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A Carlton Testimony
by Captain Brian Crowden
The testimony of Captain Brian Crowden
and The Salvation Army Carlton
My story commences in January 1996, when I
found myself in not unfamiliar circumstances these days of
having to accept a retrenchment package as the company I had
been employed by was being acquired. As there was a strong
possibility of similar employment becoming available within a
few months, I took the opportunity to help a friend out who
was being hospitalised for 3 months. In assisting him, I had
the daily task of cleaning The Melbourne City Temple of the
Salvation Army, a church in the centre of the city of
Melbourne. In former years this building was the centre of the
Salvation Army’s dynamic witness in this city. Sadly this
church was dying; in fact the presence of the church in the
City of Melbourne was dying. Where there was once 10 outreach
centres (in the city of Melbourne) for the Salvation Army
alone, now there was one. This particular church that
accommodated 600 at its services, now struggled to get 30-40.
It was into this setting that I set about my daily task of
cleaning this building (4 floors) each morning, giving much
time for reflection.
How could I forget arriving one morning to be greeted with a
step covered with vomit, another time having to clean a shower
cubicle which had been used as a toilet. This was a lifestyle
that was so foreign to me, but every day as I climbed the
stairs from the basement, I was confronted with these words on
the wall.
‘Unless I am moved with compassion, how dwelleth thy spirit
in me’
(Matthew 25:41-46)
These words became like a sign branded across my forehead as I
struggled with these thoughts and my lack of compassion
towards my fellow human being, yet I believed that I stood for
good and certainly carried the name of a Christian.
What a contrast it was for me to be worshipping and to be part
of a Christian community that was so divorced from that which
I has experienced and seen during those few short months. And
so began a battle within my spirit of what God may be asking
of me or indeed calling me into. At that point, I believe the
seed was sown in my heart, that what was to be in the future
would be quite different to that of the past. Little was I to
know what lay ahead for me, as I was very soon after this
encounter, thrust into a world that was to completely change
my life. Within months a marriage of 23 years was to end
abruptly and the security of that immediate relationship
suddenly disappeared. I was almost on my own for the first
time in my life and was confronted with a very clear choice to
look ahead to that which had been sown a few weeks earlier, or
throw it all out and move into another lifestyle, the second
appearing very attractive with the pain and hurt that was
being experienced at the time. However, I was to find that the
encounter some months previous was so strongly planted within
my spirit, it was as if God was saying ‘I have been pursuing
you for so long I am not going to give up now’, and so began
this life changing experience.
At this time there were a number of things that began to
germinate within me. There was a real hunger to know and
understand God’s word, the desire to learn to pray and most
importantly to grow into the fullness that God said was
available to me. I found that as these became real to me, I
began to be further challenged to the point where I was
becoming aware that I was being called into something that’s
boundaries were far more expansive than my human mind could
visualise. I knew that there was a spiritual dimension to all
this, but it was going to take time as I still had much to
learn and also I needed to be free from that of my immediate
past.
Circumstances brought me into situations where I was becoming
aware of people who were being freed from many and varied
backgrounds through Christ, enabling me to see that being
released from those situations is available to all. I had also
come to realise that whilst our experiences are varied and
different, the journey that we have to take is still the same.
It was at this time that 2 things happened in my life. I
obtained a video of ‘The Brooklyn Tabernacle’ of New York, and
I received a prophetic word from Isaiah 61:1
‘The spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the
Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has
sent me to bind up the broken, hearted, to proclaim freedom
for the captives, and release for the prisoners’
By this time the services that were being held at the
Melbourne City Temple had ceased, and fired by my recent
experiences, I wrote to the leader of the Salvation Army in
the city of Melbourne, sharing my testimony and offering to
serve in the inner city. I placed that letter on my bookstand
at home and it has sat there ever since never to be received
by the leaders. I continued to serve in the comfort of the
Salvation Army in the eastern suburbs of this city. However,
that burning within never ceased, but I had no idea where it
was leading. I was continually stirred by the videos that I
constantly watched of the lives that were being changed
through the ministry at ‘The Brooklyn Tabernacle’ and dreamed
that one day a church with the same purpose (not necessarily
the same size) would exist in this city.
Time passed (4 years) and it was now the new millennium. I
found myself one day driving through a suburb very close to
the central business district of Melbourne, the suburb of
Carlton. The Salvation Army had operated there since 1891 but
had closed it doors some years prior. Carlton is as diverse a
community as you could possibly find. Within a stones throw we
have one of the major learning institutions within Australia,
the University of Melbourne (30,000 students), within 1
kilometre, estates which accommodate over 6,000 people from
all nations (little ghettos), 1 kilometre in another
direction, one of the major drug areas of this city and on top
of that one of the havens for the homosexual community of
Melbourne. Incredibly, amongst all of this is Lygon Street,
which is the pizza and pasta capital of Australia. God’s
spirit spoke to me that day about this area. As I stood
outside this hall that was beginning to look tired, the Lord
spoke to my heart and said, ‘This is where I want you to serve
me.’ It was some time later that I was finally led out of my
comfort zone to recommence the warfare that had been
established in 1891. I was convinced that this was God’s
calling for me, the full picture I did not know, but I had to
be obedient to God’s call. Feeling extremely inadequate for
the task I claimed the verses from Acts 4:13 as relevant to
me.
‘When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised
that they were unschooled ordinary men, they were astonished
and they took note that these men had been with Jesus’.
And so I started to pray by myself every Thursday night at the
church. I continued to work full time and to prepare the
ground that had been entrusted to me. However, I was soon to
come to understand that this was not going to be easy and that
there would be those times when I would contemplate the
thought ‘what is this all about.’
Working fulltime was becoming hard. I was also becoming very
disappointed in the company for whom I worked. One day after
experiencing a very difficult time, I said to the Lord, ‘this
is it. From now on I am going to work for you fulltime. I will
step out in faith believing that you will supply my needs.’
Although there was now no certainty in any area of my life, I
had this overwhelming sense of assurance that everything was
going to be fine.
I was then given an opportunity to become a part of the
‘Believers’ session, something that I had never contemplated.
I combined my commitment to continue establishing the work at
Carlton in addition to undertaking fulltime studies at the
Training College. This was not easy for someone who had not
studied for over 30 years, and even then had not been an
academic person.
There were many struggles taking place, and the picture that
had become reality was not the picture that I had envisaged. I
mean, I was expecting because I had been led by God’s spirit
to re-establish this work that all would work out just fine
and immediately, but even after a couple of years I was still
struggling on my own. But I continued to be encouraged as I
read stories of those who had walked similar paths, where
eventually the Holy Spirit broke through and the reaping of
the harvest began to manifest itself.
I was reminded one day as I read from a book written by Jack
Hayford, a well-known teacher and songwriter.
There are Jerichos to be won
and Rahabs to be rescued
They await people like Joshua
who see the promise hidden
behind the masks on dying cities
This was dirty work, quite unlike the world that I had been
apart of for so many years in the Eastern suburbs of
Melbourne, living amongst the middle to upper class, being a
part of the Bible belt that oozed extravagance and yet for us
at Carlton to exist as a Corps, it meant standing at the
football in the middle of winter, collecting enough to keep
our budget out of the red.
How I remember God’s gracious reminder to me a couple of years
ago when we were really struggling to make ends meet. At this
particular time, our finances were really being out to the
test. We were running our Corps on the ‘smell of an oily rag’
but the bills had become far greater than the money that we
were receiving, in fact we had gone into the red by around
three thousand dollars. This was something that was a
disappointment to me as my goal was that this would be a Corps
that eventually was not a deficit Corps. An opportunity came
our way to collect at a particular venue, one where I had not
been before. As the week went by, the money began to pour in
and by the end of our collecting we had moved from the red in
the black by a considerable amount. I made a covenant with the
Lord at that time, that in the future, I would not sign a
cheque without money being in the bank. How disappointed I was
the following month when upon writing out all my cheques
discovered that if I sent them, we would be back in the red by
$550. I was quite anxious to pay our bills and so I began to
think of places where we could gather some funds, and I
thought particularly of the Training College who undertook
each week the ‘Pubs’ in the Carlton area as training for the
Cadets. From time to time, I received a cheque, mostly around
$100 that had been collected. I had not heard from them for
quite a while and so I thought that it may be worthwhile
giving them a ring to see if in fact any funds were available.
However, I didn’t ring them, but the following day I went to
our mailbox to find an envelope that contained a cheque to the
value of $595. Yes, it was from the Training College. All the
bills were paid, we had a little in the kitty, and from that
day on, we have been blessed in abundance through the giving
of people.
At the closing stages of 2005, I was troubled in my spirit for
progress was still slow. There was a reasonable congregation
in attendance each Sunday for this Corps, (we met of a Sunday
afternoon due to another church hiring the hall whilst it had
been closed) as according to the records it has always been a
Corps that has been faithfully kept going by just a handful of
people. Having been convinced that the purpose for my calling
to Carlton had not at this time truly manifested itself, I
began to seek God further for clear direction. I came to
realise that in fact a number of our congregation were people
were from other churches and came on Sunday afternoon in
addition to attending their own churches in the morning.
Whilst it added to our numbers, it wasn’t building an Army.
Whilst they obviously enjoyed coming along, they were not
committed to the mission of the Corps. It was decided that we
should change our time of meeting to the morning time that had
become available, knowing that we could go back to square one
if these people did not commit themselves to the new time. My
fear became the reality, and so the building process had to
start all over again, but I was sure that this was how God
wanted it.
Through all of this, I was reminded of the story of Abraham
when he pleaded with God for the saving of Sodom. Going
through the painful experience of fearing that God would
destroy this city, he got to the point where he said.
‘May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more.
What if only ten (righteous people) can be found there?’
He (God) answered, ‘For the sake of ten, I will not destroy
it.’
I was convinced all along, that if we could retain even a
handful of people, the work could continue and that it would
grow stronger and stronger.
We again stepped out in faith, and as expected was left with
just a handful of people, and so the building process began
again.
As I reflect over the last 12 months, I believe the Lord has
blessed us.
1. Three new soldiers have been enrolled (the first for around
25 years).
2. At least 4 new recruits ready for soldiership classes.
3. Our Sunday meeting attendance has grown, and we now have
between 15 – 25 people coming each Sunday morning.
4. We commenced Celebrate Recovery, a meeting for people in
addiction.
5. Four prayer meetings a week. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
mornings between 7.30am – 8.30am, and Tuesday evening from
7.30pm – approximately 9.30pm.
6. We are learning how to pray, taking His name as our
authority.
7. We are no longer a deficit Corps. The Lord is blessing us
financially.
8. In addition to financially supporting ourselves, we have
been able to support special projects in Papua New Guinea to
the amount of $6,000.
This year, we stepped out in faith believing that the Lord
would provide enough finances for us to meet our budget
(including Social Welfare) without Salvation Army support. Our
budget is around $64,000 and in addition to that, outside of
our budget, early in the new financial year we committed
$6,000 to support a program (that had run dry of funds), to
assist in the health issues of women in the highlands of Papua
New Guinea. We also financially supported a camp for Officers
kids in Papua New Guinea, enabling them to go away for a week.
In spite of having to find an additional $1600 a month, plus
the $6,000, by the end of December, our bank balance will be
around $5,000 up on last year. I am a great believer in God’s
supernatural provision when we walk in faith and in His ways.
Last month, I received an envelope from a lady who had come to
Melbourne for 6 months to work. For reasons not known to me,
she didn’t attend church much whilst she was here, but on just
2 occasions came to our meeting. I remember on one occasion
praying for her sister who had been diagnosed with cancer. The
envelope that she gave to me through a friend was her tithes
whilst she had been in Melbourne. Each week she had faithfully
put aside that which she had committed to the Lord’s work. She
felt compelled to pass them onto our Corps. Can you imagine my
surprise and gave thanks to God for His continued provision as
the amount came to over $3,500.
The previous month is normally one of our better months for
collecting. However, after having received our allocation of
collecting spots for the football finals from the Division, I
was extremely disappointed, and on my calculation we appeared
headed for a poor financial return for that month, well below
budget. But, I sensed the Lord was saying to me, ‘just go and
fill the empty spots.’ This is what we did for both the
football finals and the Melbourne show. In addition to our own
allocated spots, which were not great, we filled the empty
spots i.e. those where Corps who had received allocation just
didn’t turn up to collect. God’s provision once again came
through, as we doubled what we had collected the previous
year. That month we were able to bank $13,000. Hallelujah!
We believe that the year 2008 will be the best yet. Prayer
has, and will continue to be our foundation for all that we
do. On the wall in my study I have these words.
WE NEED TO FIGHT FOR WHAT GOD HAS PROMISED RATHER
THAN SURRENDER TO WHAT CAN BE SEEN.
That’s what we continue to do. The real progress for this
Corps I believe is that our faith has grown. We are walking a
path of absolute trust in God. As a Corps, we do have needs.
We are believing for the provision of a person/s to accept the
responsibility to commence a children’s ministry. What a
tremendous opportunity awaits God’s person in this area of
ministry. We are believing for the provision of a pianist who
is led by the Holy Spirit to enhance our time of Worship. We
believe that more soldiers will be added to the roll this
year. We are believing that more prayer warriors will step
forward and take up the fight with those already in the war
zone. We are believing that by the end of 2008, our
congregation will have risen to 40 each Sunday, more will be
attending our meeting for those in addiction. – Hallelujah!
It is our desire to represent God and the Salvation Army well
in this suburb of Carlton. The big picture we do not know. He
has promised to build the church. We accept our responsibility
which is found in Matthew 28:17
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority
has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo,
I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’
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