JAC Online

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.

 

 

 

   

 

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