Better Far To Die?
I was at a retirement service for two very good friends this past weekend. These two people were and are outstanding people who have given themselves to their work and to people for over 40 years. They are tremendous servants and have influenced for good the lives of thousands over the years. I have great admiration and respect for these two.
At one point during the retirement, flags entered from the back to the strains of the song "I cannot leave the dear old flag 'twere better far to die." The song speaks to calling and dedication. After putting in nearly 28 years in this vocation, I know something of holding on during hard times in ministry. Yet, I would think that I might be better alive than dead. Maybe I just don't understand the song.
I have been working through the theology of calling. I am not sure that God calls all of us as officers to life-long commitment to this vocation. Is it possible that people are called for a season? I have had many friends painted as sinners for leaving "the work." I am not saying that there is no life-long calling to our vocation. I believe for many, there is. I am not sure it is better to die than live in the world for Christ. The idea of the song is commendable, I am not sure it is theologically correct.
While this post could be just about the theology of calling, I think it has more to do with the idea that fuels our theology. I think that often our shallow living is fueled by pop theology that is shallow. Much of our stance that we have claimed as theological, had their roots in missional stances. Have we become so wrapped in practice that we have watered down theology? Is it that our theology can evolve as well?
The positions we stake out as hard and fast, often are not as hard and fast as we would make them to be. Often, I believe, they are more a matter of denominational loyalty than real theology. I think that many of our people have not really wrestled with their theology, because they feel this denominational pull.
Don't get me wrong, I love our movement. I believe though, it may be time for us to do some more wrestling with many of our ideas of calling and other theological stances, as we look this culture in the face. I am not sure the hermenuetics we have applied for years are the same today. In fact, I am not sure that there is a hermenuetic for all of the culture of today.
I have rambled a bit. I think, however, we may need to wrestle a bit more with what we believe. I am not sure that we need to wrestle so much with doctrinal statements, but our theology in practice associated with that doctrine.
What do you think?
At one point during the retirement, flags entered from the back to the strains of the song "I cannot leave the dear old flag 'twere better far to die." The song speaks to calling and dedication. After putting in nearly 28 years in this vocation, I know something of holding on during hard times in ministry. Yet, I would think that I might be better alive than dead. Maybe I just don't understand the song.
I have been working through the theology of calling. I am not sure that God calls all of us as officers to life-long commitment to this vocation. Is it possible that people are called for a season? I have had many friends painted as sinners for leaving "the work." I am not saying that there is no life-long calling to our vocation. I believe for many, there is. I am not sure it is better to die than live in the world for Christ. The idea of the song is commendable, I am not sure it is theologically correct.
While this post could be just about the theology of calling, I think it has more to do with the idea that fuels our theology. I think that often our shallow living is fueled by pop theology that is shallow. Much of our stance that we have claimed as theological, had their roots in missional stances. Have we become so wrapped in practice that we have watered down theology? Is it that our theology can evolve as well?
The positions we stake out as hard and fast, often are not as hard and fast as we would make them to be. Often, I believe, they are more a matter of denominational loyalty than real theology. I think that many of our people have not really wrestled with their theology, because they feel this denominational pull.
Don't get me wrong, I love our movement. I believe though, it may be time for us to do some more wrestling with many of our ideas of calling and other theological stances, as we look this culture in the face. I am not sure the hermenuetics we have applied for years are the same today. In fact, I am not sure that there is a hermenuetic for all of the culture of today.
I have rambled a bit. I think, however, we may need to wrestle a bit more with what we believe. I am not sure that we need to wrestle so much with doctrinal statements, but our theology in practice associated with that doctrine.
What do you think?
posted by Larry at 7:06 AM
13 Comments:
Larry - I wrestled with this in my dissertation. Here are some comments from it: (I know, I should keep up my own blog)
Is a calling to ministry defined as being for a specific place, a distinct role, or to an itinerant denomination where others define that role, or is it a calling to an identity and character that can find its fulfillment in a variety of circumstances? First delineated by the Puritans, the distinction was between a general calling to salvation and discipleship and a particular calling to a specific context (Banks and Stevens 1997, 58).
Thirty-plus years ago, when I was first wrestling with this concept, I was given a book written by a retired Salvation Army officer that attempted to clarify what constitutes The Call for service (Deratany 1972, 15). While the author does provide some space for “the call to general service,” his main focus is on the calling for “special service” through the Salvation Army. He outlines those callings as the mystical call, coming through a confrontation with God; the circumstantial call, because God needed me, I saw the need, felt the urge, and heard the call; and organizational (or ecclesiastical) call, coming indirectly from God through another person for special service to an organization (Ibid., 66, 74, 82).
Organizational practices have arisen from the foundations of the call to lifelong service, with an extensive emphasis on the public declaration of a calling to officership, an elaborate “sending off” for those entering the officers’ training program, and a celebratory appointment service directly following the ordination of each class of cadets (trainees). Its financial system is built on a substantial “reward” for completion of service, and a punitive financial arrangement for “early” retirement (currently prior to age sixty-six).
It is found as well in the Salvation Army Songbook, with thirty songs under the heading of calling, including the following words by Frederick Booth-Tucker, a son-in-law of the founders of the Salvation Army:
They bid me choose an easier path,
And seek a lighter cross;
They bid me mingle with Heaven’s gold
A little of earth’s dross.
They bid me, but in vain, once more
The world’s illusions try;
I cannot leave the dear old flag,
‘Twere better far to die.
(Salvation Army Songbook, #780)
It is clear from both practice and theological underpinnings that the Salvation Army’s view of calling is one that encourages many to “Come, join our Army, to battle we go” (Salvation Army Songbook, # 681, William James Pearson), and expects lifelong service, as William Thomas Giffe writes:
So we’ll lift up the banner on high,
The Salvation banner of love.
We’ll fight beneath its colors till we die,
Then go to our home above.
(Salvation Army Songbook # 782)
Are there other ways of considering this question of calling? Contemporary voices from various Christian traditions bring other insight to the question. Gratton lays the foundation: “Vocation is a matter primarily of being. It encompasses the totality of our response to God’s call” (Gratton 1992, 157). She suggests that
"Human beings have a deep need to embody the desires of their heart by using their uniquely human power of giving and receiving form in the real world. . . . We want our lives freely to fulfill a unique, intrinsic purpose; we have vocational hunger." (Ibid., 15)
Barbara Brown Taylor writes:
"Sometimes I think that those spectacular call stories in the Bible do more harm than good. At the very least, I suppose, they are good reminders that the call of God tends to take you apart before it puts you back together again, but they also set the bar on divine calling so high that most people walk around feeling short . . . The lives God is calling us to are the ones that we are living right here, right now, under these present circumstances . . .You have already been called, both to live and to magnify the abundant life of God." (Taylor 2001, 30)
William Willimon comments: “We are in ministry in service to God and God’s world, because we have been called and put here by a God who just loves to make something out of nothing” (Willimon 2001, 7). Walter Brueggerman describes vocation as, “finding a purpose for being in the world that is related to the purposes of God” (Gratton 1992, 157). Oswald Chambers, a morning companion of many, suggests that, “Our Lord calls to no special work: He calls to Himself” (Chambers 1931, October 16). And my preferred description of the call of God is that of Frederick Buechner, who likens the call to “the place where the world’s deep hunger and my deep gladness meet” (Buechner 1973, 95).
There is also the consideration that a call to ministry must be confirmed in some way by the church. Vogel speaks of vocation as being seen “as a call from God, not an impetus from human beings” (Vogel 1976, 42). When it is considered in the light of a sending by Christ, rather than a personal choice, there is need for the church to speak. “Even when a person has felt called by God, the church has judged (as best it could) whether or not the call be genuine” (Ibid.).
In one last description from the standpoint of biblical counseling, Allender uses the metaphor of story to speak to calling, encouraging the reading of patterns that reveal themes and that connect dots, while at the same time stressing that our calling is not a to-do list for God, a job offer, or a wish list. It is, instead, a way of living that is open to be found by a calling. He writes: “You are gifted. You are called. You are telling a story. The clearer you can be about yourself, the further you will be on the journey of catching and being caught by your calling” (Allender 2005, 6). As the purpose of God is revealed to us in our personality and in our life path, it confirms Elizabeth O’Connor’s observation that, “We ask to know the will of God without guessing that his will is written into our very beings” (O’Connor 1971, 14-15).
A definition of calling that would suggest that it is better to die than to move in a different direction, potentially to be more effective in ministry, to preserve physical or mental health, to save a marriage, to protect a family, or to be obedient to God, is self-serving to the organization, and theologically indefensible.
perhaps there just needs to be a redefining of the Army's mission for today. Something that once again is so Profound in its ministry, so Relevant in the its means of winning the world for Christ, that ‘Twere better far to die' than to leave.
Perhaps the 'Good Ole Army' (where these songs originate) was so aligned with the mission of Christ, the 2 were one in the same.
Can it be again if it is not currently 'to die for'?
I think yes.
I guess this really comes down to us trying desperately to fit God and the things of God in a neat little box. I know I use that analogy a lot, but I don’t know how else to explain it. Things would be easier for those in charge if we could keep things neat and organized. It would be much simpler to be able to say, “No, God would never ask a Christian to marry an active prostitute.” But then He does and throws off our whole theology.
When I was younger and studying ministry at University, I was taught two ways of understanding the will of God. One was that the will of God was a lot like a target; that He had a very specific way of doing things and that every single thing that happened, happened because of the will of God. Ala John Calvin. (And ala many Salvationists’ belief that, once the decision makers at the top of our organization pray about something, the decision they make must be God’s will.) The other way of seeing God’s will was more like a journey with a destination in mind. A lot of things might happen along the way, and God might have some specifics in mind, but it was the overall destination which was the point.
I’ve personally experienced both in my life. There was a time when God was very specific in his calling and direction in my life. I knew very clearly when God was calling me to serve at a church or not, or to date a girl or not. But in the last five years that has begun to change a bit. When I began to pray about moving to England, I sensed that God was giving me a choice. He seemed to make it very clear where each choice would lead to (and, incidentally, that revelation came very true), but He also seemed to be saying that He would be with me either way. It was something very new, strange, scary, but also grace filled for me. Since that time I’ve had to back way off on assuming that there was one overall way of understanding God’s will and I’ve had to transfer that new belief to “calling” as well.
Now days I not only believe that God calls some people to ministry for a season, but wish more young people would take a “season” to serve Him by living in poor communities before they go off and start their families (ala the Mormon church…you have to give it to them, that whole two year mission thing is a really good idea).
Again, an outline for God and His will simply does not exist…except in the church.
Major, you write." The song speaks to calling and dedication. After putting in nearly 28 years in this vocation, I know something of holding on during hard times in ministry. Yet, I would think that I might be better alive than dead. Maybe I just don't understand the song.” With due respect, your entire article speaks to your understanding of the song and perhaps are in tune with my own.
Before commenting further on your most interesting article I believe it helpful to put the song in perspective. Tradition suggests that Frederick Booth-Tucker wrote the words when Ballington and Maude Booth seceded from the army. Frederick was not born a Booth but his assuming the Booth surname speaks to his devotion to the Booth family, The SA, and the flag. Not incidentally, Frederick became the TC in the USA following Ballington’s “removal”. Clearly Frederick was affirming his life's devotion to The SA in writing the song. (No doubt the intent of most readers of your blog when sworn in as soldiers "under the flag")
Another son of William Booth, Herbert, also resigned as an officer due his conflicts with his father, and Booth’s designation of Bramwell as his 2nd in command.
I am rushing to school and will add more this afternoon; simply thought the song's history was relevant to your comments.
Many blessings, Sven
ps My CO, Captain Rick Starkey made me aware of your blog yesterday. Look forward to having the time to glean your earlier posts.
Regardless of who wrote it and when, the question still remains, "do we know why we are in ministry?" It's all well and good to be able to say what the author's intent was (although is anyone really able to say what someone else was thinking when they wrote a song?), but we are still left with the question of what implications it has on our own lives.
I am a Christian, first and foremost, then a Salvationist. But I think the point is that all too often we (salvationists) live as though it is the other way around. I know a man who wrote a memoir of his life in The Salvation Army. He made the comment to me that many people did not like it because he was honest about how things really were. How many salvationists are so "die hard" that they will only read something when TSA is put in a positive light, regardless of what really happened?
Finally! I remembered my login name! Anyway, I have been having this same discussion with a few friends of mine lately. I feel a calling is personal not so much as one is more special than another. And I think we need to go to the Scriptures to find out what God has to say about (or at least HIs "track record) when it comes to calling. I personally like to take every song, every book and run it through the filter of Scripture (maybe I'm just a silly young Sallie, dunno).
Just as when someone is called we need to have confirmation of the body (not just b/c we like what we can make out of them, but that we find that God is calling them to a particular ministry), so must we surround with the same vigor when someone feels called to minister in a different capacity. We need to step back and again filter through the Word and the Spirit what is being said.
You are right, Larry - I do not believe it is better to die than to live in world for Christ. Separation from a vocation, from officership within TSA, is frequently based and guided from a calling from God.
Tim, you are exceptionally eloquent tonight. As you describe God providing His will and encouraging the choices, assuring He will be there for each one, it is the purest definition of calling.
The deepest prayer any believer can prayer becomes, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Tim, I am praying for you and your family and your ministry tonight.
Larry, you have a stringent post, worthy of decisions and determinations. The songbook song is theologically irresponsible, but it is very accurate in describing an individual's loyalty to committment, duty and perseverance. There may never be a full hermeneutic which can totally be applied to one generation, one culture, one time.
“Next to faith, this is the highest art – to be content with the calling in which God has placed you.” Martin Luther
An addendum to my earlier post…but first, a quick aside. We are fortunate in the army that each song writer’s intent is known as it relates to the majority of those we sing. One need not speculate on why the words were written, and if an entire article concerns itself with a particular song, surely its genesis is worth knowing and noting. (Companion to The Song Book)
Growing up in the army I, like all who have, heard the word “calling” often, and perhaps incessantly at YP Councils, Bible Camps, and more. It was a buzz word and spoke specifically to being called to officership. I was a third generation officer, and am a fifth generation Salvationist and thought I understood both the word and “calling” well.
There came the time a few years ago when I voluntarily stepped out of officership, and I’ll admit that I wrestled with the term “calling”, and the fear that I had forsaken it. One of the countries in which my ex-wife and I served was Sweden. While stationed there we were invited to speak to group I was not familar with, the Former SA Officers Fellowship. The group’s make up and intent was confusing to me and I made several telephone calls in order to learn more about them prior to accepting the invitation. THQ not only approved our visit, they supported it and paid our travel expenses. It was only later that I learned that the fellowship numbered in the hundreds and many of the army’s leaders meet with them annually at the fellowship’s congress meeting. Further, they have a very sophisticated magazine published quarterly, and that too with full THQ backing. The fellowship’s inclusion of the word “former” in their name begs the question though; did they not have a “call”, and if so, did they not forsake that call; “leave the dear old flag”?
You shared in your article, “I have been working through the theology of calling. I am not sure that God calls all of us as officers to life-long commitment to this vocation.” Vocation is to me the key word here. “Vocation”, in its popular usage refers to one’s work or career… Historically however, the word “vocation” had a much nobler connotation. Its emphasis was not on what none does, but rather, to what one is “called” to do. “ (John H.W. Stott) Vocation then is a calling to a purpose, one each must seek out for themselves. And, if we accept this definition of the “call”, all are called to serve the cause of Christ,
My calling, subsequent to leaving my role as a SA officer, having served in various capacities, commands and countries, is as a teacher. I’m fortunate in that I can live that second SA officer role to the fullest. (preacher/teacher) And my role is really not much different than that of a SA officer; moving college students on a journey from their past to a fuller understanding and discovery of what the future promises and demands. True, I can’t open the Bible and share from it freely, however, I use verses and illustrations from it frequently enough to leave no doubt about the foundation of my faith. Teaching is the celebration where I elaborate on my Christian (SA) foundation, committed to the truths that our “dear old flag” represents, seeking to move my students to that eternally significant moment when spiritual values and their sense of vocation form.
Browning’s description was,
“moments,
Sure tho’ seldom ……………
When the spirit’s true endowments
Stand out plainly from its false ones”
Last August, led by the Spirit, I began a blog for those many who sensed their “call” had been canceled due resigning as officers. What the blog seeks to do is to remind them of something our “organization” either failed or forgot to do, and that is that vocation is the “call”; a vocation committed to the absolute truth of what the “blood and fire” on that “dear old flag” represents. No one could have foreseen the numbers of “formers” who were reconciled to their “call”, but it came from that simple exchange of words; vocation instead of call. Indeed many have renewed their commitment as soldiers with some taking on local officer responsibilities. Former officers share articles in the blog weekly on where and how they live their “call” today. The fellowship is international.
Most blog visitors, as is the case with this excellent blog site, don’t take time to comment directly to the articles on the blog site. However, I hear privately on a daily basis from many “formers” who have found peace, some of them decades subsequent to resigning, realizing at last that they never left their “call” or what those colors on the flag represents.
Many blessings, Sven
PS For those who are interested, the Former Salvation Army Officers Fellowship blog can be found at http://fsaof.blogspot.com
I usually never contribute this way and I really dont have the time but I was curious I stopped at your blog and I am forced to at least "share" a little. I am no thologian but I do love to read and I try to absorb what I read. I am intrigued relative to our modern concept of "calling" and as having been one that "left the work" and returned I am somewhat cognizant of some of the things that would pressure one to leave. Though I believe that my reason was prompted by some level by racial prejudice I sometimes wonder where we draw the line. I believe that God has called us to service and sacrifice but it seems that many times we are great at the former and found wanting at the latter. I do not in anyway deny the existence of horendously difficult situation, impossible working conditions, horrible people that cause grief or just don't get it. Combine this with when we don't think it is individual people or situations but when you think the organization or administration just "doesnt get it" the easy way many times and the least painful is to shake the dust from your robe and move on.
But let's here it for those that get the concept of service and sacrifice!! that will suck it up and work thourgh the difficult appointment the difficult DC or administration or commanding officer. that will take the lumps though they may feel undeserved. In the long run they make the real differnce. tlets here it for those that say when I am in a place where I can I will do things diffrently and then make significant change not for change sake or not because they were done wrong . but because it makes the best sense for all the just and the unjust, the persecuted and the persecutors. We need the boldest and brightest and I think we will get our fair share of them. but it is due inpart because of those that came before and made the sacrifice to stick it out!
We are all not called to that. there are folks that I love dearly who could not accept the call to sacrifice. but it is very much a necessary component.
ray,
thanks for stopping in and commenting. i am not sure that i completely agree that your definition of sacrifice and mine are the same. i don't see sacrifice as sucking it up. i see that as submission and at times, an almost self-abuse, which turns into passive agressive nature.
i think sacrifice has more to do with our putting to death the idea that our needs are more important than others and that i need the latest benefit or best house or car or whatever. it means giving away my money and spending my time on someone who no one else gives the time of day to or even notices, especially when it is inconvenient for me.
i think that sucking it up may be a way of deadening ourselves to injustice or even current realities. as to the "i am going to change things when i get to a place where i can", i prefer to change what i can now. i am responsible for where i am now. i am responsible to God now. my calling as to specific vocation may be now where i am (i am not even sure that is sound theology) but i do believe that the idea of sacrifice is not something with which most of us are well aquainted in the western church. i may even be among that number.
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At the risk of sounding naive, and having been there before, I can recall many times when the word "sacrifice" was shared with Kathie and me as we left for, and worked in Russia, and later Ukraine. For the record, just the two of us were sent out to "under the flag", "open fire" in both capitals; mind boggling in retrospect but only if one forgets that the Spirit's work preceded ours. (kairos) The word sacrifice though, and we heard it often, was strange to us then and remains so, but understanding well and comforted by the intent of the many that shared it. I recall the day we departed, the Red, Yellow and Blue banner held aloft at the airport as comrades knelt and prayed for us; don't you just love when we salvationists shake up those around us... stir up their interest(?) and off we went!
We knew full well what our friends' messages of sacrifice were meant to convey; leaving family behind, a comfortable appointment, quarters with a fridge & heat, familiar culture, and more...But, when we were ordered to march, believing then and still, that He who calls us, also leads and sees over us, any suggestion of sacrifice on our part denies His divine reign and our lack of faith in His sovereignty.
Difficult? You bet! And how about where you struggle and seek to move your mission?
Frustrating? So what else is new! Ever ready to say, I give up? When didn't we all?! (this blog's question of the day)
Sacrifice? No, never, not even close, ever... Our day to day struggles, wherever we serve, ought never to include or even hint at the word sacrifice. To me it's a slap in His face. It ought not to be in our vocabulary. How can it be for those of us who serve Him, He who gave His all.
Blessings, Sven
Ok I really hate this stuff. I spent 45 mins writing then couldnt remeber the password for this account and lost everything I said.
such is life. so .......
I am not going to argue with either you ro sven relative to sacrifice either the exactly what it means or how to apply it.
I concur with Sven that in light of what Jesus Christ has done for us that anything that we might call sacrifice pales in comparison. do call it what ever you want.
I must draw from the context that I am most familiar with so forgive me if I am specific but take this in as general a refence as you like.
One day I hope to have grandchildren (though I am not in a great hurry) this year is the first year in my almost 50 years of life that I can say to them that if you want to, one day you could be the president of the United states and believe in my heart that it is a possiblility. that has never really been the case before, for me that has always been pure rhetoric, I never believed it for myself , I never believed it for my children. I did not believe it for Jesse Jackson but I believe it.
it is very easy right now to give credit to the Activist and millitants,for those of my White brothers and sisters who have risked much, and I give them their due.
I also give credit to those that bore the burden of maltreament. I don't think someone suffering injustice can "deadend themselves to it" But I hear what you are saying . I just dont want to sell short those that stand in the gap because they believe that their standing in the gap will make a differnce. those who will plant the seed knowing they may never enjoy the shade. those who put up with the grief because they feel that God s has placed them there to help not only the oppressed but the oppressor. we serve a wonderful God that will not only minister to the Stephen but to the Saul through the Stephen.
I also don't want to be short sided relative to being about change in the future. the fact of the matter is that I am all about change right now!!! But the most effective change is made from the inside if you can maintain your integrity in the process.
I am grevious that an organization that does so much for people of color have so few people of color in the officer ranks. Much of it has to do with retention , we have rbought them in but have not kept them. things are changing (though very slowly) I see hope on the horizon. but I give a good portion of that hope to people who have taken risks (our white brothers and sisters) and those that have stuck it out and made sacrifices (those of color).
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