Religious Expression

Founded in 1968, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, in Mount Vernon, Ohio is a co-educational liberal arts university with an intentionally Christian foundation and mission. A combination of challenging academics, deep spirituality, and service-centered action prepares students for living purpose-filled lives and integrating knowledge with beliefs, values, and actions. Furthermore, as an extraordinary community of believers we are called as a community to “Shine Forth” in all we do.

MVNU encourages students, staff, and faculty to involve themselves in the local and international community by providing numerous opportunities for service and travel. With this distinctive global vision, the MVNU motto, "To Seek to Learn Is to Seek to Serve," continues to be fulfilled by all who walk the paths of those who have gone before us.

Being of Wesleyan heritage, and a ministry of the Church of the Nazarene, we strive to be a learning community where grace is foundational, truth is pursued, and holiness is a way of life. Furthermore, we attempt to make all policies and decisions within the doctrinal and moral convictions of the Church of the Nazarene as articulated within the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene (e.g., Articles of Faith, Covenant of Christian Conduct including the Statement on Human Sexuality and Marriage, Covenant of Christian Character, and the agreed upon Statement on Discrimination, 915). We also strive to provide a learning and living environment that promotes safety, transparency, personal integrity, civility, mutual respect and freedom from unlawful discrimination.

This integration of faith and learning is recognized by the United States and Ohio Constitutions and many state and federal laws. Therefore, it is a recognized right of religious educational institutions such as MVNU to incorporate religious beliefs into all aspects of university life and maintain faith-based standards of behavior which all community members voluntarily agree to follow.

MVNU seeks to recruit students of the Christian faith and to create an institutional environment conducive to their growth in Christ; however, we do not require that students be confessing Christians. We welcome and value students of every background and faith. As a Christian community, we expect that all of our students will respect the nature of our community, learn about our traditions and participate in our community practices. MVNU affirms that a Christian liberal arts education includes an understanding of and appreciation of the differences in faith, living, and practice.

As MVNU is a ministry of the Church of the Nazarene, it reserves the right to prefer employees on the basis of religion (Title VII, § 702-703, U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964). Therefore, we expect that all of our employees will respect the nature of our community, learn about our traditions, participate in our community practices, and abide by the expected behavior as found within the Faculty and Staff Handbooks.