A Presentation of Perfection - Media Sabda Org
A Presentation of Perfection - Media Sabda Org
A Presentation of Perfection - Media Sabda Org
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Hillsboro. Driving through this little village, one would never suspect that here,<br />
during the year <strong>of</strong> 1909, a new holiness denomination came into being. [23]<br />
This denomination has been aggressive evangelistically. It is headquartered in Circleville, Ohio,<br />
where it operates a Bible college to train ministers. The organization has about 250 churches and<br />
tends to be episcopalian in its form <strong>of</strong> church government.<br />
God's Missionary Church is a small denomination centralized in Pennsylvania. It was formed by<br />
a group <strong>of</strong> lay people holding cottage prayer meetings and revival services. It adheres strictly to a<br />
doctrine <strong>of</strong> holiness. The organization is rigid in both the doctrine and practice <strong>of</strong> holiness. It has<br />
about forty churches with one leader in charge <strong>of</strong> the group. Penn View Bible Institute in Penns<br />
Creek, Pennsylvania, is the school that the God's Missionary Church sponsors.<br />
The Wesleyan Church has been the last large holiness church to organize in this century. An<br />
<strong>of</strong>ficial history gives the following explanation <strong>of</strong> how the Wesleyan Church came about:<br />
Merger was not the problem to Pilgrims that it was to Wesleyan Methodists. The<br />
union <strong>of</strong> smaller church bodies with the mainstream had taken place <strong>of</strong>ten across the<br />
seventy-one years <strong>of</strong> the denominations' existence. So merger between two fairly<br />
equal bodies did not conjure up bad memories <strong>of</strong> the past. Merger with the Wesleyan<br />
Methodists was discussed informally early in the 1920's. The first formal discussions<br />
appear to have taken place with Dr. F. R. Eddy, then Wesleyan Methodist General<br />
Conference President and Publishing Agent, who met with Pilgrim General Board<br />
members and district superintendents in Indianapolis, May 11, 1944... Negotiations<br />
became much more serious in the late 1950's, and in 1958 the Pilgrim Holiness<br />
General Conference approved merger with the Wesleyan Methodist by more than the<br />
necessary two-thirds majority. But in 1959 the Wesleyan Methodist General<br />
Conference failed by the vote <strong>of</strong> one person to muster the two-thirds majority<br />
necessary on that level. [24]<br />
There was progress made over the next decade between these two groups. Church <strong>of</strong>ficials met,<br />
and committees worked to see the merger come about. Finally, on June 25, 1968, the Wesleyan<br />
Church came into existence.<br />
The Free Methodist, Nazarene, and Wesleyan denominations are the largest <strong>of</strong> the holiness<br />
groups. They have been the most predominant in spreading the doctrine and teachings <strong>of</strong> the holiness<br />
movement around the world. The Church <strong>of</strong> the Nazarene alone has approximately ten thousand<br />
churches worldwide.<br />
The majority <strong>of</strong> the denominations discussed in this section cooperate through the Christian<br />
Holiness Association to strengthen fellowship, evangelism, and religious education among holiness<br />
churches. These denominations, because <strong>of</strong> their size, are the most prominent and well-known <strong>of</strong> the<br />
holiness churches. The membership predominantly reflects many characteristics <strong>of</strong> contemporary<br />
[25]<br />
social and economic values. Some within the holiness movement have reacted to the movement<br />
toward contemporary social and economic values (worldliness) as a betrayal <strong>of</strong> the holiness lifestyle