The essential mission of the university is the development of Christian character within the philosophy and framework of genuine scholarship.

Northwest Nazarene University is a Christian comprehensive university with a liberal arts philosophy of education. NNU is fully committed to an educational process that pursues both intellectual and spiritual development. This pursuit is centered firmly in the Person of Jesus Christ, and is designed to instill a habit of mind that enables each student to become God's creative and redemptive agent in today's world.

Relationship to the Church

The task of the university, as an institution of the Church of the Nazarene, will be to serve the church by providing an educated laity and ministry, loyal to Christ, and by emphasizing the Wesleyan doctrine of perfect love. Its theological programs, based upon the doctrines set forth in the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene, will conserve, maintain, advocate, and promulgate the New Testament doctrine of entire sanctification or Christian holiness.