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JAC
Interview with Captain Peter Hobbs
Captain Peter Hobbs is an effective
Australia Southern officer.
“By the power of the Holy Spirit His living presence
drove me to be a disciple myself and show the world this new
reality.”
JAC: Who are you? (we’re looking for a quick bio):
I am a 36 year old follower of Jesus and
disciple maker appointed along with my wife Diane Hobbs in
2010 as Salvation Army Corps Planting Officers on the
Bellarine Peninsula in the Western Victoria Division in
Australia Southern Territory. My wife and I are planting a
corps which basically means we are responsible for starting
the holistic work of The Salvation Army from scratch on the
Bellarine Peninsula of Victoria, where the Army has not
officially been since 1899. It’s a very exciting adventure.
Some people may remember me from The Salvation Army DVD series
A Cause to Die For on Soldiership.
JAC: Tell us about your salvation and sanctification.
I was raised a Salvationist from
Salvationist parents. I became a Junior Soldier at the Milton
Keynes Goodwill Centre in the UK Territory in 1986, became a
soldier in 1994 at the Ingle Farm Corps in Adelaide South
Australia. I have always had a strong sense of Jesus presence
in my life. When I left home in Dec 1996 it was here my faith
in Jesus became a living reality. However it was while in
college I had what I can only describe as a “death and
resurrection” experience and this experience drove me into
discovering the Jewishness of Jesus. It was in this discovery
my life and faith journey took a whole new direction. God
ignited a passion in my life to make disciples, that is to
immerse people in the reality of God the Father, God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit and teach people to obey Jesus. By the
power of the Holy Spirit His living presence drove me to be a
disciple myself and show the world this new reality. Without
Jesus presence and desperate dependence on him in prayer my
life and ministry would be meaningless.
JAC: What is your mission/calling?
My mission is Jesus mission to make
disciples. I am deeply passionate about letting go of
religious practices and traditions and simply taking the
reality of Jesus to “People of Peace” as described in Luke 10.
So in our ordinary everyday lives we have got to know people
in our community and model to them a new reality. As we work
primarily with “unchurched” and “non-religious” people we have
shown them Jesus by being people that are reliable, honest,
full of joy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle
and self-controlled. By being people who are authentically
taking Jesus we have been able to build strong trusting
relationships – otherwise known as discipleship relationships.
People begin to trust, God reveals himself, and we simply
point them to him, giving him all the glory. As people begin
to trust, and are included in a safe environment their mental
health improves, their confidence improves, they start to find
chaos is replaced with order. We teach them to obey Jesus
commands (as in the Great Commission), and as they begin to
trust him they begin to blossom, and because their lives are
changing their family and friends notice the difference and
start to enquire what the difference is. This phenomenon is
the nucleus of a brand new church community. This has been our
mission on the Bellarine for the past 5 years and we have seen
over 70 people make first time decisions to follow Jesus. But
more than that Jesus has naturally formed missional community
around their family and friends. The undeniable reality of
transformation gives people a rational experience of the
reality of God, and helps them to trust him. In a world today
where people are leaving church in droves and the unchurched
aren’t at all interested in connecting we are seeing the
opposite and missional community form and naturally grow. So
my main mission is to make disciples. A disciple becomes a
leader, and a church community forms around them which
naturally becomes a movement.
JAC: How does the Army support your war fighting?
The Salvation Army has been absolutely
wonderful in support of us. Our divisional leaders, although
sometime self admittedly haven’t always fully understood
what’s going on in our corps, have seen the fruit of our
labour and so are fanning the flame. We have been extremely
blessed with amazing leaders. Our territorial leaders and
cabinet have been exceptionally supportive. So much so a new
territorial guiding coalition has been formed for emerging
missional communities and Di and I have been asked to be part
of this exciting conversation. God is doing something new to
our church culture, but really it is something extremely old,
returning us to the basics of disciple making. Who knew that
the fruit of disciplemaking was positive caring community
known as church?
JAC: How do you influence people?
I influence by serving people, I take the
advice of Jesus and model a new reality. I listen to him and
do what he says, but this is played out by serving people.
Empowering others to be who they were designed to be. Helping
people find solutions to their own problems and obviously
doing this by pointing people to Jesus and the community of
God he is forming. People can take me or leave me, I am not
out to impress anybody but to be true to God and myself. I
have also learnt from Jesus not to chase people. Actions speak
louder than words.
JAC: Who influences you? (and how/why? We’re thinking of books,
disciplers, mentors, coaches, models, teachers, leaders, etc.)
I have had amazing mentors. Obviously Jesus
is the greatest influence on my life but he has placed some
amazing people in my life including people like:
1. General John Gowans
was an amazing influence on my life.
2. Retired Commissioner
Brian Morgan had a massive impact on my life. Brian is a
genuine man of God who served people, showed me the presence
of Jesus in reality.
3. Commissioner Robert
Street was also a person I worked alongside and deeply
respected.
4. Peter Roennfeldt is a
Seventh Day Adventist Australian Church Planter who is such a
humble man of God, an amazing mentor and friend.
5. Neil Cole the author
of Organic Church has been a massive influence on my life and
a person I can Skype and chat with anytime.
6. Ed Waken a passionate
evangelist who is such an encourager to me and a great friend.
7. Ray Vanderlaan has
also been a massive influence on my life and opened my eyes to
the Jewishness of Jesus. Amazing men who have actually been
the presence of Jesus, Godly practitioners who walk the walk.
There have also been amazing women, my wife
Diane is one of those who is such an amazing supportive and
wise woman. General Eva Burrows, Brigadier Mary Maxwell,
Felicity Dale and Katie Driver have been amazing women whose
lives and practice have taught me so much. What I love most
about all these people are their lives are the reflection of
the presence of Jesus. They don’t just talk about ministry but
actively were and are people who became the presence of Jesus
for their generation and context.
JAC: What are your dreams for the next several years?
To see missional communities form throughout
the Army world around the transformed lives of disciples. Not
massive programs, not glamorous programs, just simple
relationships, unglamorous so it may not appeal to some. The
growth is slow for the first 7 years. We are in the start of
our 6th year, we are a small corps with about 70 members. We
are small because we’ve intentionally remained small. Because
we want to see transformed lives naturally infect their social
networks with the Gospel. We are now seeing whole households
become followers of Jesus and Salvationists, one family has
four generations in our Corps. Our Junior Soldier leader is a
first generation Christian who saw the presence of Jesus come
into her mother in law and brother in law, she had an
encounter with the presence of Jesus she couldn’t refute and
now she teaches our Junior Soldiers. In fact she has naturally
connected with other families in the town of Portarlington and
recently we enrolled two young Junior Soldier girls who she
had been connecting with through the primary school her
children attend. God is good.
We want to see people all over the Army
world see the importance of disciple making. Not taking the
culture of the Army to people, but taking the presence of
Jesus and letting the culture of the environment be infected
and allowed to organically emerge into a Salvation Army corps
that will look so different to anything we’ve ever seen
before.
JAC: What are the keys to successful warfare on your front and the
larger salvation war?
Prayer is our Warfare. We have a prayer
newsletter, if you would like to be part of it email me
peter.hobbs@aus.salvationarmy.org and we will add you to it.
Listening to God and doing what he says. Be slow to act unless
you are sure it’s God at work. We can all be very clever, and
self righteous but if the idea isn’t of God there will be no
fruit. Disciple making is Jesus idea and his plan for reaching
the whole world. Disciples make disciples. We will only have a
massive influence on the worlds culture if we see lives
genuinely transformed. The reality of God is the key! When
people experience the reality of God through our lives of
worship in the everyday and the supernatural, then they will
begin to trust us, believe and follow who sent us, Jesus.
JAC: How do you cultivate your relationship with God?
Spending time alone praying, actually being
real with Jesus and laying my life open on the table faults
and all. Accountability is important. Stepping out in faith
really cultivates my faith, when I sense God leading me and I
step out in faith then my faith in Jesus sky rockets, because
I see him show up and I am reminded once again he can and
always be trusted.
Reading the word and filling my mind with
the truth. But seeing God show up when I step out in Faith and
step into his story this absolutely cultivates my faith.
JAC: How are you and your comrades strengthening The Salvation Army?
By being a community that is modelling a new
reality. Being a community of people who are known by their
fruit. We are seeing lives healed, we are seeing a new Army
which is really the old Army. Lives being transformed, lives
we have gone into community like Booth to find. Instead of
taking them back to the hall for a meeting, we take Luke 10
seriously and stay in their world, and see the reality of God
infect their social networks. God is using us, like many
others, to model a new reality for The Salvation Army. These
are exciting days, a “new wine skin” for the salvos.
JAC: What are some of the dangers we have to face in the coming years?
(And how?)
One of the dangers we are facing in the army
today is fear of extinction, fear of death of our
organisation. Unchurched people aren’t interested in organised
religion where legalism, judgmental attitudes and simplified
Gospel answers are the norm, where a foreign culture they
don’t understand or want to understand is imposed on people,
and where often community is artificial and contrived for an
hour a week. Many people in the Army are afraid that our
organisation is dying. But I say we shouldn’t be afraid! We
should never be afraid of death, because we know after death
is resurrection. We have seen this in our own community. We
didn’t take the normal Salvation Army culture into our
community, we took the presence of Jesus and he has formed a
new looking Salvation Army around the transformed lives of
those he is redeeming.
The world is seeking a new reality, a
spiritual reality and a community that will love them no
matter what. A reality we know can only be found in the
incarnated presence of Jesus through his holy people. A
reality the Great Commission implores we take to people,
baptizing people (immersing people) in the reality of God!
Building trusting relationships with broken people, sowing
seeds of the gospel onto hard, shallow, weedy and good soil.
But investing heavily in those who are the good soil. Seeing
the lives of those from the seeds sown in good soil flourish
makes ministry all worthwhile. Seeing them become leaders in a
new Salvation Army community excites me and like Jesus at the
end of Luke 10 I stand laughing at the wonder of God and how
he works.
JAC: What final exhortations have you for this audience?
Listen to God and do what he says. Obedience
to Jesus is what leads to spiritual maturity. Who do you know
in your corps or setting who wants to be obedient to Jesus.
Challenge them to listen to God and do what he says. Better
still go into your community and find a “person of peace”,
stay with that person who welcomes you and model the reality
of God to them, and empower them to listen to God and do what
he says. It may take two to three years in journeying with
them, but that disciple relationship could lead to a whole new
movement of The Kingdom of God and the Army we couldn’t ever
imagine.
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