Bend’s Church of the Nazarene is taking God into the great wide open.

Starting Sunday, the church plans a series of three simple church services at Providence Park in northeast Bend (see ”If You Go”). The events are meant to introduce the neighborhood to the church and to provide a place for church members, neighborhood residents and others to offer praise to God under the open sky.

”We want to take the church to the community,” said Virgil Askren, pastor of the Church of the Nazarene. ”We think this is the best way to do it rather than waiting for them to come in the door.”

The Church of the Nazarene, a 450-member evangelical Chris- tian church on Bend’s eastern edge, has been worshipping in Bend for 70 years. But Askren and others from the church want to expose more of the community to what the church has to offer, and they particularly want to reach out to residents of their own neighborhood, Askren said.

”We’re trying to be a good neighbor,” Askren said. ”We’re a part of this neighborhood and we want to reach out.”

Askren, 47, has been the pastor at the Church of the Nazarene for three years. He says a lot of people who don’t attend church regularly have an idea that churchgoers are a suit-wearing, uptight, unhappy bunch. Askren wants to change that image.

”There’s a preconceived notion of what you have to be and do to go to church,” Askren said. ”We want to get outside of that.”

So, Church in the Park, the Sunday morning outdoor services, will feature church members in shorts and sandals, sitting on lawn chairs and wearing sunglasses. The service will be short and simple, with a few songs, an acoustic guitar and testimony from a church member. Regular services at the church, 1270 N.E. 27th St., will be at 9:15 and 10:45 a.m., as usual.

At the park, the testimony – an affirmation of faith – is meant to convey the message that it’s never too late to come to God, said Bob Zahniser, who will deliver Sunday’s testimony at the park.

”I’m hoping that they will be encouraged that they can (come to Jesus Christ) at whatever age they are,” Zahniser said.

Zahniser said he was a typical preacher’s kid who didn’t follow the Lord’s guidance and instruction until at age 48, after his auto sales business experienced difficulty, he watched a television evangelist one drunken night and committed his life to God and Jesus.

”I finally realized I needed more than just myself,” he said.

Zahniser credits the prayers of his parents and his wife for bringing him to the Gospel, he said. He hopes some people at the park Sunday may recognize his story.

Zahniser also likes the idea of worship outdoors.

”It’s the Lord’s creation,” he said. ”We’re enjoying nature and what he produced and making an outward statement of faith.”

It won’t be the first time the Church of the Nazarene has brought church to the outdoors or reached out to its neighborhood. During July, the church had Sunday school classes at the park, and last Halloween it had candy, lanterns and fun booths set up in the park for some 600 children who came by, Askren said.

He said Providence Park is an ideal location for such services because it’s almost next door to the church and is surrounded by a large concentration of homes.

The Providence subdivision contains 277 homes in nine phases of development, according to the Deschutes County Assessor’s Office, making it one of Bend’s largest housing developments.

Church members plan to go door-to-door in the neighborhood to let residents know about the church service.

Other churches have had outdoor or neighborhood outreach services, most notably the 4,000-member Westside Church, which has an Adopt-a-Block program that performs community service in various Bend neighborhoods.

But it’s not easy, Askren says.

”It’s hard for churches to find ways to be neighbors,” he said. ”Not all of them are in neighborhoods, and you have to purposefully go out there and do something. It’s a lot easier to stay here.”

But one of Askren’s goals for the Church of the Nazarene is to be more externally focused.

”It’s a great adventure,” he said.

If You Go

What: Church in the Park by the Church of the Nazarene

When: 10 a.m. Sundays through Aug. 27

Where: Providence Park, 1055 N.E. Providence Drive, Bend

Cost: Free

Contact: 382-5496