Countryside Church of the Nazarene

Countryside Church of the Nazarene Traditional country church, Spirit-led, broken people loving other broken people, in Christ’s name. God does incredible things at Countryside.

We are constantly amazed at God's faithfulness and would love for you to become a part of our family!

06/25/2026

Proverbs 11:14 (KJV) - Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.
Having been a VERY headstrong young man, this lesson hits me hard. I really did not want to listen to others, but to follow my own path. I did this no matter how many times I got lost, and failed at what I was trying to do, even when people were advising me differently. Perhaps especially because people were advising me differently. It took a while to get through my stubbornness that many heads were better than one. I remember a few examples of when I was in a leadership position and had been handed an impossible mission. I would consult with my normal leadership group, but they were also befuddled. Then, the guy you would least expect to come up with the right path, the guy I would have sworn was as dumb as a box of rocks, THAT was the guy who gave us the right direction. You see, we all have very different gifts in life, and very different perspectives. We need people different from us because they don’t share the same blind spots with us.
The church is much the same. In a world that is getting more divided every day into different internet “tribes” the church is one of the few places that still brings people together from very different viewpoints. We share a love of Christ, though perhaps not much else. The genius of the church as God devised it is in it diversity and how we can share insights and ward each other’s blind spots. I worry about the church today, because there have been great efforts to politically divide the church, but if we love as Christ demands we love, that love can overcome division. Wisdom can flow from people who you have fundamental disagreements with, and it can bless you if you do not harden your heart and close your ears to their wisdom. May God bless your church with unity of hearts if not unity of thoughts.

06/24/2026

Ecclesiastes 7:17 (KJV) - Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?
This may seem a bit weird in its phrasing – “Be not over much wicked.” We tend to think of ourselves as good and so we should never be wicked, let alone “over much” – we would probably substitute “too” in our modern language for over much. Shouldn’t we not be wicked at all. Well, yes, but can we? Remember, even Jesus said, in his human self, “No man is good.” Mark 10:18 tells us that only God is good. We are flawed. So, the warning is to not be wicked at all so much as it is to catch yourself in the process of going wrong and changing. Repentance is turning away from the wrong path, once you realize you are on the wrong path.
And we all go down the wrong paths from time to time. The question is not whether we can avoid all wrong, but what do we do when we find ourselves in the wrong? Well, sometimes people’s pride will not let them turn from the path they have set out on – they cannot accept that they are wrong, no matter the evidence before them. The wrong path does lead to a short, unhappy end. It cannot be avoided. Sometimes turning around is a very difficult, long, winding path – but it is the only way forward to happiness, to eternal joy. Even if you die on that path, the path will still take you forward into a bright future, whereas a prideful path, full of wickedness, never brings you to where you want to go. So, don’t think that you cannot go wrong, and when you find yourself in the wrong, don’t be over much wicked. Blessings upon you.

06/19/2026

Proverbs 11:13 (KJV) - A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.
Have you ever regretted sharing something important with a gossip? I think all of us have at one point or another. Talebearers are gossips, pure and simple. They cannot resist passing on something “interesting.” Which would be bad in it’s own right, but they also cannot resist embellishing the truth to make the story, the tale, even more interesting. They lie, they distort, because they want to be thought of as in the know. Even when their knowledge can be harmful if it is released at the wrong time to the wrong persons, they don’t care, because they want desperately to be interesting. They are unfaithful to the needs of the other who has shared with them, because they are faithful only to their perceived self-celebrity. Watch out for people who are addicted to “interesting.” They are all over and judge very carefully who you trust with the truth.
How do you know? Well, you can be like man in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). That man was traveling so he left some money with some servants to invest his assets while he was gone. The man was shrewd and gave to each servant based upon the level of trust he had in the servant. The servants trusted the most all doubled his money, and so were given more trust. The servant he trusted the least sat on the investment and got nothing and was never trusted again. As you interact with friends and family it will become clear over time who you can trust and who you can’t. Until the picture clears, act cautiously with whom you entrust with your truths. The people faithful to you will be faithful to your needs, even the need for secrecy of a “juicy” story. Treasure these people and never let them go, but keep them in your heart forever. Blessings upon you.

06/12/2026

Ecclesiastes 7:16 (KJV) - Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?
Sometimes the old English of the King James Version is hard to parse, but here it is basically telling us to moderate ourselves. We can be too zealous in trying to obey the Lord and too demanding of ourselves in trying to never make a mistake. In short, we can be caught up in perfectionism, where we just can’t handle being anything less than perfect. You might ask, “Doesn’t the Bible tell us, Be Ye Perfect?” Yes, it does, but our understanding of perfection is less than perfect. When we try to force perfection in any situation, the problem is that you are NEVER enough to be perfectly perfect. We are perfected only as we relate to God (and to each other), as we try to form a bond with the Holy Spirit that imitates our savior’s bond with the Father.
In short, we cannot be perfect, and we shouldn’t be unforgiving of ourselves for our imperfection. What we can perfect is our relationships, which being too hard on ourselves gets in the way of, and in so perfecting our ability to ask, listen, act, test, ask again, and then move forward. It is in this process of prayer and reaction to the Spirit that we get insights we simply do not have in our own power. We become more through relations, not through demanding more of ourselves. God informs us; our friends and family inform us; and we are capable of much more, through the eyes of all, than we could be in our own power. Sometimes, you can try too hard. So, invest in the peace of consultation, with God, and with each other, and your life will become more perfect. Not sure we can achieve perfection this side of heaven, but trying together is so much more fun than trying alone. Blessings upon you.

06/05/2026

Proverbs 11:12 (KJV) - He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace.
You always will need your neighbor at some point; to pull you out of a ditch; to lend a hand when your two hands aren’t enough; to give you a heads up of bad weather coming, the list goes on and on. Neighbors are resources – seems cold to put it that way but it is true. Neighbors are also part of your happiness – celebrations are more fun when more people are involved, and sometimes you just need a friend. God knows this, so God holds us accountable when it comes to interacting with our neighbors. The understanding and wisdom that leads us to love and care for our neighbors is God’s wisdom, as all love-based wisdom is. Peace in our lives comes from embracing God’s wisdom and embracing love.
People will let you down. You neighbor will really annoy you. Hold your peace and you will know peace. Yes, they let you down – they are human. Like you are. For every time you bit your tongue and did not say the harsh words you were holding back, they may have done the same for you. We need each other and any wisdom that does not highlight that fact is not wisdom, but arrogance. Pride goes before the fall. So, curb your pride, hold your tongue, and don’t despise anyone. Then your heart will not be corrupted by hatred and arrogance. Humility is the best vaccination for heart disease there is and your heart will be happier the truer it is towards each other. Blessings upon you.

05/29/2026

Ecclesiastes 7:14 (KJV) - All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness.
The author of Ecclesiastes pursued every sort “success” the world craves and found it all vanity. Everything done that is not pursuant of the Lord’s will is meaningless and ultimately empty. And then on top of that you have to face an unfair world where it seems the good die young and the wicked seem to persist. Except they don’t, persist that is. I have the benefit of living a long life and I have seen the powerful cast down, again and again. When I was younger it seemed like they hung around power forever, but I did not have the perspective to see that their time was numbered. For when you do evil, you have to have evil people around you, supporting you in your pursuits. Their evil will not stop at you – that is, if they have given themselves over to evil, then their evil will eventually turn its gaze upon you, and you will fall.
It’s all meaningless UNLESS you keep God in mind always. Yes, it seems like people sometimes get away with murder, but when you know God and God’s hatred for injustice, well, you pray for the evildoers, that they will meet justice in this earth, and repent and change, before God has to administer final justice. It’s all meaningless, vanity, unless you have faith that the author of all good can make things right. And that you also have grace for those who have fallen for God loves them as he loves you, and wants, desperately, for brothers and sisters to love each other. The ONLY thing making our lives worthwhile, making them mean something, is love, as God loves. It sets the wrong right and makes the meaningless existence mean something, eternally. Blessings upon you.

05/27/2026

Proverbs 11:11 (KJV) - By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted: but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.
If you are a student of history, an unsettling truth settles over you – every civilization falls at some point. You might think that your civilization is immune, but history tells a far different story. Cities, civilizations, rise with good leadership but are eventually taken over by the charlatans, the con artists, the self-promoters. They focus upon self-promotion to the detriment of all true proving them wrong, and will enforce their “truth” upon everyone else until all the foundations of civilization are eroded and destroyed, and so falls the city. Now, not every city founder is exemplary. All of them are human and subject to human error and sin. But the upright, though not as righteous as they might hope, have in their desire to follow God’s plan, the seeds to plant that grow and prosper a people.
The wicked just slash and burn and don’t care about governance other than to steal as much of the peoples’ treasure as they can before their inevitable end. The righteous build, the unrighteous tear down for they care not about God nor about love. Oh, they can parrot the words love, but they cannot live into them. By their fruit they are known. The upright admit when their fruit has gone bad, and will replant and rebuild in full site of others. The wicked will blame others, usually imaginary enemies, for the fruit going bad and never accept responsibility. They cannot build a civilization, trust, or love, for their love of power is the only love they allow in their lives. Power not given in sacrifice to help others is inevitably power that twists inward and destroys. So, watch your leaders. Do they speak words of love yet spread seeds of dissension or do they act in love in all things and let their actions speak for themselves. Blessings upon you.

05/26/2026

Ecclesiastes 7:14 (KJV) - In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.
I am often reminded of the passage where the Israelites enter into the promised land. Next to the valley they passed through lay two mountains. On one mountain, half of the tribes spoke of the blessings that came from following the Lord, and on the other, half spoke of the curses that came from not following the Lord. It is classically seen as a “carrot and stick” argument, follow the Lord and good will happen, don’t follow the Lord and bad will happen. They are not wrong, but it always seemed like there was more to it than that to me. In a fallen world, no blessing comes without a small curse, and no curse comes without a small blessing (“in every cloud there is a silver lining”).
I not sure God ordains this as much as it is a condition of an imperfect world, but I don’t think that God can do anything that is not good. Whereas we humans can do nothing that is perfectly good. When we find our imperfections, it is daunting, humiliating, shameful, often. But it is also an opportunity. In every flaw we can reconnect to God, for it’s in failure that we see the truth of our flaws and the beauty of God, along with God’s amazing mercy. We should be joyful in the good times fully receiving the gifts God has showered upon us, yes. But it’s in those times where good times and bad times seem to intersperse that we can really connect to God in our humility and God’s infinite grace. We can truly see God only where our experience falls short, where we fall short. May God bless you.

05/19/2026

Proverbs 11:10 (KJV) - When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth: and when the wicked perish, there is shouting.
You can learn a lot about people when you look at what, and who, they are celebrating. We are called to love everyone, but who we celebrate tells others where our hearts are, and possibly where our minds are. People can be fooled. There are people who have been celebrated in my lifetime who have done tremendous evil in this world. I still have to love them, because God loves them, but I don’t have to celebrate them. When I was younger, I had idols, intellectual idols who I admired greatly. Then, I read histories about their lives, and one by one I was crushed to find out that behind some truly beautiful spoken and written words by these towering intellects lay some truly awful human beings. It shattered my illusions. I no longer celebrate human beings because many of them have a public relations propaganda machine shouting their praises so loud and so long that if you are not paying attention, you will fall prey to believing and celebrating some truly awful lives.
There are people I love deeply but I truly only trust God, for all of us, including me, fall short of the glory of God. The righteous are those who walk so closely to God, follow God’s will so faithfully, that when you see them, you see the work of God in this world. You see God. So we need to celebrate the righteousness, celebrate God, for if the actions you are celebrating are truly righteous, the person who performs them will insist you glorify God, not them. The unrighteous will not do this. Their PR machine will keep churning away after death, at least until the money runs out. There are professional mourners – even in the Bible we see this – who shout and wail to convince people that a giant walked among us and we are lost without them. Nonsense. The righteous want quiet affirmation of love and laughter and devotion to God above all. They are not acclaimed but they are eternal and eternally loved. Blessings upon you.

05/08/2026

Ecclesiastes 7:13 (KJV) - Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?
When I was younger there was a phrase that was very common, “Don’t try to fight the tide.” It was just a lived wisdom that said some things are bigger than you and you just need to learn to live with them, because you are not going to change them. It seems like phrases like this have somewhat fallen out of favor. People propose more and more outlandish things that have no chance of succeeding. Billions of dollars are wasted chasing pipe dreams (another old phrase). People blame humanity for every evil on the planet but then demand that humans “fix” the problems. No matter that our history is full of misguided attempts to fix something only to make it worse. Sometimes I just want to yell, “STOP!”
But that is me just wanting to direct people like the people I am deriding want to direct people. So, take a breath. Really, relax, and watch for a while. God will move and correction will come if we just wait. For years I watched as the news breathlessly reported that the everglades were being taken over by Burmese Pythons, a species mistakenly placed there by accidents and ignorance. Everything humans attempted did not solve the problem of them multiplying and wiping out native species. Yet, some of those species survived, and learned. The pythons are starting to decline as of the date of this writing, not because of the efforts of man, but because the nature God create rebalances itself. Coyotes have learned to bite the heads off of snakes that are much larger than they are. Raccoons have evolved to avoid ambushes and to raid nests for eggs. Other native species have adapted, including native snakes, and the pythons are starting to decline. They may never be wiped out, but nature is coming back in balance. The more we try to change things, the more God moves to bring it back into balance. So, watch, and learn, from God. Blessings upon you.

Address

614 NW M Highway
Centerview, MO
64019

Opening Hours

Wednesday 6pm - 8:30pm
Sunday 10am - 12:30pm

Telephone

+19137806434

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