Monthly Archive for June, 2008

Friendly fire

Published
by
Graeme
on June 26, 2008
in The Salvation Army
. 4 Comments

A lot of those writing in the Salvation Army blogosphere are expressing the need for a return to the militant attitude of the past. It has to be all or nothing and we must keep up with the best examples to be of any use in this Army of ours. Whilst I have some sympathy for this position I’m growing increasingly worried about the way this must be affecting those faithful soldiers who have fought the fight for many years, yet do not have the same sense of urgency in their expression. Is this their fault or are they simply the innocent victims of the malaise that has affected the Army for decades now?

Something I have understood from my very short time in ministry is that we need to give time for people to grasp the vision of a better discipleship. It is not going to happen overnight for everyone and we have many people in our congregations who are open to learning but who are not going to be transformed in the time that we want them to but instead will be in God’s time!

Taking terms from the theatre of war is common in our Army so here’s another. I wonder how many of our potentially best troops are being injured by ‘friendly fire’ from well intentioned but inconsiderate and careless forces within their colleagues!

Soldiership as Discipleship

Published
by
Graeme
on June 19, 2008
in My Pilgrimage, The Salvation Army and discipleship
. 2 Comments

It’s now more than 10 years since the International Spiritual Life Commission reported their thoughts to The Salvation Army. Unfortunately, in some areas the emphasis has been placed more on what they didn’t do, especially in terms of baptism and the eucharist, than on the calls that they made to Salvationists and the corps they are part of.

I’ve been looking at them recently and within the Call to Soldiership I discovered this:

“We believe that soldiership is discipleship…”

The reality is though that for many soldiers, soldiership has actually been a route to playing an active part in the life of the ‘club’ rather than a commitment to radical, life-changing service. The Articles of War, or Soldier’s Covenant, that they signed hasn’t really made a significant impact on their lives. Why this is the case has been discussed a lot in recent days and in my opinion is a combination of poor teaching, an emphasis on ‘Army’ subculture rather than mission, poor leadership and changing times.

When you read the Soldier’s Covenant it really requires a radical commitment. Too often the emphasis has been placed on the commitments not to drink and being active as is possible in the corps programme, rather than on those of response and obedience to the Holy Spirit and living by Kingdom values.

I heard today of two corps which are well known in this Territory that have changed the format of their evening meetings. The band and songsters are now only on duty about once a month and when they are not taking part the majority of the members are absent. When one of the corps has a Bible Study they only get about 25% of the number of people who go when the band or songsters are taking part. Is this radical commitment to the Lord, or is it membership of an interest group?

Real discipleship is costly not cosy. Yet despite this cost it ultimately leads to a life that is defined by the beauty of a relationship with the Father and assurance in His promises.

Duty?

Published
by
Graeme
on June 14, 2008
in Faith and discipleship
. 0 Comments

Within The Salvation Army there is a word that has, for my generation at least, become an unacceptable part of the vocabulary. It’s as if this simple 4 letter word has become, in English slang, a ‘four-letter word’ and to even whisper it in polite company will earn you frowns of disappointment.

The word is ‘duty’!

Why this word has become such an anathema to many Salvationists is a combination of the age we now live in and its poor use within Army circles. For any of us who grew up in the Army of the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s, duty was used almost solely in respect of our brass band and songsters. I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve heard the phrase “The band [or songsters] is on duty!” Almost without fail it meant that you would be seriously looked down upon if you weren’t at the particular event that the ‘duty section’ was in! It didn’t matter whether you had arranged something else, even months in advance, because there would always be someone who would find fault at you not being there, after all it was your duty!

This is not to say that this use of the word is particularly bad. If you commit yourself to be involved in a band or choir, of course you should be prepared to make your programme fit around its programme. However, the problem is that little, if anything, was ever mentioned about our duty to follow Jesus and be obedient to him.

Maybe this is one of the reasons why the song ‘Pathway of Duty’ has become so unpopular. Perhaps the words serve as a reminder to us of being on ‘duty’ at concerts that held little or no interest to us, and which never really seemed to bring anyone into the Kingdom.

We live today in a world that concentrates on the rights of the individual and a reluctant, tacit acceptance that many people have given up on being responsible members of society. Duty is unpopular as it suggests a reigning in of freedom and forces us to conform to certain societal ideals.

Yet duty is important, and we do have a duty in our walk with Jesus. At the root of our faith is a duty to be obedient. Without obedience our faith cannot grow. Bill Hull, in his book Choose the Life, has written that:

Many people have studied the Bible and considered following Jesus, but until we actually step out in obedience to him, we can’t experience the transformation of our character.

Many of us in the church are obedient to the rules of reading our Bible and praying every day, yet when it comes to being obedient to the Holy Spirit in our lives we ignore him. We choose the path of religiosity in our faith rather than being followers of our Rabbi who is also the Son of God.

Our duty as Christians is to put aside everything of ourselves, surrender our self-control, and to become disciples whose every step is a step of obedience. By embracing this duty of obedience to him, we will in the words of that old, often despised song discover that “while we walk this path of duty we will find our needs supplied from the river of God’s mercy that is flowing close beside.”

Commitment to Mission

Published
by
Graeme
on June 11, 2008
in Mission
. 3 Comments

In preparation for some teaching I’m going to be doing here in the corps I’ve been glancing through the excellent SA courses over at armybarmy.com. In the first session of SA201 there is a wonderful comment:

“Mission is to a movement what rice is to Chinese food. Without it, there’s just a bunch of vegetables lying around.”

My immediate reaction was to think of the Army I belong to and ask whether or not this is the experience we have. Thankfully in an increasing number of places mission focus is increasing and the fruit of people’s labour in the Spirit is being seen.

Another quote from the same source is a citing of William Booth which says:

“What is a Salvation Army Corps? - To this I reply that it is a band of people united together to attack and Christianise an entire town or neighbourhood. When an officer receives an appointment from headquarters, it is not contemplated that he shall deal merely with those who are already gathered within the walls of certain buildings, or with those who are already enrolled in our ranks, or with those who may be induced to come inside them; but it is intended that he shall be an apostle of the gospel to all those who live around. When you reach a station assigned to you, if it has not been done already, you should take your stand in that hall, or theatre, or tent, and draw a line around the breadth of population you can hope to reach, and make that your parish, and aim, with tears and prayers, and the trumpet blast of truth, and the power of the Holy Ghost, to convert and sanctify and enlist and disciple every soul within it.“(emphasis mine)

This is our mission and should be the mission of all Christians. Yet the important bit is to recognise the difference between getting people “born again” and Booth’s objectives! It is not enough for us to get people to proclaim Jesus as their personal Saviour and then move onto getting the next ‘convert’. Instead, we must follow the command of Jesus to go and make disciples and lead them to a life of committed discipleship rooted in holiness.

The greatest of these is…

Published
by
Graeme
on June 5, 2008
in My Pilgrimage
. 1 Comment

I was reminded this week of something that a great writer once said: “Three things will last forever; faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” If he’s right, I sometimes wonder if those with seemingly little faith, but out loving and serving people, might have a leg up on those who spent so much time hanging out in the church building “serving the Lord”. If love is greater than faith, quite a few of us may need to change our weekly planners up a bit.

Over on another blog (forgot to make note of where) I saw the above comment and it made me sit up and think hard, especially in the light of the conversation that I shared in my last post.

Love for God and for others were the two most important commands that Jesus gave; love is first within the list of the fruit of the Spirit; and Paul tells us that love is greater than faith and hope. We need to make sure that love is central to our walk as disciples of Jesus and there is no place in our lives for anything that detracts from that love.