A dispute over who owns a decades-old Oklahoma City church campus is headed to the state's highest court. The Oklahoma District Church of the Nazarene Inc. is asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to overturn a district judge's ruling that let OKC First Church keep title to its property after the congregation broke away from the denomination.
The fight traces back to April 27, 2025, when roughly 98% of OKC First Church's congregation voted to “spiritually disaffiliate” from the Church of the Nazarene, according to the Oklahoma Gazette. The paper reports the split stemmed from ongoing friction with the denomination over its stance against LGBTQ+ inclusion. The congregation, formerly known as OKC First Church of the Nazarene, cut ties with the denomination and kept operating out of its longtime campus.
Roughly three weeks after the vote, on May 20, 2025, the Oklahoma District Church of the Nazarene Inc. filed suit in Oklahoma County District Court, seeking to seize the building and real estate under the denomination's manual rules, per the same Gazette report. The district argued that OKC First Church was obligated to give up its property once it disaffiliated.
Judge Sided With the Local Congregation
That argument didn't hold up at trial. On June 18, Oklahoma County District Judge Sheila Stinson granted summary judgment in favor of OKC First Church, ruling from the bench that the local congregation retains title to its campus following the disaffiliation vote, according to Nelson Madden Black LLP, the New York-based firm that represented the church.
The church's win rested on paperwork rather than theology. OKC First Church presented its original 1936 and 1937 articles of incorporation and deed history, showing the property was held solely in the local corporate name without any denominational trust restrictions, the firm's account of the case states. Firm partner Barry Black presented oral arguments before the district court on the congregation's behalf.
The denomination's Manual contains a trust clause specifying that local church real estate is held in trust for the general body and must revert to district control if a local church disaffiliates or disbands, according to Good News Magazine. That clause is the backbone of the district's legal claim and the reason the case is now bound for the state Supreme Court, as reported by The Oklahoman's Carla Hinton.
A Campus That Serves More Than Sunday Services
The property at the center of the case is more than a sanctuary. The OKC First Church campus also houses community outreach work, including youth empowerment programs and neighborhood after-school initiatives run through the Cole Community Center, according to the church's own account of its operations.
Tension between denominational leadership and OKC First Church didn't start with the 2025 vote. The Gazette's reporting traces friction back to a 2018 ecclesiastical trial in which Senior Pastor Jon Middendorf faced heresy allegations after he dedicated an infant for a lesbian couple — a case the outlet frames as part of a years-long buildup to the eventual split.
What the Oklahoma Supreme Court Will Weigh
The appeal puts Oklahoma's highest court in a familiar but unsettled legal position. In October 2023, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in Oklahoma Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church v. Timmons that civil courts must defer to denominational authority under the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine when property disputes are intertwined with internal religious doctrine, according to UM News.
That precedent sets up the central question on appeal: whether Judge Stinson's neutral-principles approach — relying on deeds and corporate filings rather than church doctrine — can stand, or whether the Supreme Court will find that the case can't be resolved without wading into denominational polity. OKC First Church's trial win hinged on keeping the dispute framed as a property records matter rather than a theological one.
The Oklahoma City case is not an isolated flashpoint. The split reflects a broader national wave of friction within the Church of the Nazarene, where strict denominational enforcement of traditional views on human sexuality has led to church splits and disciplinary trials for LGBTQ-affirming scholars and clergy in multiple states, according to Juicy Ecumenism. How the Oklahoma Supreme Court rules could shape how similar disputes play out elsewhere as more congregations weigh breaking from the denomination.
