Yesterday, for a very good reason, Tim and I were brought to discussing the monolithic machine we belong to: The Salvation Army.
While there are hundreds of wonderful kingdom revealing things about the Army at grassroots level as a system it is highly bureaucratic/autocratic/undemocratic and, undoubtedly at times and in spaces, corrupt.
We ended on the question:
Would Jesus belong to the Salvation Army?!
What do you think? Would Jesus belong to any denomination? Is it a silly question?
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5 comments:
Gooood question.
As a system the Army needs to change.
The whole leadership structure - one officer (or a couple) doing it all for an entire congregation is un-biblical because it is hierarchical and in-effecient.
The early church in Acts were all about leadership TEAMS (I cant access itallics, have to resort to capitals) - the Romans 12 pattern.
Some officers are excellent pastors. They have a gifting to care for people and dispense advice etc. But these officers are often not good preachers, or possibly teachers, or possibly even leaders.
One person cannot do everything in a church! For one they will burn out, and for another, they are not making use of the giftings of the entire church.
God has seemed to always have been against One as a ruler over all. We are to lead in community.
And this, I think, is a huge flaw in God's Army of Salvation.
Would Jesus belong to The Salvation Army?
Yes. You have to be a part of something in order to influence change in it.
You know, I'm not sure Jesus would want to belong to the SA. I think he would want to work with the army, but i think that the army (and maybe any other denomination) would limit what he wanted to achieve. Also i think that some of the traditions, though they may sometimes be useful, more often become too important, thus hiding what the SA was once, and still is in places all about.
I suppose theoretically, all organisations that are set up to help those in need are unnecessary, as Christians should fulfill their calling without the big cumbersome organisation. But people tend to want someone else to feed the poor, cos poor people might smell or something.
In conclusion, I think Jesus would want to work with the SA, but i also feel that If he were to attend some of the autocratic... bits he might just tip over some tables and throw those abusing his church out. You know the places where there's sin in the camp. ;-)
Yeah. Jakes, i so in some respects agree- that being committed and involved in something can lead to more intense influencing. But I also wonder if thats just the idealistic bit of me. Today I feel really unidealistic.
I don't think Jesus would belong to the Army at all. I think he's too ecumenical!
I think, like Sti, that we rely too much on the corporate actions- to take the responsibility off our own personal lives interacting with need.
But then, shoot- why does God Keep calling people into officership then?
Its the IDEA of the Army isn't it.
So... perhaps we should lose the autocratic monster/organisation and keep the philosophy.
Gosh. What a hippy.
Chick Yuil? What happened there? I tried googling it
yeah, google produces nothing there ay. and blogville seems to be silent on the matter too.
He resigned on Monday.
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