Last night on the ArmyBarmy Blog Stephen Court made a great post listing the fact that there are opportunities for young people sprouting up all over the map! He then goes on to challenge young people to take the plunge, get themselves discipled and then get out into the world and make a difference!
I think this is great! In fact I even did one of them when I lived in the UK (although at 26 I was probably not that young anymore!)
However, what is there for those for whom the boat of youth has long since left the harbour? What is there for people my age and above who suddenly realise that they’ve missed out on something for fifteen, twenty, forty plus years of adulthood? Why for once can’t the radical stuff be aimed at people other than young people?
The solution for us always seems to be restricted to 3 options:
- Go into officership
- Give up our successful (or not so successful) careers and move ‘onto the frontlines’!
- A combination of some or all the above!
The amount of material produced by the various Mission Teams, Battle Schools etc must be the size of a small mountain by now. Why can’t people distil this material and produce some sort of online library where people can be taught the same things as the youth are being taught?
Or am I missing the point? Is it only the young people we want to drive this Army forward or can the oldies join in too?
i immediately thought of Abraham and how old he was when he heard God’s call to something radical. i think you have hit on something - that maybe we in the church have followed the world’s model of aiming all of our gimmicks at young people. it used to not be that way, from what i understand. i think there must be balance, but perhaps we are tipping the scales right now in favor of youth. good thoughts here.
i myself am in the middle of a pretty radical change and, even though i’m not yet out of my twenties (1 more year!), i do see what you’re saying about all the opportunities being available for the young ones….
With a slight risk of being facetious (Had to look that word up) but isn’t that what church is for?
Isn’t church supposed to be the frontline of our mission? Isn’t church supposed to be inspiring, challenging and on fire for a most Holy God?
See here’s the challenge for all those with families, all those with careers…
“Go and make disciples of all nations…”
Matthew 28:19
The challenge of radical everyday life!
Thanks for the comments guys! My concern is that within The Salvation Army there are many people being challenged through once a year events such as Roots who then go back to their home corps and desperately want to see things change!
The problem is though that they don’t have the necessary tools or experience to know how to wake up their dead or dying corps and so, as has happened to some of my friends, become disillusioned with the whole thing and either leave to find more radical corps/churches or simply revert back into their unradical shell!
Yes, Church is supposed to be the frontline of our mission, but in many cases it isn’t! Should we write off those places and the potentially radical Christians who attend them?