Just off Interstate 11 at the Pecos-McLeod Interconnect in east-central Las Vegas, Las Vegas Church of the Nazarene (LVCN) has gathered a community of believers around Jesus Christ for more than eighty years. The congregation meets at 3825 Pecos-McLeod Interconnect, near the Flamingo and Pecos intersection, and reaches beyond the building with weekly online services, neighborhood volunteering, and an active children's ministry. The church's mission is straightforward: Reaching People with the Transforming Grace of Jesus Christ.
From a Southern California Burden to the Pecos-McLeod Campus
The story of LVCN begins eight decades ago, when a Church of the Nazarene congregation in southern California felt a burden for Las Vegas. In 1943, Rev. Paul and Allie Mae Urschel moved to the city to plant a church, and the work was officially organized on January 20, 1944. Since then, the church has lived out of the same conviction that first sent the Urschels: that Las Vegas, a place often called "sin city" by the wider world, is also a city with a place in God's heart.
The congregation has occupied three locations over the decades and settled into its current home in 1992. That move brought LVCN to its present campus, where two buildings now anchor the work: the Worship Center, where Sunday morning services and many special events are held, and the Christian Life Center (CLC), which houses the Sunday School classrooms, the children's ministry area, the nursery, and the gym used for potlucks and fellowship meals.
What Sundays Look Like at LVCN
Sunday is the heartbeat of the week at Las Vegas Church of the Nazarene. Discipleship classes for every age (nursery, toddler, children, youth, young adult, and adult) begin at 9:00 a.m. The morning worship service follows at 10:30 a.m. in the Worship Center, and the same hour is used whether a guest joins in person or online. Services are streamed live on YouTube, and the digital congregation is welcomed into the chat as fully as those seated in the pews.
The service style at LVCN is a blended one. The Worship Team leads contemporary music from the platform, and the congregation regularly gathers for Hymn Sings that lean on Worship in Song, the Nazarene hymnal. The Intergenerational Discipleship and Worship Sundays, held quarterly, rotate different classes into the sanctuary together so that children, parents, and grandparents worship side by side. This rhythm is part of a vision the church calls "Growing Young."
For those who want to test-drive a service before visiting, the YouTube archive is always available. Visitors who arrive in person will find greeters ready to direct them to the Christian Life Center for Sunday School and to the Worship Center for the main gathering. A map of the campus is shared on the New Here page, and the church office is open Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., for anyone who wants to call ahead or stop by during the week.
Kids, the Nursery, and the Seraphim Youth
LVCN takes the next generation seriously, and the children's ministry stretches from six-week-old infants through sixth graders. Friendly greeters walk new families to the kids' ministry area when they arrive, and volunteers check children into their classrooms. Children's Discipleship classes start at 9:00 a.m., and at 10:30 a.m. the nursery, Children's Church, and Bible Quizzing run during the worship hour. Bible Quizzing is offered on Sunday mornings in Room 2 of the Christian Life Center; Children's Church meets in Room 7.
Safety is built into the program. All of the church's leaders involved with children and youth are trained in the MinistrySafe program, an abuse-prevention certification the church uses to protect vulnerable populations. Step 1 of that training is offered in person periodically for new volunteers.
Older students are gathered into Seraphim Youth Group, a weekly Bible study geared toward junior and senior high students who have a hunger to dig deeper into God's word. Seraphim meets Sunday mornings from 9:15 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. in the Worship Center Balcony, just before the morning service. Each summer the youth also have the opportunity to join Nazarene Youth Conference trips; recent summers have sent students to Salt Lake City, Utah.
The annual Vacation Bible School is another anchor of the children's calendar. The 2026 program, "Illumination Station," runs on Wednesday evenings in late June and July for kids age 2 through sixth grade, with a closing service on the first Sunday of August held during the regular worship hour in the Worship Center. Fall brings Trunk or Treat, a Saturday-evening festival where decorated car trunks and candy turn the parking lot into a community carnival.
A House of Prayer: Tent of Meeting and Wednesday Nights
Prayer is treated as central to the life of the church. Each Tuesday morning at 10:00 a.m., a small group gathers for the Tent of Meeting prayer time in the church office, with others joining remotely by WebEx. The focus is intercession for the church, the city, and the world. John Wesley's description of prayer, "not so much to move God ... as to move yourselves, that you may be willing and ready to receive the good things he has prepared for you," hangs in the background of that hour.
Wednesday evenings add a second prayer-oriented small group, and once a year the church hosts a City Wide Unity Prayer Gathering with other churches across Las Vegas. The pastors note that prayer is not the only piece, but it is the foundation that makes every other ministry possible.
Small Groups and Studies
Beyond Sunday School, the church offers a range of small groups designed to help people find community and pursue Jesus through the week. The current slate includes:
- Cross-Roads (Young Adults): Sunday mornings at 9:00 a.m. in Room 1.
- Men in the Boat: a men's group that meets roughly monthly on Saturday mornings at 9:00 a.m. in the church office. The men are working through a study called "Thirty Virtues that Build a Man" and sharing coffee, milk, and donuts while they discuss. The group exists for mentoring, spiritual support, volunteering, and digging into Biblical principles.
- The IRON Group: a women's ministry that meets seasonally.
Other small groups form around books, Bible study, or simply for the sake of fellowship. Past studies have included Untangle Your Emotions by Jennie Allen, led by Cathy Hall in Room 7 on Sundays after worship, and a Hymn Sing series that doubles as intergenerational fellowship.
Worship Team, Hymns, and the Worship Center
The Worship and Arts Ministry at LVCN describes its calling this way: "Lifting high the name of Jesus through the surrendering of our hearts, souls, and minds. To glorify God through prayer, music, and acts of worship, so that as we are led by the Spirit, we may lead others into worship." Musicians and vocalists are invited to apply through an online form on the Worship page.
From the floor of the Worship Center, the team leads a mix of contemporary songs and the older hymns familiar to longtime Nazarenes. For those who prefer the older repertoire, quarterly Hymn Sings in the Worship Center on Sunday evenings offer an evening of hymn singing, with index cards in the foyer inviting attendees to drop in their three favorite selections. Hymnals are provided in limited supply, so guests who own a copy of Worship in Song are welcome to bring it.
The church's Interim Worship Leader, Nikki Franklin, stepped into the role at the end of November 2025 after years of serving on the team. The A/V Team supports each service from the sound booth and tech area.
Reaching Out: Three Square, VBS, and the City
LVCN's mission of "Reaching People with the Transforming Grace of Jesus Christ" is lived out beyond the church walls in several ways. During the year, groups of volunteers head to the Three Square Food Bank on North Pecos Road to sort food, package produce, and help with whatever the volunteer room needs that week. The congregation meets at the food bank in the early evening and works for a couple of hours together.
The Missions Committee (NMI) supports missionary connections, including a relationship with Pastor Roland's parents, Rev. Fred and Rev. Sheryl Tedder, who serve in South Africa and visit during Faith Promise Sunday each year. After the morning service, the congregation shares a potluck in the CLC gym, with tables set up in advance by volunteers who gather at the church on Thursday mornings to arrange the room.
Vacation Bible School, Trunk or Treat, the All-Church Picnic at Camp Foxtail up Lee Canyon on Mt. Charleston, and the Senior Luncheons (held at local restaurants for members age 65 and older) round out the calendar of fellowship-driven outreach. Membership Sundays and Baptism Sundays mark the moments when new believers publicly join the body, with baptism classes offered in Pastor Roland's office in the weeks leading up to each baptism service.
What LVCN Believes
As Nazarenes, the congregation holds to the historic Wesleyan-holiness teachings of the wider Church of the Nazarene. They believe in one God who has expressed himself in personal ways, known as Father, Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit. The Bible is taught as God's saving message and the reliable authority in all matters of faith and Christian living.
LVCN teaches that all humankind struggles with a downward pull and that, without God's help through a faith commitment to Jesus Christ, our future is one of eternal separation from God. By turning from selfishness and trusting Christ, the church teaches, a person experiences a new life freed from the self-destructive patterns called sin. Following that first moment of faith, they teach, there is a second moment in which the believer surrenders the whole life to Christ in order to live under his authority and to experience his transforming power, the Wesleyan doctrine of entire sanctification.
Assurance, the church teaches, comes through both the Scriptures and the inner witness of God's Spirit. They believe all who live for Jesus Christ have an eternal future, both in the fulfillment of God's creative purpose and in the accountability of every person endowed with the freedom to choose.
The Pastoral Team
Pastor Roland Tedder serves as Lead Pastor. He and his wife, Ashley, met at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City and were married in 2013 at Kansas City First Church of the Nazarene, where Roland served as Youth Pastor from 2012 to 2018. He also served as District Youth Pastor for the Kansas City District. Before coming to LVCN, he was Lead Pastor of BreakPointe Community Church in Overland Park, Kansas. Roland holds a BA in Christian Ministry from Northwest Nazarene University and a Master of Divinity from Nazarene Theological Seminary, and he was ordained on the Kansas City District of the Church of the Nazarene in 2014. The Tedders live on the east side of Las Vegas with their children. Roland grew up in South Africa and still enjoys visiting family there.
Pastor Dr. Robert (Bob) Zangger serves as Associate Pastor. His connection to LVCN stretches back to 1975, when he first served as a youth pastor for six months. After a couple of breaks for pastorates at other local Nazarene churches, he returned and has remained a steady presence. For about thirty years he taught Modular Training classes for prospective ministers and interested laity. Bob and his wife, Shirley, have been married nearly fifty years.
Pastor Thad Franklin has served as an Associate Pastor at LVCN since 2018 and is bi-vocational: his day job is keeping coffee machines running across the Las Vegas valley as a field technician for Farmers Brothers. Thad teaches a weekly Sunday School class, regularly serves as a sound tech, and steps in wherever needed. He has been married to his high school sweetheart, Nikki, for more than thirty years; together they have two adult children, Cherie and Noah, both serving in ministry at LVCN.
Nikki Franklin, who also serves as the church's Interim Worship Leader, has been the church's office secretary since August 2012 and has long been part of the Worship Team. She stepped into the interim worship role in late November 2025.
Plan a Visit
Las Vegas Church of the Nazarene is located at 3825 Pecos-McLeod Interconnect, Las Vegas, NV 89121, just off East Flamingo Road near I-11 (formerly I-515). Discipleship classes begin at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings and the worship service starts at 10:30 a.m. in the Worship Center. Services are also streamed live on YouTube. The church office is open Monday through Thursday, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and the phone number is (702) 451-6000. Online giving and a connection form are available.