Joining the Evangelical Club: The Movement of the Wesleyan‐Holiness Churches in Australia Along the Church‐Sect Continuum

Abstract

A number of North American Wesleyan‐Holiness denominations emerged in Australia, beginning in the years following the Second World War. Some of these churches moved from being despised and marginalized sects to established denominations while others remained small and isolated, experiencing little growth. Their story demonstrates that movement along the church‐sect continuum is by no means a smooth and inevitable one. Random processes may lower or raise religious tension within the group thus affecting its movement along the continuum. The strict behavioural standards in Wesleyan‐Holiness churches have gradually been lowered and the distinctive beliefs of these groups have been eroded. Wesleyan‐Holiness churches in Australia have grown primarily through “switchers” from other denominations more than from new convert growth, so that they have become more generically “Evangelical” and less distinctively “Holiness” in their beliefs and practices.