The Salvation Army 2014 USA Salvation Army Conference for Social Work and Emergency Disaster Services 25 to 28 March 2014, Orlando, Florida GLOBAL TRACK SESSION 3A
“How does serving suffering humanity transform people as disciples?” Lieutenant Colonel Lucien Lamartinière Chief Secretary Democratic Republic of Congo Territory Introduction The Lord Jesus has come in to the world to accomplish a mission that is clearly expressed in Luke 4: 18- 19 that says: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour”. This mission includes both spiritual and social dimensions. It implies that Jesus came to save the lost from all kind of poverty. The Lord’s mission must become the mission of the church. He sends the church with the great commission whose content is ‘disciple-making’. To be faithful and successful in accomplishing that mission we have to proclaim redemption and freedom to those who suffer in the slavery of sin and help them to get abundant life in every dimension of their lives. I mean that our mission has to be integral. Integral Mission The integral mission is the proclamation and the demonstration of the gospel. Proclamation and demonstration both converge to bring social consequences as we call people to repentance and make spiritual impact in the lives of those to whom we bear witness of the love and grace of Christ. General William Booth understood his calling to embrace that part of the evangelism which is so often neglected by the traditional church. The Salvation Army ties its spiritual mission with social actions. Man has two needs. If we focus only on the spiritual aspect and neglect the social, the work is not complete. If we focus on the social aspect and neglect the spiritual, the work is not complete. Evangelism is an invitation to become a heavenly citizen, while the social mission is helping people to be proud of being part of their society. The social and the spiritual mission of the church cannot be separated. We cannot expect the spiritual transformation of someone if we ignore the other aspects of his life. 1
A great example is found in Acts 3:1-16 the story of the healing of the crippled man at the door of the temple. The problems of that man were tridimensional: Physical, social and spiritual. To survive, he had to go out to beg, for he could not help himself. He depended on others to carry him and put him at the door of the temple every day. Every day he was at the door of the temple; but he couldn’t get in to worship as others did. The apostles Peter and John coming to the temple were concerned about his physical situation. They acted in the name of Jesus to heal him. As soon as he got healed he entered the temple to praise God among other believers. He was proud of becoming active in his socio-spiritual community. That healing gave opportunity to the apostles to talk about Jesus to those who witnessed the miracle. By caring for others we can bring many to Christ and many grow as disciples. In Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, The Salvation Army is achieving our mission – in terms of serving suffering humanity – by rescuing 464 young women from the shameful situation of sextrafficking. These women have been trained in dressmaking, hairdressing and business management, and as a result they have given up prostitution and started a new life. A number have been saved and two of them have answered to call for officership. They are currently second year Cadets and will be commissioned next June. The change that occurred in the lives of these girls brings their parents and other people in the community to know Jesus as Saviour. Through serving suffering humanity people can become disciples and help others to be saved and follow Jesus. The way these women are rescued needs to be understood. Our officers and staff start by getting to know the women while they are still working on the streets. Before we offer them the training course, we build a relationship with them and try to reconcile them with their families. Once the women stop their sex work, they can start the training courses. This is a comprehensive approach – relationship building and restoration with family; turning away from immoral work; learning a new skill; many also develop a new spiritual life with Jesus as Lord and Saviour. The Salvation Army needs to keep up in the battle by directly targeting poverty that is the source of the sex trafficking and other vices that ruin the society. The battle might be tough but we have to engage ourselves in it. That is our mission. We cannot ignore the work of some philanthropic organizations in the communities. However, Jesus has called us for a special mission. He calls us to be fishers of men. At this level, we owe to the needy what we cannot expect them to receive from other organizations. God has always considered people as a whole. According to the story of creation, there was no lack of food in the garden where God had placed Adam and Eve. Everything was in place before He created them. The book of Exodus tells us that Yahweh did not only promise freedom to the Jews but also a land where honey and milk would overflow. This means that God cares for our well-being in this world while He wants us to be in perfect relationship with Him. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to plead for forgiveness of sin in order to access heaven and to pray for 2
daily bread that will keep us healthy and physically strong. So, we can deduce that the Lord’s Prayer is an expression of the integral gospel. The Church and its Mission Obviously, a Christian cannot live without Christ. His life is senseless without the capacity to show his concern for his fellow men. Being saved does not mean maintaining relationship with God and forgetting about others. The Apostle John treats as liars those who would think it so (1 John 4: 20 & 21). The Christian doctrine implies two major points: Obedience to the Lord and love expressed to men. No one can show his obedience to Christ without expressing his love to his neighbour. The great example is found in the parable of Good Samaritan. At the end of the parable Jesus said: “Go and do likewise.” This means that the gospel needs to be both proclaimed and also demonstrated by our deeds. Preaching the gospel in his fullness means that both must walk together. We cannot pretend to be faithful to the word of God if we are not available for men in their social needs. Our social work cannot be effective if it is not motivated by the love of God through our faith in Him. The church must fulfill its mission by maintaining a proper balance between evangelism, discipleship and other dimensions of the Christian mission in its socio-economic aspects. The scriptures speak about a new heaven and a new earth. It is a way of viewing the Christian mission with holistic eyes. The gospel does not limit salvation only to the soul. Salvation is the transformation of the whole person in order to glorify the Lord with his whole being. So, the church has to speak of sin in terms of personal offence against God and act in social categories that affect people and nature. Evangelism does not mean only the verbalization of God’s love, but a practical demonstration of that love as well. General William Booth understood this and expressed in his famous declaration: While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight while little children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight While men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight While there is a drunkard left, While there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, While there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight, I'll fight to the very end! This was the expression of his vision to bring man to a social transformation that would be complete when his soul is being saved spiritually. The Salvation Army is engaged in a war to change the world. It is the responsibility of every Salvationist to share the good news of salvation in practical ways. How can someone whose stomach is empty be attentive to a sermon? How can someone respond to a message on 3
Sunday when he cannot afford to pay his children’s school fees on Monday or feed them on the weekday? The church has to understand these questions and try to bring the answers. It is not sufficient to talk about love for others but it must be shown in deeds to them. As Salvationists, we are called to serve others because we are God’s hands and feet in the world. The human race was in danger; nothing could escape from the wrath of God, the Father. Jesus came! He gave His own life to pay the penalty for our sin. Therefore, Christians must not miss any opportunity to act where there is a need. As Salvationists, we are committed to the Lord as well as to people. We have to be concerned about the well-being of man as a whole. No one can give a better explanation of the integral gospel than the Apostle James does in his epistle (2:14) which says: “What’s the use of saying that you have faith and are Christians if you aren’t proving it by helping others?” Surely, salvation can’t be gained by deeds or loving action, but it is a way to show our faith to the Lord. Faith is the means of our salvation whose deed is the demonstration. In Matthew 25: 35-46, Jesus said: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of these brothers of mine, and you did for me”. Jesus expresses clearly throughout the gospels his concerns for man as a whole. The holistic Gospel is from Christ. At the Calvary, He has paid our deserved penalty by his blood. He has opened the door of reconciliation to anyone by the sacrifice of his life. So, the gospel that implies our responsibility toward God and men has to be preached without distortion. We are the Lord’s agents and, as such, we have to fulfill our task of preaching the integral gospel. The Church and the Community The church cannot be proud about fulfilling its mission while people around it are suffering. The young people, the future of the society, become drug and alcohol addicts because their future is uncertain. Many of the young girls get engaged in sex trafficking because they are hopeless. Many of them are victims of the society. Some are being abused and may become stigmatized for life. We must take the declaration of the founder as our motive. We have to fight! We have to fight against all kind of evils in the world. God calls us to be a new creation. This does not mean to show indifference towards the rest of the world. We make allegiance to Christ as Lord and Savior, but still living in the community. We have to balance our relationship with God as both spiritual beings and human/social beings. The church will become just a religious club if our mission is not integral. The church must not be seen as an isolated religious institution but as part of the community. It must make basic human needs our own business. The church must take ownership of our community problems. God gave the ultimate example by His incarnation. He made men’s problems His and gave His only begotten Son’s life to pay our debt. As part of the community, the church must work with people by helping them to identify their real needs in order to face the daily life situation. The first mission of the church is to announce the coming of the kingdom of God. Our task is to tell about the saving grace of Christ Jesus. To be faithful to that mission the church must combine the praising to God and good deeds to men. As our slogan goes: “Heart to God, Hand to man”. 4
The mission cannot become real unless we see people as whole beings and become convinced that they must be saved socio-economically by looking forward to entering the kingdom of God in heaven. In Luke 9:10-17, the Lord fed the multitudes after proclaiming salvation to them and healing those who needed to be healed. Christ’s mission does not have only the unique purpose of changing people’s spiritual life but also bringing fullness of life. The church must focus on the transformation of man in every aspect of life as a prelude of entering the Kingdom of God. William Booth has understood salvation as a radical transformation and freedom from all kind of misery of this world. For him preaching the gospel did not mean focusing on the heavenly reward and closing the eyes on the earthly problems. That kind of gospel is not Christ-like. The full gospel is preaching that Christ has died for our sins and meeting the social needs of people out of a loving heart. CONCLUSION We all agree that the mission of the church is to bring people to Christ in order to rescue them from the eternal damnation. However, we have to keep in mind that man, as a trinity, (body, soul, spirit) cannot be happy if one of them is suffering. Preaching the gospel is not only talking about the spiritual need of people, but their social and material needs as well. If not, the church has failed in its mission that is: Bringing the whole gospel to the whole world in order to save the whole man and liberate the whole creation.
A response by Major Victoria Edmonds International Social Justice Commission, IHQ In response to Colonel’s paper I agree that the Lord’s mission must be the mission of the church, the out working of the great commission. As I reflect on the key scripture passages in this paper Luke 4:18 and 19 we are reminded that the mission is both spiritual and social. Jesus tells us we will always have the poor with us as stated in John 12:8, and yes, we are to be faithful in answering the call of the Great Commission. In the study booklet Jesus and Justice (ISJC) is captured the integral mission of William Booth. Jesus hope for a restored humanity envisions well-being for people who are spiritually poor and people who are socially poor. Jesus lives right and makes life right with other. If serving suffering humanity transforms people, we who are doing the serving must include the excluded. We must show compassion toward social outsiders. Matthew 8:1-3 and the story of the Lepers is a story of including the excluded. Colonel states that the Army needs to keep up in the battle by targeting poverty. True, the predicament of the poor was an ongoing concern in Jesus’ life. Jesus was an advocate for 5
spiritual and social well-being. This was not an afterthought for Jesus, but rather the heart of his ministry. So it should be for ours today, a response where “compassion is motivated by empathy, a compassion that generates behavior that sees life from the other person’s point of view. True compassion generates responses that open doors for outsiders to become insider”. We would still be fishers of men. The Colonel states in his section the “Church and its Mission” that the Christian doctrine has two major points obedience to the Lord and love expressed to men. Jesus has a code for us to live by and that code is to love is to be just, to be just is to love. When we claim to follow Jesus, we are disciples of justice. The world is our community and everyone in it. In our ministries we are to be approachable, relational, and understanding and must practice the teachings that are given to us through the Scriptures. The Colonel states that the Army is engaged in a war to change the world. Jesus and Justice states that Evangelism and Christian witness at its best is an expression of spiritual advocacy. In John 7:45-52 we see where this change took place in Nicodemus and he becomes the advocate for Jesus with his Pharisee colleagues.
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The Salvation Army 2014 USA Salvation Army Conference for Social Work and Emergency Disaster Services 25 to 28 March 2014, Orlando, Florida GLOBAL TRACK SESSION 3A
“How does serving suffering humanity transform people as disciples?” Major Bobby N Westmoreland USA Southern Territory In considering the role of service to the suffering in the transformation of people as disciples, The Salvation Army can pull from a collection of nearly 150 years of experiences, testimonies, and fruitful legacy, which can indeed confirm for us that service has a key role in making disciples of Jesus Christ. So vast is this virtual collection of experiences, that despite our efforts, we could never completely statistically define it, biographically record it, nor can it completely be summarized. Nonetheless, this collection in all of its vastness lingers with us like the fragrance of heaven. It has a voice in the songs we sing, it speaks to us constantly through testimonies in our meetings, it has life in the countless numbers of men and women, boys and girls, restored in their relationship to God. This service perpetuates service, as individuals take up their cross and follow Jesus, by answering His call to serve as adherents, soldiers, local officers, and officers in a beautiful unbroken chain of service, that wraps the globe and connects the past and present. Like stones tossed into a lake, even the smallest act of mercy done in the name of Jesus causes a ripple effect, which transforms outward from the initial impact between recipient and the servant, then moving further to the witnesses, and even further to the wider community. As individuals we know from personal experience, and as an organization we have learned in powerful collective ways, that service to the suffering indeed has the propensity to transform us to be more like Christ. It is helpful to explore in deeper context the question of how serving suffering humanity transforms people as disciples. We know that serving suffering humanity is beneficial in the lives of believers. We know this because we sense the benefit of this service not only in the physical realm, but in the spiritual realm also. We are not a confused people on this matter. We know that service cannot save us. It cannot earn ourselves nor anyone else places in heaven, but it can point others to the one who has earned that place for us. And it helps us to be better disciples of Jesus Christ. Of course, The Salvation Army must also consider the possibility that there are certain ways of serving that cause regression in the disciple’s transformation experience. For example, the kind of service which springs from shallow motives and builds up the servant’s faith in his or her own
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resources has a destructive capacity. We do not serve out of our abundance; we serve out of weakness and our depravity. We can serve in essentially three ways. First, from a position of strength and privilege, we arch downwards towards the sufferer, while not yielding our strength or our privileged position. This can promote pride. Or, we can demote ourselves below the sufferer and attempt to push them up out of their plight, in essence suffering for the sufferer. This lacks dignity. Better yet, we can stand shoulder to shoulder, together in our need before the Lord, recognizing that we each suffer in our own ways, in essence suffering with the sufferer. That service to the suffering, which causes the servant to rely upon the strength of God, recognizes that Jesus is the ultimate answer to the particular problem being dealt with, and effectively causes self to diminish and the presence of Christ in the life of the servant to increase. It is the kind of service that has the potential to transform both the servant and the sufferer into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. It has the power to transform because it reflects the incarnation of Christ. Christ’s presence on earth did not signal the end to all suffering. When he stands in the synagogue and reads from the scrolls: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (Luke 4:18-19) There were countless numbers of people suffering from all forms of diseases and all of the physical conditions described in the prophecy from Isaiah, which Christ read. Did Christ have the power to do all of those things in the short years he walked this planet? Sure. We know from Matthew 28:18 that all power in heaven and earth was given to him. Satan certainly knew and understood this truth. When Jesus was tempted to turn the stones into bread in the desert, perhaps the greater temptation was to set about solving the issue of world hunger. There is no doubt he could have turned the stones to bread and fed himself. He could have turned the whole planet into a chunk of bread and fed the hungry of the world. Perhaps Satan’s temptation was to get Jesus to go about the easiest route of serving suffering humanity. Jesus could have taken the easy cosmetic approach. Like modern medicine perhaps, he could have erased the symptoms of the disease instead of destroying the disease itself. We know that Jesus suffered himself seeing the marks of sin upon the beauty of His creation; he wept over the spiritual condition of Jerusalem, he wept at the pain caused by the death of his friend Lazarus. The fact that he was troubled by the fallen condition of humanity is recorded in Scriptures on numerous occasions. He was the only man walking that knew what the world was supposed to be like, to look like, and to feel like. All of the death, disease and human disaster, which he encountered, were as foreign to him as heaven is to our earthly vision. Yet, he did not come with an institutional answer to our suffering. He came with an incarnational one. He had no three point plans to end poverty, no political campaigns to foster 8
world peace. He opened no soup kitchens, no homeless shelters, left nothing in his will for charitable organizations. There were plenty of organized efforts to help the suffering, but Jesus did not join them. In fact, he quite often found himself in contradiction and condemned by those very institutions. Yet, wherever he went, hungry were fed, naked were clothed, and oppressed were released. Though these symptoms were disappearing in his presence, Christ knew they were only indications of a deeper problem. His problem tree had sin at the base and he had the plan, a mission, to offer Himself. Jesus continually looked through the suffering world and with laser beam love, loyalty, and devotion to the mission for which He came, stroke right at the heart of the cancer. That cancer of the soul, disease of the heart, had a cure. His name is Jesus. In John 9 we read the story of a miraculous healing. “As he (Jesus) went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.’” (John 9:1-3). We then see how the man’s life was transformed, “I was blind, but I now see!” (John 9:25) and he went on witnessing to those around him. He started seeing in more than one way, not only in a physical sense, but in a spiritual sense, as well. He was transformed as a believer, as a disciple, and we see here an example from Jesus’ time on earth of how serving suffering humanity has the potential to transform people as disciples. In the Scripture passage mentioned above there is a process that the blind man goes through. First, he is noticed, then he is touched, he is healed, and he has a chance to witness. He becomes a disciple because Jesus and his disciples were on a mission. For him it all happened in one day. For others, this process might take a long time, several years, and involve points of contact with many different people along the way. In our corps and community centres around the world we have an array of programs and social services projects; we know the theory and excellence of how to serve, but perhaps we are embarking upon an era where we need to dig deeper into how this service transforms people as disciples. In my experience serving in America and abroad, I have encountered individuals and families coming to receive food assistance, help with paying bills, a roof over their heads. During the process many would find that the homelessness of their body was nothing compared to the homelessness of their soul, that the deficit of their bank account was nothing compared to the deficit in their relationship with God, and furthermore, the surplus of their wealth was no measure of His blessing. Grasping this mystery, perhaps we can become even more effective in our three-fold mission, to love, serve and disciple. Perhaps the balancing act that is ever before The Salvation Army is the part we play in the world between serving suffering humanity and making disciples, because when we reflect upon how serving suffering humanity makes disciples we engage with the question, are we a social service agency or are we a church? Commissioner Andy Miller, retired National Commander of 9
the USA Territories, often echoed this question in conferences around the world. He would answer, ‘If we do it right, you can’t tell the difference.’ Therefore, service to suffering humanity transforms both servant and sufferer through service that is incarnational in its expression of God’s love. Firstly, when we serve the suffering we are almost immediately confronted with the reality that we do not have the answers. We recognize that we, as the servants, are not the answer, and we are certainly not sufficient in ourselves. We are not offering a program, we are offering Jesus. He is the answer. Secondly, serving teaches us to obey. He commands us to do so. Also, he set before us an example as he washed the feet of his disciples, and as he met the needs of those around him. Thirdly, the entrance of sin fractured the relationship between God and creation. When we serve suffering humanity we fulfil the Isaiah vision and role of being a restorer (Isaiah 58:12). We help bring shalom back into creation. When we are part of Christ’s mission, how can we not grow closer to him in our discipleship? Fourthly, in service the heart is broken and sensitized. For the suffering there is the recognition that someone cares. When we serve with broken hearts for the broken hearted, we experience once more that the incarnational Christ is still walking, still breathing, and still bringing healing. Fifthly, serving suffering humanity helps us to focus on those things God cares about most and causes us to cast aside those things that are fruitless. For the one being served, there is the realization that God has not forgotten them, and that he has a plan for their lives. We want and need to be excellent in our approach to meeting the needs of those around us who are suffering. In doing so, we must pull from the best sciences we know to combat slavery, homelessness, poverty, and the like. But we must never forget that we are the beating, broken, bleeding heart of Christ, urging people back into community. It is this powerful, incredible symbiosis of principles with sound theory and ‘roll up our sleeves’ courage, conviction and compassion, which has power to transform in this world, making and developing disciples as the suffering are served. General Albert Osborn reminded us that our life is “Christ’s broken bread”, our love is “His outpoured wine”. This is the offering God uses to transform the world.
A response by Lieutenant Colonel Alistair Venter Bangladesh Command I appreciate the emphasis that Major Westmoreland places on the incarnational nature of Christian service to suffering humanity, as opposed to offering programmes and projects to deal with the symptoms of the disease. The Major points out that “service has the potential to transform both the servant and the sufferer into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ”. Those gathered here will agree that this is 10
indeed the experience of Salvation Army service. The server “points others to the one who has earned that place for us (which) helps us to be better disciples of Jesus Christ” .The served recognise that “someone cares” and “God has not forgotten them”. Often “service perpetuates service” and the served may embark on a journey to faith that leads them to becoming servers in turn. A few questions come to mind: 1. About the served: There is a wide scope of responses by the served, ranging from simple gratitude (or not) without life change, to a radical spiritual transformation. I have seen many turn to God and become disciples as a result of The Salvation Army’s acts of service. I agree with the Major: “This process might take a long time… and involve points of contact with many different people along the way.” Not all those we serve become disciples. Serving in a Muslim country, I observe that despite 42 years of serving the poorest and most destitute, there are not masses of people who have become disciples of Christ. There is no doubt in my mind that there has been transformation of some kind, although not always spiritual. Question: How do we integrate our message and our service? 2. About the servers: It is not always Salvationists who do the serving, but often employees, volunteers or even some of our clients. Not all of them are believers/disciples/followers, although they find fulfilment in serving mankind. Question: How do/can we get the message of Jesus across in situations where the “servers” are not believers? 3. About serving in the name of Jesus: We “preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and…meet human needs in his name without discrimination”1. Often we live the gospel, and allow those we serve to see Christ in us. Although we serve “in His name”, sometimes that name cannot be mentioned. Question: Are we wasting our time in places where we may not serve openly in the name of Jesus? 4. About being a Church or an agency: 1
Mission Statement
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“Are we a social service agency or are we a church?” Statistics give the impression that the social “wing” of The Army has grown larger than the spiritual “wing”. Might this cause us to fly in a lopsided manner? Jesus is the answer to lasting transformation – not the soup, clothes or bed. We may be viewed as a social service agency, but it is my hope that we are seen as one with a different foundation: Christ in us and Christ for the world. Question: ‘If we do it right, you can’t tell the difference.’ Are we doing it right? Can we do it better?
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