Today's post comes to us from:
We’re blessed this past week or so with the popular Former Salvation Army Officer Fellowship blog http://www.fsaof.blogspot.ca/
- and thought we’d throw out a warm invitation to former officers and those who read this and might be considering becoming a former officer. Here goes…
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Dear FSAOF:
Greetings in Jesus' name. Mercy and peace to you from God our Father I trust the battle progresses well on your front.
I'm writing former officers for whom return to officership is a technical possibility (I suspect there are a handful of FSAOs excluded by policy, etc.).
Come back!
Every honourable reason that prompted you to sign up in the first place remains.
There are billions headed to hell.
The Salvation Army has the infrastructure, the network, the credibility, the experience, some of the resources to win the world for Jesus.
Politics, mistreatment, bad appointments and leaders, fatigue, and other reasons for leaving pale in comparison with both the need and the potential.
The Army doesn't need me and it doesn't need you, either. But it provides for you and me both a field for fighting that, when embraced wholeheartedly and exploited supernaturally, is incomparable.
We could get into covenant and covenant blessings and all of that. But I don't want to guilt trip anyone. Instead I'll take a page out of the perennial US presidential campaign playbook (paraphrasing) and ask, is your life better since you left?
I'm not asking if you have more peace of mind, more freedom, easier work schedule, more friends, a more accepting attitude, more perks and pleasures, more popularity, or anything like that. I'm asking if your life, dead to sin and alive to Christ, is making as big a kingdom impact today as it could be in the officer corps? Even the great evangelist Gypsy Smith saw fewer converts/year outside of the Army than in, so I'm guessing the affirmative answer will be rare.
If by these measures your life is not better, let's get you back in as soon as possible.
I understand that there is a current commissioner who was 'out' for a decade so there is precedent for wide open opportunity upon your return. Let's test the precedent.
God bless The Salvation Army.
Stay close to Jesus. Much grace. Believe me to be,
Yours under the Blood,
Greetings in Jesus' name. Mercy and peace to you from God our Father I trust the battle progresses well on your front.
I'm writing former officers for whom return to officership is a technical possibility (I suspect there are a handful of FSAOs excluded by policy, etc.).
Come back!
Every honourable reason that prompted you to sign up in the first place remains.
There are billions headed to hell.
The Salvation Army has the infrastructure, the network, the credibility, the experience, some of the resources to win the world for Jesus.
Politics, mistreatment, bad appointments and leaders, fatigue, and other reasons for leaving pale in comparison with both the need and the potential.
The Army doesn't need me and it doesn't need you, either. But it provides for you and me both a field for fighting that, when embraced wholeheartedly and exploited supernaturally, is incomparable.
We could get into covenant and covenant blessings and all of that. But I don't want to guilt trip anyone. Instead I'll take a page out of the perennial US presidential campaign playbook (paraphrasing) and ask, is your life better since you left?
I'm not asking if you have more peace of mind, more freedom, easier work schedule, more friends, a more accepting attitude, more perks and pleasures, more popularity, or anything like that. I'm asking if your life, dead to sin and alive to Christ, is making as big a kingdom impact today as it could be in the officer corps? Even the great evangelist Gypsy Smith saw fewer converts/year outside of the Army than in, so I'm guessing the affirmative answer will be rare.
If by these measures your life is not better, let's get you back in as soon as possible.
I understand that there is a current commissioner who was 'out' for a decade so there is precedent for wide open opportunity upon your return. Let's test the precedent.
God bless The Salvation Army.
Stay close to Jesus. Much grace. Believe me to be,
Yours under the Blood,
Major Stephen Court is Corps Officer at the Edmonton Crossroads Community Corps in The Salvation Army, Canada & Bermuda Territory. Stephen invests his time in initiatives to help win the world for Jesus. He has helped start congregations, corps, outposts, The War College, armybarmy blog, Journal of Aggressive Christianity, The War Room, Credo Press and has written several books.
18 comments:
Thanks for the invite, Stephen, but I would have to say 'no'.
I can only speak for myself, but I would have to say that my life is infinitely 'better' since leaving officership.
As a Methodist minister, I have now been freed to follow my calling - preaching, teaching, evangelism - in ways which were simply impossible whilst I was an officer. Too much of my time then was spent in fund-raising, jumble sales, flag days, filling in forms for HQ etc., and I could never contemplate going back to that.
Your blog is, by definition, 'army barmy', but perhaps you need to realise that there is a whole church out there, far beyond the SA, and we need each other to 'save the world'. The Army has a part to play in this, but to be honest, that part is fairly small, and diminishing, at least here in the UK. Again (IMHO), the whole military stuff with uniforms, ranks, etc belongs to the Victorian times, and today, the SA is a curiosity and a relic from a more strident epoch.
I joined Methodism because, in my view, it was a 'better boat from which to fish'. After eighteen years, that remains my view, and I have no regrets since making the change.
So thanks for the offer, but may I offer to you in return the prospect of ministry in the Methodist Church? I am sure you will be made most welcome, and you may find the whole experience to be liberating.
Love and peace,
Terry
It's not only officers who save (or serve). In fact I believe and always have that they only do a small fraction of soul-saving; their (my previous) biggest task was to equip, teach, train and convict (through preaching, etc) my soldiers for their service for the Lord.
As far as being able to do or have done better if still an officer, well no I am better where I am now in the same way as I was when an officer. I was called out in the same way I was called in, so I cannot say one is better than the other, otherwise I would have to say God was wrong. If He is wrong now He may just as much been wrong when He called me. I don't believe either, His using me I believe is evidence of that. And I think I could be blasphemes if I say He's wrong in any way!
BTW Terry, the Army uniform is as dated as the ministers uniform in other churches.
Current UK soldier, former Uk officer.
Anonymous,
You certainly do make good sense to me. And I love your last line! Also, the uniform's been updated whereas the vestments of some other denominations still go back to their foundings and/or even the middle ages!
Terry,
I'm very happy for you for having found the niche from which you can be the most productive in your work for the Kingdom but just because you found another group which is apparently a better fit for you and for whatever it is that you want to accomplish in your ministry is no reason to diminish another group's contribution to the ministry of the church.
It wasn't too very long ago that I remember reading that some upper escheleon clergy naysayers in the British Methodist Church claimed that the church is dying and will be extinct in another 50 years---and here's the crux---that absolutely nothing can be done about it!
I'm no expert but I think it's just a European Xianity problem from what I read. There's just a history over there of people hanging on to traditions that are no longer viable in a modern context.
There are definitely problems in churches on this side of the pond too but at least in North America whenever a seemingly insurmountable problem rears its ugly head people get to work and the church (including the Army) keeps on reiventing itself. Nothing's perfect of course but at least people attempt to change things that need to be changed more quickly than they do in Europe.
Another thing to remember is that the work of the Holy Spirit is inexhaustible and that the Kingdom (or Reign of God if one prefers) is not always about huge numbers anymore than it's about meat and drink! It transcends all earthly concerns and data.
Daryl Lach
USA Central
"You must Go Home By the Way of the Cross, To Stand With Jesus in the Morning!"
Hello, Daryl.
It was not so long ago that I sat with an old friend, a retired Commissioner, who has held very senior roles in the UK and internationally.
He wept as he reflected on what was happening to the Salvation Army in the UK.
Anyone neutral looking at the facts will see an Army in decline (and in denial), and one that is becoming increasingly irrelevant within the wider context.
Part of the problem is the loss of good officers, along with the small number of candidates and cadets entering college. As the saying goes, "If they are any good, they leave; if they are no good, you can't get rid of them".
I fully accept that this is a problem which goes beyond the SA, but I think it particularly impacts on the Army for a number of reasons which I won't go into.
If that is not the case in the USA, then I am pleased for you. But for me, rejoining the SA would be like swimming back to the Titanic.
In his otherwise gracious letter, Stephen rather assumes that anything outside officership is somehow less effective for the Kingdom and that the SA has all the credibility, network, experience etc to 'win the world for Jesus'.
I really can't agree with that. Maybe you do, Daryl.
In closing, your comment about clerical wear is rather missing the point. Yes, I (mostly) wear a clerical collar when I am leading worship, but I don't expect half the congregation to wear one as well.
T
By the way, are you an Officer or a former?
Terry,
I have a question for you. If it is true across the board as you say that "the good ones (officers) all leave and the bad ones you can't get rid of" then the Commissioner must've been a "bad one"--so why the heck are you listening to him??!!
No one is denying that the old Army of a hundred years ago that grew on the wings of the British Empire and peaked in Europe and the Commonwealth countries at the start of WWII no longer attracts the crowds that it once did and is in numerical decline. Where people insist on clinging on to it like some kind of a sacred icon (the Ark of the Covenant comes to mind!)there will probably be more decline. But even then it won't completely die and if history is any clue, will hit a happy numerical plateau attracting the sorts of people who feel secure within it's structure. There may even be a future day and age when it will come back in vogue and attract huge crowds in the UK again!
But that's totally different from insinuating that God has stopped working through the movement or that its highest ideals are no longer applicable to the modern world. Organizational changes definitely need to be made and in some territories more so than others. I presume that that's one of the reasons for this forum and forums like it---so that people can discuss these issues.
Also, don't forget that in countries where the social milieu is near identical to the social milieu of western countries three generations ago, the Army is expanding by leaps and bounds and the old structures are quite effective. In the U.S. first generation immigrant populations are growing corps that are larger than anything that has been seen in "traditional" corps for generations.
One or two other points I might make is that I think I mentioned awhile back that William Booth himself addressed the issue of what he considerd "bad" officers 11decades ago. I remember reading something that he wrote where he claimed that only 1 in 4 were any good and that in his estimation the rest were dead weight being propped up by the 25%!
Was he having a grumpy, male menopause, low testosterone sort of day when he wrote that or was he just reflecting the truth of ALL bureacracies in ALL organizations including the British Methodist Church that you are now a part of?
Anyway, the bottom line to me is that one can not "tangibiltate the spiritual" and that nobody can make a judgement on how the Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer God of the Universe (both seen and unseen as the old creed goes)is working through the lives of any person or group of persons---not you, not the cranky naysayers of your own British Methodist Church who predit its demise in two generations and not even old General William Booth who apparently had something of an aversion toward 75% of his own officers (at least on his grumpier days!)
Oh, and btw, since you asked Terry, I am not an officer.
Daryl Lach
USA Central
Hello again, Daryl.
I didn't suggest that the maxim applies across the board. It's an old saying, so it needs to be received with some poetic licence.
Nor did I say that the 'highest ideals' of the SA are no longer relevant in today's world. I still believe passionately in those ideals myself. My concerns were to do with the outdated ways of the SA - in particular, uniforms, ranks, bands, flags etc. In my view, such militaristic trappings were fine in the Victorian England, but are increasingly out of place in modern society.
Actually, neither did I say that God had stopped working through the SA. (Did you actually READ my post, Daryl??)
The sad fact is that the SA in the UK is less than half the strength it was twenty years ago. If that's not the case where you live, that's great.
By the way, I only asked about your status because this site requests contributors to identify themselves by territory and to state whether or not they are a former officer.
So, for the sake of clarity, are you a former officer, Daryl?
Blessings from across the pond!
T
For the record, wse are indeed interested to learn where are 100 or so visitors hail from, and we have a built in program that provides that info. We'd also like to learn who the fine folk are who take time to comment; home city, SA affiliation or not, etc.
Former Salvation Army Officers Fellowship
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No thanks for me. Life is better for me on this side of the fence but I do like the jubilee idea. It's never a bad idea to clean house. And by that please don't read...toss the baby with the bathwater...but there are certainly some ideas here that can be rethought and put to good use. I like it. Thinking outside the box a little shaking up. As Nike says...:)
Former USA South
Sorry, posted under wrong article.
It is clear from past contributions by Stephen Court that he is willing to throw a granate or two into the melee and then withdraws tactically from any possible discussion that may make him having to change course when people challenge his controversial concepts and ideas.
It is not worth playing his game - time is too precious and valuable for such frivolities.
ACTIVE UK
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