The Holiness Manifesto
I know I have been off the radar for a while, and will be some more, as I move my family from FL to IN, but I wanted to throw this on here, as we migrate towards to new conversations.
Perhaps y0u have heard of the Holiness Manifesto:
A collection of Wesleyan and holiness movement theologians have published a Holiness Manifesto. Excellent reading. There is also an interview with it's chairperson, Kevin Mannoia
The Holiness Manifesto says that "holy people are not legalistic or judgmental. They do not pursue an exclusive private state of being better than others. Holiness is not flawlessness but the fulfillment of God's intention for us." Can you unpack that for us?
That is our effort to acknowledge the "valley moments" in our own histories. We recognize, for example, that in the mid-20th century a lot of what we did was based out of a legalism that was behaviorally oriented and in many cases became judgmental.
And we're trying to say that we all recognize that pitfall. We reject that, and we want to capture the spirit of this message afresh.
The document says that holiness is not "an exclusive private state of being" and frames holiness as neighbor love. It uses "covenant" language. There's a more communal understanding of holiness in this statement, that holiness is not just about us as individuals but about individuals belonging to a covenant people.
We're trying to say that we have also fallen prey to the idea of a privatized faith, that you are holy internally and that it has no external responsibility to community and to culture. We recognize that we cannot be holy in our hearts without an overflow of action and engagement with other people and with culture. The important thing here is that holiness begins with God. It does not begin with the church, it does not begin with a person, it does not begin with the Bible. It begins with God.
One characteristic of God is holiness, and at the root of that is his love for humanity. Out of that abundant love then, his otherness, which is essentially his holiness, finds expression in reaching and engaging with humanity for redemptive and reconciling purposes.
So if we pursue becoming Christ-like, which is the essence of holiness, then we will not only be transformed into his holy character, but that love will flow through us and compel us to engage and to transform culture. You can't have individual holiness without social holiness. It's impossible.
Our CHOG Participants were: Greg Dixon, Ron Duncan, Barry Callen, David Winn, and David Shrout.
Perhaps y0u have heard of the Holiness Manifesto:
A collection of Wesleyan and holiness movement theologians have published a Holiness Manifesto. Excellent reading. There is also an interview with it's chairperson, Kevin Mannoia
The Holiness Manifesto says that "holy people are not legalistic or judgmental. They do not pursue an exclusive private state of being better than others. Holiness is not flawlessness but the fulfillment of God's intention for us." Can you unpack that for us?
That is our effort to acknowledge the "valley moments" in our own histories. We recognize, for example, that in the mid-20th century a lot of what we did was based out of a legalism that was behaviorally oriented and in many cases became judgmental.
And we're trying to say that we all recognize that pitfall. We reject that, and we want to capture the spirit of this message afresh.
The document says that holiness is not "an exclusive private state of being" and frames holiness as neighbor love. It uses "covenant" language. There's a more communal understanding of holiness in this statement, that holiness is not just about us as individuals but about individuals belonging to a covenant people.
We're trying to say that we have also fallen prey to the idea of a privatized faith, that you are holy internally and that it has no external responsibility to community and to culture. We recognize that we cannot be holy in our hearts without an overflow of action and engagement with other people and with culture. The important thing here is that holiness begins with God. It does not begin with the church, it does not begin with a person, it does not begin with the Bible. It begins with God.
One characteristic of God is holiness, and at the root of that is his love for humanity. Out of that abundant love then, his otherness, which is essentially his holiness, finds expression in reaching and engaging with humanity for redemptive and reconciling purposes.
So if we pursue becoming Christ-like, which is the essence of holiness, then we will not only be transformed into his holy character, but that love will flow through us and compel us to engage and to transform culture. You can't have individual holiness without social holiness. It's impossible.
Our CHOG Participants were: Greg Dixon, Ron Duncan, Barry Callen, David Winn, and David Shrout.
Posted By Andy | |
Permalink 
Andy, man great to hear from you. I'm glad you came across this.
I think some of us are scared to talk about holiness because we don't feel holy and there aren't very many examples of churches living out holy communities. We are not very healthy on the whole are we? But we've missed the point. We're stuck in the 50s aren't we. [Like you mentions, legalistic and judgmental.] We have a museaum mentality about the church, rather than a hospital. I also think that we've let some legalistic people steal the word holy from us. We don't want to be labeled as judmental so we don't talk about it. But if Holiness is being made into what God imagined us to be shouldn't we be breathing the word? That holiness isn't just about the indivtual. Part of being holy is being with the Body. I might chew on that some more and comment again.
Posted by
Randy |
1:46 PM
Hey, I came across your blog today while searching for others out there blogging on the Holiness Manifesto. I posted about that topic today on my blog. I am curious about more of your thoughts on the manifesto. Specifically, what does it say to you personally? That is how I am approaching it. I am not asking what is it saying to the church. But, what does it say to me?
~Kevin
Posted by
Unknown |
10:48 PM
"not legalistic or jugdmental...fullfillment of God's intention" that means a lot of things to me. I think I'm living out "not legalistic" pretty well. Most of the time I'm not judgemental, when I realize I am I appoligize. But would God intended me to be? Man, that's a hard one. Jesus chose the nobody's and the B-Team. he chose me and gave me the keys to the Kingdom. Wow, am I living as though I'm on Team Jesus? Nope. I live like I'm on the C-Team. This third portion hits on wholeness, overall restoration. I'm pretty good at not being judgmental and legalistic, but how is the overall picture. Having said that, I'm gowing. Lately, I'm following closer to Jesus than I have in a while.
I like the communal feel also. I think we need to me more Eastern on that one. Our culure is set up on the Greek mindset of the individual seeking pleasure. That is us. Eventhough we talk about community, I don't think we have much of it. This I, doesn't. Not like what happend in Acts. Again, it's been better. But it's still really lacking. That's what I'm thinking.
Posted by
Randy |
11:15 PM
Kevin, thanks for commenting. I appreciate your take on the HM, as what does is it speak personally. That is of course where we all have to start. The first sentence sort of irks me, in that perhaps there was a time we really didn't need this focus on holiness. The history of mankind has always needed to draw closer to the creator. I think we are all in a crisis of weeding through the crap of life to spend our life loving God. We just screw it up all the time by replacing God with other things. Pastors are way guilty of this, me included. "people in churches are tired of our petty lines" this speaks to me more than anything, because I want so desperately for people to see Jesus, and they sure aren't seeing Him in 'his' church. So people need to see Him in me.
Thanks for your approach again Kevin! Randy, it's your turn to open up and cry a little.
Posted by
Andy |
7:30 PM