Mission Essential: The church as the foundation of our missional work.

Intro

Good Evening! - I’m Debra Blackman. I think most of you know me already. I am currently one of the corps officers at Cariboo Hill in Burnaby. I’ve been an officer for 21 years - two thirds of them in this Division. And pretty much all my energy over those years - and even before that - has been invested in developing the local church.

I sort of fell into this talk. I’ve been enjoying the Regional Integration Forums because it’s a chance to get a wider scope on the many, diverse things different ministry units and teams are engaging in. There’s a lot I don’t know about the diverse work we do - even locally - and I value conversations that help us think through how to partner better. The work you all do is amazing. But it got me thinking…I wonder what someone in Major Gifts, or Emergency Services, or Long Term Care ministry thinks about the Church. Is it’s value to the organization evident? Can I put language around why I think the Church is so essential and why developing, supporting it and helping it to thrive will breathe new life into our collective work?

So when I bumped into Emmy in the ladies room I said to her first, how much I appreciated the RIF - but also how valuable it would be to share about the work of the church as part of that and that I could give it a go if she wanted sometime. Somehow that conversation morphed into this one.

So, I’m here tonight not because I’m most qualified to talk about the church but perhaps just because I am eager and available.

Suspicious of the Church

God has brought me on a significant journey when it comes to the church. When I first came to faith in Jesus at 14 I was so impacted by the power and presence of Jesus that I wanted to know everything about Him. My first instinct was to read through the bible. And of course I was amazed at the stories in the gospels and in Acts where first Jesus, then the disciples under the power of the Holy Spirit were doing all kinds of amazing things - healing people, casting out demons, they’re preaching and tons of people just repent and start following Jesus - there’s all this exponential growth. And by comparison my church seemed pretty ordinary.

I think my nature

The Church Is

Sometimes when I’m getting stuck in my own brain I ask God - “what is it you want me to say to them” to see if he can give me some clarity and a starting place. This was His response: The Church Is.

And it’s a good starting place because the Church is not a ministry of The Salvation Army. It’s not a great idea someone thought up. I think we’re all aware at this point that it’s not an institution, a set of creeds, an organization and certainly not a building. The Church is God’s idea. It’s his work of New Creation - it’s a people he is building together to represent him: 1 Peter 2:9-10

1 Peter 2:9–10 ESV

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

The Church is described as the Bride of Christ, the Body of Christ he loves it dearly. He guides its course through history. He corrects it when needed and he is committed to it: Ephesians 5:25-27

Ephesians 5:25–27 ESV

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

The Church is a reality that is both physical and spiritual. In Ephesians we get this really ethereal picture of the spiritual reality of The Church where Paul discribes the authority of the resurrected Christ who is seated…in the heavenly realms, Ephesians 1:21-23

Ephesians 1:21–23 ESV

far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

So in some way the Church in its completeness exists in a place of spiritual authority and is part of the fullness of Christ who fills everything else.

Jesus talks about the authority of the Church - when Peter connects the dots and recognizes Jesus as Christ and the Son of God. Matt 16:17-19

Matthew 16:17–19 ESV

And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

The church is built to resist evil and death and neither will overcome it.

So....whatever the cultural moment of the day - and however I’m not worried about the Church.

The Church Is.

And

Fufulling our Mission Together

The Salvation Army website says that our Mission Statement is: The Salvation Army exists to share the love of Jesus Christ, meet human needs and be a transforming influence in the communties of our world.

Share the Love of Jesus

To share the love of Jesus you first have to know the love of Jesus. Not Jesus as a concept or an idea but as a real experience of a person.

Can you take minute and find two other people behind or in front of you about one way you know or have experienced the love of Jesus. I don’t know everyone in this room so if you’re not sure if you know the love of Jesus this can just be a chance to listen and hear from the experience of others.

OK - so we’ve just nailed the first part of our mission statement. We shared the love of Jesus with one another.

Even in a room where many are believers the way we witness to Jesus is powerful. This is the church at work to

The mission of the Church begins at the resurrection of Jesus where the disciples meet with and worship Jesus. He tells them: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am withyou always, to the very end of the age.

Be a Transforming Influence

Strip the Church down to its simplest form and it’s really just the gathering of those who know Jesus and are

History:

Most of you will realise that historically The Salvation Army doesn’t exist apart from the Church. We weren’t founded as an organization to alleviate poverty. We were the evolution of the experience of a man who, at a young age, was confronted by the love of God in such a profound way that He surrendered His life entirely. Famously saying: “God will have all there is of William Booth”. He had experienced that inside out transformation that Jesus described to Nicodemus as “being born of the Spirit” and which is the Hallmark trait of all those who are disciples of Jesus. And it spurred him initially to preach. An area that he was gifted by the Spirit in. In his various preaching circuits God brought him across the path of an intelligent, passionate, and well read young woman who had also had her own experience of surrender to God - Catherine, who also shared his convictions that it was Jesus who could bring healing and transformation to the suffering of their city and particularly those overlooked by polite Victorian society. Together they formed a dynamic team - with the preaching of the gospel as their primary effort.

But their context in East London during the Industrial Revolution - it’s slums, it’s extreme poverty, the substandard housing, the extreme divide between the wealthy and the devastatingly poor, the anastesizing pain with cheap and easily accessible alcohol - starting at a very young age, women & children often left unprotected away from traditional family and community supports were abused and trafficked, the disease, the hopelessness of it all - not very unlike a drive down Hastings Street right now. All this led the Booths, and those who partnered with them to see that for these desperate and often sick people to be able to even listen to what they were inviting them to in the good news of Jesus they needed to help them meet their primary survival needs. While the Booths fervently believed that a relationship with God through Jesus could bring radical transformation to anyone - no matter how dire their situation - the people had a hard time seeing the hope through their hunger.

So, the motto of Soup, Soap, and Salvation was born - where meals were served, an opportunity to wash, change clothes, feel human again - was partnered with the preaching that Jesus was inviting them to a new life if they would turn to him and away from sin. God’s power was at work in their ministry and many people came to salvation and their holistic transformations turned them into the next generation of evangelists. The Booths were not initially interested in forming churches. William in particular was primarily an evangelist. He wanted to take the message of Jesus to places it wasn’t being heard and help people come to a realisation of their need for God. Harold Begbie’s two historical biographies on William Booth and the Salvation Army give considerable ink to his attempt to make some kind of integration of The Mission with the Anglican Church. But to summarize the discussion it seems the cultural divide between the wild, youthful, often impulsive but effective style and methods of salvationists and their rough around the edges converts and the cautious, catecheised, liturgical, organized, clergy and congregants was too great to meet in the middle. To be fair to the Angelicans…I can only imagine the conversation at THQ’s Risk Assessment Commitee meeting if a similar group of ragtag hoodlums proposed a merger with us today.

In reflection, the unwillingness to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” may have been a loss - for both because the exchange of letters reflects two groups of people sincere in faith - each in desperate need of the influence and stretching of the other. And ultimately, in Christ, one Body anyway.

But regardless of how that played out the Booths’ evangelism efforts resulted in many new and renewed Christians that needed to grow up and mature in their faith. Corps became the discipleship zones, and new innovation for social care poured out of hearts that were growing in an awareness of God’s heart for the world through scripture, through fervent and intense prayer, through great acts of daring and faith. These were genuinely communities of faith. Gatherings of Holy Spirit awakened believers worshipping, praying, teaching, caring for the poor among them, being agents and messengers of New Creation. This was The Church.

This was The Salvation Army’s secret weapon for transformation.

And it worked because it was God’s idea in the first place. His unusual, unworkable, impossible idea - that is, in fact working more powerfully

And this was the transformative engine that both initated community and social care and church planting and also welcomed those in to

some After that, I think they assumed that people could find a place in a local church community to continue to grow in knowledge of scripture, prayer, and develop in gifts etc. However, when they arrived at a church with their new converts they didn’t receive a warm welcome. They were relegated to

Growing up with poverty all around him, and being discipled in a Methodist tradition where an emphasis on bringing the good news of salvation in Jesus outside the church to whoever might listen gave him eyes to see that the devastation all around him broke God’s heart. The poverty, the children

Stewardship of God’s Gift

There’s

The Church - God’s crazy idea.

If you had infinite power and you 2

I’ve come to believe that there is nothing else on earth like the Church. It is God’s secret weapon for transformation and thriving on this planet. It is where God is generating New Creation work helping humans prone to power struggles, factions, self centeredness and false loves & priorities become a new kind of community that reflects the image of God as we were designed to. A community where love, the preference of the other, sharing, and unity are present. The Church is a miracle that has survived millenia of persecution from without and distortion from within.

Still to this day it is multiplying fastest where it is most resisted - in places like China and Iran.

Still, to this day, God corrects and renews it where we veer off course — because He loves us enough to not let us self destruct.

He calls us His Bride: If we want to hang with Jesus we have to hang with his date.

He calls us His Body: If you are a friend of Jesus you are attached to Him - like Body to Head....and with Him you’re also attached to all the rest of us for better or for worse. Our thriving in Christ will always be connected to our love, unity, and care for one another. There are no solo Christians. (Though we sometimes pretend it’s a thing.)

Now, I know in many instances in this room I’m preaching to the choir. Many of you here oversee or have overseen ministry in a local church - or corps if you prefer. And I know many of your ministries and how intentionally you try to steward the spiritual & missional life of the people in your care. So I may not say anything today you don’t already know.

But sometimes in pastoral leadership we end up feeling very alone and discouraged. And maybe we even feel like giving up. It can feel like we’re putting out maximum effort for minimum “results”.

My hope for you is to encourage you that the value of your work with the Church is immeasurable and to give us some space to think about how we can better support one another in Church leadership so no one feels alone.

There are others here who have leadership roles that may not bring you in contact with the Church that often. It might seem like a strange little appendage to this otherwise efficent and organization.

My hope for you is to demonstrate that the Church plays a foundational and unique role in the ecosystem of the Salvation Army’s mission to bring transformation to communities that cannot be done without it. And also, to invite you to be a part of the work of the Church through The Salvation Army because it’s a place where long term transformational care can take place over a lifetime.

WHAT JESUS HAD IN MIND

Declaring that the Kingdom of God is near.

Matthew 4:17 ESV

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Mark 1:17 ESV

And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

Luke 4:43 ESV

but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”

Participation in God’s Kingdom as a collective group of those who follow Jesus.

Mark 1:17 ESV

And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

John 1:43 (ESV)

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”

Something changes in the relationship between God and people that enable this New Creation shift.

John 1:33 ESV

I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

John 3:5 (ESV)

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

John 4:23 ESV

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

John 6:29 ESV

Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

John 7:38–39 ESV

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

John 7:16 (ESV)

So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.

MANY GOOD WORKS:

The idea to talk about this started as a side discussion at the RIF in our area. As we hear various presenters talk about the many areas of ministry and work we have going on in The Salvation Army

Foundations:

Many years ago I was at a Congress - it might have even been my Commissioning. So, we’re at a convention centre and we’ve taken over the place. It’s like a Salvation Army party. There are flags, and uniforms, and music, and excited people having reunions. We’re all kind of buzzing on the vibe of worship and celebration. Lots of energy! A bunch of us crowd into an elevator and one poor, bewildered tourist is stuck in the front of the very full elevator with me. He starts to make awkward small talk: “Salvation Army huh?” “I thought you guys were about recycling used clothes....” “Nope. What we’re about is baked into the name. We’re an army of people who love Jesus inviting everyone to Salvation in Jesus. --- He faced forward....long awkward pause…eventually I followed up: “I mean, how crazy would it be if this many people were this excited over used clothes…?

Fortunately for him his floor came quickly.

But honestly, I was a bit shocked at the dissonance.

To me the Salvation

It seemed so evident to me that the thing I was left with was the realization that what sometimes seems to be right in front of our noses can be the very thing we miss.

“Salvation” in Greek is Sozo - “healing”. It’s representative of the wholeness

Missional Advantages

I am often really impressed by some of the wholistic work we do as The Salvation Army

The Good Bad News

confused modern messaging about The Church

power & The Church

A necessary deconstruction

The Salvation Army was, itself a deconstruction of the church of its time.

Careful our pride of heritage doesn’t make us neglect the vehicle God uses.

Jesus’ vision of A new Creation (kingdom)

God animates Creation with life-life and when he recreates the church he breathes his life into them. The life that is truly life.

fueled by God’s power

highly inclusive

received by the vulnerable

cradle to grave community. cradle to grave formation

church is a family

Why the Church is the S.A.’s secret weapon