Pilgrim Soldier

We are in a place in the West where it is a constant battle for many local congregations simply to survive. Dwindling congregations and lack of leadership is a constant problem across almost all the established churches. The money coming in often is totally inadequate to meet the costs of sustaining the building in which the congregation meets. I’ve no doubt that we in The Salvation Army are no stranger to this sort of situation.

In her book Mission-Shaped Spirituality Susan Hope says:

For essentially the spirituality of the English Church – of whatever denomination or tradition – is that of a settled community. Its liturgies, its way of organizing itself, its buildings, its synods, its financial arrangements, its self-understanding, have been formed and shaped through a long time of settlement.¹

This period of settlement is possibly one of the reason why the established churches still find it so hard to get away from the way they have always done things. Indeed change is not even seen as necessary in some congregations because they fail to see that they are failing in some way as they continue to enjoy the same things despite seeing no growth for many years.

Last year I led a meeting and preached at a corps in the UK where the soldiers expected the Corps Officer to do everything for them. I really do mean everything as they expected them to even go out and buy the craft materials for the craft club because they didn’t want the responsibility! Basically it was the Officers job to provide them with everything they needed for their corps and they were not prepared to do anything to help. How is a corps like this ever to survive and continue the mission that Jesus has charged us with?

Congregations like this are like baby birds sitting in the nest waiting for their mother to regurgitate food into their mouths! For these it is all about maintaining the personal experience of Christianity and at the most there is only a hat-tip towards real Christian mission.

How then do we move forward from a maintenance mentality into something that approaches the sort of mission that we are supposed to be involved in? Let me make a few suggestions:
Continue reading ‘Maintanence to Mission *long post warning*’