Author Archives: Jen Carney

A Holiness Church

Beloved how this perfect love unites us all in Jesus!
One heart, and soul, and mind we prove the union heaven gave us.

It seems there are a number of definitions of what it means to be “holy” or to live a “holy life.” Even in the Church of God, a holiness movement, there are a number of people who believe deeply in holiness living, but would define this differently from one another. Often, we hear holiness defined as what we don’t do. “I believe in living a holy life, therefore I do not …” You can fill in the blanks. What we find in the Scriptures, however, is that holiness has much more to do with our relationships with God, others, and ourselves. “What is the greatest commandment?” Jesus was asked. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. The second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and prophets hang on these two commandments.” Continue reading

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A Born-Again Church: A Response

Growing up in the Church of God, talk of being “born again” was something about which I heard a lot. The struggle for me came when my experience and relationship with God did not reflect this one, pivotal moment, when I turned from a lifetime of sin and became a new person. Eugene Peterson describes discipleship as a “Long Obedience in the Same Direction” and that is a good description of how I have understood my own faith story. Sure, I had the time when I was 5 years old and I asked my parents to pray with me, following a church service where a Southern Gospel group had come to sing and, apparently, scare the living daylights out of a 5 year old with a hellfire-and-brimstone-type message. And maybe we could point to that moment as my moment of conversion. But as an adult, looking back on my faith journey, I see transformative seasons in my life, where I was being born again.

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