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My Dreams for
the Army
by
Commissioner Wesley Harris
Walt Disney said of the enterprise which bears his name, ‘If
you can dream it you can do it. This whole thing was started
by a mouse’. The Salvation Army was another great enterprise
which started with a dream and under the blessing of God, with
prayer and passion and hard work, the dream came true.
Many of us have shared the dream of our founders and have been
concerned that no-one should steal it from us. Now it may be
important to do a little dreaming of our own and consider the
shape of things to come.
I
have been asked to write about my own dreams for the Army and
I respond on the strength of the Scriptural promise that if
young men can have visions old men can have dreams! In brief,
my dream for the Army is that it should be what it is at it’s
passionate, innovative and effective best. Of course, because
it is comprised of people like the writer and readers of this
article, the Army is not always at its best. Sometimes it
seems to have lost the plot.
But my dream is of an Army that is true to its history and
true to its destiny. I want this movement to be actually what
it already is potentially for I am an incurable Salvationist
and believe passionately in what the real Army is all about
and feel that its best days may be yet to come.
Memories can contribute to dreams so allow me to share a few
of mine…
I
think of a retired woman officer I am proud to call a friend.
She pioneered innovative social work in the red light district
of Amsterdam and I have in mind a picture of her in that place
conducting an open-air meeting in pouring rain. One of her
arms is crooked around an Army flag; a very drunken man is
trying to drape himself around her neck and rivulets of rain
run down her radiant face as she proclaims her joyous gospel
to people sheltering in nearby doorways. As an observer I can
only murmur to myself, ‘This is the army!’
My wife and I
visited a clinic for about thirty very young, dark skinned
children in
Swaziland.
In charge was a single Australian officer - the only white
woman in a huge area. All her little charges were doomed to
die from AIDS but, far from her homeland, that woman was
sacrificing her years and her health in order to make their
short lives a little happier. She too represented the Army at
its best.
Another vignette
is of a scene in
Toronto.
Zealous young Salvationists had scoured the city streets and
brought to the Army hall a great crowd of street kids and
other young people for what was billed as ‘Soul busters’. As
the speaker I rejoiced in the attendance but wondered what
kind of reception might be expected! However, when the appeal
was given there was a steady response to the Mercy Seat and
glory shone on the young Salvationists as they sought to point
their peers to the Saviour. That scene too contributed to my
dreams and my hopes for the future.
The shanty towns
or ‘favelas’ in
Brazil
are places of indescribable corruption and filth where
children play in open sewers and violence is the order of the
day. As congress leaders my wife and I paid a fleeting visit
but the territorial commander introduced us to some radiant
young European women officers who were there to stay. He said,
‘These girls beg to be allowed to live in these places and
love the people for Jesus’ sake’. I was humbled and yet filled
with hope for a movement which included people like that.
The Army has been called ‘a mosaic of grace’ and one of my
dreams could be that larger numbers of Salvationists will
discover more of the movement in which they serve and, of
course, the Spirit without whose gracious presence all we do
could be empty show.
Sometimes there is a predisposition on the part of
Salvationists to think that the grass is greener on the other
side of the denominational fence. Now of course, we should
always be ready to learn any better means of cultivation
practised by the neighbours but it may also be good if we
could rediscover the charm of our own garden and then bend our
backs (and our knees) to make it even more fruitful. That
means not only having a dream but being down to earth.
Sometimes the notion is that if the Army is to improve they
will have to fix it - ‘they’ being people at headquarters. But
without taking anything away from the influence or
responsibility of those engaged in Army administration (of
whose number I was one for many years) the ‘Army’ is not
merely some vague body at Queen Victoria Street, London or
wherever. The ‘Army’ is us and if progress doesn’t take place
where we are it is unlikely to take place at all. Only team
work can make the dream work and so I don’t merely look
forward to bigger and better buildings with more and more pew
sitters but ‘an Army mobilised by God’ with ‘every soldier a
soul winner‘.
It is sometimes
felt that if we changed our structures and altered our systems
our problems would be at an end.
Certainly our structures and systems should facilitate
not obstruct our essential mission and as an Army leader I
have played a small part in some fairly big administrative
changes. But my dreams now would transcend these things. I
would hope that in some ways we may go back in order to go
forward!
Of course we
cannot relive our past either personally or corporately.
Nor can we ignore the fact that times are changing. But
my dream would be that more of our people might rediscover
some of the timeless principles which characterised primitive
Salvationism. Our forebears in the faith had tremendous
conviction, compassion and commitment which is why, under God,
a lot of quite ordinary folk helped to make an extraordinary
branch of the Christian Church.
The late Commissioner Catherine Bramwell-Booth said to me,
‘The things which made the Army will go on making the Army’.
She was right Fervent prayer, boundless love, holy joy and an
entrepreneurial spirit cannot fail to be effective.
Numerically, the Army in the world is larger than ever but to
employ an Americanism, ’We ’aint seen nothing yet!’
The best is yet to be. The dreams of God's people will surely
come true - in God’s time and in his way.
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