Other "Thinking Drafts" and writing by Keith Drury -- http://www.indwes.edu/tuesday .

NOTE: While Keith Drury's address to the Christian Holiness Association (now Christian Holiness Partnership) "The Holiness Movement is Dead" has received extraordinary attention and produced scores of papers in response, the following paper delivered years before (October, 1989) at Wesley Biblical Seminary's Chamberlain Holiness Lectures included the seed thoughts and asked the probing questions which later became the basis of the CHA/CHP address which got all the notoriety. This earlier address may help those interested in historical development of the thoughts which later caused such a stir at CHA/CHP.

We gather here today at the edge of the 1990's. In just 84 days we will enter the final decade of the 1900's. It is my opinion that on January 1, 1990, a new mentality will begin to emerge in our culture. I suspect organizations and businesses, institutions and movements will begin thinking more about the future. It is not that the future hasn't been there all along. But historically, the approach of not only a new decade, but a new century is a time for reflection on the past, evaluation of the present, then projection -- developing goals and strategies for the next century. Few persons live though two turns of a century. So when a new one occurs, it tends to be a special event. We are going to experience such a century turn in just ten years.

The 1990's decade, however, is different than the regular run-of-the-mill turn of a century. For this turn of a century is also a turn of a millennium. Occurring only once since Jesus taught on earth, the turning of the year 2000 is certain to magnify the normal self examination to which institutions and movements are prone to experience at the end of a century. I suspect the impending beginning of the third millennia since Christ -- just a short decade away -- will release a flood of reflective thought, evaluation, and strategizing for the "next millennia." If I am accurate, in just a few months our entire culture will begin a gradual shift in its thinking -- we will become more reflective, evaluating where we now stand, then projecting new tactics to accomplish our purpose and mission in the future.

Against this coming-new-millennia backdrop we gather here today for the Chamberlain Holiness Lectures. How shall the holiness movement respond to this turning of the millennia? If we respond to the impending turn of millennia like the rest of the culture -- with reflection, evaluation and projection, what do you think will be our new design for spreading Holiness across the land? What new strategies do you suspect will emerge for the accomplishment of our mission?

This is the question I would like to begin exploring in these lectures. I recognize that we have not yet entered the "countdown decade" toward 2000, and nobody is yet even speaking of the year 2000 yet. The signs of the evaluation and projection I predict are just barely emerging. However I would like to start us thinking along these lines. First in reflection on our past, then in evaluating the present state of the movement, and finally toward the developing of fresh strategies for the future.

As we evaluate and reflect on the present movement I suspect that during the next ten years we will examine a variety of questions. Here are a few suggestions for us to start our thinking:

What is the "State of the Union" in the holiness movement? Are we flourishing or rapidly becoming a shadow of a once great movement?

Where do we now stand in our developing understanding of God's call to purity of heart and life? Has our position changed -- especially on the grass roots local level? If so, how has it changed, and why?

Does a true "Holiness movement" even still exist? Are we really a movement any more, or are we now merely a collection of "Holiness denominations?"

Has God in some way lifted an anointing from we holiness people and moved on to use others in the vanguard of His work in the world? If so, why did He do it, and how can we get back "Under the spout where the Glory comes out?"

Are "holiness people" truly holiness people any more -- is it our specialty? Or have we put our mission of "proclaiming Holiness throughout the land" on hold, while we focus on getting our own people to believe and experience what we teach? Have we shifted from an external mission to an internal one?

Has much of the Holiness movement switched emphasis away from holiness and to evangelism, since many of our own people really don't need to be sanctified -- they need to be saved?

What dialogue is needed between the holiness movement and the charismatic movement? Has the charismatic movement in some strange way co-opted the message of Holy Spirit's power and become a sort of neo-holiness movement? Is it more palatable to modern minds which are less interested in the Holy Spirit's cleansing work but greatly interested with the Holy Spirit's power? Has our own special emphasis on the purity side of entire sanctification produced a corresponding de-emphasis on the power side, and thus created an imbalance in our own message?

I suspect there will be a host of questions like these which will gradually begin to occupy the minds of leaders and scholars in the holiness movement during this coming decade. I predict a period of evaluation in the movement. However, we must be cautious in this process -- it can be a snare. As a movement, one of our weaknesses has been a preoccupation with personal self-evaluation and introspection. Maybe it is an occupational hazard for any who espouse a holiness position in their theology. So one of the dangers we face in the coming "countdown decade" is to take a virtual bath in self-evaluation, berating ourselves for our shortfalls as a movement, never moving on to the more important task of strategizing for the future. Some may even get a sort of masochistic kick out of lambasting holiness doctrine, experience, and denominations. Evaluation and introspection is good and I welcome a period of it in the 1990's, but introspection without projection and goal-setting will result in a demoralized even (more) neurotic movement.

So I hasten to move along from examples of the evaluation questions we might ask to the more exciting projecting questions of strategy and directions for the coming 21st century... and second millennia AD I think holiness leaders will begin discussing questions like these:

Has the holiness Camp meeting completely lost its usefulness as the primary historical agency "for the promotion of holiness?" With what shall we replace it?

As the light of many old "Holiness associations" flicker and die, what new strategy will we invent for fresh concerted effort among holiness people to spread the message of full salvation?

How can we lift our eyes from spreading holiness among ourselves to spreading it across the land? What new methods can we imagine which will enable us to again trigger a "holiness movement" far wider than a few denominations -- a movement with broad participation and support a core of people in all denominations?

Will the "Christian Holiness Association" increasingly continue to lose its influence on the masses and become a fellowship for executives and scholars who participate on institutional expense accounts -- where will, the laity connect with the holiness movement?

Who will be the primary proponents of holiness beyond 2000? Will it be a group of retired pastors-turned-evangelists who live on Social Security while they travel around preaching several sermons on holiness in their series? Will it be denominational leaders and administrators who, like line judges in a tennis match, call out "Fault!" when someone's doctrine is out of bounds? Or will it be scholars and teachers who discipline themselves to write and teach holiness at a level where the average church member can understand? Will it be well-trained pastors who see holiness as essential in their own strategy for leading their people to Christ-likeness? Who will pick up this hopeful message and make it their primary concern -- their specialty?

Should the holiness denominations merge into one holiness "mega-denomination in order to more effectively promote holiness across the land? Actually "mega-denomination" would be a rather pompous term for the denomination resulting from such a merger. Nevertheless, can the mission be better accomplished together in one larger denomination or separately in many smaller denominations? Certainly we will have to face this issue in the coming decade.

Should similar kinds of alliances or mergers be examined for the educational institutions committed to spreading holiness? Will we accomplish more for the holiness message in our variety and independence than we would in uniformity and unity? Are there clever means of providing alliances for the sake of the cause, short of organic mergers? What are these ideas? Who will lead such an effort?

How will we develop new means of publication and dissemination of the holiness word in print and through the electronic media? How will people assimilate information beyond the year 2000 and how will we manage to utilize these new formats for communicating holiness beyond in this next millennia? What kinds of concerted efforts can be invented to promote holiness through print and the visual media to the church at large?

These are the kinds of questions which must occupy us in the coming decade if we wish to be used by God to spread this Scriptural truth in the 21st century. We must not circle the wagons in an attempt to "hold our own" defensively. If we do, I believe God will raise up another movement to spread this truth (perhaps He already has?). Like it our not, God is no respecter of denominations or movements. History is littered with the carcasses of movements which became increasingly useless to God until they were abandoned in favor of another movement or institution.

God is not obligated to use the holiness movement to spread the holiness message. He could use one of the para-church movements; He could use the charismatics; He could ignite a fire storm holiness revival among the mainline churches; or He could raise up a totally new movement with new educational institutions, mission boards, and denominations to proclaim holiness throughout the land. God does not owe the holiness movement any debt.

If this message of holiness is a vital truth of God's (and I believe it is) then you can be sure that God will always find a people through which to communicate it. He can raise up a movement from stones if He needs to. The disturbing question of the day is, will God use us? -- those of us in the holiness movement -- to communicate this message across the land? Or will He have to find another vessel?

I believe the holiness movement is salvageable. I believe God would be pleased to use the fine people now associated with the holiness institutions and denominations to carry on His work of proclaiming holiness. I think we might get first chance at the task -- sort of a "right of first refusal." If we willingly pick up the banner, I believe we will get the anointing and power as we march. It will be "as we go" that we will experience His power and blessing. But if we sit around wondering if the holiness message has "punch" any more for the next decade, He'll move right on down the street and call up someone else to spread holiness to His people.

So what am I calling for? I am not calling for ten years of self-examination and goal setting. I am not challenging the holiness movement to pull off to the side of the road and re-examine the map for a decade? While I believe we must launch a decade of serious evaluation and planning as we develop strategies for the year 2000 and beyond, we must get about the beginnings of the 21st century task at once. "As we go" to spread holiness we will find new strength, new ideas, new anointing, and fresh power to develop efforts of even greater boldness in spreading this message.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us at the threshold of a new decade where we will either launch a new offensive in spreading holiness, or we will delay action and God may leave us floating around in circles in some minor backwater of the church. I believe we either go boldly forward with a new holiness strategy, or we will settle into becoming a people with "roots in the holiness movement."

I believe we can not wait much longer to launch new efforts to spread holiness. Some may say that it is more important to take this decade for evaluation and the development of a cooperative effort among the holiness denominations. I think we can not wait. Why start now?

1. We must start now… because if we wait it may be too late' for us. Ten more years like the last ten years and the holiness message will have become an intriguing antique -- something to be examined, admired, and studied as our historical position, but not preached and taught with conviction and certainty. If in the next few years we do not see a fresh flood of people experiencing entire sanctification and walking in holiness, by the year 2000 the doctrine will be a memory among us. If we wait, it may be too late.

2. We must start now… because of the moral bankruptcy we are now experiencing. As pastors, administrators, professors, and televangelists plunge one by one into the abyss of moral failure, the church (and the world) is hungry to see real holiness among its leaders. They are asking "Isn't there anyone who lives it anymore." More than ever the message "You don't have to sin" is desperately needed. "Well he's just human like the rest of us" is an anemic excuse for the moral collapse we've seen in this last decade. The time is ripe for a positive message of pure living... living above sin through Christ's power. The time is ripe to strike.

3. We must start now… because there is a new hunger among God's people for holiness. There is currently a revival of interest in personal holiness... among the para-church organizations, the large publishing houses, the charismatics, and even among some Calvinist denominations. The best selling book of the 80's with "holiness" in its title has been Jerry Bridges' book The Pursuit of Holiness. Bill Bright has been talking everywhere about being "filled with the Spirit." Charles Colson has penetrated every reader's heart with Loving God. There is a hunger out there for truth on holy living... someone will satisfy this hunger -- either someone with a partial answer, a wrong answer, or a complete answer. This hunger can't wait for us to evaluate and strategize for another decade.

4. We must start now… because of our powerless evangelism. A statistical study of holiness church outreach is alarming. While we are may be holding our own, little true growth is taking place. Much of our growth is biological, and most of the rest of it is by transfer. With all the fine emphasis on evangelism and church growth during the past decade, the holiness denominations have shown pitiful growth -- about as much as can be expected from programming and human ingenuity.

In very few instances do the figures force us to say "Only God could have done that." Sure, when overseas figures are mainlined into the statistics to produce world-wide figures we can report acceptable growth. But this is deceiving. The holiness denominations tend to desperately search through the data to discover encouraging figures to announce. Often this leads to switching away from "active" figures (e.g. attendance) to "passive" figures (e.g. membership and enrollment) so as to produce the appearance of growth. The truth is that most holiness churches are not penetrating the world with the gospel. We have the forms... but not the power. We can not wait another decade for God to correct our powerless evangelism.

Certainly there are other reasons why we should not wait to move forward with a new holiness strategy for spreading this hopeful truth across the land. I believe we must move forward now... in spite of the inclination toward reflection and evaluation the next decade will produce. The time is ripe, the iron is hot, we must strike now.

Thus, in these lectures I will not attempt to address the provocative questions of evaluation and projection I earlier raised. I will leave these to later times and other people, trusting that the movement will indeed evaluate our past and present, then project new plans for the 21st century.

What I am interested in for these lectures is "What shall we do now?" Though we must evaluate our present position and initiate a comprehensive strategy for communicating holiness beyond 2000, in these lectures I am especially interested our immediate need for communicating holiness in the 90's while we are doing the evaluating and planning on the side.

I believe there are four pressing needs which are immediate and local in nature. While this is in no sense a strategy for the years 2000 and beyond, it does present four immediate actions for the 1990's.

They are:

1. Communicating Holiness through PLAIN TEACHING

2. Communicating Holiness through POWERFUL PREACHING

3. Communicating Holiness through PASTORAL COUNSELING

4. Communicating Holiness through PERSUASIVE LIVING

First, we must be about Communicating holiness through PLAIN TEACHING -- we have to do a more adequate job of getting the message across in a way ordinary people can understand it. Our teaching on holiness has been sometimes jumbled, complex, scholastic, even mystifying. We must immediately embark on a new crusade to give a clear and understandable account of Christian Perfection, Communicating holiness through PLAIN TEACHING.

Second, we must be about Communicating Holiness through POWERFUL PREACHING -- we must have a new wave of preachers in the early 90's who will specialize in preaching holiness in such a way that people are challenged to seek this cleansing work of God. This convincing kind of preaching is absolutely necessary if we are to continue being a holiness people ourselves. Many of our own people have not experienced this work of grace, and many others posses only a "phantom experience"... they took a second trip to the altar somewhere along the line and have been fooled into believing they "have it" when in fact their attitudes and behavior are abundant evidence they do not. We must renew an effort to communicate holiness through POWERFUL PREACHING.

Third, we must begin Communicating Holiness through PASTORAL COUNSELING -- we need an awakening among pastors to the tremendous resource available to them in counseling. We live in a pessimistic world where marriages are quickly pronounced dead or relationships between parents and children are strained and hostile. The message of holiness marches into this world of fragmented relationships and says people can be freed of their selfish attitudes and unbending spirits. The pastor who counsels couples hopelessly divided by self-will has at his or her hand a message of hope -- God can and does correct this basic self-will in a man or women. "Coping" is a temporary Band-Aid; cleansing is the cure. We must somehow awaken to the tremendous potential of the experience of heart cleansing as a vital solution for PASTORAL COUNSELING.

Finally, we must begin Communicating Holiness through PERSUASIVE LIVING _‘ -- we need a virtual flood of laymen and ministers who will "live it" in the marketplace of life. Not show it off... but let their light of holy living shine. Let the fruit be seen and tasted so that the thousands of Christians struggling with personal sin and selfishness, upon seeing models of practical holiness, will hunger for this experience themselves. We must have a holiness people who are such not merely because of what they believe... but are holiness people because of how they live. For many, the most persuasive argument for holiness will not be from their pastoral counselor, Neither will they be persuaded by plain teaching nor powerful preaching. They will be persuaded to see this way of living because they observe the PERSUASIVE LIVING of someone who lives it.

There are probably other needs in the holiness movement for the 1990's, but I believe these four are the most pressing.

…the holiness denominations can develop grandiose strategies and programs...

...and the holiness educational institutions can carefully refine the tiny points of our doctrine...

...and people who care about the holiness message can endow helpful holiness lecture series...

...and we can call together leaders and scholars for conventions, committees, and think tanks…

…and develop 21st century strategy sessions...

but if in these next ten years we don't

TEACH it PLAINLY...

PREACH it POWERFULLY...

communicate it practically in PASTORAL COUNSELING...

and LIVE it PERSUASIVELY,

...then we won't need our new strategies for the year 2000 and beyond

for we will no longer be a holiness movement by then...

...our denominational statements, and institutional catalogs will continue to carry the statement on holiness, but we shall be only nominally so.

It is our present choice whether or not to proclaim the positive optimistic hope that God can deliver men and women from willful disobedience granting them a powerful baptism of love for Himself and others. It is our present choice whether or not this truth will be a relic of our past, or the reason for our future._

I pray that this lecture series inspires us all to a new commitment to the holiness message. Such a decision, like holiness itself, will have both crisis and process elements. We might hear these truths affirmed, and in an emotional moment declare that we will renew our commitment to teaching, preaching, counseling, and living holiness... but ultimately the living out of that renewed commitment in our local church will be the deciding vote. I pray that God does something in our own hearts and minds this week which will create a fresh passion for the precious promise of hope -- to live a holy life. I pray we will see a new fire storm holiness revival in our own holiness movement which we cannot contain but will spread its tongues of fire across all of Christendom.

May it be so, Lord Jesus.

___________________________________

Delivered at the Chamberlain Holiness Lectures

Wesley Biblical Seminary October, 1989

So what do you think?

To contribute to the thinking on this issue e-mail your response to [email protected]