By Bill Kierce
During the past month I have been reading and reflecting upon Darius Salter’s The Demise of the American Holiness Movement: A Historical, Theological, Biblical and Social Exploration, published in 2019. It’s not a very encouraging title, is it? Dr. Salter is a respected leader in the Nazarene Church and past president of The Christian Holiness Association. He dedicates an entire chapter in the book to the Francis Asbury Society (FAS) and the career and ministry of Dr. Dennis F. Kinlaw, founder of FAS. Commenting upon Dr. Kinlaw’s death in 2017, he says (paraphrased), “Time will tell what the future of FAS will be . . .” You can imagine that statement got my attention!
My purpose in this article is not to offer a book review of Dr. Salter’s work. There are a couple of things I would emphasize, however, that are important for our work at FAS. First, he is correct that the landscape of the American Holiness Movement has drastically changed. It is not the same world that framed the ministry of Dennis Kinlaw or the ministries of John Wesley Hughes and H. C. Morrison, founders of Asbury University and Asbury Theological Seminary, respectively.
The Church in America is no longer defined denominationally. The decline in mainline church participation over the last 50 years has been precipitous. Remnants of denominational Christianity, including many rooted in holiness traditions, are now embroiled in ongoing controversies over sexual identity and Scriptural authority. Secularism casts the same shadow that has fallen over Western Europe. Amid mainline decline and what Salter terms the “demise of holiness influence,” the emergence of the megachurch and non-denominational “new evangelical” congregations have been significant phenomena in American culture. For the most part, these groups define themselves experientially and not theologically. This means that emphasis is primarily placed on the experience of dynamic worship, authentic community, a lifestyle of “following Jesus,” and serving others.
There is certainly nothing questionable about any of that. It does mean, however, that a Wesleyan-Holiness distinctive in these growing congregations is difficult to find. In fact, many of these churches place very little emphasis on theology altogether, which makes the new evangelical movement the first such phenomenon in American religious life that risks isolation from nearly 2,000 years of church history. In some ways, the above characteristics of America’s new evangelicalism present an opportunity for us. The Wesleyan-Holiness expression is experiential in nature. We believe in salvation that is fully experienced in authentic community and the Holy Spirit’s purifying and empowering agency. We do not embrace a God who satisfied his justice for a select few in the death of his Son, as Reformed theologians contend, but one who chose to love all humanity with a holy passion to the extent of sacrificing his own life even before Adam took his first breath. Jesus was never Plan B. His love offering of death on a cross was the condition upon which the triune Godhead purposed to create humanity. Amazing love, how can it be?
It also means that FAS and other forward-leaning ministries in our tradition cannot afford to fall back on the old ways of doing things. It’s the same message of saving and sanctifying grace delivered on a different frontier than our past generations knew in America. The Francis Asbury Society is facing a necessary pivot in our approach to these challenges. I played a little basketball in college, and I know that when a player pivots, one foot must remain firmly planted while the other is free to explore avenues of movement. This metaphor describes the interplay of our past and our future at FAS.
A second observation from reading Dr. Salter: He seems to have an axe to grind in pronouncing the demise of the American Holiness Movement. As a past president of the Christian Holiness Association, his bias is understandable. All institutions ultimately decay, decline, and die. This was Dr. Kinlaw’s primary concern for the Wesleyan-Holiness institutions that he loved so deeply and was a primary motivator for founding the Francis Asbury Society. Ever insistent that we would not pursue a similar pattern, he often said, “FAS is not an institution; we are a message.” Our message has been and always will be that a life fully surrendered to Jesus Christ will result in purity of heart, intimacy with God, and empowerment for life and ministry.
Has the movement changed? Of course. Has it died? Hardly. One should look no further than the presence of ministries like Seedbed, Firebrand, and similar renewal movements in traditional Wesleyan expressions to see God is at work. The recent outpouring at Asbury University is evidence of God’s desire to demonstrate his purity and power to emerging generations. Dying institutions spend a lot of energy decrying expressions of so-called renewal that do not fit the mold of how God has revealed himself in the past. And yes, we’ve all witnessed attempts to justify fleshly ecstasy and self-promotion in the name of revival. But we would do well to avoid evaluating others in the light of our experience alone.
Back to Rev. Salter’s musing regarding the future of the Francis Asbury Society in the wake of losing our founding generation: Our future is up to God. It is also up to us. How effectively we pivot to embrace the opportunities that lay before us on this new frontier will determine whether God will pour fresh wine into our skin. I am convinced that he will. As we seek to reframe the role of the evangelist, effectively resource today’s church, and disciple brothers and sisters around the world at FAS, let us work together to be a pliable conduit for the refreshing God is pouring out upon all who receive it.