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The General's Keynote Address at International Leaders Conference: one Officer's Response
by Major Stephen Poxon

I am not a surgeon, but were I, I would be delighted to see before me, for diagnosis, our beloved Salvation Army, carefully, reverently and gently laid bare, so to speak, by General Shaw Clifton.

Delighted because his expertly forensic analysis of The Salvation Army is timely (perhaps, even, overdue), deeply methodical, and, obviously, soaked in prayer. These points in themselves are all immensely reassuring. There resonates throughout the address a robust yet sensitive awareness of the Lordship of Christ (which, in itself, generates tremendous spiritual confidence and humility), coupled with sensible optimism and a willingness to accept and implement important action if and when the prognosis demands it.

This is a thoroughly modern address rooted in Army history against an ancient Scriptural backcloth. Our modernity is crucial, but so too our need to remain aware whence we have come, and how (and why) the Lord of history has graciously and faithfully enabled our progress. The General achieves great success in bringing these three key elements of Army life - the modern, the historical, and the Scriptural - to the fore, and reminding us of the importance of such balance.

This is, too, of necessity, a document with a distinctly international flavour, reflective of the important relevance of General Shaw Clifton’s service on five continents. This all amounts to good evidence of Providential care and concern (and, hence, authentic grounds for optimism). So too the range of subject matter, which is generous and inclusive - almost to the point of it representing a ridiculously ambitious and impossible mandate were it not for encompassing, abounding grace that constantly undertakes on our behalf, after the manner of Song No. 579 in our (current!) Song Book.

The Salvation Army, worldwide, continues to swim (march), quite deliberately, against various tides, and is repeatedly made only ever stronger by such swimming and marching. The tides of secularisation and the (apparent) abandonment of holiness teaching by some denominations (the latter being, incidentally, one of the fruits of the former - the two are bedfellows) are swelling, and want to intimidate, but we do not forget Commissioner Dalziel’s words: ‘Dominions rise and perish, the mighty have their day, but still thy word abideth, it shall not pass away’. Our denominational semi-isolation on the point of holiness does not matter.

The Conference themes listed should keep us healthily busy for years, and it is highly commendable that the address is able to accommodate huge issues of global Salvationist concern as well as matters that might reasonably and courteously be categorised as important minutiae, to the detriment of neither. This happy marriage should not be overlooked or undervalued, for if attention to detail plays any part in the wellbeing of our Movement, then it warrants appropriate mention in such a paper, but not to the extent we ever forsake our largest visions. Without the formation of large visions, we perish (cf. Proverbs 29:18), but we may, by the same token, need the reminder that the avoidance of perishing is usually worked out in the trivial round and the common task. Experience shows us this, at any level of Army life and practice. Within that reminder, there lies a nugget of warm encouragement. It behoves us, therefore, to polish up and perfect the trivial and the common, hence their legitimate and welcome inclusion here.

Were I to take any slight issue with the address (and I am mindful that I have only seen the abridged version), it would be with regard to two points:

Firstly, I feel the General has been overly cautious (perhaps overly polite) in seeming to understate the role of The Salvation Army as ecclesial entity.

This, I realise, may well be an ecumenical courtesy, but even if it is, I would still very gently suggest the pressing need for a mindset amongst Salvationists - the renewal of our corporate Salvationist mind, as it were - that might eventually release us from the semi-chronic, creeping, lurking, crippling inhibition of an inferiority complex, and for that reversal in our thinking to be heralded from the top (i.e. the Office of the General).

This complex has so often served, or threatened, to shackle us, and to make us lose heart when radical evangelism has been our gift, only to swap that gift for what we might generally refer to as good works, or at least, if not that, then tepid outreach.

In part, we may have exchanged (probably unwittingly, and almost certainly reluctantly) our presentation of Calvary’s epic for the consolation prize of ecumenical involvement by virtue of our presentation of charity.

Worse still (despite the hugely valid place of good works), we have even begun, in some quarters, to accept that they and they alone represent our only mature contribution to any ecumenical witness. This passive acceptance of our invented default status has almost certainly infected officer personnel as well as non-officer membership, and could actually amount to a spiritual crisis (at least, a crisis of identity).

I personally searched for, and would have valued, a specific word from the General to redress this cruel, phoney and mocking imbalance, and to bolster our self-belief as ecumenically-worthy evangelicals. Pro rata, on the ecumenical scene, The Salvation Army is, in many ways, quite literally, a world leader, yet we continue to endure (and even secretly nurture) an unnecessary paucity of confidence in what we are as an entity; hence our retreat, often, into secondary matters.

The irony is that, fundamentally, our sister churches very often admire, or even quietly envy, our stances and our unique attributes, and are thirsting for the calibre of vanguard leadership and pioneering theological initiatives of which we are still capable.

Secondly (and I am almost certainly skating on the thinnest of thin ice here), I searched, equally fruitlessly, for any explicit mention of those of us who serve outwith senior leadership, and are probably always likely to do so.

I do of course fully realise that this address was given to senior leaders from around the world, hence its numerous references to those who hold positions of divisional or territorial leadership. Hence, too, its exclusive content and bias. I accept that, but not, to be honest, without the mild concern that those of us who constitute the rank and file of officership (e.g. corps officers) quite possibly represent the majority. Without the likes of us (I have served as a corps officer for fifteen consecutive years), there would be no need for divisional or territorial commanders.

Whilst the General’s pastoral letters are acknowledged as a brilliant and caring pastoral idea, and whilst they are read with interest and appreciation, it remains that it would be easy to digest this particular address without feeling included. That is definitely not so, I realise, but I think I will stand by my personal observation on that point - which is, I concede, subjective.

Nothing in that observation is intended to show or even imply disrespect towards the General or any senior leader, nor to engender same. I simply make it in the spirit of discussion and as a small, quiet contribution from ‘the coal face’.

In conclusion, I think of Song No. 648 in our Song Book, set to music by Brigadier Richard Nuttall. General Orsborn’s marvellous words could well serve as part of a daily Office of Prayer for Salvation Army officers, and especially, in the context of General Clifton’s Keynote Address and this response, the lines of verse one:

Where lowly spirits meet
Instant in Prayer,
All at one mercy seat,
One plea to share,
With thee we intercede,
Leader of those who lead,
Heart of our Army’s need,
Make us thy care.


We owe our General, and all our leaders, our support in prayer. Most of us know little or nothing of the burdens and demands of senior leadership (nor its joys and rewards). If we, wherever we serve, and in whichever capacity, fail to arrive at the Mercy Seat on behalf of our leaders, the Army is poorer for that. So too, are we.

 

 

 

 

   

 

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