Pilgrim Soldier

The more I think about how we have done ‘Church’ or ‘Army’ in the past the more convinced I am that the Church and the Army have failed generations of people.¹ The biggest problem is not only have we failed people by selling short the fullness of life on offer through the grace of God and faith in Jesus, its possible that we have also enslaved them into a way of living that is probably contradictory to what following Jesus is really about.

These words may seem harsh, but I’ll explain what I mean. Over the years in the Army a great deal of emphasis has been placed on the practical side of discipleship and the fact that it is our duty to serve. In my opinion this has caused two things to happen. Firstly, we have narrowed the avenues in which we are able to serve Jesus. Secondly, we have created a reluctant core of members who serve, not out of joy or even with joy, but because of some misguided sense of duty.

In some places we now face a situation of our own making. We see soldiers who are more interested in maintaining what has gone before than they are transforming the communities in which they live. I’m not sure whether this is simply a result of our humanity and our not liking change, or whether it is also because there is a belief that the Army subculture, in which I grew up, is to be protected at all costs because this is what the ‘real’ Army is.

Now I know that I am opening myself up to being accused of making generalisations, so I acknowledge that there are some wonderful expressions of the Army/Church that are working. However, as I have talked to people over the last few months and have been involved in meetings where extremely difficult situations have been part of the discussions, I have come to see how bitter some Salvationists have become and I simply cannot ignore that. I’m seeing and hearing of people so caught up in past hurts that they seem incapable of moving past them. I see people so indoctrinated into a particular way of ‘doing church’ or serving others that any joy they have found in the past has gone. I see this and I want to cry out to heaven and ask “Why Lord? Why have you allowed this to happen?”

The real tragedy is that this bitterness is often not of the person’s own making. It is more often the result of a institutional form of faith that draws people in with the promise of personal salvation but which then requires subservience to the institution rather than the Jesus who the institution should be serving. What is even worse is that it is this is not done through a concious effort that has resulted in this, but it is simply something that we have slipped into over the decades.

I suppose this post is really an expression of what is on my heart at the moment. Unfortunately, it seems in some situations the bitterness is simply too ingrained in people that only the Spirit can make a difference, yet those same people are often not open to the Spirit’s leading.

Where do we go from here? I honestly have no idea, but I do think we have to be honest with ourselves and search for a solution that only come from an openness to the Holy Spirit! I also suspect that something that will be needed is corporate repentance on the part of the Church for the sins of our past.