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Blood and Fire
Under Fire
by
Major Stephen Court
We are under
attack. It has
been insidious and effective.
As is the devil’s strategy, it is not completely false;
in fact, it is mostly good.
As Commissioner Brengle used to say, “the good is often
the enemy of the best.”
From our early days the enemy has been attacking, but in
recent generations he has shifted tactics and is unraveling
the fabric of Salvationism through spiritual influences.
Ask yourself the following questions:
What is the last Christian book you have read?
What is the last Christian podcast to which you have listened?
What is the last Christian music album to which you have
listened?
What is the last Christian website you’ve visited?
What is the last Christian TV show you have watched?
What is the last Christian radio show to which have listened?
What is the last Christian blog you have read?
Who is the last Christian leader you quoted when preaching?
Now, recognizing
that the answers may differ in Africa/India/Asia (though
sources inform me that Christian television is huge in some
African countries), the responses from salvationists in the
western world will be overwhelmingly non-Salvationist.
Are there any Salvation Army books, any Salvo podcasts, any
Salvo CDs, any Salvos websites, and Salvo TV shows, any Salvo
radio shows, any Salvo blogs in any of your answers to the
questions above?
You probably
read and listen to great, edifying Christian media; but that
isn’t the point.
If most of the Christian influence on us is not Salvationist,
our Salvationism is in danger of being watered down…
It is true of
officers and even moreso in the rest of the soldiery.
In some media it will be Rick Warren or Charles
Stanley, in others it might be Hillsong or Integrity Music.
And even though most of it will be edifying, most of it
will contain some theology and advance some mission that is
different from Salvationism.
What are the ramifications?
Doctrines 9 and
10 are threatened in the western world.
Inundated as we are by Calvinist soteriology many of us
inadvertently live under a practical ‘once saved, always
saved’ delusion.
And popular Christian content so emphasizes the necessity of
the sinful Christian life that it is difficult to find too
many Salvationists who know what Brengle was talking about,
let alone experience it.
Our militant
episcopalian structure is also under assault.
This has resulted in some places in silos of
independent ‘churches’ with nearly exclusively local
commitment.
Our vocabulary
and nomenclature are growing extinct in some places,
overwhelmed by church terminology.
Why is that important?
Semantics implicitly affects our identity.
We are in danger of becoming a poorly-marketed, drab,
discount brand of vanilla-flavoured, middle-of-the-road,
indistinct and inoffensive (and ineffective?) evangelicalism
(wait – not even evangelicalism, as a generation of non-Salvo
influence has flattened that sharp edge with liberal
universalisms, leaving us with boring, obsolete, and
irrelevant protestantism).
Culture?
We’re about the down and out.
We’re specialists of the fragile and marginalized.
But most of our Christian influence varies from middle
class, self-help advice to how to succeed and prosper by
following Jesus.
Mission?
We’re swamped by remnant and rapture eschatology that
is more fiction than theology and that dampens zeal to win the
world for Jesus.
What are the solutions?
You don’t need
to throw out all of your John Maxwell tapes and your Bill
Hybels books. A
complete lack of non-salvo influence leads to unhealthy
insulation and isolation.
But how about a concerted counter attack with three
components?
First, let’s
develop critical thinking so that application of non-salvo
content is more Salvationist adaptation than blind adoption.
We don’t have to re-invent every wheel out there but we
can certainly tweak vehicles for discipleship and evangelism
so that they properly reflect our beliefs and convictions.
One corps used a new believers’ discipleship book that
included a section on water baptism.
This section provided opportunity to look into what the
Bible teaches on baptism – water and Spirit – and how The
Salvation Army’s position on that issue represents the
Biblical record effectively.
Second, let’s
exploit the various media to disseminate Salvationist theology
and mission and identity and culture.
Let’s strategically publish AND market Salvationist
books and CDs.
Let’s intentionally advertise Salvationist live-streaming and
tweets and blogs and websites.
Let’s promote Salvationist radio and TV initiatives.
This is not an
issue of money – there are African Salvationist authors with
several titles to their names (they can afford to publish).
This is not an issue of quality – our musicians are very good,
our composers gifted, our preaching amongst the best.
This is not an
issue of content – we all believe the doctrines and have
covenanted our lives away to the cause.
But it hasn’t
happened by accident.
While we applaud and promote various Salvationist
advances in some of these areas – Commissioner Knaggs in
Twitter; Grant Whitehead in isalvos.com; Fulton Hawk in
design; Corey Baudinette in film; TransMission in worship;
Samuel Ljungblahd in popular music, Salvo Publications in
books; Michael Collins in preaching; USS’s Wonderful Words of
Life in radio – it isn’t nearly enough to turn the tide.
We need to lead by example.
You’ve heard of ‘garbage in, garbage out’.
Well, if we continuously take in quality Salvo content,
we will naturally teach it, speak it, illustrate with it,
believe it, apply it, experience it.
And our soldiers will follow.
Third, let’s
strengthen the Salvationist system.
To paraphrase GK Chesterton, the Orders and Regulations
have not been tried and found wanting, they have been found
difficult and not tried.
Hardcore Junior Soldiers will help us convert and
disciple our children.
YP Company and Salvo lessons for Sunday School will
help us avoid the start of the non-salvo influence.
Corps Cadets, particularly the type that is being
created in AUS
Territory, will keep and
train our teens for leadership.
The War College,
instead of YWAM or a
Bible
College, will instill
within young (and not so young) adults Salvationist DNA.
Senior Soldiership will covenant them for life and
warfare within The Salvation Army.
Fragmentation
isn’t complete.
This whole thing can be sewn back together.
Let’s not leave it for another generation.
Let’s act now.
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