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{{Infobox_Contents |topic_name = Phineas F. Bresee |subtopics = [[Church of the Nazarene]] |opinion_pieces = {{short_opinions}} |}} Phineas F. Bresee (1838-1915)was the founder, a minister and general superintendent in the [[Church of the Nazarene]]. He was pastor of First Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles in the mid-1880s. ===Biography=== Born: 1838; Died: 1915
Bresee grew up under the ministry of the circuit-riding preachers who criss-crossed his native Catskill Mountains. Entering the ministry at age 18, he took Methodist pastorates first in Iowa and then in Southern California. In 1867, while still in Iowa, He experienced the grace of entire sanctification, but he remained aloof from the holiness movement until his move to California in the early 1880s.
By 1894, Bresee had led all the major Methodist churches in the Los Angeles area. At his last Methodist pastorate, Boyle Heights Methodist Episcopal Church, Los Angeles, he brought in noted black evangelist Amanda Berry Smith (p. 40) to conduct a protracted revival. A respected and skilled preacher, Bresee's best-known holiness sermon, "The Transferred Image," described how the moral image of God is imprinted by grace on human beings.
In his mid-50s, Bresee grew intensely interested in the urban poor. In 1894, he withdrew from Methodism and affiliated with the Peniel Mission, an inner-city holiness ministry to the indigent. J. P. Widney, a physician and the retired president of the University of Southern California, joined Bresee at the mission.
Bresee continued to pastor the Los Angeles church until 1911 and acted as the new denomination's senior general superintendent until his death in 1915. He also founded Pasadena College (now Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego). To the end, his vision was always that of the "Glory Barn": "Let the Church of the Nazarene be true to its commission; not great and elegant buildings, but to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and wipe away the tears of sorrowing, and gather jewels for His diadem."
==Quotes==
''Phineas Bresee, speaking about church buildings''
: We want places so plain that every board will say welcome to the poorest.
==Links==* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Bresee Wikipedia ----Phineas Bresee]
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