JAC Online

Send the Fire - a manifesto of Aggressive Christianity
from JAC Issue One
by John Norton

Christianity in the twenty-first century will be divided into camps, much as it is
now. The lines however will not be drawn as they have been. We will and even
now are turning from internal issues such as denominationalism to external
issues such as inter-faith relations and cultural relevance. We are no longer the
big fish in our little pond but have swum into the ocean of plurality. All around us
are new challenges: secularism, eastern religions, disparity of wealth and power,
Islam, nationalism, and a hundred other competing ideologies and materialisms.
Christianity is about to be challenged on a scale that threatens its very existence.
The only answer is a strategic plan, taking us back onto the offensive, to claim
back not just the ground lost but to finish off the war once and for all.
There are and will be the conservatives who retreat intellectually and socially into
a self-preservation mode. There are and will be the liberals who attempt to
engage the world but in the process lose their distinction as recognizable
Christians. The Salvation Army, with its military structure and historic
assertiveness, stands a chance of making it through the coming storm. An
aggressive form of Christianity is the only way forward in attempting not simply to
survive but to thrive and convince the world of the truth.

A REAL, LIVING, TRIUMPHING RELIGION
Most people would not place the words aggression and Christianity in the same
sentence. In our pop usage of these terms, we might pause to ask ourselves
what hate has to do with love or violence with peace? Yet we miss the very
essence of Christianity with this kind of thinking. The mistake of embracing a
passive and unaggressive Christianity can lead only to either the fearful head-inthe-
sand conservatives or the compromised liberals. Neither of these mutated
forms of Christianity will survive the next century, both will be swept aside.
Catherine Booth wrote a book in 1880 which she titled Aggressive Christianity.
She wrote,
“Show the world a real, living, self-sacrificing, hard-working, toiling, triumphing
religion, and the world will be influenced by it. But anything short of that and they
will turn around and spit upon it.”

The days of turning around and spitting upon Christianity are over. We are
entering the days of outright cleansing which threatens to wipe us off the earth.
The world has measured us and Christianity has come up short. We are
perceived to be at best lacking integrity and at worst totally irrelevant. We are not
going to be spit upon so much as ignored. Nothing will spell our doom quicker.
However, as always, those able to show the world a real triumphing Christianity
will receive attention.

In this day and age I must be perfectly clear and say that an aggressive
Christianity is not about a call to violence or hate. We step outside the way of
Jesus the moment we entertain the possibility of these things. The importance of
the goal never outweighs the importance of the means by which we get there.
Aggressive Christianity has nothing to do with an abuse of power or people.
The reason we need to be aggressive is because the way of Jesus was the way
of aggression. Mother Theresa was aggressive. William Booth was aggressive.
Jesus aggressively defended his mission. He aggressively attacked the
pharisees and demons. He aggressively went out of his way to meet the needs
of people. He aggressively marched towards Jerusalem and his cross. He
aggressively prayed with his heavenly father. Jesus aggressively died and rose
again. He will return one day again to the earth, aggressively and in victory.
An aggressive Church will have to consider issues of social justice, evangelism,
its priesthood, and its own nationalistic tendencies. These are but a few of the
challenging questions that face the Church of the twenty first century.

SOCIAL JUSTICE
Social justice must be felt in our personal lives as well as in the lives of our
organizations and churches. It is the flip side of social service. The former
addresses the larger questions of politics and cause, the latter addresses the
needs of the individual and attempts to meet needs. One works within the
paradigm while the other changes the paradigm. Both sides of the same coin
must be addressed by the Christian community. Actively meeting physical needs
and caring for the hurting is certainly part of what it means to be an aggressive
Christian. The danger of only doing this one service however is that we risk
becoming part of the system that keeps the injustice in place. The rich and
powerful, our benefactors, pay us to be their conscience and deal with their dirt,
which is the human victims of their greed and injustice.

It will be hard for the Church, and especially The Salvation Army, to break out
from the role of just being a band-aid applicator. The problem is that we will have
to get involved in politics. That is messy. Yet it is in the tradition of the early
Salvation Army to be involved in social issues. Today there are centres for
alcoholics, homes for spent prostitutes, and feeding centres for the hungry, but
we rarely attempt to get to the economic factors that feed these problems. We
become good at giving emergency first aid but do not ever get to the real reason
for the sickness. Somewhere along the line we are going to have to pay the price
and become surgeons to cut out the cancer.

Today we have an officer giving out humanitarian aid to the Kosovan refugees in
Yugoslavia, but where is the appointed commissioner to act as special envoy for
the Salvation Army’s peace proposal to end the war? We cannot just leave the
politics to the politicians. The Church is going to have to get involved. We do
have something to contribute and the world is looking to the Christian community
to make a difference. Only in this two pronged attack, through social justice and
social service, can we ever hope to solve the problems of this age.
One social justice issue facing the world in the next century will be the disparity
in wealth distribution. Despite the large middle classes in Europe and North
America, the vast majority of the world knows either the pain of poverty or the
privilege of absolute wealth. Christians will have to find ways to live at a lower
standard of consumption or just quit claiming the title Christian. On this single
issue, perhaps more than on any other, Jesus will say to those who feel strongly
that they have served him, “Away from me, I never knew you.”

Wealth usually translates into power, and vice versa, especially in those parts of
the world where democracy does not have a strong foothold. The wealthiest
families go from generation to generation passing on not only wealth, and the
ability to make more wealth, but also the power to rule. It cannot be ignored that
the wealthy 3% in most developing countries live off the enslavement of the 97%
who are destitute. Middle-classes of developed nations support the governments
and institutions in developing nations that often enable the powerful few to
dominate the many. The stock market is the means by which the middle classes
contribute to the system of economic disparity by investing in corporations that
exploit the poor in other nations. We need to invest but in companies that have
integrity and then we need to hold these companies accountable.

Even in The Salvation Army there is the danger of allowing those with wealth to
control and dictate the future. The recent 1999 High Council saw five men
nominated for General, all originating out of developed nations, even though The
Salvation Army in most prosperous nations is by and large diminishing or
becoming an irrelevant social organization. The vast majority of salvationists now
live in developing nations. Where were the Koreans and Kenyans, those
territories where we have seen significant real growth in terms of conversions
and soldier making? They are huge territories in terms of numbers of soldiers.
As Salvation Army self-denial funding decreases and special donations become
the norm, the rich are going to increasingly be giving their money to projects of
their own choosing. In many ways it will be better as donors will hold recipients
much more accountable for what they receive. The laws of capitalism will begin
to take over and do a better job at supporting success and getting rid of failure
than headquarters' were ever capable. However, it also will have the effect of
making dependent territories answerable not to a bi-partisan and independent
IHQ but to a donor with his/her own special agenda. The control of The Salvation
Army has the potential to turn from IHQ to the wealthiest territories. The danger
of financially dependent territories becoming the servants of financially
independent territories is going to be a divisive issue in The Salvation Army in
the next century.

The Church will have to get involved in the political arena. The separation of
religion and politics has not worked because it will not. Quite simply, religious
beliefs cannot be taken out of every day life. Religion does play a large role in a
person, and that must and does reveal itself in our politicians. Perhaps the day
will come when an active officer of The Salvation Army will be appointed to enter
into politics by running for public office. Christians will have to have their own
representatives in world legislatures. Non-involvement is far too easy. The
Church of the twenty first century, in order to survive, will need to take that
difficult path. The Church, and The Salvation Army included, will turn away from
being apolitical and enter into the fray of public life.

The Salvation Army in this century has been strong in social service but weak in
social justice, partly because we are no longer an aggressive Christian force. We
no longer believe we are an army. We no longer feel comfortable with our
militarism. If our title, The Salvation Army, has become a comfort word in
western society, conjuring up images of plump little old ladies sipping hot tea,
perhaps we should abandon it for something newer and more offensive! I once
knew a leader tell his officers to avoid military terminology in their corps
advertisements because it has the potential to offend and cause confusion. Yet
at the same time he was ordering that every corps have the name Salvation
Army on its signs and advertisements. He forgot that in that foreign land the
name "Salvation Army" was not well known and therefore potentially the most
offensive and easily misunderstood name we could have called ourselves. Let us
either be a Salvation Army at war, with banners unfurled and risking at times
being misunderstood, or let us agree to once and for all abandon the whole
military metaphor. We could change our name to something less offensive like
the "Church of Quiet and Peaceful People", and as ridiculous as that sounds it is
what we often want people to hear when we use the term "Salvation Army".

EVANGELISM
In Western society there is developing a strong aversion to passing moral
judgment. Increasingly it is politically and socially incorrect to comment on the
lifestyle or beliefs of others. This has progressed rapidly in northern continental
Europe to the point where most evangelical Christian leaders no longer feel it
appropriate or possible to exercise moral discipline on their wayward members.
A whole new generation is being raised in an environment where it is permissive
to do just about anything as long as it does not directly hurt another. For the
most part the entire Church has been affected . It is a spreading cancer on the
face of Christianity and Western society.

I want to be clear here and point out that the issue which concerns me most is
not so much one of morality but rather one of truth. The background behind this
cultural phenomenon has nothing to do with morality but begins with a desire to
accept people unconditionally. The part of this that is most frightening is not the
resulting moral slippery slope, although that itself can be dangerous, but the
inability or unwillingness to distinguish between right and wrong. Truth is the
victim. It no longer becomes possible in such a cultural context to do aggressive
evangelism, for that would be telling someone else that their beliefs are wrong
and that ours are right. Such obnoxious thinking would insult the sensibilities of
those we are trying to reach. We would be accused of narrow mindedness,
which in a liberal culture is worse than the plague itself.

Aggressive Christians are going to have to take a stand against this creeping
secularism. Already it has a stronghold in the Christian community, and I fear, in
The Salvation Army itself. There is a difference between right and wrong, truth
and lies. There is a heaven to be won and a hell to be shunned. The gospel is
right and all other religions are wrong. Every knee will bow and every tongue will
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. There is no compromise. This does not mean
that we should not live in peaceful non-violent coexistence in so much as we are
called to love others and show the world by our example that we are Christians.
But it does mean that we are at war, and our war is every bit about the mind as it
is about the body and soul. If the truth is offensive, then offensive we will be.
This is the very essence of Christianity, a religious system based not on
philosophical mush but on the historical fact of the death and resurrection of the
Jesus Christ. We proclaim Christ and we proclaim him crucified. Let it offend.
The Salvation Army and the Christian Church will not survive the next century if
we do not first win the battle for truth.

Evangelism cannot be only so-called friendship evangelism or setting-a-good example.
People do not want to be awakened from their slumber and apathy.
They do not want to know of hell and the joy of life in Jesus. Sin remains the
great blinding mechanism by which much of the world is ignorantly darkened.
People must be dragged into a relationship with Jesus. We must take our
Christianity out to meet them where they are, which is very often on the
television, internet, or restaurant. There will be cyber open air meetings in the
future!

In the next century, competing belief systems will no longer be on the other side
of the world. Through multi-religious cities and mass media, to name a few, the
Christian war is coming to your doorstep. The era of missionaries journeying afar
to pagan lands to bring the gospel is over. We are now in a time of jet-setting
global competition. We are going to be challenged most strongly not by another
religion, although I believe we have only just begun to experience Islam in full
measure, but by an economically based secularism and shallow spiritual
pluralism. Satan’s strategy is to lull us into compromise and bring us to a middle
ground, anywhere but on the side of the truth.

Christians are going to have to openly speak about what they believe. Our future
depends on our ability to go on the offensive. Do you believe in God? Are you a
Christian? Why not? What do you believe? Can I tell you about my experience
with God? If you died tonight, do you think you would go to heaven or hell?

THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS
The concept of a professional clergy is dead. The paradigm has shifted and we
are still holding onto our dignity and structure. One mistake of the Church today
is in continuing to argue about issues that no longer matter: whether women
should be ordained or about whether or not officers should be married to other
officers. We are a half century behind when we continue on these topics of a
different era. We need to just abandon this archaic form of religious patriarchy.
Theologically speaking, the concept of ordination does not have a leg to stand
on.

We are going to see an end to the term "para-church organizations" as they take
over and become "Church" tomorrow. People are voting with their feet and
joining those organizations that, among other things, have discarded a spiritual
hierarchy. Today's believer is now educated and no longer needs the medieval
model of someone ordering her spiritual experiences. It may have been
appropriate to have a voice of authority in days when the average Christian could
not read and had a life expectancy of 40. Those times are long over. What she
needs and wants today is a community to walk beside her. She may at times ask
for a guide and a friend, but not a priest. She knows that she has access to God
directly and does not need a human intercessor.

There is still a place for full time ministry. Officers in The Salvation Army have a
significant role in guiding the organization. They have and will continue to have
tremendous spiritual influence upon their people. They will still be needed for
that special function called leadership. They will not be seen however as better
or above others. Claims of ordination, or a special gifting from God, reserved
only for those wearing priestly collars or red epaulets will be mocked. The next
century will see us enter into the reality of the New Testament priesthood of all
believers - whether the Church wants it or not.

Authority will not be invested in rank or status. It will be given to those who earn
it. The question will not be, What title do you have? but rather Who are you?
What have you done? What kind of person are you?

INTERNATIONALISM
Nationalism and ethnicity is the destructive force that continues to divide Europe,
Africa, and much of Asia. But flag waving patriots in the West are equally as
guilty of thinking of their own nations as better than others. In an increasingly
globalized society, the nation state is losing its influence. However ethnicity and
racial distinctions persist. Christians are going to have to join together to show
the world the one truly international group - the Church of Jesus Christ. Believers
everywhere are going to need to admit that their passport is not as important as
their membership in the human race. And the same goes for their Church
denomination.

Differences in salary and allowance among Christians from various parts of the
world need to be aggressively re-allocated. Resources need to be shared. The
world is one and we are not citizens of a nation but citizens of heaven and aliens
in all these foreign lands. Today some officers in some parts of the world must
beg (called selling the War Cry!) for their salary in order to feed their children,
while officers in other parts of the world feel they need a second car because
one is not enough. A failure of Salvationists to recognize themselves as part of a
global Salvation Army, and a global Christian Church, is a condemnation for all
of us.

Nationalism divides but internationalism unites. We will not all be the same but
we will all be one. We must teach ourselves and the world that diversity is a
strength. We must rejoice in our internationalism. We must negotiate our
disagreements. And we must begin by recognizing that at present we do not all
pull ourselves up to the negotiating table as equals.

George Scott Railton, the first internationalist of The Salvation Army, wrote,
No home on earth have I, No nation owns my soul,
My dwelling place is the Most High, I’m under his control.
O’er all the earth alike, My Father’s grand domain,
Each land and sea with him alike, O’er all he yet shall reign.

In these words the Christian internationalist finds his anthem. Nationalism, the
cause of so much pain this century, will surely be with us into the next if we do
not fight against it. We must aggressively war against it, cut it out from our ranks,
and then move out to capture and destroy it. We hold up only the Kingdom of
God which is a kingdom of unity amid diversity. We must be careful in our calls
for internationalism to not imply a call for others to simply adopt the dominant or
first culture. We must all learn from one another. Let The Salvation Army be truly
international and not an export of British or Western cultural and religious
traditions.

What does all of this mean? Where are we heading into the twenty first century?
We must recognize that only aggressive Christian organizations will have the
possibility of surviving the apathy towards religion, the intensification of global
capitalism, and the increase in world secularisation. It is necessary that we
demonstrate to all a real, living and victorious Christianity. We must enter into
social justice and make it the other half of our social service, engaging the world
rather than retreating from it. We need to recognize our calling to be evangelists
in a time in which it is socially inappropriate to tell others that their beliefs are
wrong. We must be international in economic and politic, ever reminiscent of the
atrocities committed in the twentieth century in the name of nationalism. We
seek first the Kingdom.

And again G.S.R.,
With thee, the east, the west,
The north, the south are one;
The battle’s front I love the best,
And yet: thy will be done.

An aggressive Christian I will be. There is no other choice.