The Church of the Nazarene is a Protestant denomination within the tradition of evangelical Methodism that was founded in the early 20th century, and is located principally in the USA. The church was founded through mergers in 1907 and 1908 that united three smaller regional Wesleyan-holiness churches that were located principally on America's East Coast, West Coast, and South. The Church's interests include higher education and missions. As of 2003, they have eight universities in the United States and many more internationally and are ministering in 150 world areas. In 2006, the church had 1,622,669 members worldwide in 18,690 churches. Membership of 639,999 in the United States constitutes the largest for one country, although there are more total members outside the U.S. than in it. He