I’m sensing a renewed interest today in holiness. This renewal comes from many who are relatively young – Millennials and Generation Xers – and those living outside North America. But how these people talk about holiness differs from your grandma’s holiness!
This rekindled interest in holiness has gone largely unnoticed. This may be due to the fact that young people and Christians throughout the world often use new language, concepts, and emphases. The issues they care about differ in many ways from the issues that motivated holiness leaders of yesteryear. The word “sanctification” may not be used, but its various meanings are often at the fore.
Millennials and Generation-Xers tend to see the world through different lenses than previous generations. Research bears this out. Of course, I don’t want to exaggerate the differences, because there is continuity between generations as well. Due to these different worldviews, sanctification – if that word is even used by younger Christians – looks different through postmodern eyes.
And then there’s the impact of globalization. The world seems to be shrinking! We’re finding out that not everyone thinks in the same categories as the folks in our own neighborhoods. My experience traveling to every continent (except Antarctica) tells me that holiness looks different in various locations and is spoken of differently around the world. While we remain united in our belief in one holy God who seeks a holy people, the Spirit is doing new things in various contexts. Thank God for diversity!
Renovating Holiness Book Project
My friend, Josh Broward, and I have decided we want to offer a way for Millennials, Xers, and/or non North Americans to express their unique perspectives on holiness. So we’re going to publish a book of essays on holiness and sanctification.
Of course, no book is big enough to contain all that could be said about holiness. So we’re looking for a sampling of around 100 contributors from around the world. And we’ve decided to restrict our pool of contributors to members of the Church of the Nazarene.
If you know someone who could write a fine essay for our book, would you contact Josh Broward or me? Send me an email (instead of responding to this blog) at tjoord @ nnu.edu.