Interview: Andrew Grinnell
Original Publication - JAC #46, December 2006 – January 2007
JAC interviewed soldiers from five territories regarding
battle issues that we all face. We expect that most of you
will learn much on what the problems and solutions are in this
great salvation conflict. We esteem the interviewees as those
fighting hard and committed to glorifying Jesus as they
capture, train, and deploy on very different fronts.
JAC: Quick bio:
AG: I'm Andrew Grinnell
and I live in Leeds in the north of
England
with my wife and three children. I work for ALOVE as the
Emerging Mission Officer and am passionate about seeing
churches developed in some of the toughest areas/ estates in
the UK.
JAC: Tell us, about your salvation and
sanctification.
AG: I was brought up in the Salvation Army
and so I guess I inherited much of my early spirituality from
a mixture of the belief of my parents and the Salvation Army
corps I found myself in. Loads changed during my mid to late
teens firstly as I encountered Christians from other churches
and secondly as I started to try and work out what faith meant
to me directly, not only as someone who was born into it.
Throughout the last 10 years it’s been much of the same, as I
wrestle with who God is, who I am and how together we might
not only survive the world, but see it transformed as well.
JAC: What engages your passions and energies
these days.
AG: well, although loads of different things
energise me, I suppose it all boils down to a few things. I
love building bridges for people to walk over and connect with
each other. That is in so many different areas, whether its
people in my community who don't know each other, different
church leaders who are unaware of what each other is doing,
those who have dreams and passions and no-one to share them
with or people applying to be involved in one of our
programmes. There's something about seeing people connecting
for the first time with the intent of making a difference!!!
Another area would be in seeing people get
it. Again that's on a variety of levels but I'm passionate
about people understanding more about God, the universe and
how to live in it. In many ways this mirrors my own journey
and wrestle and so as I enjoy those ah-ha moments, I love
seeing others having them as well.
In the middle of all this is probably my
greatest passion to see the poor encounter the Kingdom of God.
I want to see the poorest communities in the
UK being built into real community,
and people getting it as they experience the love of Christ. I
want to see Christians sharing this vision and getting out to
live in these places to see God's transformative grace at
work.
JAC: What is your role with The Salvation
Army?
AG: Fortunately my role fits perfectly with
these passions. I work for ALOVE as the emerging mission
officer and two main responsibilities. Firstly I oversee the
development of the NEO strategy
www.salvationarmy.org.uk/alove/neo which
plants teams of people on estates in the UK. We've currently got nine teams
out there and we're researching and planning for more.
Secondly, I'm responsible for creating and developing training
courses to help with this. I guess one of the greatest
excitements for our teams are that there often is loads of
energy, desire and passion to do something. This is great but
shear energy alone will not plant long-term sustainable
churches. We need to give people the theological, spiritual
and mission resources to help them keep going for a long time.
JAC: What is your mission/calling?
AG: Difficult to separate from the above. I
guess the only thing I'd add is that I'm also called to be
involved in it locally. It’s not just my job all this, I
shouldn't only go around theorising about how to do it, I'm
called to be involved in it on a day-to-day level. A few of us
have just moved in to this estate in
Leeds
to bring a bit of change, and to be changed as we seek God out
there.
JAC: How does The Army support your
war-fighting?
AG: On the practical level it pays me so
that's a start. But beyond that it places me in a tradition
with a heritage that is about all that I'm about - seeing the
orphan, widow and stranger (as the Old Testament puts it)
transformed by the gospel of Christ.
JAC: How do you influence people?
You: Badly!!! I guess it's a long haul. You
build relationships by learning to listen to others, and then
speaking when the times right. If all that's backed up by
someone who's living as authentically as they possible can, I
think people are influenced, even if it means they only change
a little.
JAC: What are your dreams for the next
several years?
You: To keep seeing communities transformed
by planting a whole bunch of other teams. To see my children
grow up as authentic disciples, and to see a bit of
transformation in my own community.
JAC: What are the keys to successful warfare
on your front and the larger salvation war?
You: Humility, vulnerability, courage and
thinking!!! You can't do it any other way as far as I know and
I'm very much committed to making sure that the last of these
is not neglected. Getting out there is vital, reflecting on
what we learn there is key.
JAC: How are you and your comrades
strengthening The Salvation Army?
AG: By opening up new opportunities for
mission.
JAC: What are some of the dangers we have to
face in the coming years? (and how?)
AG: Not to become too self absorbed and self
obsessed. It strikes me the church in general spends more time
trying to articulate who it is to each other than engaging in
the real issues in the world. In truth, the people on our
estate probably don't care too much about what we wear, how we
describe ourselves, what role we play within the
denominational structure. They just want people around them
that will make a difference for them and care. I guess we need
to stop taking ourselves too seriously and get on with making
a difference.
JAC: What final exhortation have you for
this audience?
AG: I think Richard of Chichester puts it
best: 'to love you (God) more dearly, follow you more nearly,
know you more clearly, day by day.'
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