John Wesley and the Emerging Church

An article by Hal Knight is published in the winter edition of the Church of the Nazarene's Preacher's Magazine entitled "John Wesley and the Emerging Church."

The article has two major audiences. The first is the person who has heard the term "emerging church" thrown around but who have no real sense of what it means. Knight gives a brief overview of what the emerging church is, demonstrating that the emerging church is consistent with previous renewals within the church. Like the Protestant Reformation, Great Awakening, and American Holiness Movement, there are components which need to be embraced and other aspects that it would be wise to discard.

The second major audience is the person who is trying to make connections between ministry in the 21st century while remaining faithful to our Wesleyan-holiness tradition. Knight identifies seven features of emerging churches and, with each of these features, notes how John Wesley used similar practices in his eighteenth century English movement, practices which have been borrowed by the emerging church.

Click here to read the full article.