“For Such A Time As This” The Role of Holiness in Youth Ministry

Esther 4:13,14

13Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, "Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

You can tell that Jewish scholars and theologians have a great understanding of history and tradition by their belief that that they are only one generation away from being extinct as a people. Their diligence and perseverance to continue the movement of their faith, is something not just out of tradition, but also out of necessity.

Have you ever thought or asked yourself, are we as a holiness people just one generation away from being extinct?

It's a Wednesday Night and a crowd of students begins to fill the room. There's techno music playing in the background as students form their tiny social communities with one another. If you were to stand back and look at the stage you would see musical instruments propped up on stands and a cascade of colored lights bouncing off the shiny instruments. There are images on the screen that project the theme for the series and white linen hangs from the ceiling to give the space that final cerebral boost. This is the last night of the series entitled: "Spark Notes, a guide to the Doctrine of Holiness," and sitting up in the front of the stage is a tall Café table with a Carmel Pecan Silk Supreme Pie sitting right in the middle. There are a few critical questions that need to be asked at this point, such as, how did we get here? What's the heart of the issue? And last but not least, what's next, and what are some practical steps?

How did we get here?

For us as a holiness people, "here" has two separate connotations. The first connotation for "here" would represent the history, tradition, and foundation that were set by the people who came before us. We would have to look back at the benchmarks of growth and decline of the holiness movement in order to understand how we have arrived at this point in time.

Its important for us 21^st century Nazarene youth pastors to realize the gravity of what occurred on October 13, 1908 in Pilot Point, Texas. We shouldn't just study the information for a test, or skillfully place the date in a well-crafted paper for class. We shouldn't just use this crucial date in the history of our church as a neat piece of trivia to impress your colleagues at District Assembly. What happened in Pilot Point, Texas in 1908 is paramount to why we stand in front of our students and preach a holiness message that we hope will change their lives forever. This sense of optimism is not new to the holiness movement or the leaders who started it all. In 1908 the people who gathered under a hot tent in the middle-of-know-where Texas believed the message of holiness had the ability to change a nation, restore hope to a broken people, eradicate all sin, and even change the whole world.

Phoebe Palmer talked about the holiness movement as the "dawning of millennial glory." Phineas F. Bresee had this to say about the holiness movement on May 23, 1901 in the Nazarene Messenger, "The work-the particular work-which God has called us to do, must be done. Not something else, not something similar, but the very thing He has called us to do." Later in January of 1902, Bresee said, "The call of God is to preach holiness; to gather in close fellowship, where the experience of the baptism with the Holy Ghost can be enjoyed and testified to as preached without... hindrance, where men and women can be established in holiness. So the question on the other side of optimism is again, how did we get "here?"

I'm not sure what circle of people you find yourself surrounded by, but in my discussions with friends and colleagues across the Nazarene denomination there is an ongoing debate and conversation concerning the changes, rethinking, and lack of relevance the teaching holiness has within our Nazarene churches. More specifically there is an ongoing conversation about the doctrine of entire sanctification and the major revisions that could take place this summer at our General Assembly in Orlando, Florida. Just recently I had the opportunity to participate in the Holiness Summit at Olivet Nazarene University. This summit was not something the Nazarene denomination orchestrated, rather Holiness Summits are popping up all over the country in a grass roots effort to address the ever widening gap between the original intention of our founders, and the current state of holiness and holiness preaching in our denominational churches. The first words of the opening session came from President of Olivet Nazarene University, Dr. John Bowling, "We need to get over this virus of generic Christianity, Bowling said." Bowling then goes on to challenge the people like Bresee nearly 100 years before when he said, "God called us to preach holiness...if we aren't comfortable with it, we need to get out of the way!" Youth ministry is not prone to experiencing this ever widening gap, in fact, I would say that there is more of a lack of holiness preaching in our youth ministries as anywhere in our holiness denominations. The great danger is realizing that the burden for carrying the torch of holiness to our people doesn't just fall on our Senior Pastors. Instead, we need to begin realizing that for most students, the first voice, the only voice, and sometimes the lack of voice for "heart holiness" preaching, comes from us the youth pastors. Esther 3:14 "For if you keep silent at this time... you and your father's house will perish.  

The Heart of the Issue:

A colleague of mine and I were having lunch with Walt Mueller, the President of the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding, when he raised a critical question that still resonates with me. He said, "Help me understand your doctrine of entire sanctification and how it's relevant to your students?" He went on to talk about how he comes from a background of depravity and can't understand how we can preach about being "perfect". He also admitted that he leaves 90% of conversations regarding entire sanctification with more questions because people can't give him a straight answer.

One of my greatest concerns as a youth pastor, is that we don't preach holiness or entire sanctification because we don't understand it ourselves. Now I can get into a debate over what is right or what is wrong in our definitions of sanctification, but I believe there is a bigger issue. I believe at the heart of preaching and teaching holiness is exactly that, our heart. Henry Nouwen in his book, In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership says, "It is not enough for the priests and ministers of the future to be moral people, well trained, eager to help their fellow humans, and able to respond creatively to the burning issues of their time. All of that is very valuable and important, but it is not the heart of the Christian leadership. The central question is, are the leaders of the future truly men and women of God, people with an ardent desire to dwell in God's incarnate Word and to taste fully God's infinite goodness? Nouwen raises an incredibly important question to our conversation, is the reason we don't preach heart holiness much deeper than whether we believe in heart holiness?

What's Next and Practical Steps:

Over the past three years I have committed what most of my colleagues would call ministerial suicide. I have preached the same series, with the same object lessons, at the same time, for the last three years. I can now tell you from personal experience that the message of Holiness, specifically the doctrine of entire sanctification has a justified (no pun intended) place in the preaching schedule each year. I am amazed at how much my students remember from year to year, especially the seniors. We all have students in our ministries who have grown up their whole life in the church. I'm amazed at the affirmation from students who have been experiencing God's calling to give and be more. They cant explain it and don't know how, but they know they must do something. It's easy for our students to think that their spiritual lives are like layers of a Carmel Pecan Silk Supreme Pie. In fact, when I explain to them that the crust is like their hardness towards God when they are born they nod their head in agreement. When I talk about the caramel pecan layer being like sin; it might taste sweet, but before you know it you've eaten too much and it's destroying you, the students agree. They agree even more when they see the cream cheese white layer is represents the purity that God offers through salvation. They start to move to the edge of their seats when I reveal to them that the smooth layer of French silk on the top is like us becoming smooth tasty Christians. Then there is a question: What then is entire sanctification? "It's the whip cream on top! It's what completes us and now we can say we are complete, we have arrived!" Then it happens, the air in the entire room is sucked out when I take both of my hands and reach into that pie and start kneading all the elements between my hands and fingers. Our students believe that entire sanctification is the final step along the journey, like it's the crown placed on our heads to symbolize the final stage. Students begin to weep when I tell them that God doesn't just want a layer of our life, but the whole thing. They are consumed by the grace that is revealed to them by the Holy Spirit in that moment. Its like a light bulb goes off and they realize that God doesn't just want a part of their story; he wants their whole story. They are moved to respond then they are reminded of the words on 1 John 1:7, "But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we are fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."

I have seen first hand the transformation of kid's lives through the direct message of holiness. If you feel like you don't get it, start reading. Look at the scripture that the church uses to support its claim of sanctification. Read Bo Cassell's book, A Perfect Life, which by the way is a retelling of Wesley's A Plain Account of Christian Perfection. Another great resource is the lessons written by John Hampton and Mike Schoonover in their book, Vital Beliefs, Finding our Place in the Story of God (Word Action). If you want a resource that will give you some different perspectives on Holiness, try reading, Holiness 101, Exploring this Transforming Journey, by Beacon Hill Press.

Let me finish by saying this, holiness is not the destination, but rather the departure point for the rest of our student's lives. If we are going to get series about making a difference in the life of our teenagers, we have to look well past the blip on the radar called Junior and Senior High, and start looking at the broad term effects our teaching has on their whole story. Its not enough to preach about the dangers of drugs, internet porn, illegal downloads, cutting, sex and dating, or even the their future, without recognizing the Doctoral role of Holiness associated with the institution in which we preach. If there is ever a time and a place that holiness needs to be preached, it is now! Our students are experiencing the same enslavement to sin that generations of people have experienced before them. The only difference is our students are more inundated with multiple streams of information that seem to be clogging their system. One of the most beautiful messages of holiness for our students is opening their eyes to God's incredible pursuit of them through the Spirit, which tells us in John 16:13, "will guide you into all truth."

Discussion Questions:

1. What do you see is the difference between the Holiness movement of our founders and the movement of today?
2. How do we break the silence of Holiness preaching to our students?
3. What are the positive and negatives to preaching entire sanctification?
4. How would you answer Walt Mueller's question, "Help me understand your doctrine of entire sanctification and how it's relevant to your students?"