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Challenging Times for our World
This year is significant for The Salvation Army worldwide as we celebrate 150 years since our founding. The Boundless International Congress that’s taking place in London in July is something we can all participate in, whether we’re present in the O2 Arena or catching it through live streaming. As the congress commemorates the past, celebrates the present and innovates for the future, it promises to be an inspiring and invigorating occasion.
Inherent in the vision for this congress is the call for us to truly be a ‘salvation’ army. Our founders, William and Catherine Booth, declared their belief that God raised up this movement to enter into partnership with him in his ‘great business’ of saving the world. This founding vision, motivated by love for God and others, remains our driving impetus 150 years on. Our love for God and love for others is the love we see displayed in Jesus Christ.
Recent and ongoing events in this world shatter any delusion that God’s ‘great business’ of saving the world is anywhere near complete. In so many ways, we are a world of two halves: the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’. As an Army we can be justifiably proud of the efforts and impact made as we respond to human need on so many fronts—locally and globally.
However, clearly the global village in which we live is being shaken to its foundations. Every day, we are confronted with new accounts of militant actions that we can scarcely get our heads around. There’s an extremism occurring that falls far beyond anything we may have thought was possible, cushioned as we are in the relative comfort of this part of the world. Think Ukraine, Paris, Syria, or Nigeria, to name just a few places where the escalation of conflict has been occurring. Clearly, these signal that other armies are arising and changing the battlefield on which we engage.
While we may prefer to erase from our memory the headlines of atrocities that have seen massive displacement for large populations of people, violent uprisings, executions and other abuses of power, looking away is not an option. If we are truly to be an Army engaged in God’s great business of saving the world, we cannot ignore that the battle is heating up on all fronts. The strident march of evil and injustice demands a response from all who are followers of Christ, devoted to his cause of love—and those of us who are part of a Salvation Army in particular.
At our founding, we were an Army mobilised by God, a radical movement to meet the needs of the time, and clear about our mission. We boldly engaged in Christ’s name against the forces of evil and sin, with a total dependence on God and his Spirit’s power.
We are still an Army mobilised by God, and our fight is still against the forces of evil and sin. Although some battles are being won, the war is not over. We’re more informed than ever about the suffering and need all around us and the evil that opposes the purposes of God, so this must serve to heighten the urgency with which we approach our mission.
The challenge to do this is right on our doorstep. Because we live in communities where people from diverse corners of the world now live, we can all practice locally what needs to happen globally. Isolation and alienation fuels much of the anger and retaliation that lie at the root of the violence we see escalating in our world. The response of love, as shown in Jesus, is to reach out and include the alien, extending a welcome for all in his Kingdom.
As we set out on a new year of programmes and activities in our corps (churches) and centres, our challenge is this:
- to ensure that the gospel we declare is an invitation of love, actively demonstrating that everyone is welcome and accepted
- to ensure that the things that keep us occupied, consuming our energy, time and resources, really are advancing the ‘great business’ of God in saving the world
- to ensure that we are just as astute in choosing our battles, being strategic and deliberate in our plans, because the consistent advancement of evil and wrong is an attack on the goodness of God’s world—and it’s not happening by accident
- to ensure that our discipleship processes lead to people growing in their faith, being transformed by love, and being equipped to stand firm in the challenges of these times.
God needs an army radicalised by love for Christ and mobilised to impact the world.
Major Heather Rodwell is Territorial Secretary for Corps Growth and Spiritual Life Development
by Heather Rodwell (c) 'War Cry' magazine, 7 February 2015, pp11.
You can read 'War Cry' at your nearest Salvation Army church or centre, or subscribe through Salvationist Resources.