ministry name

According to Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones (see Ezekiel 37:1-14), God is able to raise up a vast, healthy, ready army any time he wants to. The current identity crisis in some corners of our Army might suggest that now would be an excellent time for the breath of God to revive our old, tired bones.

This kind of resurrection will not be achieved by more songbook songs or more contemporary worship songs. It won't matter whether we wear tunics and ties, Salvo t-shirts or armybarmy gear. And more guitars or cornets won't make a difference either.

None of these things are as important as some people would like to make them. They are the bones. They are not the breath. And these are not the things that define us. We are defined by our 11 doctrines—our articles of faith—and these are clear. There shouldn't be any Salvation Army identity crisis. We know exactly who we are. We are the people who believe that “continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ” (Doctrine 9). This goes for all of us. It is “the privilege of all believers” to be holy (see Doctrine 10).

Holiness is not an option for us to consider. It is not an alternative lifestyle reserved for the really keen Salvationists. Our own theological heritage shouts out to us, “There's full salvation (discipleship and holiness) or there's no salvation at all.”

William Booth was a hardcore Wesleyan. In naming us The Salvation Army, he had something more in mind than just getting people saved. We are all about people moving on to maturity. This is reflected in his song, O Boundless Salvation.

The Salvation Army is a holiness Movement, but these days we tend to talk more about discipleship than holiness. No problem. Discipleship is holiness. And real Salvationism is discipleship. Real Salvationism is a life of radical obedience to Jesus.

So maybe it's not new theology, or new spirituality, or new worship styles, or new music and songs, or new liturgy and sacraments that the Army needs. Maybe it's discipleship. Maybe it's obedience. Maybe discipleship is what we don't have enough of in the Army. Maybe that is why we have this nagging feeling that it's time for a change.

Yet discipleship is the only valid sort of Christianity there is. We're Wesleyans. We know there is only one salvation and that is full salvation. We know we are all called to holiness. We know we are all called to discipleship—an obedience to Christ that is counter-cultural, not materialistic, and passionate about people. That puts Christ at the centre of our lives.

This is not the holiness/discipleship we always see. As Salvationists, we sometimes tend to get distracted, failing to keep the main thing the main thing. We are often dominated by the television—and, sadly, live broken lives that are remarkably similar to those portrayed on the shows we watch. We don't have the time or energy to take Jesus to the world because all day long we're glued to a computer screen. We don't hear God speaking to our hearts because our senses are ceaselessly bombarded by external noises. Our mind-numbing world of shifting values has many of us in its grip. Our postmodern society would have us passively accept the status quo of no sense of right and wrong, no direction, no absolutes.

Often we have no idea what it means to deny ourselves and take up our crosses and follow Jesus. This spiritual confusion is neither holiness nor discipleship and is simply not good enough for the Army. We're not going to survive on the efforts of half-hearted soldiers. True Salvationism requires a commitment to discipleship, to a life of radical obedience.

We have no right to discuss the will of God theologically if we are not living the will of God obediently. The current tide of worship sweeping through the evangelical church may sometimes divert us from the main thing, yet in the Bible God says that he gets tired of our worship when we fail him in holiness.

God wants more justice, not more songs. He wants more broken-hearted spiritual maturity, not more sacrifices. According to Romans 12:1, true worship is discipleship—being like Jesus—being a “living sacrifice.”