Armybarmy Blog

July 30, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
The American political scene is such that the candidates merely play to their constituents, aiming at getting them out to vote.

I have fallen into this groove myself. I've had what might carelessly be described as an epiphany. You know, I figured, when I graduated from High School that every Christian agreed with me- that we were united against the sins and phiosophies of the heathen masses. Then I got to college. It seemed like none of the Christians agreed with me either. They had issues (I don't mean of the kind to which I alluded a month ago- 'she has issues' = 'she has demons') with my aggressive brand of Christianity. They were predominantly eternal security types. They didn't believe you can be holy. They were very suspicious of my sacrament-free existence. They thought the uni was a little weird. And so on. I found, to my dismay, that I not only had to convince all of the sinners on campus to follow Jesus, but that I might have to convince most of the Christians of my positions as well. Whew! It was hard work. But I thought it was all over.

Then, boom, last week, the sequel! I figured that Salvos agreed with me and that we were united in our war against the sin and philosophy of the heathen masses and even on how to fix the Army so that we could accomplish this great mission. Then I stumbled into an online discussion and carried it on via email. This mature, committed, thinking, multi-generational salvationist has a wildy different perspective on the Army than me. I'm flabberghasted.

It's almost as if she is pulling my leg, intentionally taking the opposite view from me (she's not joking).

You know my stuff. Let's go hardcore Army. Let's go hardcore signs and wonders. Let's go out there to win the world for Jesus. Let's take God at His Word. Let's be conservative theologically. All of that.

Well, it turns out that not everyone agrees! Some want to softcore the Army angle and take away offensive allusions and aggressive edges. Some want to move away from the charismatics. Some just want to talk with other faiths and worldviews and come to mutual understanding (I'm not against this- I like it when my conversation with a New Ager ends with him understanding that I think he's going to hell and I understand that he is going to hell). Some like to revisit the Bible, re-interpret it, weigh it, consider things metaphorically, etc. (I'm talking about Salvos here). Some think we should actually move liberal theologically! Some think we should go more democratic in structure.

It took me awhile to convince the Christians around me in college to buy into my positions.

But there are a lot more Salvos than college Christians (from my campus, especially). So I am going to have to take a page out of Buch and Kerry's books and preach to the constitutency. You guys have to propagate all of this stuff.

If we give up on holiness (well, look around)... If we go democratic (well, look around the Western world)... If we go liberal (well, look around Europe and even a bit in Canada, and...)... If we go into udnerstanding instead of mission, we're wasting everyone's time. If we move away from charismatics we're dead. If we become The Helping Group (see yesterday's blog) then you can forget about winning the world. And so on.
Merely to recommend revolultion is contemptible (GSR).
posted by Stephen Court

July 29, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
Some people complain about the name The Salvation Army. Even some big leaders shy away form the military bit (even though they run the War Cry, wear uniforms, and on and on and on). A shockingly large number also complain about Salvation, stretching that word beyond every modest limit to mean just about anything, and so, nothing.

So, they don't like The Salvation Army.

For them Salvation is traditionally defined far too narrowly (you know, repentance and faith). To correct this, they broaden it such that it becomes an umbrella for any generic positive feeling. Army is also far too narrow so they want to trade it in for vanilla. So here is my suggestion for them- a new name for us:

The Helping Group.

Please use your barf bag (puke is a mess to get off carpets). Tragically, it might prove popular with some...
posted by Stephen Court

July 28, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
Look, I've made a mistake in yesterday's blog. Sorry. The issue from my friend wasn't that science is right and the BIble is wrong it is, "that when science and the Bible are at odds, it's not usually science that is mistaken, it's usually that Biblical interpretation and apologetic has not kept up with science" (caps on Bible by me).

The desire for some support of my point remains, though, and I think that my evidence suggested sustains my argument (see yesterday). Some could argue that 'Science Then' wasn't fact but theory, but that begs the point. I believe that the Bible is God's word, inerrant in original manuscript, and thus it doesn't change. To suggest that the differences between the BIble and science were actually between Biblical interpretation and scientific theory (not fact) only admits that both change. My position is that the Bible doens't change (though interpretation can, but I'm not talking about interpretation here) and that if there are differences between the Bible and science, science is wrong, and therefore the 'science' MUST be theory. Fair enough. Accepted scientific theory is wrong everytime it disagrees with the Bible. Scientific 'fact' is not fact if it disagrees with the Bible.

Now, on to other things. There is a big conference (Lausanne) every decade or so that tackles evangelical issues for the Church. They hav ea couple of score panels that generate positional statements on all kinds of topics. The Army has shadow panels that produce statements on echa topic for the Army specifically. Most scuh statements are condemned to be so much committee-speak, full of fence-sitting nothings that you can't really disagree with but with which you an't really do anything, either.

My suggestion is to forget the committee-speak (WB called the committee-system unwieldy). Let's come out boldly FOR something in these statements. To that end (and please recommend this reading to anyone you know on any of these shadow panels) here are a few possibilities on a handful of topics for which the General will soon be blessed with an official Army recommendation:

1. On Denominational Identity and Organization:
"The Salvation Army must emphasise that it is a loyal, formidable band of covenanted warriors exercising holy passion toward winning the world for Jesus. To that end, any and all soldiers who do not fit the profile will be given opportunity for repentance and further training or will be demoted to adherent membership. Rather than limp, apologetic, generic evangelism, we will endeavour to lead with The Salvation Army, boldly, aiming for souls saved, keeping saved, and getting someone else saved."

2. On Impact of Social Environment:
"We need to live with, speak with, and prophesy to the world on each of our fronts. (that is, live there- incarnational; speak with- community; prophesy to- escape the corruption (2 Peter 1) and speak righteousness into the world.)"

3. On Congregationa Health:
"Let's dismantle all of the congregations. We were going to try to sell you, General, on adding cells to the mix, but we all know that this won't work. Since cells seem to work historically well in China and Korea and other places, let's throw in the towel on a typical Sunday morning. We can sell all of the buildings and invest the cash in the mission (read- AFRICA). Then anyone who still wants to be a Salvo can actually get to know their comrades by meeting with them in their homes, fighting alongside them in their streets, and praying beside them in their closets."

4. On Theology of Mission:
"General, our last suggestion is three-fold- first, don't listen to the liberal seminary graduates; second, don't pay for any more to be made in our ranks; three, don't complicate things- we are aiming at winning the world for Jesus- getting everyone saved. Very simple (though admittedly, impossible, to date). To do that, we'll need to disciple, to teach and experience holiness, to reach out with a bias to the poor, and to throw ourselves away in this great endeavour."

How about that? Do you tink the General would buy it? Do you think we can live it? 1. we lead as The Salvation Army in our evaneglism. It hasn't worked wonders but it has gained some results. 2. we're living incarnationally and aiming at community while attempting to live such lives that we can speak prophetically. 3. we don't meet on Sundays! 4. none of us went to a liberal seminary! None of us plan to go! Well see how it works.
posted by Stephen Court

July 27, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
Well, look at that. Not everyone believes everything I write! You bunch of Bereans. :- )
Look, in passing the other day I slipped in that science and the Bible agree with one exception, when science is wrong. That garnered a response about Galileo and Copernicus, with the argument that when science doesn't agree with the Bible it is because the Bible is wrong. That ilustration is based on the presumption that God didn't make the sun stand still. I believe that He did, of course. But here is some support for my original position, all very convincing to a layman like me...

BIBLE SCIENCE THEN SCIENCE NOW
Earth is a sphere Earth is flat disk earth is a sphere
Isa40:22
#stars>billion #stars=1,100 #stars>billion
Jeremiah33:22
each star is all are the same each star is different
different 1cor15:41
light is in motion light is fixed in space light is in motion
Job38:19,20
air has weight air is weightless air has weight
Job28:25
winds blow in wind blows straight winds blow in cyclones
cyclones Ecc1:6 sick people must be bled/ blood is source of llife and healing
blood is source
of life and healing

These are just examples. There are more, such as conservation of mass and energy, water cycle, gravity, Pleiades and Orion as gravitationally bound star groups (other star groups visible to the naked eye are unbound, with one possible exception), effects of emotions on physical health, importance of sanitation to health, control of cancer and heart disease... Thanks to Dr. Hugh Ross for this stuff (cosmologist or something).
much grace,
posted by Stephen Court

July 26, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
Thanks to SALVATIONIST, I read that the Chief of the Staff had water balloons thrown at him while officially re-opening a corps that had been burned down in the Channel Islands. Nice stuff.

Oh, I forgot to tell you one of my favourite corps mission statements- to love people to death. I wish I thought of that!

The USA Western Territory came out with 6 priorities:
1. field
2. holistic ministry
3. youth
4. global vision
5.identifying and training leaders
6. resources into mission.
For the sake of honesty, and some practical personal reflection- here goes an application off the cuff here at 614 Vancouver:
1. is field a priority? Our cell-based corps is on the streets when not in living rooms (meeting as cells). Some of our own figure that we don't emphasize evangelism enough. They are probably right. While we live here we need to be intentionally out there more often. This includes open airs, street combat, prophetic justice acts, prayer walks, and so on. How about a B?
2. holistic ministry. I'm not sure what this means. We have a thing called the Renew Network (tutoring initiative) that trains the mind (while making friends to get people into the community of cells). We do some parish nursing to the margins. And we refer people to other services. That's about it. And I think it reflects the philosophy of our corps. Maybe a C (but I'm not disappointed with that score in this area).
3. youth. We're pretty weak here. We're starting with kids and working our way up to youth, so we really haven't started yet. Since we lack emphasis, we lack results in this group. We'd get probably a D. Obviously this will explode in coming years.
4. global vision. Yah, we're strong here, I think. Our mission is to win the world for Jesus, starting in Vancovuer's downtown eastside. We've got this BE A HERO campaing to raise up 10,000 heroes to make a difference in the lives of tens of thousands of children at risk. We pray for the international community. We sponsor kids, and so on. And our guys have preached on 5 continents in the last year or so. Oh, and we recruit students form 8-10 countries for The War College, do this armybarmy.com thing, write, record, network, and so on. I suspect we might pull an A.
5. identifying and training leaders. I'd give us a B on 5. We obviously train War College students (well, such that I am happy to go to war with them shoulder to shoulder with any of them watching my back). We try to train up the next generation of cell leaders, too, but we have recognized the need, over the last couple of months, for us to be more intentional about this in our cell leaders cells.
6. directing resource into mission. That's a tough one. This is one of the perennial tension issues. So, possibly C+ or B- to reflect our efforts to mobilize resources for the world. We really aim for big fat cartridge totals, and we do pretty well. But we don't do as well on special projects as the corps across the street from us. We have to keep pushing on the cash issue. As fo rnon-cash resources, we do pretty well. I mean, we're gearing up for deployment, pioneering and invading new areas. We hope to be ready soon.
So I guess we're averaging C+ or B- on these 6 issues. That is partly a result of our weaknesses (and young age) and partly of our focus on a few different things (you might know we're big into community- cell, discipling, prayer- War Room, kids- Warrior Academy, corps pioneering, and primitive salvationism- mission-focussed, chari-flavoured heroism). I expect that the USW would bless it.
posted by Stephen Court

July 25, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
Did you know that in 2002 more than 125,000 book titles were released in the UK, about one for every 407 Britons (The Economist). Wow. The article to which I refer figures libraries are out by 2020. Books are just so cheap everyone can buy their own. But I've been told that our local branch (strategically located right at Main and Hastings- the notorious corner) is the busiest branch in the city. Unless we are successful in our mission to transform the city, I expect that many of my neighbours will still choose to spend their money on other distractions than books and will prefer to sign out their readings from libraries.

My firend, a staunch salvo, today figured that the most strategic doctrines for us today are 1,9,11. I'm not sure I agree with that but let's consider it for a second.

1 We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.

I guess my friend figures that the pressure on the margins is for us to fold two ways: 1. in saying that the Scriptures are not the inspired word of God; and, 2. that they don't exclusively constitute the divine rule.

The danger of the first mistake is that the Bible is not the authoritative guidebook from life. That means we can take it or leave it. We can choose what we like and ignore what we don't. In so doing, we provide support for our own lifestyle instead of allowing God to shape it into His image.

The second danger is just as serious. If the Bible doesn't constitute the divine rule, what William Booth described as 'God's heart on paper' becomes just another collection of religious writings, to be put on a shelf alongside religious and philosophy books of yesteryear and trendy self-help books of our day.

Both are brutal. Both have shipwrecked the faith of many. Both have blunted the impact of the Gospel.

His second key doctrine is number nine: We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.

Now, honestly, my apologetics days are well past. I get tired of defending this one to people because I've yet to run into an even half-decent rebuttal. Besides, no one seems to care about reason these days. They want experience (thus the freak-show manifestations of Acts). But look, follow Jesus. All the salvation promises are present tense. So if you aren't fulfilling the conditions present-tense, don't fool yourself into applying the promises.

His third key doctine is 11: We believe in the immortality of the soul; in the resurrection of the body; in the general judgment at the end of the world; in the eternal happiness of the righteous; and in the endless punishment of the wicked.

The last clause- endless punishment of the wicked- is the problem here. Some thinkers among us have thrown it out. They don't buy it (despite the weight of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral). And while I can live with a reasoned and considered wrong position from them (though I try to change their minds), their disciples end up merely learning the end result, learning that this 'isn't true'. They don't know why. It affects evangelism and fervour. And probably some other stuff too (but my son is finishing up his bath, so...). This flows out of the issue with doctrine 1, of course.

We need to go hard-core in the war, knowing what and and why we believe. Otherwise, we can be swayed by the latest trends and distracted by the latest fashions.

1,9,11. worth studying and believing, and then living in light of (to dangle a participle).
posted by Stephen Court

Hi- my friend Cory just alerted me to a nice review of BE A HERO at http://elijahlist.com/words/display_word.html?ID=2334 (The Elijah List is a main prophetic site). The connection works as of time of posting- no guarantees as to the future...
Much grace,
Stephen Court

July 23, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
I just read in Maclean's Magazine that a new type of 3D ultrasound has confirmed that at 12 week's babies in the womb yawn and walk, that at 25 weeks they scratch, cry, and hiccup, and that they even smile (something not thought to happen until weeks after birth). Apparently baby doctors are rethinking life in the womb (July 12 issue, p12). Christians have known all along about the origina of life. Praise God for the scientific developments to catch up the the Bible (the only differences between science and the Bible are those due to the mistakes of science, solved only by development in science).

Hallelujah!
posted by Stephen Court

July 22, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
The sessional name of The War College 2003-2004 is Death and Glory. Galatians 6:14 (hmm- 614) says: "Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world."

This has become their fight song:

Soldiers of our God, arise!
The day is drawing nearer;
Shake the slumber from your eyes,
The light is growing clearer.
Sit no longer idly by,
While the heedless millions die,
Lift the blood-stained banner high,
And take the field for Jesus.
Chorus
Storm the forts of darkness,
Bring them down, bring them down!
Storm the forts of darkness,
Bring them down, bring them down!
Pull down the devil's kingdom,
Where'er he holds dominion;
Storm the forts of darkness, bring them down!
Glory, honor to the Lamb,
Praise and power to the Lamb,
Glory, honor, praise and power,
Be forever to the Lamb!

2.
See the brazen hosts of Hell,
Their art and power employing,
More than human tongue can tell,
The blood-bought souls destroying.
Hark! from ruin's ghastly road
Victims groan beneath their load;
Forward, O ye sons of God,
And dare or die for Jesus.

3.
Warriors of the risen King,
Great Army of salvation,
Spread his fame, his praises sing
And conquer every nation.
Raise the glorious standard higher,
Work for victory, never tire;
Forward march with blood and fire,
And win the world for Jesus.
(SASB 696)


The incoming session (2004-2005) is called The Martyrs. Luke 9:24 Jesus explains, "If you try to keep your life for yourself you will lost it. But if you give up your life for Me you will find true life."

This might become their fight song:

I have read of men of faith
Who have bravely fought before
Who now the corwd of life are wearing
Then the thought comes back to me
Can I not a soldier be
Like to those martyrs bold and daring?

chorus
I'll gird on the armour and take to the field
Determined to conquer and never to yield
So the enemy shall know
Wheresoever I shall go
That I am fighting for Jehovah

I, like them, will take my stand
With the sword of God in hand
Smiling amid opposing legions
I the victor's crown will gain
And at last go home to reign
In heaven's bright and sunny regions.

I will join at once the fight
Leaning on my Saviour's might
He is almighty to deliver
From my post I will not shrink
Though of death's cup I should drink
Hell to defeat is my endeavour.

Will you not enlist with me
And a valiant soldier be?
Vain 'tis to waste your time in slumber
Jesus calls for men of war
Who will fight and ne're give o'er
Routing the foe in fear and wonder.
(SASB 686)

It is tough to read/pray those words without some effect. Living them makes an even bigger difference. May the impact ripple into eternty.
posted by Stephen Court

Hi- I read tonight about a new term for abortion- 'selective reduction', and about alarm by scholars in Netherland about the decline of marriage since 'gay marriage' came into vogue there and in Scandinavia (both in nationalreview.com).

These are a couple of subjects I blogged nearly to death back in the early days of Captains' Blog but I thought I'd mention them again to remind ourselves of the unfriendly terrain.
much grace,
stephenc

July 21, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

Big day in my family as the patriarch turns 74. Wow.

Can I suggest a couple of things?

1. When I said, 'get low, press in, and take cover', I might have been misunderstood. Sorry. I meant that we need to get low- to be humble, to press in- to stay close to Jesus (closer and closer still), and to take cover- to make sure we're covered by Jesus in what we're doing (and maybe to have back-up from our comrades).

2. We have more than 100 intercessors who cover the 614 War in prayer. If you're not one of them yet, I am recruiting. Fire me an email at info@thewarcollege.com to sign up.

3. Here is the last of the Articles of War (don't worry, there is blog after AofW!):

"I now call upon all present to witness that I enter into this covenant and sign these articles of war of my own free will, convinced that the love of Christ, who died and now lives to save me, requires from me this devotion of my life to His service for the salvation of the whole world; and therefore do here declare my full determination, by God’s help, to be a true soldier of The Salvation Army."

Hallelujah. I agree. I just wish they left 'til I die' in (for those news to Captains' Blog, check out this thread of discussion and the poor argument that 'we can't challenge these people to give their whole lives away, even to The Salvation Army').
posted by Stephen Court

July 20, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
Things here are exciting. Last night a guy ran out a 3rd story window trying to elude the cops. My friends prayed for him on the concrete until the cops (and ambulance) arrived. There was an armed stand-off in the Regent (just half a block from Main and Hastings) for a few hours. There was a knife fight near the Salvo soup truck. It seems like a counter-attack from the enemy for the victories God's been winning in the last little while (Extreme Prophetic blew the walls down in a few ways).

It helps us put things in perspective.

There is good stuff going on and we need to keep low, press in, and take cover. Probably good advice for you guys on your fronts?
posted by Stephen Court

July 19, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

I guess I need to catch up and let you know that my buddy had a baby this weekend so there is a new warrior born into the Army - name, Jackson! Welcome Jackson- climb up on our shoulders and run farther, jump higher, see more clearly, fight more effectively.

Here is another declaration from the Articles of War (let me know if I'm going heretical on any of these at info@thewarcollege.com). Oh, mentioning The War College- we had our 52nd application this week for The War College. Nice (not all will come- maybe 20something).

Here it is:
"I will be true to the principles and practices of The Salvation Army, loyal to its leaders, and I will show the spirit of salvationism whether in times of popularity or persecution."

Well- good. I think that every soldier (officers included) should read that one again. Email to your friends, comrades, leaders, sessionmates, and so on, because if we all follow it, the devil will go and run into a corner.

Principles- this gets us into the essentials and non-negotiables debate. We've played that video a lot recently. I write about it in the current JAC intro. I think the one common bond is covenant. Geoff Ryan thinks it is the poor. Rowan Castle and Commissioner Clifton agree on simplicity. There are three right there. And none of these three is strong in the West (or even really characterizes the movement). Castle has figured these out- watch them:
1. A romance with Jesus.
2. The saving of souls: A continuous commitment to evangelism
3. The growing of saints: a radical commitment to holiness and disciple
making (see the weekend blog on the General). As Brengle says that the full task is the sanctification of the soul.
"Dawn is the herald of the full orbed day, so conversion is but a herald of
pentecost? and the glories of conversion, however great they may be, are
only the gray dawn of the morning, and are to be absorbed and lost forever
in the sevenfold splendours of the rising of the sun of Righteousness
through the baptism of the Holy Ghost and the entire sanctification of the
soul?"
4. The serving of suffering humanity: an army must go to the front line
5. Charismatics: the power of the holy spirit filled warrior
6. Simplicity: the life of the warrior with little distraction or
baggage
7. Militancy: this is an army, there is a war
8. The collective of the covenanted
There you go.

But we also promise to be true to the practices.

Practice: What are our practices? At 614 our Modus Operandi is Capture, Train, Deploy. I think this is everything. Many of you add something about serving suffering humanity.

Loyalty. Yah. Look, I've had a DC who took his officers to task for pervasive army-bashing (an unfortunately popular pastime in some parts). Comparing their situation to the Army's bank, he pointed out that any bank managers complaining about their bank the way many offivers do about the Army would be fired. The DC figured that while he probably woudln't fire them, if he heard them army-bashing he would contact the accounting office and freeze their cheques! Yah! I love that guy. We need to be implicitly loyal to our leaders. In war failure to obey and questioning leaders can prove fatal. We need to be very careful in our soldiership.

The spirit of Salvationism. I wrote a lesson on this in SA101 way back in the day. People talk about it a lot but I can't recall any set definition of it. The spirit of Salvationism encompasses infectious joy, love for the lost, strong faith, burning compasion. and probably more.

Times of popularity and persecution. I'm not in a position to speak to this issue since I live in a country in which the Army is appreciated, lauded, and photographed. It is easy to be true in these situations. I suspect that it is more difficult in communist, Muslim, and poor countries. God help us be true.
posted by Stephen Court

July 18, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
So, I think 15 people got saved at Extreme Prophetic school with Patricia King last week in our neighbourhood. Praise the Lord.

Isn't that cool? I mean, usually prophetic stuff is restricted to the church and people get themselves blessed and everyone's happy. But this was all about evangelism to allow God to speak into people's lives in powerful ways. And it works! Not only that, but others were getting healed. We're going to keep this thing going regularly (on a smaller scale for starters) and see what God wants to do.

It was a great time. Hallelujah. We're going to try to get a few of our leaders trained up to make this kind of teaching and mobilization available our our circles. So check the Free Shooters list on armybarmy.com.

Hey- speaking of armybarmy.com, there is a preach up there by Jurgen Matthesius from Sydney- what a classic preacher! Give it a listen if you have the time. Wonderful stuff.
posted by Stephen Court

July 17, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
Well, there is a new hit out here- I'LL FIGHT (by Nathan Rowe). It stirred the hearts and focussed the passion and intent of the School for Extreme Prophetic this week and became a bit of a theme song for us. I'll report on results soon (not all in yet).

Listen, all Salvos should read this from the General (I lifted it from SALVATIONIST):

Go and make disciples

says General John Larsson
Edited from keynote address at International Conference of Leaders

AT the end of his earthly ministry Jesus gave his disciples their marching orders – in just four words. He had spent three years with them. He had taught by word and by example day in and day out. During those three years he had done so many things that – to quote the final verse of John’s Gospel – ‘If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written’ (21:25 New International Version).

But at the end he prioritised it all into just four words: ‘Go and make disciples!’

The great commission that Jesus gave his disciples encapsulates the permanent marching orders for The Salvation Army. The words crystallise our mission. As we sometimes say, ‘This is what it is all about.’ Go and make disciples! The words help us to keep the main thing the main thing.

As Salvation Army officers, many claims compete for our attention, time and energy.

My call is that we prioritise all of the immensity of what we have to deal with into those same four words: ‘Go and make disciples!’

1.‘Go and make disciples’ is God’s way of changing the world

·         A disciple is a person whose life has been transformed by Jesus.
·         A disciple is a person who wants to grow in grace and in the knowledge of his Lord.
·         A disciple is a person who wants more and more to be like his Lord.
·         A disciple is committed to the cause of Christ.
·         A disciple wants to tell others of his or her Lord.
·         A disciple is a ‘change agent’ in society – an activist in serving suffering humanity – because he or she is a disciple of the greatest ‘change agent’ of all time.
God transforms the world through his disciples. That is why Jesus says to us, ‘Go and make disciples.'

2. ‘Go and make disciples’ accentuates clearly the Army’s central purpose

The official definition of The Salvation Army is that it is ‘a fellowship of people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal saviour and lord and whose common aim is to induce others to subject themselves to the lordship of Christ’.

As an Army we have many things to do and to accomplish. But our central aim is to seek to persuade others to subject themselves to the lordship of Jesus Christ – to become disciples of his!

3. ‘Go and make disciples’ focuses the opportunities that are ours

Just look at some of these opportunities:
·         There is spiritual hunger in today’s world – that is why New Age teaching has arisen.
·         The Christian Church is growing – worldwide the tide is flowing.
·         There is immense respect for The Salvation Army in the world – in itself an open door.
·         The Salvation Army is meant to be mobilised – Salvationists understand the word ‘go’.
·         The Army has a proven capacity and ability to adapt its evangelistic methods.
·         The Army already has outreach programmes of all kinds that can be given an increased discipling focus.
·         The Army can think in terms of the whole world as well as the local community.
·         The Army responds to a clear lead.
·         God is giving his Army a new passion for mission.

And we have further opportunities: The recent changes made with respect to membership of The Salvation Army open new possibilities for disciple-making that were not previously there. An adherent member is now defined as ‘a person who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and seeks to follow and be like him’. In other words, adherents are disciples!

How we wish that all converts and all our young people would become soldiers – soldier-disciples. But that threshold has sometimes seemed very high, and to some officers has seemed a barrier to disciple-making. But now new opportunities open up. Adherents too are disciples. Let’s keep the main emphasis on soldiership. But let’s take hold of the possibilities that the new definition of adherency offers.

It goes without saying that junior soldiers also are disciples. They are junior disciples. When Jesus said ‘go and make disciples’ he did not put a lower age limit on them! The Army provides us with a discipling category that not many churches have on offer. Let’s use to the full this opportunity for making disciples.

4. ‘Go and make disciples’ is both a visible and a measurable goal

When Jesus commanded his disciples to ‘go and make disciples’ he expected them to do just that – to make disciples. I believe he expected his followers to be bold in their vision. And after a few years it was said of them that they had turned the world upside down.

In 1995 General Paul Rader set a bold goal for the Army – that The Salvation Army would have a million soldiers by the year 2000. The number of soldiers was then in the 800,000s. It had been climbing only very slowly before that. At the time it seemed an impossible goal. But the goal was reached – and on time. The number of soldiers has kept over the million ever since.

Now that future adherents will be believers – that is ‘disciples’ – and most of the existing adherents already are, a new vista opens. And if we include junior soldiers as disciples – as theologically and in every way we should – a further vista opens.

Our total worldwide disciple strength today is:
Senior soldiers          1,024,616
Adherents      185,202
Junior soldiers 395,566
TOTAL 1,605,384

My challenge to the Army is to go for the second million – for the total number of disciples to reach 2 million, and to do so by the year 2010!

Two million Spirit-filled ‘change agents’ in society! Why not? I believe God wants to see that kind of an Army. It is, after all, only an extension of what we are already seeking to achieve. And I believe that it can be done.

We are all aware of the limitations of numerical goals – particularly the temptation to go for quantity over quality. But we are also aware of the power of clear and measurable goals. Some territories have ambitious territorial aims – like doubling the current number of disciples.

The challenge of the second million has huge implications for each one of us. The main challenge is how to mobilise the Army we already have. We each have to say: How does that challenge apply to my circumstances? (And I recognise how varied those circumstances are.) How can I communicate the challenge to others? How can I seek to inspire action in every aspect of the work that I am responsible for? How can I help to release resources of prayer and spiritual power?

The strategies for action can only be left to each territory and command – and to each division and corps and social centre. Most units already have strategies in place. After all – this is the central and priority mission of the Army, and we have been engaged in that mission from the beginning of the Army’s history. It is a concentration of energy on this main purpose that is now needed.

‘See, I am doing a new thing,’ says the Lord. May the greatest new thing of all be a renewal of passion for mission as we take to ourselves the marching orders first spoken by the Lord Jesus himself:

‘Go and make disciples!’

Amen.
posted by Stephen Court

July 16, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
Lots going on today. We have 17 teams out on the streets twice today doing prophetic ministry- free destiny words, free foot washing, free massages, etc. all for opportunities to speak gospel into people's lives.

People are getting saved- I'm just in between outings with this update and I hope to have a better report tomorrow. But if you want in on the blessings we're going out again in a couple of hours...
posted by Stephen Court

Hi- good news. We've got a new book coming out called PROVERBIAL LEADERSHIP.

This should not be confused with BE A HERO even though both are published in the (northern hemisphere) summer of 2004 and both were written by Wesley and me (BE A HERO - Wesley Campbell and PROVERBIAL LEADERSHIP - Wesley Harris) and both have box-volume discounts and both are intended to help win the world for Jesus.

This is a different book. BE A HERO is published by Destiny Image in Florida. PROVERBIAL LEADERSHIP is published by Credo Press in Canada. BE A HERO is part of a campaign to raise up 10,000 heroes to help win the world. PROVERBIAL LEADERSHIP is intended for leaders, Christian and independent, to provide Biblical foundations and persuade independents to look into Jesus.

PROVERBIAL LEADERSHIP is cheaper too! But is a lot shorter (about 300 to 170). ProLead collects all of the 'leader' proverbs (kingly proverbs in some translations) and engages them with practical intent. Commissioner Wesley Harris, a best-selling author in Australia (not exaggerating) wrote this thing with me.

Now, it is not a book for everyone. But Major Chick Yuill recommends it "to all who care about leadership." General Eva Burrows "heaertily commends" it to everyone who happens to be reading this endorsement. Wesley Campbell (see that subtle cross-advertising?) wants you to "enjoy and apply." And the phenomenal Phil Wall says this: "This book is a creative fusiion of applied Biblical wisdom and the leadership insights of some of the world's most influential leaders. Much to stimulate the mind and ignite the heart of those of us entrusted with leadership." (Yuill, Campbell, and Burrows give much longer endorsements that I will throw up here in time). So, there you go.

If you fit in those categories, or you know people who do, or if you are doing early Christmas shopping or if you are involved with a corps that has a corps council or corps cadets or an advisory board or a red shield team or volunteers at the kettles or staff, you might want to think about picking up a box or three for them.
Much grace,
Stephen Court

July 15, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

We're having a great time at the School of Extreme Propheitc that we're hosting this week with Patricia King (extremeprophetic.com). God is doing some wonderful things and we are being trained up. One line, of many, worth repeating: we're to use a "Sword baked in honey" to cut into flesh (you know- dealing with sin and all)- "sweet death."

The Articles of War has this to say:

"I will be actively involved, as l am able, in the life, work, worship and witness of the corps, giving as large a proportion of my income as possible to support its ministries and the worldwide work of the Army."

Now, I understand that the bit 'as I am able' relates to physical conditions that might keep you or me from fulfilling the rest of the promise. But it stinks because it opens up an excuse for slackers. They can just say, "I'm not able." 'Able' is a tricky term in this context. It could mean, "I'm not able to worship at holiness meetings because I take my boat out on Sundays." I think it might be stronger to change 'as I am able' to something like 'as physically able'.

Then the promise continues to fire as large a cartridge as possible. Wow. How much do we all fall on this one? I mean, largest possible? I know people in my neighbourhood who live off the government's welfare cheque of $525 (or so) a month. This includes all of their expenses, from room to board. That's $132/week. So, theoretically, a single person making $1,000/week after taxes could fire a cartridge of $868/week. Nice. Bigger than ours. Now, things get a little more complicated when you add a child to the equation.

Again, you can interpret 'possible' softly like this- as large as possible:
1. within my lifestyle;
2. and still go away on a cruise annually;
3. and keep my home entertainment system up-to-date;
4. and save up for my kid's college education;
5. and save a little crazy money;
6. and see at least a movie a month;http://armybarmy.com/blog.html
7. and save stack up my retirment savings plans to the max;
8. and put aside some cash for the kids;
etc.

There is no way around this as a shockingly high expectation. It is one that should challenge us daily as we make financial decisions. The thing is, I'm afraid, that it doesn't really challenge too many of us, very often. This is a call to simplicity and kingdom investment. Not one or the other. We don't live simply and give cash to lost pets or whale saving ventures. We live simply and invest the cash into the Kingdom. Neither do we make our cash and fire our tenth. That's not even close to what is happening here. No. Most of us will be positioned to follow Wesley's advice: Make all you can; save all you can; give all you have.
posted by Stephen Court

Hi- Our earliest prayer CD- AWAKEN THE GIANT (prayers based on prophecies for The Salvation Army) featured one on Samuel Logan Brengle's famous warning.

Our partner blogger, Gordon Cotterill (see urban army on our site) hit it up with a heavy hammer today and I wanted you to see (and maybe get you hitting him up as a habit):


59% of people in an independent survey when asked to give one word to describe The Salvation Army gave the word...music. Great...! A lovely talented salvation army officer gets the highest recognition in the salvation army – what for...music. Brilliant...! The Salvation Army has even bought the prestigious weekly magazine "The British Bandsman"...Fantastic...!

Is this our heartbeat? Our unequivocal, unmistakable identity? Old time Salvationist and holiness guru for many SL Brengle gives us a warning about when 'love leaks out'.

"...not enough to wear the uniform, to profess loyalty to Army leaders and principles, to give goods to feed the poor...we must love one another, making it the badge of our discipleship. 'If love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us'.

"If love leaks out, we shall lose our identity, lose our crown. We might still house the homeless, dole out food to the hungry, punctiliously perform routine work, but the mighty ministry of the Spirit will no longer be our glory.

"Our musicians will play meticulously and will revel in the artistry of song that tickles the ear but will leave the heart cold and hard. Officers will be accepted by Mayors and officials and be greeted by outsiders but God will not be among us. We shall still recruit our ranks and supply the Training College with cadets from our own young people, but we shall cease to be saviours of the lost sheep that have no shepherd."

Please our identity is not in our uniforms; our identity is not in our music; not in our principles; not in our function. Strip it all away and it doesn’t stop us being The Salvation Army. Strip away our pseudo-military trappings; our ranks; our music; songbook whatever – it doesn’t stop us being The Salvation Army. None of these things are our heartbeat. Strip away our foundation of 'whosoever' and we’ve got problems.

The moment love leaks out – particularly for our communities. The love for the unlovely. The love for the marginal. The love for the looked down on, the trivial, insignificant, irrelevant, the non-designer people that live fragmented lives all around us. The moment the love that is authentic and is grace centred leaks out – is the moment the heartbeat stops. The moment The Salvation Army stops being The Salvation Army.

That's the end of his blog- great eh! Now, let's look in the mirror.

Much grace,
StephenC

July 14, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

Here's another installment of Articles of War declarations...

"I will be faithful to the purposes for which God raised up The Salvation Army, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, endeavouring to win others to Him, and in His name caring for the needy and the disadvantaged."

My source tells me that when this new version of Articles of War was created I WILL won out over I WILL TRY. Nice, eh? I am glad of it. And apparently the sentiment was that we can't ask young salvaitonists to sign their lives away to anythinhg, even The Salvation Army. Oh, I blogged that before, but not everyone reads EVERY day of blogs. Can you imagine? (not that they miss a blog but that there is no expectation for people to sign their lives away).

So, I will be faithful to the purposes for which God raised up The Salvation Army. I like the wording of this bit. It goes to first purposes and gives no room for any possible historic distractions. What is the first purpose of The Salvation Army? To win the world for Jesus. So we have a million soldiers covenanted to be faithful in our fight to win the world for Jesus. Beautiful.

I will be faithful in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. So we need to intentionally evangelize. I suspect that this includes a hearing heart in our normal adventures and also regular, specific times of evangelizing.

I will be faithful in endeavouring to win others to Him. This is redundant except to emphasize our dissatisfaction with merely 'planting seeds'.

I will be faithful in caring for the needy and disadvantagd in Jesus' name. Well, I could be difficult and suggest that since it is not part of God's purposes in raising up The Salvation Army it is an illegitimate inclusion in this document. But I won't be. Instead I will say, Hallelujah, let's faithfully care for the needy and disadvantaged. What does that look like? Well, it might look like advocacy. It might look like sharing. It might including giving and training. It could even be listening. I don't know. It is those and many more things. It is a tough one, because rubber is scraping on road. But let's be faithful.
posted by Stephen Court

July 13, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

One of my cellmates, Mark, used to be a bad guy. In our cell, we were discussing good encouragers and I started with my mom. Mark was psyched because, he said, "I can finally talk to my mom about what I'm doing."

Praise the Lord.

Oh, I saw a report in the War Cry about a 92 year-old warrior who is still preaching up a storm. Praise the Lord.

May God give us all that kind of stamina.

Tomorrow we host a four-day School of Extreme Prophetic with Patricia King (extremeprophetic.com). We're pretty psyched about what God is going to do this week in the downtown eastside- pray for miracles.

We discussed the middle of Hebrews 10 today in our cell. It is come hard core stuff about God and the consequences of breaking covenant (by the way, we have a list of our end of the covenant - something usually overlooked by Christians). It is some tough stuff...
posted by Stephen Court

July 12, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
This is late at night and so, short.
Look, it is a big blessing to be part of the Body of Christ. We've had Salvos, and Baptists, and Presbyterians, and charismatics come through already this summer to help out in evangelism and cleaning and prayer and worship. Praise God.
Dozens of people are getting a taste of a bit of 'exotic' warfare that, really, isn't any more 'frontline' than where they kit up to fight (as long as they kit up and fight on their own fronts).
We're blessed. More on it soon (Extreme Prophetic School starts Wednesday and we're hosting- extremeprophetic.com).
posted by Stephen Court

July 11, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

Fleur corrected me on the Royal Blood Washed (not Wash). It is still as good as it gets (so far).

Here's another article of war declaration:

"I will abstain from alcoholic drink. tobacco, the non-medical use of addictive drugs. gambling, pornography, the occult, and all else that could enslave the body or spirit."

This is where we scoop the Rechabites and Nazirites. I am on some little group that is scaring up a statement on local body and great commission. One of the surprising emerging components (not surprising to me- I'm an advocate) is the suggestion that brand is important- people want to know who were are, what we stand for- more than just 'Christian'.

We slap a uni on and don't drink and smoke and gamble and do drugs and gawk at porno mags or dabble in the occult and we're very easy to see. We're walking billboards. It is important. So, yes, it is all important for being set apart, but it is also important to identify ourselves to people we are trying to reach.

One slavery- to God, not body or spirit.
posted by Stephen Court

July 10, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

"I will be a faithful steward of my time and gifts, my money and possessions, my body, my mind and my spirit, knowing that I am accountable to God."

Well, we talkd a fair bit about this issue when we discussed the old version of the Articles of War. But put this way, the quick commentary is this: a steward is a person who manages another's property and/or finances. So I need to manage God's time and gifts, His money and possessions, His body, HIs mind and His spirit.

That about says it all. None of it is ours. All of us is His. So we have to be very careful with the whole thing.
posted by Stephen Court

July 9, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

Well, its official. We've got a hit on our hands. It may not have the sales of Clinton's tell-some (yet) but BE A HERO has street cred and trend appeal.

At a camp this week people largely by independents (don't rely on Jesus yet- about half of the crowd) there weren't enough copies of BE A HERO present for the demand.

Theft was the result. Even a thorough search failed to turn anything up.

You know there is demand when teenagers are stealing the thing. You don't need to steal yours. You can just order it from our eStore or directly from info@thewarcollege.com.

Theft leads me smoothly into possessiveness. What a greedy sin. I mean, everything we have comes from God. He's has mercifully forgotten our sins (those of us who've repented) and gracoiusly provided us with what we need., and, oft times, more. I've seen this insidious sin creep into the midst of our community of warriors, all of whom have given up some (and some, a lot) and live relatively humbly (relative to counterparts in North America or to opportunities elsewhere). God gets us to that point- praise God. But when someone crosses the line and makes himself overly comfortable with our stuff or presumes upon our stuff ('stuff' need not be material) in some way, and possessiveness kicks in- well, look out. It almost brings us back to square one. Thank God for free choice (which boils down to this- punishment now or punishment later).
posted by Stephen Court

July 8, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

I hope you are enjoying the current series in the New Zealand War Cry!

Look, I've seen numbers on the Army's strength in 1937, 1961, and 2004. Interesting. Did you know that we used to occupy Egypt, Algeria, Curacao, and Sierra Leone?

Between the first two years there was a hit from the big war. Our countries occupied went from 90 to 86 to 109. The languages preached went from 87 to 139 to 175. The number of corps declined each time from 16,776 in 37 to 15,339 in 04 (Year Book stats from these years). The earlier years didn't note number of soldiers (and, my complaint, none of them keep numbers of conversions), but they did record local officers: 113,503 in 37 and 122, 808 in 04.

In Canada are telling numbers. Officers skyrocketed, but that is because the reserve officers live a lot longer now than then (evidently). There are 300 fewer active officers today than in 37 (or more than 1/5). To balance that we've got about 25 TIMES as many employees (in retrospect maybe we could have solved the depression if we'd just hired these extra 9,500 or so people 65 years earlier). We've dropped about 1/5 of our corps. But the BIG number is outposts: 558 to 444 to 17 in 04! Then again, our 76 social institutions in 37 have mushroomed (108 in 61) to 165 today.

What is the crude commentary on this? Thank God for Africa. And it looks like it is easier to feed and shelter people than it is to save and disciple them (I can confirm that!), since we've thrown our considerable resources away (not entirely, obviously) from the primary saving and discipling efforts into the feeding and sheltering initiatives.

How will the bloggers of 2069 analyse our war today? May God empower us to rev up, gear up, and tear hell's throne to pieces. I expect that in so doing, Egypt, Algeria, and another 89 or so countries remaining from our world conquest will be invaded (to their eternal gratefulness), and that Jesus shall reign. If only we are faithful.
posted by Stephen Court

July 7, 204.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

Did I tell you Elaine's thing about uniform being a sign of covenant community? Classic stuff. It is quite different from the stock arguments. And it is powerful Give it a thought.

Salmon Rushdie said this about celebrity obsession:

"We always did prefer our iconic figures injured, stuck full of arrows or crucified upside down; we need them flayed and naked, we want to watch their beauty crumble slowly and to observe their narcissistic grief. Not inspite of their faults but for their faults we adore them, worshipping their weaknesses, their pettinesses, their bad marriages, their substance abuses, their spite. Seeing ourselves in (their) mirror, and forgiving (them), we also (forgive) ourselves. (They) redeem us by (their) sins." (That was from Maclean's, June 21, 2004)

So here is the next promise from the Article of War:

"I will uphold the sanctity of marriage and of family life."

Did you know that The Salvation Army came out with a positional statement on marriage and the family? We're in favour.

Whew (we also have one for World Peace- we're in favour).

This is my territory's statement on marriage:

"The Salvation Army believes marriage is the covenanting together of one man and one woman for life in a union to the exclusion of all others. This union is established by an authorized ceremony.

"Marriage is a unique reflection of God’s faithful love for all humankind. The relationship of husband and wife reflects the covenant of self-giving love between Christ and His church, central to a Christian understanding of marriage.

"The pledge of mutual faithfulness is not tentative or conditional. The permanent nature of the marriage bond gives security and promotes the development of a trusting relationship. The Christian community has a responsibility to care for, nurture and prayerfully support the marriage relationship.

"The Salvation Army affirms that marriage is the basis of sound family life and foundational to a healthy society.

This is my territory's statement on family:

"The Salvation Army believes the family, as the basic community in society, ought to be the principal way in which values and morality are nourished. In an environment of love and respect, children and adults find security and wellbeing. Here they are free to develop morally, spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally.

"We believe that the family is ideally rooted in the biblical concept of a marriage covenant of one man and one woman. An enduring commitment to loving care reflects God’s design for family life which allows no justification for abuse.

"The Salvation Army acknowledges that families of all types struggle, and at times fail to be communities of love. In following the example of Jesus Christ, The Salvation Army seeks to strengthen marriage and enrich family life, extending appropriate ministries of a caring Christian community to all people in all types of family relationships.

So how does it look to uphold the sanctity of marriage and the family?

- maybe to recognize and remember that these institutions actually are devoted to God.

How does it look for marriage devoted to God? Or a family devoted to God?

That question we who are married and in families ought often to ask ourselves. Speaking of marriages, my folks celebrate 43 years of it today. I think they did a great job with our family! Happy Anniversary!
posted by Stephen Court

July 6, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

Today seems like a good day to update you on some things over at armybarmy.com. There is a very cool commercial about soldiership that you should definitely watch. There is also a new feature called The Free Shooters.

It is speakers and worship leaders bureau. The idea is to resource those of you organizing conferences with solid quality, reliable, Salvationist leaders. These are people with whom we are in relationship, who we trust, and who will provide you with gripping Salvo-flaboured leadership for your event. Enjoy!

There is a shameless plug for our new book that includes this endorsement from General Eva Burrows:

"Campbell and Court team up to combine a heart-felt pain at the tragedies in our world with an inspired idea to end them. Their campaign to mobilize 10,000 heroes armed with mercy and justice can fulfill the dream. The face of the earth changes as the hearts of its people are transformed. Join the force!"

As usual, there is a new demo of the week. I hope you are enjoying the variety. And I hope that you appreciate the song base resource (you can change chords and everything).

There is much more on the way- new preaches, new features, and so on. Don't forget the library though. Some wonderful commercials are there...

Our friends at Soteria Music Ministries are the featured link of the week. Check it out and subscribe (and buy I'll Fight).

Let's use these resources as helpful to win the wolrd for Jesus.

Oh, here's the latest idea:
a. The War Room. We'd like to see thousands of these around the world. Ours is a little room totally devoted to prayer around the clock. So for months we've had eight 3-hour shifts every day for intercession. Great stuff. Are you up for it?

b. Warrior Academy. Have I told you about this combination of VBS and home school on spiritual steroids aimed at training up this next generation to win the world for Jesus? It is the way to go. It, too, is pretty simple (though it requires dedication). We're going to raise up some powerful warriors through this thing. We want to see hundreds of these around the world. Are you up to start one every year?

c. The War College. We're psyched about what God is doing with The War College and look forward to Him starting dozens of them strategically as He directs us.

So, there's a bit to chew on.
posted by Stephen Court

Hi- in my blog yesterday I forgot Founder's Day- sorry. We're 139 years in and we've still got about 91 countries to invade (give or take- it depends on which list you count). I figure that if we aim at it we can wrap it up in 20 years, maybe sooner ('wrap it up' isn't intended to mean the end of the world, but the complete invasion of the world by the Army).
grace
sec

July 5, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
We officially opened RE:cre8 this morning in the back alley with tv cameras and MLAs and a chain chopping instead of a ribbon cutting- nice! (it's been running for a few months already)

I thought of some of our people in the neighbourhood as the disgraced and dicared (and disregarded). But God wants to dignify them as distinct and destined. It's like Hope For The Nations motto says about the poor they serve, in Jesus' name- Today's orphans, tomorrow's leaders.

How do you outrage the Spirit of grace? Profane the blood of the covenant (Hebrews 10:29).

I think I blogged about an article I read on the five Greek words for preaching in the New Testament being exclusively for indepedents (you may not remember my term for sinners- independents). That is, no one preaches to Christians in the New Testament (yes, there is teaching and prophesying). And yet we've assembled this enormous industry around preaching, with tapes and CDs, and books and lectures, and schools and seminaries, and a star-cult, all centred around preaching. Many churches even centre their weekly meetings around preaching! And yet it seems entirely unbiblical.

Now, unbiblical is not anti-biblical.

But to invest heaps of time in preaching to the saints seems, in most cases, either delusional or arrogant. The exception might be if it is your only opportunity to hit a massive crowd. I was trained to put in one hour of preparation time for every minute I preached. I've never even come close to that. And I tend to preach longer these days so I am getting 'worse' at this challenge by the year.

But do we expect the worship band to put in an hour of preparation for every minute they're up there? Or the Songsters? Or the band? How about the Scripture reader? Do we really think that 30 minutes on a Sunday morning of us talking to a bunch of people is worth 30 hours of our time?

It seems almost sinful to devote that kind of Kingdom resource (30 hours) for that kind of effect (yes, with the exception that might include a massive crowd that you cannpt otherwise impact). Those hours could be invested in many other more effective activities.

Not only that, but the whole style of presentation, even of the best of preachers, is counter to what the culture expects. Other than Eddie Murphy and his ilk, who can we reasonably expect to hold our attention for a period of time? And how much do we expect to remember, let alone be influenced by?

You may gather from this rant that we don't preach much in our corps. True. I'm not against preaching. But I am not for investing heaps of time in the exercise (I haven't preached myself for more than 6 months). Our corps and my preaching schedule isn't necessarily a model for everyone, of course. But I hope it provokes a little thought in the 30 hour/week (or 15 hour/week) preachers out there (of course, I expect that there are very few of them to begin with, and probably none that read this- to my knowledge I've never heard one preach, but I think I might have met a couple).
posted by Stephen Court

July 4, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends. To our Salvationist comrades- enjoy the celebration of Founder's Day.

Hey, my book arrived today- BE A HERO. It's about 300 pages. Nice and big but not too thick to read. I like it. I hope you will, too. But way more important, I'd like you to sign up 100 of your friends (congregations? businesses? classes?) to be heroes. See this past week's blogs for more information. Here's another Articles of War promise:

"I will uphold Christian integrity in every area of my life, allowing nothing in thought, word or deed that is unworthy, unclean, untrue, profane, dishonest or immoral."

Again, this is one I inadvertantly skipped last week. Sorry. Maybe the point is that this modern language, while palatable, is vanilla-bland. Some of them read the same. And this sameness can make it difficult to operationalize (yes, this word is not in a dictionary but it was a word that we used in sociology, so bear with me). But here goes...

Upholding integrity in every area of my life is redundant as to hold inegrity in only some parts of my life and not in others would not be integrity but hypocrisy or dishonesty.

The rest of the promise tries to spell out what integrity looks like- no thought, word, or deed that is sinful or unworthy.

Now, this is a holiness promise. I am surprised and saddened to find that the vast majority of solid salvationists - note, I'm not talking about the slackers or pew sitters here - don't even buy that we can be holy. So, for this majority, the promise at hand must be very difficult. It requires that they organize their lives carefully, that they keep track of their thoughts and words and deeds to check, that they put a guard on their mouths, that they take their own thoughts captive, that they grit their spiritual teeth to ensure that no sinful or unworthy thought slips in or word slips out.

These people are keen Salvos, effective warriors, some of the cream of the Army. But they are influenced and taught outside the Army by Christians outside the holiness stream. Tragically, there is a significant minority exception to this statement consisting of the second generation of those trained up and influenced by our own preachers and teachers who didn't and don't believe in holiness.

Of course, the solution for them is to sit at the feet of Jesus and Paul and John and SLB again, to neutralize the natural inclination to sin, and then not worry any longer about every breath and thought and word and deed. It actually makes the promise something less than laughably impossible. But until then, grit away.
posted by Stephen Court

July 3, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
I've got a God-son, Harrison, who is celebrating a birthday today in London, England. Happy Birthday.

I have a confession. I've gone out of order in my Articles of War comments. Sorry. Somehow I skipped this one:

"I will make the values of the Kingdom of God and not the values of the world the standard for my life."

At the risk of picking out specks at the expense of logs, this promise points out a temptation amongst Christian leadership. World values and standards seem to crush in on Christian leadership. They want us to conform in our structure and style and system. They glamorize the successful leaders. They intimidate us by their degrees and size and cash and flash. They marginalize us from most debates. The show disdain for our morals.

Wait a second! That happens to us individually, too! I mean, we wander through life, unblinkingly accepting (in my culture) that we dress with certain patches and names and logos on our apparel, that we dress with certain styles and appropriate flesh showing, that we drink certain beverages, that we get a college degree, that we vote socially liberal, that we save the whales and kill unborn babies, that we work crazy hours five and six days aweek to rush into a handful of hours of relaxation every weekend, that we go into debt to get the nicest house and car and television the bank will allow us, that promotion in job is desirable, that we live to get more, and so on.

And yet, the Kingodm's values are usually upside down. We dress modestly. We will drink for thirst and pleasure rather than for appearances. We care more about education than a degree (and college need not factor into that equation). We're not socially liberal. We care about saving unborn babies. We - some of us I know - are employed for as short a time as necessary to pay bills so that the rest of the time can be invested straight into the Salvation War. We try to avoid debt. We look for spiritual influence in a job before its title or cash flow. We live to get more saved. And so on.

It is a big promise. How do we keep it? Yes, read the Bible, pray every day. But more than that, we need to continually challenge ourselves to ensure we haven't compromised into the shape of the world. The best way to do that (I've seen) is to get involved in a community of extremists who are engaged in this struggle, who are committed to extending Kingdom values and reign throughout the world. Iron sharpens iron.
posted by Stephen Court

July 2, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.

Our latest little wrinkle at armybarmy.com is intended to aid you in your event preparations. FREE SHOOTERS is a specialing bureau of and or the Army. It is free. Here's a bit from the beginning:

Hero George Scott Railton asserted, �We only desire to form and keep up� a body as large as we can of free-shooters, for the express purpose of assaulting with spiritual weapons those� who are still in rebellion against God.�

We, at armybarmy, heartily recommend these free-shooters for your events. We�re in relationship with these primitive Salvationists and have benefited from fighting alongside them.

When you are planning your next event, when you�ve prayed up your purposes and subjects, check out this resource to find the worship leaders and preachers who can provide strong quality Salvationist impact to your group. Because of travel costs, we�ve limited this edition of Free-Shooters to North America.

This service is free to you from us with the intention of strengthening the Army continent-wide. Please contact these leaders directly for booking. Check out the page at http://armybarmy.com/freeshooters.html and enjoy.
posted by Stephen Court

July 1, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
Happy Dominion Day to the world from Canada (from Psalm 72- Canada is the Dominion of Canada- for He shall reign from sea to shining sea).
Also, praise God, BE A HERO is officially released today. We're on a campaign to raise up 10,000 heroes committed to these disciplines:
1. pray the Bible;
2. sponsor a child;
3. advocate on behalf of the marginalized;
4. build a children's home;
5. go on a hero holiday (for more information email me - info@thewarcollege.com- of buy the book from armybarmy.com).

To continue with the new Articles of War declaratoins:

"I will maintain Christian ideals in all my relationships with others: my family and neighbours, my colleagues and fellow salvationists, those to whom and for whom I am responsible, and the wider community."

Basically we're reiterating the first declaration, that we will live with Christian integrity. The first one dealt with every area of my life. This one deals with every relationship in my life. We learn from repetition.

It doesn't settle with just getting by. It aims at the very best. So we aim not to avoid an affair, but to treat women like our kid sister (honour and protect). We aim not to avoid fornication but to avoid the appearance of evil. We aim not to bring up our kids so that they stay out of jail, but that they stay into Jesus. We aim not to merely get along with our comrades but to encourage, sharpen, and bless them. We aim not only to avoid being a negative influence in the neighbourhood, but to be a supernaturally positive one.

And we just don't promise to aim at it, we promise to maintain Christian ideals. We're in it to accomplish and experience the very best in all of our relationships. So, I want my marriage to be the best one ever. I want to be the best father ever. I want to be the best corps officer, the best soldier, the best son, and so on. It's a bit whacked, but those are the ideals.

We go through this thing once. Then we sit through eternity. I want there to be no regrets at all about any of it. This declaration charges us forward from a purely private integrity to an infectious, idealistic integrity that purifies our whole circle of influence. God help us.
posted by Stephen Court

Hi- I lifted this from Opinion Journal (opinionjournal.com):
The Critics Rave
Blogger Jeff Percifield collects blurbs from the same reviewers on Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" and Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," and the results are often hilarious, as the critics laud Moore for the same reasons they damned Gibson.

A.O. Scott, New York Times:

"Fahrenheit": "Mr. Moore's populist instincts have never been sharper. . . . He is a credit to the republic."
"Passion": "Gibson has exploited the popular appetite for terror and gore for what he and his allies see as a higher end."

Ty Burr, Boston Globe:

"Fahrenheit": "Should be seen because it takes off the gloves and wades into the fray, because it synthesizes the anti-Bush argument like no other work before it, and because it forces you to decide for yourself exactly where passion starts to warp point of view."
"Passion": "If you come seeking theological subtlety, let alone such modern inventions as psychological depth, you'll walk away battered and empty-handed."

David Edelstein, Slate:

"Fahrenheit": After the screening, a friend railed that Moore was exploiting a mother's grief. I suggested that the scene made moral sense in the context of the director's universe, that the exploitation is justified if it saves the lives of other mothers' sons.
"Passion": "A two-hour-and-six-minute snuff movie--The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre--that thinks it's an act of faith."

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle:

"Fahrenheit": "[Moore] is an indispensable treasure, and his imperfections are part of the reason, because they mark him as real."
"Passion": "It's awful because everything he knows about storytelling has been swept aside by proselytizing zeal."

Geoff Pevre, Toronto Star:

"Fahrenheit": "A plea for America's deliverance. . . . It may not be an argument one agrees with, and it may be unbalanced and propagandistic, but it is both convincingly argued and sincerely motivated."
"Passion": "A work of fundamentalist pornography."

David Sterrit, Christian Science Monitor:

"Fahrenheit": "Is the label 'documentary' appropriate for this openly activist movie? Of course it is, unless you cling to some idealized notion of 'objective' film."
"Passion": "The highly selective screenplay includes only a few of Jesus' words, spoken in occasional flashback scenes."

James Verniere, Boston Herald:

"Fahrenheit": "At a time when the film industry is turning out sugarcoated, content-free junk, Moore has given American viewers a renewed taste for raw meat."
"Passion": "An exercise in sadomasochistic bullying."

June 30, 2004.
Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.
My friend Nathan Rowe told me today that his corps, Adelaide Congress Hall (oldest in Australia) was nicknamed, way back in the good old days, the Royal Blood Wash.

That could be the best corps nickname of all time. I welcome challengers (info@thewarcollege.com).

The Royal Blood Wash.

That name is screaming out for a song, a title, an album, a book, an article, everything... Let's invite the whole wide world to The Royal Blood Wash!
posted by Stephen Court