8 days after 08.08.08.

So it's 8 days after the 8th of the 8th 2008 and it's been a mixed week.

Back to work (if you can call Officrship work - maybe I should say back to service). I love my job and feel that Officership is a great privilege. Having said that I have struggled this week to get out of holiday mode! Everything that needs to be done has been done but I'm not sure I've got out of 2nd gear yet.

There is an exciting couple of months coming up at Dartford - especially the centenary celebrations of the Dartford Disgrace on September 13th (the imprisonment of the CO and others for preaching in the open air) and of course two days before that the arrival of reinforcements in the form of Xander Coleman on September 11th (hallelujah - thank you Jesus!).

The following contemporary newspaper report gives a taster of what we're celebrating on the 13th.

"In defence of the Salvation Army - wild scenes on the streets of Dartford

There was a massive and fervent response to the arrest of Dartford's Salvationists. A defence committee was formed to co-ordinate the protest campaign. Public meetings of protest attracted large crowds; protest marches were held and banners, slogans and posters appeared all over the town.

Banners declared 'IMPRISONED FOR CONSCIENCE SAKE'; 'DEFEND RELIGIOUS AND PERSONAL LIBERTY' and 'WE DEMAND LIBERTY TO PREACH CHRIST'. 15,000 people gathered at Dartford Station to welcome home the prisoners when released from jail, two of them still wearing their prison uniforms bearing broad arrows.

During the course of the exuberant celebrations the Dartford police were stoned and pelted with rotten fish heads and bad eggs. Hooligans used the occasion to vent their spleen on the local constabulary. Dartford's Superintendent Poole was pelted for four hours. Policemen were stoned to the station. There were violent speeches at the Drill Hall - a torrent of rancorous abuse."

Let's 'do or die for Jesus'

Love and prayers

A

Al change... again

We had a Corps Council meeting last night, mainly to discuss dates for this years Corps calendar. At first the meeting was a bit fragmented as everyone competed with diaries waved like scimitars! However, eventually we settle down and moved on to discuss other topics such as prayer and outreach.

Then the strangest thing happened….

It quickly became apparent that if we were to become an evangelical Corps there was no way one meeting on a Sunday morning was going to provide sufficient capacity for everything we wanted to do!

What we needed was street outreach (open-airs) and then we needed dedicated meetings (gatherings) to bring people back to. In short we were probably going to have to consider the reintroduction of a Sunday night (or maybe a Saturday night) salvation meeting, a mid-week holiness meeting, a custom designed ‘Alpha’ type initiative (one dedicated to discipling within an SA concept with the aim of making ‘Soldiers’)

I couldn’t help thinking about meetings taking place in the same hall, years earlier where (with the best will in the world) SA infrastructure (Corps Cadets, Open Airs, Directory, Praise Meetings etc) was carefully dismantled brick by brick and here we were in the same hall contemplating putting the whole thing back together again.

Why did we change? Was it to accommodate the needs of the world? Was it to become more family orientated? Was it to become more seeker friendly? Or was it simply because we lost our heart for mission, became lazy and apathetic and to quote Keith Green ‘loved the light of our TV’ more than we loved God?

I don’t blame soldiery, I hold Officers accountable, at the end of the day the CO is the manager and the motivator and the buck must stop there.

Love and prayers

A

A brilliant soul-saving idea!

The contemporised words of GSR (see previous blogs) have set my mind racing.

The other day I was prayerfully considering the plight of the unsaved and their obvious discomfort (at least until they’ve been converted) in ordinary Corps meetings.

Then I had this brilliant idea!

Why not have a special meeting dedicated to the unsaved, somewhere they would feel comfortable, somewhere where they could hear the gospel in a way they understood, maybe free coffee and doughnuts – who knows? Whatever works best!

Then I thought but how would I get the unsaved to come in? I’d have to go outside and find them, I’d have to round them up, chase them down, invite them to come back to the hall!

Brilliant – I could see the whole thing taking shape in my imagination.

Then a little voice inside my head (or maybe my heart) said – “So you’re going to have a salvation meeting preceded by an open-air?”

There truly is nothing new under the sun!

Love and prayers

A

PS The picture is an early SA open air meeting in Dartford! (about 1908)

I can't post a comment to my own blog at the moment - so this is for Graeme and anyone else interested in the myth of cultural relevance.

Graeme says

“...the methods by which the early Army evangelised were very much reliant on cultural relevance. I believe that ignoring this fact actually devalues the work of those early pioneers.”

The early pioneers had no strategy – they were reactive to the Spirit within them. They acted naturally. Apart from ‘The darkest England’ scheme you will find no record of any of the pioneers either together or individually drawing up a strategy. They did what they did because they were so inspired. Take Railton for example - perhaps our greatest pioneer - an effective evangelist in Africa, Turkey, Germany even Japan and China - he had no plan or strategy (true he was an incredible linguist) but apart from that all he had was his poverty, a heart full of love and the courage to preach.

I always think we tend to forget the purpose of that very first spiritual gift given at Pentecost – it was the ability to communicate with people who had a different language – the gift was cross cultural communication.

Graeme continues “We need people who are prepared to seek ways to put across the very real message that the majority of people in this world are going to Hell. What are the ways of doing this in a culturally relevant way? How can we take the modern day cultural icons and redeem them for use by the Kingdom, in the same way as throughout Christian history those who have gone before did? I am strongly committed to the cause of holiness, but the Lord is leading me to ask the questions about the methods we will use into the future in order to communicate and fulfil the divine charge of Matthew 28:19-20.”

I am glad that you are ‘strongly committed to the cause of holiness’ and that you are asking questions about the methods we will use to communicate in the future – both of these points are very encouraging.

But if you look back at the history of revival the leaders did not deliberately set out to hijack the cultural icons of their day - whether it's Edwards, Wesley, Caughey, Finney, Palmer or Booth they had no plan. The simply followed the leade of the Spirit.

I think that true holiness will answer the questions you are asking – holiness gives us all the Spirit’s gifts and collectively they are our armoury in the area of communication.

I believe we’ll find the answer to these questions on our knees just as our forbears did. I am certain from the content and tone of your posts that this is where you often are!

I hope this response doesn’t sound anti-intellectual – I just think it is so important that we don’t let our own creativity get in the way of what God wants us to do – I have seen this happen in the UK.

Eg. Open air meetings - on a Sunday morning at 10 am in front of a double glazed house their pants - but on a Friday night at 10:30 pm in downtown club land (as the drunks and party goers reel onto the streets) they are brilliant - ask Cory Harrison.


Much love and prayers
A