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Entrepreneurial Salvationism
by Commissioner Wesley
Harris
OURS is a God of
surprises!
There is no dull sameness about his activity but infinite
variety. It is therefore to be expected that those filled with
His Spirit will be ready to break out in new ways of serving.
From the inception
of the Army there has been a willingness to innovate and try
almost anything in order to further the work of the Lord.
Early issues of Army periodicals
provided graphic accounts of
the imaginative
methods being employed not to show off but to share
inspiration with the thought that what worked in one place may
work in other situations as well.
In a rapidly
changing world the methods of God’s people may have to change
and no-one will have a monopoly of good ideas. We
should all be ready to do whatever it takes to win people for
Christ.
William Booth was reported as saying, ‘There must be
adaptation of method but continuity of principle’.
I say Amen to that!
We should
recognise that not every good idea will succeed in every
situation. As an
active leader I often told officers that they had permission
to fail but not permission to give up trying!
If at first we don’t succeed we may be quite normal but
if we give up we will never accomplish anything.
As a retiree I am
not circulating and seeing as many new approaches as when on
active service.
But I am immensely encouraged by snippets of news which show
that the entrepreneurial spirit is still alive.
For example, an
Australian Corps canvassed local secondary colleges
with the aim of recruiting 300 young people to be
‘Salvos for a day’.
The Army building was packed
with students who enjoyed lively fellowship and then
engaged in a variety of service for ‘others’ like baking and
taking cakes to those who were housebound,
tidying gardens, and many other things.
Some said it was the best thing they had ever done and
in a subsequent re-union gathering there were those who
committed themselves to God.
When an open-air
market was set up in a town centre the local corps band
obtained permission
to present music to a thousand or more shoppers who
gathered each week.
A prayer tent was set up where people could share
prayer for the sick or those with particular problems and that
with a degree of privacy.
A new program
entitled, ‘Mainly music’ is proving phenomenally successful in
many Australian corps with parents attending with very young
children and enjoying fellowship in a distinctive Christian
atmosphere.
It’s important
that corps programs should take the shape of local need and if
presented by
comrades in touch with their local community and with
God the possibilities are unlimited.
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