The recent Salvation Army has produced a written statement endorsed by all international leaders. The full text will be published in SA periodicals but in the meantime you can find the full text here at Jin Knagg's blog.Below is a quote from the statement:
"... a vision of the worldwide Salvation Army kneeling in repentance, prayer and rededication at the Mercy Seat. We have spoken together of all that this might mean for the Army, seeking new grace, new spiritual power, new divine prompting, and asking for and receiving afresh God's mercy....
... Also we affirm our conviction that, to be truly useful to God, the Army needs to be pure and free from sin, and that senior leaders must, by grace, be effective role models in this. We feel the urging of the Holy Spirit to examine our own hearts afresh to see if there be any wicked way within us. We want to yield again to the demands of divine love, to return to first things, to cast aside distractions unpleasing to God, and to be in a relation of entire obedience to the Father. We acknowledge our constant need of grace.
We renew our sacred vows and covenants as both soldiers and officers of the Army, thanking God from our hearts for the privilege of the calling he has placed upon us. We declare again our availability and our readiness, as senior officers, to go anywhere to do anything at any time under God and within the structures of the Army, seeking only the advancement of his Kingdom. We acknowledge our humanity and weakness, seeking the unique strength that God provides when we are weak and he is strong. We confess our limitedness, knowing that God is all sufficient. We abandon explicitly any desire that has sprung up in our hearts to place self first. We ask for the prayers of our fellow Salvationists to help us in this renewal of our covenants as soldiers and as officers, and in so doing we recognise our vulnerability and our personal need of divine help. In sharing this Spiritual Statement with Salvationists everywhere, it is our hope and prayer that it will be received with humble and understanding hearts, and that by the abundant grace of God it will be used to inspire and prompt others to seek with us repentance, with renewed purity and holiness in Christ."
In his first interview as General Shaw Clifton said in response to the following question:
Do you have a sense of where that breaking and moulding needs to happen? What strategies do you want to use?"
"It is too early to be specific, but this High Council has mandated the next General to find appropriate, loving ways of asking The Salvation Army some fairly awkward, difficult questions. We are all exercised by the Army's inability to grow numerically in certain parts of the world. We rejoice that in many places the Army is rapidly expanding. Globally we are bigger than ever before and getting bigger. This High Council has mandated me to ask: If God is withholding numerical growth from parts of the Army, why is that blessing withheld? Rather than discussing strategy, method, ceremony or even identity, I have a deep sense in my heart that God wants us to follow the example of the Old Testament prophets when they sensed God's blessing was withheld. The prophets went to God's people asking: Is there sin in the camp? Now that is a very difficult and pointed question. One has to be very tender and sensitive before even raising it but perhaps God is saying, ever so gently and ever so lovingly: I love you, Salvation Army, but would you please look within and see if there is sin in the camp, and if there is anything that causes the blessing to be withheld we must deal with it. Some issues will be personal to individual Salvationists, others will be corporate. I would like to find a way as General of being a catalyst and put that biblical question to Salvationists. We may find that as we draw nearer to him, closer to him in purity and righteousness, the blessings begin to flow where at present they sometimes appear to be withheld."
I'd never noticed before (until I read the text again this morning) that General Clifton said "this High Council has mandated the next General..." The call to repentance came from our leaders, it was a corporate call from the very top of our organisation.
On Wednesday night at a united churches prayer meeting in Dartford - knowing nothing of this leaders' statement - I urged the church ministers gathered in our hall to repent both personally and on behalf of the denominations they represented. I then went on to offer a prayer of repentance on behalf of TSA.
There is 'sin in the camp' and until we remove 'the consecrated things we have hidden among our own possessions' we will be 'obligated to defeat' - hold a million seminars, enquiries and conferences and nothing will change. If we repent then the Promised Land lies ahead of us!!!
Thank you to our leaders for their discernment, honesty and humility.
May we have ears to hear, minds that understand and hearts that will follow!
Grace and peace, A
8 comments:
I see this as a real commitment to God by every Officer and every Soldier. May we each search our own hearts and allow The Holy Spirit to deal with any sin that lies buried deep within. Some Corps are decreasing in number and I wonder whether the question has to be answered - is this a necessary thing to get rid of "the sin in the camp" so that we can go forward with greater boldness, unhindered by those who are unwilling to let go of the sin that holds them back? Of course we need to pray for such that the Holy Spirit will reveal Himself to them afresh and bring them back to the place where God wants them to be and make sure that we ourselves are in that place of complete surrender.
Thank God some key leaders are addressing this! Am praying for God to show us His mercy and grace in spite of ourselves, although God is justified to break out in extreme wrath. (How long should He have to wait for us??)
Would also add to Anonymous's comment the hidden danger of our churches that are full, but they have put out the Spirit's fire & traded obedience for entertainment- God help us all.
-Genise
It may be me but...
If our leaders are going to take us back to the Old Testament then presumably they will be acting like the Old Testament heroes in other ways... Presumably they will be very specific about the sins, specific about the offenders and specific about the punishments to be handed out. Or is this just a bit of 'fire breathing' to make someone think that things are getting sorted?
So often I hear that we need to get ourselves sorted out before sorting out the rest of the world. When will that be? It will be a long wait.
See, I don't understand how Jesus could achieve so much when he had some vile sinners in his closest group, even to the end! Perhap he didn't have a leadership who told him that it could not be done?
Love to all. Keep thinking.
Ian
I agree with you G-Force. Sometimes we do replace obedience with entertainment and this I believe has been a real danger not only to the SA but to the Church in general. We need to get back to the teaching of Salvation and Holiness and live in obedience to Christ. I remember when we used to sing a simple chorus which had a depth of meaning to it : "I want to be just like Jesus, pure and holy and mild, I want to be ever learning at His feet like a little child." May God help us to not just talk about it and sing about it but to actually be a part of the solution to the malady that has taken its hold on us. May we have the desire to be holy people, set apart as His disciples in this modern world. My God bless us all with the power of His spirit.
I only saw the statement yesterday at the Bristol Area Prayer School, where we were looking at Transforming our communities through prayer. One of the recognised evidences of community transformation is when leaders are humble and repentant. Of course we need to see secular leaders recognise their responsibility where there has been apathy, corruption or injustice but God's people need to lead the way.
I am excited by this, not just for the sake of the Salvation Army but for what it means in terms in opening up the windows of heaven for revival.
When we were at the Prayer and Fasting week-end in May, those that gathered got down on their knees and repented for the sins of the Salvation Army. It was a significant moment but at the back of my mind was, this would be so much more effective if our senior leaders were here doing this.
I may be naive but I don't believe that this is just more talk. This is what many of us have prayed and longed to hear for a long time. I agree with Ian, we need to be specific but as I read the statement, that is what is being called for.
There is a new tone here and we need to open our hearts to what the Spirit is doing.
God bless
Carol
Ian
Some principles span both testaments. Sin separates us from God. If there is sin in the camp then our need to repent is as essential today as it ever was. there is a different between being disobedient and simply being human. The disciples were certainly human but I don't see any of them trying to hide the truth about themselves from Christ.
It isn't that God holds back his blessing it is simply that unrepented sin acts as a barrier between us and God.
Achan's sin might be a OT but I think you'll find that Christ hardly ever preached without using the word 'repent'.
Grace and peace, A
Hi Andrew - I am on holiday so may not get to respond too frequently...
I would say that Judas was a bit more than disobedient. My point is if the leadership wants to use an OT phrase like 'sin in the camp' then they need to stop cherry picking the phrase and use the whole OT example of how it was dealt with or they find a better way of saying what they want to do.
I agree that repentance is vital but it comes in the same sentence as other words such as love, grace, forgiveness etc.
At a recent divisional meeting we were told that the greatest need of the Army is Revival. I know that many agree. I do not. I believe the greatest need is love.
Blessings from a rainy campsite somewhere in Derbyshire.
Ian
(PS The blogspot verification word for me is comition. Bad spelling perhaps?)
I'd like to know what "sin in the camp" actually means. It is certainly a broad definition. Are we to root out the sins of arrogance & pride, or are we being implored to go much deeper? What about sexual sin? How often have we/are we turning a blind eye to sin of that nature? Sins of ethical compromise for financial gain are an unfortunate bedfellow in many places without our camp.
Far be it from me to expose any sin if I, myself, am not willing to stand under scrutiny. If this is to happen legitimately, then I suspect true humility and transparency is what is needed.
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