Later in the year we should be starting a Mission Team in Latvia from amongst the youth. The leader of the project has asked me to teach Salvation Army history to them during the first few weeks when they will undergo intense training.
In preparation I’ve started re-reading various books and yesterday I picked up Phil Wall’s ‘I’ll fight…’. I found the following that really made me sit up and think:
“In military terms they [Booth and the early Salvationists] did not see themselves as defenders of some religious enclave from which they occasionally fired artillery and launched ‘hit and run’ commando raids only to return to their ’safe haven’ citadels. No, this was an all-out offensive into enemy territory where the majority of lost people were to be found.”
Being totally honest, there is no doubt in my mind that the majority of corps that I grew up in, and there were a lot of them, were far more of the former type of military unit, than the latter. That ’safe haven’ mentality coloured my view of this Army for far to many years. I pray that I don’t perpetuate that understanding of The Salvation Army in my daughter’s life, or indeed in the type of Army I show through my history lessons to the young people of Latvia!
As a regular reader of the Journal of Aggressive Christianity I was delighted to see the latest article from Danielle Strickland relating to the lack of married women as nominees for General. As the husband of a wife, I can understand why this is concerning to many people, and the fact that no married woman has yet reached a senior position in The Salvation Army is a problem that I hope will be addressed in future.
However, for me there was an even bigger issue. Of the 7 nominations for General there were 2 Canadians (interestingly both the women nominees), 2 Americans, 1 Brit, a Dane and a Swede! Not one of the nominees came from a part of the world where TSA is seeing its strongest growth! To me this is a far bigger issue than that of no married women, as at least there were some women nominated.
According to the information that I have, no recent General has ever been elected on their first nomination for the post. This means it is unlikely that we will see a change next time round, although the General-elect is young enough that many of the current ‘front-runners’ will have retired by the next High Council.
I truly believe that the right person has been appointed as the new General as I look back at past Generals and see that they were the man or woman for the time. However, I am genuinely concerned that we are still looking to the traditional strongholds for our leadership.
I’ve been thinking about my own blog for sometime now and have finally decided to take the plunge.
Like many new bloggers I have no idea whatsoever about where this blog will take me, or how often I will be updating!
My main reason for starting a blog is that I’m not the best person at keeping a journal and the idea of sharing my ramblings with others through this medium quite interests me. I’m currently going through a process of trying to better understand both the Army I serve in and my place within it. Hopefully this blog will help me keep track and maybe even give me some form of accountability!
So whether anyone joins me along the way is yet to be seen, but welcome onboard to anyone who does!
Latest Comments
Brian Rowe
Brian Rowe
Sarah
Graeme, jake clanfield, Phil, Zoe
jake clanfield, Graeme, Sarah, Graeme, sarah
John Ager, Graeme, Henrik