Holiness Worship

The Holiness movement is Wesleyan in origin. It emphasizes the sanctification of life and conduct. Sanctification is normally seen as a second work of grace subsequent to personal regeneration. Holiness churches also believe in divine healing, a rite some congregations are beginning to recover. Most of the Holiness churches began in the late nineteenth century. Worship was strongly emotional and often employed the use of the "mourners bench" (as in Nazarene worship), where people came to confess their sins and get right with God. This movement was a forebear of the Pentecostal movement. Worship among the churches of the holiness tradition-Wesleyan, Nazarene, and Christian and Missionary Alliance churches-may vary from place to place. Those holiness churches that seek to draw on historical worship patterns while retaining their own distinctive practices have created orders similar to the one described in this article. The service that follows is from a Church of the Nazarene. The …