAC Radio for the ‘Nazarene Hour’. Faithful Nazarenes from Cleveland First have been around the world on Work and Witness Trips, traveling to Mexico, Central and South America, Africa, Europe and the Caribbean Islands. We’ve been faithful in our support of World Missions, meeting and often exceeding our denominational mission budgets (mission giving) each year. We’ve hosted home Bible studies, met in restaurants and coffee shops, canvased our neighborhood to invite and to serve. We’ve hosted community service days where we’ve washed cars, changed oil, checked tire pressure and even offered services like cleaning gutters and mowing yards to those living on Henderson and Woodlawn Avenues. We built a playground where hundreds of people, kids, teens and adults, have enjoyed the activities or the benches of our ‘park’.
Over the years we’ve hosted meals and cookouts in our community on Henderson Avenue. We’ve given away coats and school supplies, canned food, baby items, and delivered numerous meals. We are privileged to help with food at the Emergency Shelter each month. We’ve fed our neighbors at Thanksgiving and more recently have done the same with our Special Needs Community through our annual Picky Eater’s Thanksgiving meal. We’ve hosted Fall Festivals and Easter Egg Hunts, both with extra attention given to our Special Needs Community. We’ve held revivals, youth events, pinewood derby races, respite care events, VBS, community services for Easter morning sunrise, Good Friday, Ash Wednesday and more. For the second time in our history we are now sharing our facilities weekly with a local Slavic congregation. We have carried on the mission those first Nazarenes started right here on Henderson Avenue, and have been faithful to follow the LORD’s leading all along the way. He is STILL leading us, often in new and exciting directions!
Over the past decade, it became apparent that something was different at Cleveland First. We’d begun to embrace serving ‘out’ as our priority while still maintaining a healthy amount of serving ‘in’ to care for and nurture what the LORD had already given to us. Often when a major shift happened in the Bible, when a new direction was taken, or an important event occurred, the people would memorialize it. That may build an altar together as a way of marking the place and commemorating it, something to be remembered and visited by future generations. Sometimes those events took place in the life of an individual. In both cases God often marked the occasion by changing their name or by giving a place a new name. Names are so very important in the Bible. They represent who we are, and sometimes, who we are becoming.
In October of 2022 with the support of the East Tennessee District Church of the Nazarene and the local Church membership, Cleveland First Church of the Nazarene became The Branches Church of the Nazarene, citing John 15:5 where Jesus says to His disciples, 'I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.'
Our mission in Cleveland, Bradley County, Tennessee and the World is still the same as it was in 1952... to share the Good News with everyone we can of the Love, Mercy, Grace and Forgiveness found only in Jesus Christ! We modified our local mission statement in 2022 to embody that determination, Loving • Growing • Serving. We exist to love the LORD and our neighbors as ourselves. We long to continue to Grow in Grace, Wisdom and Maturity in Christ. And with all Jesus has done for us, we want to Serve Him by serving those He has placed around us.
That's our story in as brief a way as we can tell it, but the story isn't over. It is still being written, and we'd love to have you be part of the next chapter!
For more information about the Ministries of The Branches Church of the Nazarene, follow the link in the button below