Erskine Holt

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Erskine Holt was born February 8, 1915 and died July 11, 2003. Holt was a missionary and religious leader in the United States who founded many independent House Church communities throughout the world. He founded a religious retreat center, Corvilla in Zephyrhills, Florida.

He was a significant contributor to the Jesus Movement of the 1970s. Presenting himself as part of the "establishment" he was also able to connect with the hippie youth culture of that era and organize their informal gatherings into ongoing house church congregations. As an older, mature Christian leader, he was able to provide some guidance to otherwise leaderless youth gatherings. Holt encouraged the development of house churches on college campuses. As the Jesus Movement came to its quick end, many of the house churches he formed or nurtured moved into forming established churches, including Calvary Chapel.

After the demise of the Jesus Movement, Holt continued to travel throughout the United States, and on occasion to other nations. He continued to visit "remnant" groups of Christians, such as those in house churches and informal Bible study gatherings that were not connected to any denomination or structure.

His ministry was viewed positively as having provided nurture and structure for these independent or "remnant" groups, but he was sometimes criticized for not having given these groups enough structure.

Holt was a follower of Charismatic Christianity and believed in traditional Pentecostal gifts, such as speaking in tongues. He strongly advocated a teaching known as "five-fold ministry."

[edit] Quotations

On the Godhead " . . . What we're discussing here is the subject of the Godhead. It's a big subject. It's so big that it almost seems fool hardy to attempt to do anything about it. And yet God wants to be known."

On Revival " . . . the tendency for people is to want to revive what they've had. But God wants to show us that there's more than that. There's something new!"