PRESENT DAY TRENDS AND THE NEED FOR REVIVAL IN THE HOLINESS MOVEMENT Part 2

Today, we continue to look at some trends and needs in the holiness movement. This material was taken from a book written by Rev. Earl L. Gardner, a Church of the Nazarene minister, about 60 years ago.

3. The Growing Tendency Toward Recreational Rather Than Spiritual Pursuits.

Participation by preachers and laymen in questionable recreational activities is an indication that we are not a "separated" people any longer. World Series ball games, corrupt television programs, prize fights, community affairs where gambling and nudeness are paramount and such like indulgences are grieving God's Spirit away from us. God is a jealous God and will not look on sin of any nature.
Banqueting is becoming a fixed routine in many conventions and gatherings. While some things of this nature are not in themselves sinful, yet we are falling into a trend of socialized gospel. We ought to enjoy prolonged prayer vigils together more than periods of feasting and frivolity. It is a shifting of emphasis which is spelling our downfall.

Halloween parties are now being sponsored inside the sanctuary and in some churches a kitchen is standard equipment: "Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set" (Proverbs 22:28).

4.Academic and Cultural Over-Emphasis in our Colleges.

Originally our schools were founded to serve the church exclusively in producing and training preachers and missionaries to save the lost. Now the church is called upon to support a college curriculum on the level of a State University with a minor emphasis on producing spiritual giants and Bible preachers and teachers.

Also we have set a pace in our cultural and recreational curriculum which tends to have the same sway over our students as any worldly college. We follow all the silly customs of Freshman initiation, no matter how stupid it looks to the outside or what scars it leaves on conscientious students who want to be an example of true holiness. Our "wide open" scope of academic and cultural "spread" opens the doors to unspiritual people allowing them to pursue their secular pursuits and introduce worldliness into our midst. They get the benefit of church supported training and go out on their own when finished and never put back a thing into the church -- in service or money.
We don't feel it is the mission of the church of Christ to educate the sons of the world. This is a violation of Bible separation from the world.

All this grieves the Spirit. He cannot reign in complete control over an arrangement of this kind.

The Forward Look

Our heart cry is "back to Pentecost." Let us free ourselves of our spiritual shackles and set our spiritual houses in order. Let us be reassured that God is still interested in the souls of men and is anxious to bless any and all who will pay the price in obedience and sacrifice to open the channels of spiritual power. Pentecostal power upon the Church is the only answer,

It is time to ". . . blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. . . Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children. . . Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?" (Joel 2:15-17).