Unity and Diversity
by
Commissioner Wesley Harris
THERE was a period when, as a young corps
officer, I had the privilege of giving religious instruction
to a class of students at a central military school of music
in the United Kingdom. Just before my weekly class was a time
when the students training for positions in various military
bands could ‘do their own thing’.
Players of brass or woodwind could trill away to their hearts
content and seemed oblivious to what others were playing or
the hideous cacophony of sound which would assault my ears as
I approached the gates of the school for my stint of teaching.
I got the impression that the students relished doing their
own thing but the awful overall effect was in marked contrast
to the splendid sound when the whole school provided a weekly
concert under the authoritative baton of the musical director.
There was still diversity with the various instruments making
their distinctive contributions to the glorious sound of the
whole ensemble but there was unity of purpose and acceptance
of authority.
Ideally it should be like that in the Church and in that part
of the Body of Christ which is The Salvation Army. There is
need for a balance between unity and diversity and I do wonder
whether in our movement the tendency towards diversity may be
in danger of going too far.
In some territories there may be a creeping congregationalism
with corps doing their own thing with small account taken of
divisional or territorial direction and less uniting for
concerted action.
After a lifetime of Army service I would testify that I have
never felt cramped by officialdom or limited in any desires to
be innovative. I have been nonplussed by comrades who have
whined that ‘they (meaning headquarters) won’t let you do
things’ and have wondered whether the complaint has really
been a ‘cop out’ or excuse for inaction. Within the wide
framework of Army doctrine and discipline I have found plenty
of room to move and encouragement to do so. But I have also
been conscious of being part of something bigger than my own
area of responsibility, and belonging to ‘an army mobilised by
God’.
A ‘do as you like army’ would be no army at all just as an
orchestra without common acceptance of a conductor and a
shared score would make no sense musically. Individualism may
be fine but it is teamwork which makes the dream work and
being workers together with God which is most likely to extend
his Kingdom.
|