Paul Rader, General (R)- Part 2
Beyond the exchange between existing territories, there is a growing commitment to pioneering mission within formerly assisted and receiving territories. The Korea Territory, for example, has for some time been exploring the possibilities for mission in Outer Mongolia. During the Centenary Congress in Seoul in September 2008, a Korean officer couple was appointed to formally establish the Army's work in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. Earlier, the Korea Territory launched, staffed and fully supported the Army's work in Vladivostok.
There are many strengths in the Army's internationalism: a bracing sense of international camaraderie, of participation in a global movement marching under the same banner of Blood and Fire. Internationalism affords a capacity for rapid mobilization, maintenance of standards, efficiencies in fiscal management, the sharing of resources and expertise, and capacity for strategic response to emerging opportunities for service, to name but a few. The Army's response to the open door for our return to Russia in the wake of the dramatic demise of the Soviet Union is an example. Mobilizing our global response to the devastating 2004 Tsunami in South Asia, is another.
At its best the Army's internationalism models the Body of Christ in both its unity and rich diversity. International Headquarters this year released a revision of the 2002 publication, Servants Together: Salvationist Perspectives on Ministry. Significantly, the cover art features a painting by Salvationist Mikhail Gavrilov, one of the first lay leaders to emerge after the Army's return to Russia in 1991. The image of Christ is made up of figures representing the diversity within the community of believers.
THE ARMY AS CHURCH: COMMUNITY IN MISSION
Facing the immense challenges in mission and the doors of opportunity opening to his expanding work, General William Booth called for a growing Army, "a stupendous force" all under one head, marching under the same flag. Growth was a priority and remains so in bringing the movement to what I have elsewhere called ''full battle strength." The challenge to attain a million marching into the new millennium -- adult 'soldiers,' a covenanted cadre of the committed, was achieved and announced amid great rejoicing at the 2000 International Congress in Atlanta GA. In exploring the Army's church growth potential it became evident that the will to grow would be determined by the Army's self-understanding as an authentic and vital expression of the Church of Jesus Christ. It was necessary therefore to establish the theological and biblical legitimacy of the Army model of churchly life and mission. Institutional advance is one thing. Authentic growth of the Body of Christ, quite another: growing up "into him who is the head, that is Christ, . . . . the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, [growing] and [building] itself up in love, as each part does its work" (Ephesians 4:15-16).
Only a biblically grounded understanding of the churchly being and function of the Army, as a movement, and in its local corps expressions, adequately supports and motivates a commitment to growth. Only when the Army is understood as 'Community in Mission', to borrow Commissioner Philip Needham's phrase, do we adequately:
Ÿ reinforce growth as a priority goal,
Ÿ avoid the primacy of structure and method over mission,
Ÿ access the correction, direction and motive power of the New Testament image of the Church militant over against a formal militariness, and
Ÿ claim the promise of the Spirit's life and the Savior's lordship over and within the Body, which is his Church.
In this way we begin to understand fully the dynamics and necessities of growth in the living organism, which is the Body of Christ, Jesus Christ himself the Head "from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews grows as God causes it to grow" (Colossians 2:19).
Traditionally, the Army has avoided using ecclesiastical terminology as being more hindrance than help. And, incidentally, one notes the emergence of worship centers, temples and tabernacles among seeker-sensitive new church plants, assiduously avoiding the term 'church' at least in their signage. One can appreciate the sensitivities of Booth's early militants who did not want to be identified either with the staid institutionalism of the Anglican Establishment or with the sectarian squabbles of the nonconforming churches and chapels in Victorian England. Their concern was for demonstrating the reality of the Church and fulfilling its mission. They considered themselves above denominationalism, or 'sectarianism' [which the Army Mother, Catherine Booth, was given to denigrating in the most scathing terms!]. They were intent on being the Church rather than talking about it.
Beginning with the publication of Commissioner Needham's Community in Mission: a Salvationist Ecclesiology in 1987, the first book length theological reflection on the Army's relationship to the New Testament ideal of the church, the Army has been ineluctably drawn toward an increased understanding and acceptance of its ecclesial identity and function and their implications for the life and ministry of the movement. This is clearly evident in the new Handbook of Doctrine, Salvation Story, to which reference has been made. Chapter ten, in this volume, for the first time in our history articulates a doctrine of the Church. Earlier editions made reference to the Church Universal but not to the Army as a church embodying the New Testament ideal of the church in community and mission.
All this has led to necessary reflection on the inner life of the movement, and the ways in which we nurture and sustain that life within the Army. This concern provided the occasion for convening an International Spiritual Life Commission which met in London, England during 1996 - 1997 for five meetings, each of five days duration. In my opening address I reviewed the rationale for summoning the Commission and outlined their mandate. In part, I said:
In recent years, and for a variety of reasons, we have begun to come more to terms with our churchly identity -- that is, the accepted and publicly-acknowledged fact that we are the church home for something upwards of two million people in the world. For most of them we are their primary, if not only, point of insertion into the body of Christ. We are the fellowship within which they experience their connectedness with the body of Christ.
It is the Army through its corps life that provides them with essential instruction in Christian doctrine and an understanding of the truth of Scripture. It is the Army that provides the primary setting for worship for most of our people. What they know of personal spiritual discipline, they learned from us. It is through the Army they experience their relationship to the broader Christian community and establish their identity within that community as bona fide Christian believers.
Simply put, it is time for us to take more seriously issues related to our inner life. We owe it to our people. It is essential to maintaining the engine of commitment and passion. Our mission is energized by our spirituality.
We have a responsibility to ensure that we are not denying our people necessary means of grace and that their participation in the life of the Army through their local corps affords them every available advantage in living the Christian life."
Out of the deliberations of the Commission came a series of recommendations for consideration
by the Army's international leadership and a 'Call to Salvationists' worldwide "to recognize that any outward movement of love for the world requires first of all an inward movement from each Christian towards God." The Call declares, "The vitality of our spiritual life as a Movement will be seen and tested in our turning to the world in evangelism and service, but the springs of our spiritual life are to be found in our turning to God in worship, in the disciplines of life in the Spirit, and in the study of God's word." Twelve specific calls were made, supported by complementary affirmations. They covered a broad range of issues relating to the inner life of the Army, including Worship, the Word, the Mercy Seat, the celebration of Christ's Presence, our life together in community, the meaning of soldiership, our life in the world, the call to Holiness and the call to spiritual warfare. In 1999, the chair of the commission, Commissioner Robert Street, produced a valuable guide to implementing the Calls in a volume entitled Called to be God's People: the International Spiritual Life Commission, its report, implications and challenges which is available for down load on-line at www.salvationarmy.org/resources
Paul Rader, General (R)
Beyond the exchange between existing territories, there is a growing commitment to pioneering mission within formerly assisted and receiving territories. The Korea Territory, for example, has for some time been exploring the possibilities for mission in Outer Mongolia. During the Centenary Congress in Seoul in September 2008, a Korean officer couple was appointed to formally establish the Army's work in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. Earlier, the Korea Territory launched, staffed and fully supported the Army's work in Vladivostok.
There are many strengths in the Army's internationalism: a bracing sense of international camaraderie, of participation in a global movement marching under the same banner of Blood and Fire. Internationalism affords a capacity for rapid mobilization, maintenance of standards, efficiencies in fiscal management, the sharing of resources and expertise, and capacity for strategic response to emerging opportunities for service, to name but a few. The Army's response to the open door for our return to Russia in the wake of the dramatic demise of the Soviet Union is an example. Mobilizing our global response to the devastating 2004 Tsunami in South Asia, is another.At its best the Army's internationalism models the Body of Christ in both its unity and rich diversity. International Headquarters this year released a revision of the 2002 publication, Servants Together: Salvationist Perspectives on Ministry. Significantly, the cover art features a painting by Salvationist Mikhail Gavrilov, one of the first lay leaders to emerge after the Army's return to Russia in 1991. The image of Christ is made up of figures representing the diversity within the community of believers.
THE ARMY AS CHURCH: COMMUNITY IN MISSION
Facing the immense challenges in mission and the doors of opportunity opening to his expanding work, General William Booth called for a growing Army, "a stupendous force" all under one head, marching under the same flag. Growth was a priority and remains so in bringing the movement to what I have elsewhere called ''full battle strength." The challenge to attain a million marching into the new millennium -- adult 'soldiers,' a covenanted cadre of the committed, was achieved and announced amid great rejoicing at the 2000 International Congress in Atlanta GA. In exploring the Army's church growth potential it became evident that the will to grow would be determined by the Army's self-understanding as an authentic and vital expression of the Church of Jesus Christ. It was necessary therefore to establish the theological and biblical legitimacy of the Army model of churchly life and mission. Institutional advance is one thing. Authentic growth of the Body of Christ, quite another: growing up "into him who is the head, that is Christ, . . . . the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, [growing] and [building] itself up in love, as each part does its work" (Ephesians 4:15-16).
Only a biblically grounded understanding of the churchly being and function of the Army, as a movement, and in its local corps expressions, adequately supports and motivates a commitment to growth. Only when the Army is understood as 'Community in Mission', to borrow Commissioner Philip Needham's phrase, do we adequately:
Ÿ reinforce growth as a priority goal,
Ÿ avoid the primacy of structure and method over mission,
Ÿ access the correction, direction and motive power of the New Testament image of the Church militant over against a formal militariness, and
Ÿ claim the promise of the Spirit's life and the Savior's lordship over and within the Body, which is his Church.
In this way we begin to understand fully the dynamics and necessities of growth in the living organism, which is the Body of Christ, Jesus Christ himself the Head "from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews grows as God causes it to grow" (Colossians 2:19).
Traditionally, the Army has avoided using ecclesiastical terminology as being more hindrance than help. And, incidentally, one notes the emergence of worship centers, temples and tabernacles among seeker-sensitive new church plants, assiduously avoiding the term 'church' at least in their signage. One can appreciate the sensitivities of Booth's early militants who did not want to be identified either with the staid institutionalism of the Anglican Establishment or with the sectarian squabbles of the nonconforming churches and chapels in Victorian England. Their concern was for demonstrating the reality of the Church and fulfilling its mission. They considered themselves above denominationalism, or 'sectarianism' [which the Army Mother, Catherine Booth, was given to denigrating in the most scathing terms!]. They were intent on being the Church rather than talking about it.
Beginning with the publication of Commissioner Needham's Community in Mission: a Salvationist Ecclesiology in 1987, the first book length theological reflection on the Army's relationship to the New Testament ideal of the church, the Army has been ineluctably drawn toward an increased understanding and acceptance of its ecclesial identity and function and their implications for the life and ministry of the movement. This is clearly evident in the new Handbook of Doctrine, Salvation Story, to which reference has been made. Chapter ten, in this volume, for the first time in our history articulates a doctrine of the Church. Earlier editions made reference to the Church Universal but not to the Army as a church embodying the New Testament ideal of the church in community and mission.
All this has led to necessary reflection on the inner life of the movement, and the ways in which we nurture and sustain that life within the Army. This concern provided the occasion for convening an International Spiritual Life Commission which met in London, England during 1996 - 1997 for five meetings, each of five days duration. In my opening address I reviewed the rationale for summoning the Commission and outlined their mandate. In part, I said:
In recent years, and for a variety of reasons, we have begun to come more to terms with our churchly identity -- that is, the accepted and publicly-acknowledged fact that we are the church home for something upwards of two million people in the world. For most of them we are their primary, if not only, point of insertion into the body of Christ. We are the fellowship within which they experience their connectedness with the body of Christ.
It is the Army through its corps life that provides them with essential instruction in Christian doctrine and an understanding of the truth of Scripture. It is the Army that provides the primary setting for worship for most of our people. What they know of personal spiritual discipline, they learned from us. It is through the Army they experience their relationship to the broader Christian community and establish their identity within that community as bona fide Christian believers.
Simply put, it is time for us to take more seriously issues related to our inner life. We owe it to our people. It is essential to maintaining the engine of commitment and passion. Our mission is energized by our spirituality.
We have a responsibility to ensure that we are not denying our people necessary means of grace and that their participation in the life of the Army through their local corps affords them every available advantage in living the Christian life."
Out of the deliberations of the Commission came a series of recommendations for consideration
by the Army's international leadership and a 'Call to Salvationists' worldwide "to recognize that any outward movement of love for the world requires first of all an inward movement from each Christian towards God." The Call declares, "The vitality of our spiritual life as a Movement will be seen and tested in our turning to the world in evangelism and service, but the springs of our spiritual life are to be found in our turning to God in worship, in the disciplines of life in the Spirit, and in the study of God's word." Twelve specific calls were made, supported by complementary affirmations. They covered a broad range of issues relating to the inner life of the Army, including Worship, the Word, the Mercy Seat, the celebration of Christ's Presence, our life together in community, the meaning of soldiership, our life in the world, the call to Holiness and the call to spiritual warfare. In 1999, the chair of the commission, Commissioner Robert Street, produced a valuable guide to implementing the Calls in a volume entitled Called to be God's People: the International Spiritual Life Commission, its report, implications and challenges which is available for down load on-line at www.salvationarmy.org/resources
Paul Rader, General (R)
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