Dividing the Army - Two pronged Army
by Graeme Smith
There is a lot of debate these days, throughout
the internet and in more traditional media, about the future
of The Salvation Army.
I want to throw what might be a controversial idea into the
hat! Is it time for the Army to have two distinct identities?
Two wings of our work if you like!
The first would be specifically a church for those who want to
be only in a church. The congregations would be led by
officers with this sort of 'calling'. The people who go to
this wing of The Salvation Army can be safe in the knowledge
that no-one within it will ever rock the boat, and that they
need never be challenged beyond the question of whether they
want to go to heaven when they die. No-one will expect them to
be involved in anything that is remotely outside their
comfort-zone. Above all their holiness will be about
separating themselves from the world and will be an intensely
personal matter that doesn't concern anyone else.
The second would be more of a mission organisation, led by
officers with a specific calling to reach out to the lost.
This would probably include the planting part and 'new
expressions'. This wing of The Salvation Army would be made up
of committed soldiers, leaving their comfort-zones and
striking out into the deprived areas of this dark world. It
would involve risk and sacrifice but the reward is a knowledge
that they are doing something that Jesus would do. They would
be acting out the scriptural call to be Salt flavouring a
tasteless world and they would act out the call to holiness
with its sleeves rolled up!
I've even thought of two names! The first could reinvent
itself as “The Real Salvation Army” and the other would just
keep the old name!
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