Pilgrim Soldier

It was General John Gowans who gave us the simple yet profound soundbite that is the task of The Salvation Army; to save souls, grow saints and serve suffering humanity. Yet I am becoming convinced that the first two of these are so closely linked that we should treat them as if they were one goal. All too often, probably because of the rapid decline we face in this post-modern, post-christendom society, we have been guilty of playing the numbers game. This has left us in a situation where The Salvation Army, and many other branches of the church, is full of people who have belief in the saving power of Jesus Christ, yet have barely got out of nappies as disciples.

A couple of months ago I blogged about the fact that in Latvian the terms “Disciple” and “Apprentice” are actually the very same word. Can we say that our churches are full of apprentices? I’m not sure we can. From my understanding, apprentices starts to produce work that is initially poor quality but that as they practice and learn, from the master craftsman to whom they are apprenticed, gradually increases in quality. I look at my own work and often struggle to see any improvement. In fact sometimes I even struggle to see anything that even resembles the work that we are called to do.

Why is this? Why are we willing to accept second-best all the time, not only from ourselves but also from those who surround us in our churches?

We take the easy options all the time. I take the easy options all the time!

Last week I was challenged over what someone feels is my need to change The Salvation Army. I could understand where they were coming from and it really made me think hard about what I mean when I say that. The words that came to me were that I am not satisfied with mediocrity when it come to faith. God seems to be building in me a holy discontent with the status quo.

It’s not that I want to change the Army in itself, but I want to encourage people to gain the fulness of life that is on offer to them. Generations of Christians have been content to go to church on a Sunday yet the church is shrinking in the western world at a frightening rate. Something somewhere has gone seriously wrong. Christianity is by its very nature a radical faith. If we follow Christ’s teaching then we are basically called to turn the norms of society upside down. Yet all too often we are satisfied with simply existing!

It is not enough that we get people saved. The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) doesn’t say “Go and get people saved of all nations…” it says go and make disciples. We are called individually and corporately as the Church to not only get people saved but to train apprentices. The only way to be authentic in our faith is if we grab hold of this challenge, otherwise we are not fulfilling Jesus’s command.