Next 50 years?
This past weekend, I went to my parents' 50th anniversary celebration. It was fairly low key. It was an intimate affair with about 50 people, mostly family and close friends. There was not much speech making. There was good food, laughs and some nostalgia as we viewed a video presentation put together by one of my sons, with pictures from the past 55 years. We had to throw in pictures from the courtship.
My parents are retired officers. All of the kids are officers. (We often joke it is the family business.) The talked turned to the changes in society and in the culture of The Salvation Army. As we talked, we really settled on a few changes that have happened over the past 50 years that we felt have impacted our movement either positively or negatively.
1. Except for a few pockets, the tradition of brass banding in the Army is dieing. Years ago, nearly every corps had a band of some size or another. There were many very good bands. Now, you can count on one hand the number of corps bands that one would consider good in our territory. I am not sure how I feel about this. I just know that this seems to be a generation where the appeal of banding is not great. Even what used to be known as the youth band in our division is dominated by 30 and 40 somethings. While there is a small pocket younger musicians, I am not sure where the future is. In spite of the proliferation of Divisional Music Directors, this is not a worship medium with the strength it used to have. It may be all summed up in a quote from a distinguished bandmaster a few years ago at a territorial gathering who said, "Many people don't know this, but brass banding is very popular." Huh?
I wonder why the decline? Could it be that brass banding does not reach the masses as it used to? Is it worth our investment? Or should we invest in other mediums of music for worship? The brass band is valid. I believe when done right, it is great. I am not sure we get the same bang for the buck these days, as we did 50 years ago.
2. The demise of Sunday School is evident. At least the traditional Sunday School continues to decline at alarming rates. Although there is an occasional rise in yearly attendances, the overall trend for the Christian Education hour on Sunday is sharply on the decline over 50 years. It is interesting that the mid-week Bible teaching activities, continue to expand. Does this tell us something about what Sunday has become or does it tell us something about the relevance of our Sunday Schools? Does it say something about both? Does it also say something about a shift in emphasis in ministry? I am not sure that this decline is something we will turn around.
Sunday Night meetings are virtually non-existent as well. Even though our territory has mandated it, just because you say something does not make it so. I continue to wonder if we might better spend our energies on a different type of ministry in evangelism. I am not sure Sunday at 6 in our society is going to win the day.
3. The death of open air meetings was lamented. I am not sure that I have been to many that really worked. I speak for the most part of the traditional open-air ring with a band and a preacher. My experience as a kid was that mostly people drove by and honked their horns interrupting what we were trying to do.
I believe in outdoor evangelism. I think though that it should be something dramatically different. I am not sure we should ALL be rugged up in our Sunday-go-to-meting wear when we hold it. Some of the most effective outdoor evangelism I have seen has taken place in clown costumes or in shorts and t-shirts while washing cars for free. I have also been blessed by those who would just give out bottled water on a very hot day, with a scripture verse on the bottle. I have seen people won to the Lord more readily by that than by what we call an open-air. I have also seen a mobile canteen used to serve ice cream and the Word on hot days.
I am not sure the open-air was always as dramatic as we claim it was.
4. The professionalism of social service ministry has also dramatically increased. I understand the need for this. We need well-trained individuals who can counsel and serve people. I have no doubt that we need MSW types desperately. The problem is we may be way out of balance. We have lost the day in most of our corps when service to the poor was a very important part of the life of the corps and a mandate for the soldier. We need to do a better job of balancing the witness of the local congregation and the professional service. Has this hurt us? I think so.
I think the last generation of soldiers, of which I am one, is more concerned about sitting in the pew than serving their fellow man and fulfilling an important scriptural mandate. I am afraid this is the change, that while it has increased our visibility and brought us great wealth, has cost us dearly in the need to build relationship in our community.
5. The local corps officer has been stretched too thin. My parents shared how simple their reports, bookkeeping and correspondence life was. Now the CO has unfortunately had to become a CEO. The ones who don't are often hassled by their supervisors and told to get on top of things. While there needs to be a balance, shouldn't we lean toward being people people and not just good PR and paper people?
There were more changes that came up in conversation. I am not sure that the good ole days were as good as we sometimes paint them. I am also not so sure that the changes have been for the good.
I would like to hear what you think we have lost, what we have gained and what you think we need to do in the next 50 years if we are to survive. You may want to refer to my list. You may want to suggest other changes and visit history that way. This is a tough one.
As with all my posts I am anxious to hear....
What do you think?
My parents are retired officers. All of the kids are officers. (We often joke it is the family business.) The talked turned to the changes in society and in the culture of The Salvation Army. As we talked, we really settled on a few changes that have happened over the past 50 years that we felt have impacted our movement either positively or negatively.
1. Except for a few pockets, the tradition of brass banding in the Army is dieing. Years ago, nearly every corps had a band of some size or another. There were many very good bands. Now, you can count on one hand the number of corps bands that one would consider good in our territory. I am not sure how I feel about this. I just know that this seems to be a generation where the appeal of banding is not great. Even what used to be known as the youth band in our division is dominated by 30 and 40 somethings. While there is a small pocket younger musicians, I am not sure where the future is. In spite of the proliferation of Divisional Music Directors, this is not a worship medium with the strength it used to have. It may be all summed up in a quote from a distinguished bandmaster a few years ago at a territorial gathering who said, "Many people don't know this, but brass banding is very popular." Huh?
I wonder why the decline? Could it be that brass banding does not reach the masses as it used to? Is it worth our investment? Or should we invest in other mediums of music for worship? The brass band is valid. I believe when done right, it is great. I am not sure we get the same bang for the buck these days, as we did 50 years ago.
2. The demise of Sunday School is evident. At least the traditional Sunday School continues to decline at alarming rates. Although there is an occasional rise in yearly attendances, the overall trend for the Christian Education hour on Sunday is sharply on the decline over 50 years. It is interesting that the mid-week Bible teaching activities, continue to expand. Does this tell us something about what Sunday has become or does it tell us something about the relevance of our Sunday Schools? Does it say something about both? Does it also say something about a shift in emphasis in ministry? I am not sure that this decline is something we will turn around.
Sunday Night meetings are virtually non-existent as well. Even though our territory has mandated it, just because you say something does not make it so. I continue to wonder if we might better spend our energies on a different type of ministry in evangelism. I am not sure Sunday at 6 in our society is going to win the day.
3. The death of open air meetings was lamented. I am not sure that I have been to many that really worked. I speak for the most part of the traditional open-air ring with a band and a preacher. My experience as a kid was that mostly people drove by and honked their horns interrupting what we were trying to do.
I believe in outdoor evangelism. I think though that it should be something dramatically different. I am not sure we should ALL be rugged up in our Sunday-go-to-meting wear when we hold it. Some of the most effective outdoor evangelism I have seen has taken place in clown costumes or in shorts and t-shirts while washing cars for free. I have also been blessed by those who would just give out bottled water on a very hot day, with a scripture verse on the bottle. I have seen people won to the Lord more readily by that than by what we call an open-air. I have also seen a mobile canteen used to serve ice cream and the Word on hot days.
I am not sure the open-air was always as dramatic as we claim it was.
4. The professionalism of social service ministry has also dramatically increased. I understand the need for this. We need well-trained individuals who can counsel and serve people. I have no doubt that we need MSW types desperately. The problem is we may be way out of balance. We have lost the day in most of our corps when service to the poor was a very important part of the life of the corps and a mandate for the soldier. We need to do a better job of balancing the witness of the local congregation and the professional service. Has this hurt us? I think so.
I think the last generation of soldiers, of which I am one, is more concerned about sitting in the pew than serving their fellow man and fulfilling an important scriptural mandate. I am afraid this is the change, that while it has increased our visibility and brought us great wealth, has cost us dearly in the need to build relationship in our community.
5. The local corps officer has been stretched too thin. My parents shared how simple their reports, bookkeeping and correspondence life was. Now the CO has unfortunately had to become a CEO. The ones who don't are often hassled by their supervisors and told to get on top of things. While there needs to be a balance, shouldn't we lean toward being people people and not just good PR and paper people?
There were more changes that came up in conversation. I am not sure that the good ole days were as good as we sometimes paint them. I am also not so sure that the changes have been for the good.
I would like to hear what you think we have lost, what we have gained and what you think we need to do in the next 50 years if we are to survive. You may want to refer to my list. You may want to suggest other changes and visit history that way. This is a tough one.
As with all my posts I am anxious to hear....
What do you think?
posted by Larry at 9:05 PM
15 Comments:
It’s nearly impossible to list everything that has had an impact on the relevancy of the church as a whole, but here are my thoughts…
First of all, I don’t disagree with much about your list. Much of what you listed are things that the Army excelled and led the pack in. Things like brass bands, open airs, and social work were what we were known for. Now days, as you’ve stated, our brass bands are in shambles and are possibly no longer relevant (fewer and fewer people grow up learning to play instruments these days, and fewer and fewer people are attending our Corps giving us an extremely small pool of potential bandsmen to draw from), traditional open air meetings seem to be a pretty culturally offensive way of sharing our faith (though I agree with you that we simply need to open our minds to the meaning of “open air”…outdoor music festivals are very popular, for instance), and there are a lot of social service organizations out there that just don’t come with our baggage (our desire to make Bible study a part of any of our programmes). Some of these things we probably need to let go of and use the time and money to invest in something more productive (there are lots of ways to worship, and more effective ways of evangelizing), while others we might have to be willing to stick to our guns on (I believe that the gospel should be at the center of everything we do). Here are some other thoughts…
Discipleship. I didn’t grow up in the Army, but I’d like to hope that we were once a lot better at discipleship than we are now. When I first came to the Army, I was appalled at the lack of discipleship among our people. I continue to be appalled to this day. While other seminaries are teaching prospective ministers how to translate Greek, the in depth history of the church as a whole, and theological principles after theological principles, we have to take those two years just to make sure our prospective ministers are even discipled! While I agree with many Corps’ decisions to ditch some of the old ineffective programming, I’m concerned that we have not replaced it with something that is effective. Not discipling people is definitely not the better solution.
This next one is obvious, and has been nearly overstated, but I have to believe that our unwillingness to be radical risk takers has also contributed to our dullness. Every time I see a church or para-church organization out there doing something on the edge, all I can think is “the Army should be doing that”. It’s great that we’re finally jumping on board the human trafficking campaign, but we should have been leading that one years ago. Things like fair trade, health care, aids, and human rights (even locally) are other things that we should be leading.
As you know, I could keep going, but I’ll only mention one more and I’ve just referred to it on my own blog. We’ve got to start teaching people about spiritual gifts again. I realize that this goes along with discipleship (or at least, should), but I’ll point it out separately anyway. Until we start helping people to discover their spiritual gifts, and then make room for those gifts to be used, we will continue to struggle (or die trying) with things like our lack of worship leaders, overworked officers, dull and boring teaching, our weakness with evangelism, the professionalization of social work, the often lack of encouragement locally, and the overall lack of creativity that seems to exist within our denomination, at least in the Western part of the world. Helping people to discover their gifts and to put them into practice could change the face of our church as we know it. It could also change a community.
tim,
your last two points are well-taken. interesting you would say this about discipleship and spiritual gifts. Our division has made this a priority this year. We had a great spiritual gifts weekend and the a terrific teen discipleship boot camp. We did disciple well in the old days. There was a great deal of one-on-one mentoring by our CO's. Those people became LOs and discipled people. When our corps became big-business we lost some of that. Officers stretched too thin. As I said, they have had to become CEOs and have not reproduced themselves
As a living, breathing organism, the body of Christ found in the SA will change over time. The difficulty in the dying away of the 'forms' that you mention is whether or not there has been another expression that has grown in their places. I can't speak for the Army as a whole, but really only the ministries we've been involved in. Where is the place of music and the arts? How is the gospel shared? Are people hungry for the word? Are they growing? Do our people find a valid, appropriate place of ministry? Do those who are not children of the regiment find a welcome? If my answers to these questions have a positive tone to them, then God is being honored. If we're doing it 'right' - the Army will not look like the Army of 50 - or even 10 - years ago.
Just today I had a conversation with someone on William Booth's vision. He asked me if I thought Booth would be happy with the Army today. I know that this goes beyond the 50 year mark, but how can we answer that question.
I am a first generation Salvationists so needless to say there are some areas I am still ingnorant on. For the Army to survive 50 more years we need, as a whole Army, to be authentic Christians. This has been mentioned before on your blog by someone else, but it's true we can't show people the light if we are walking in darkness. Authenticity will make the Body grow. Simple answer but it causes each of us involved in this unique movement to look in the mirror and ask, do I resemble Christ, am I a spittin image of my Father?
Just a thought. Keep it up Larry.
Oh misery! What a dreadful shape we’re in!
How about this for a more optimistic view of today:
- Over 30 million regularly served by TSA across the USA over the past few years
- 80,000 recorded seekers in the USA East last year
- More people attending The Salvation Army for Sunday morning worship in 2007 than 1957
- 40 state-of-the-art Kroc Centers about to be built across the USA
- 1000 kids participating in Star Search finals – and that doesn’t include divisional participation
- 100 kids participating in the Territorial Arts Ministry Conservatory every year
- 6 years of Project 117 with 100 young adult youth ministry graduates
- 10 years of the new Old Orchard Beach Pavilion Series with over 120 total cultural, artistic and gospel events
- 2 or 3 Hands On mission teams of young adults serving overseas every summer
- 65 kids every year for the past 5 years enthusiastically attending the Future All Stars Week-end
- A plethora of Roots, War Colleges, 614 Corps, On the Edge and Aggressive Christianity Conferences all around the world
- 24/7 Prayer, Prayer Walks and weekly Small Groups popping up all over the place
None of the above existed in 1957. I could go on.
Give me 2007 over 1957 any day. In fact bring on 2027 – I can’t wait to see what else is round the corner!
Richard Munn
rick,
thanks for weighing in. if you thought i meant to be a lamentation, sorry. really, it was an attempt to get us to be future thinking instead of lamenting the past as many are doing. as i said the good ole days are not as good as we always make them out to be.
I grew up in SA banding in the final swan song of Eastern banding. The 60's. Taught how to play by Derek Smith and Richard Holz. Phil Smith, now the principal of the NY Philamonic was my Jr. Bandamster. The shift to a more worldly lifestyle, etc. in the east in the late 70's and 80's by some high profile and talented SA bandsman away from the Lord, may have contributed to the decline of banding. God may have removed the blessing from us. That's all I feel I can say about that.
Regarding Rick's comment about what the Army is doing, I have this to say: I used to live in the neighborhood of the Old Orchard Beach Pavilion, and whatever was going on there for the few short months of the summer, of which I was blessed as a Salvationist, was not having much effect in the neighborhood except with ill will about parking and noise.
It is easy for Salvationists to be so focused on the big picture that we forget to take of notice the street we worship on.
If the Salvation Army has lost anything, it is the true contact with the street. We are dancing for the Lord on our stages while the people within ear shot of our expressions are going to hell, and going there hungry as well.
To borrow from the testimony of Stephen Baldwin, everyday we need to rip out our hearts and hand them to the Lord for his service. This is what I think we need, a War College in every City in America. Grass roots Salvationism. Go out there, give all you have, dodge a brick or two, and lift up the world to Christ. Pretty hard to ask any questions on a blog with our hands supporting the heads of fallen soldiers or saints or children while kneeling with them on the street. And we wont have to ask if we are doing the right thing.
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Great post! Challenging as usual . . . here’s my $2.25 . . .
1. Brass banding: The decline could be the result of fewer leaders who play brass instruments. I am a product of the 80s. I play guitar. Growing up (outside the army and the church) brass banding was “gay” (sorry to all of you brass lovers. I’ve never liked brass.) There certainly is a cultural disinterest in brass.
2. Sunday School decline: I think that church in general may be in decline. The early morning time for Sunday school originated because farmers had to milk their cows. Sunday school was scheduled to accommodate early morning chores. With a heightened awareness of the need for discipleship and a continued push of small groups “Sunday School” is likely to happen at any time and any place. The culture of the group will dictate when and where they meet.
3. “Open airs” don’t work. To echo Tim, I think that the focus should be on discipleship rather than “getting people saved.”
4. I believe the answer is to return to Jesus’ understanding and model of discipleship – an area we fail at in the most miserable way.
5. George Barna said something to effect that “the responsibilities of leaders in highly effective churches are focused and limited.”
The bottom line is this: The Army’s strategy doesn’t work. From discipleship to leadership recruitment to the training of officers . . . all we do with new programs and initiatives is put high octane fuel in a car that needs a new engine. In fact, send the car to the junk yard. We need a new car!
Blessings,
Bret
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Brett, you and I are like minded in many ways, but I do disagree with a couple of points in your post…
First of all, I definitely had no intention of suggesting that we should be “discipling rather than getting people saved”. For the record, I think that we should be doing both. Sadly I believe that we’re doing neither.
Second, I’m not sure that the Army has a strategy right now. And that may be one of our greatest problems. I couldn’t begin to count the number of strategies out there concerning the direction that we should go; from primitive Salvationism, to staunch traditionalism, to once again embracing the idea of being a movement rather than a church, to embracing the idea of being a church, to embracing the “new outcasts” (and thereby embracing a new target audience), to democracy (and thereby abandoning our hierarchy), to militant Salvationism (closely tied with the primitive movement), etc. Ten years ago we had a General (John Larson) who was encouraging us to be open to the sacraments, today we have a General who is demoting people for practicing it. As somebody who spends two days a month serving on a “strategy” board, I find our lack of strategy embarrassing and mind numbingly frustrating. And believe me that the lack of strategy goes well beyond our ecclesiology. Simple things like “what constitutes success” seem to change every time an officer is moved.
If our strategy is failing it is only in the areas where our strategy is to believe that, if we just wait things out, we’ll one day be relevant again.
Incidentally, The War Colleges have many great things to offer, but they also have (I believe) their drawbacks. One of them, in my opinion, is their romanticized idea of what it will look like to fight the war. Still, I’ll take the War College’s brand of discipleship over the rest of the Army’s lack of.
Hi - I couldn't resist. No offence at all to anyone here but on the perceived drawback (there are a few drawbacks!) of The War College being a romanticized idea of what it will look like to fight the war, I have to say, as someone who has been blessed to be involved in it to some degree, that the warriors there are actually fighting the war. It is what it is - romantic, heroic, contagious, attractive. And that is what it looks like. Hallelujah. Much grace,
StephenC
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As somebody else who is "fighting the fight", I assure you that, while it is contagious, it is only romantic to short termers, only heroic after the fact, and only attractive to those who don't know any better. It's like...well...being in a fight. It's cool to talk about after the fact, and fun to dream of what it might be like before the fact, but once you're in it, it SUCKS!
Incidentally, my hardest battles seem to take place back at the barracks.
One of the best posts around I reckon and I think the points raised by both Larry, in the original post, and Richard, in his comment, are excellent!
Tim, you pick up on what I think is the key issue. Having grown up in TSA in the UK I would agree that the discipleship was lamentable! Most people I know in my generation either went outside for good discipleship or didn't bother and either left or are ineffectual in their faith.
The key for me is in our commission to 'make disciples'. All too often we make the mistake that may have been mentioned by Brett (I'm not sure whether this was intentional or not). We see our role as "getting people saved" instead of "making disciples". In my mind the process of discipleship starts before someone actually reaches the point of salvation and continues on afterwards.
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