Explore 2016 by Barry Sawyer

2016 2017

TRANSFORMED TRANSFORMERS

WHY JUSTICE?

VISIONS OF VOCATION

GIVE. TEACH. TRAIN.

THIS IS MY STORY: MEGAN LOWE AND AMY-JO BATTERSBY

CONTENTS

TRANSFORMED TRANSFORMERS

THIS IS MY STORY

BOOK REVIEW

GIVE. TEACH. TRAIN.

THIS IS MY STORY

WHY JUSTICE?

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WELCOME

Whilst not a Christian, Mahatma Gandhi’s quote ‘Be the change that you wish to see in the world’ carries a message a Christian would have no hesitation committing to and has been at the forefront of our thinking when deciding on the content of this edition of Explore. For spiritual leaders, being the change or being an agent of transformation is a key core competency, not only to be lived out personally but also to encourage in the communities in which they are placed. As you read within these pages the accounts of transformation and how that has happened, you may think about your own life and ask some questions, like: ‘What transformation has taken place in my own life?’ ‘How has that transformation happened?’ ‘What does the transformation in me mean in terms of how I live out my life?’ ‘How will I be an agent of transformation?’

A caterpillar is born to become a butterfly. It does not put on a butterfly costume to cover up what it really is, or work hard to act like a butterfly. As long as it eats, it will grow, so that eventually, the caterpillar changes and becomes a real, genuine butterfly. A caterpillar changing into a butterfly is an excellent picture of what the Bible speaks of concerning the transforming of believers into the image of Christ. When we are born of the Spirit of God, we have the divine life of God within. This life transforms us into the image of Christ. Like the caterpillar, we have to stay in the process of transformation by eating of the bread of life. In John 6:35, Jesus said, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.’ Let us continue to feed our souls and experience the transforming power of Christ.

The Salvation Army is a Christian Church and Registered Charity No. 214779 in England and Wales, SC009359 in Scotland and CHY6399 in the Republic of Ireland

CO MI NG

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SO ON !

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It is often said that people don’t like change. The status quo, or the way we normally see and experience things, is often assumed to be the way that’s best for us. I am told that even in some church congregations, suggestions of a change in how something is done – where we sit, or some similar variation – is just occasionally met with some resistance. I guess we are all used to this type of experience, and if we are honest, even for ourselves sometimes the prospect of a change in something that we have got used to fills us with anxiety or dread. While I know this to be true, in my own life as well as others, I have often wondered how ‘change’ can be such an issue for us, especially as Christians. After all, that is part of the central theme of our understanding of God and his mission in which we as Christians participate. He sent Jesus for the very reason of changing people and the world. He is all about change. He

wants to change us from sinners to saints, from people who are disengaged with God to people who are reconciled to him. Therefore the emphasis on Transformation, both as part of the United Kingdom Territory with the Republic of Ireland, and this year’s theme of Explore, is completely consistent with God’s mission for this world. He is about Transformation. Right from the beginning, we can see God at work transforming the world (Genesis and creation) and of course, his work is also about you and me being transformed personally. (2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT – ‘The old life is gone; a new life has begun!). It is not only in our own life that we must experience transformation. In the change that God brings to us through his Holy Spirit, we become the very people in whom God has placed the responsibility of being the agents of transformation, both in the world and in other people. It is therefore wholly consistent with

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this that the Candidates Unit, in their desire to encourage people to consider their place in God’s plan for them, should choose the theme of Transformation for this year’s publication. Since the commencement of the work of The Salvation Army, there has been a strong emphasis on transformation. Our Founders and those who followed had a burning desire to see transformation of people, of their circumstances and even of the world in which they were living. Tracking back through our history, perhaps particularly in the early days of formation, we can see time and time again that our forebears were thoroughly involved in the transformation of society. It was through seeing the deep need that people had in their suffering and circumstances that they saw the need for change, not only in the individual, but also in the many conditions which contributed to their needs. This led to many responses from the early day Salvationists, seeking to bring the change that was so desperately needed. Examples

Way Out. All these, and much more, came through a realisation of the human suffering around them and the deep desire to bring about transformation in their lives. The greatest change, and the deepest need recognised by our Founders, was that of the spiritual void in people and their need of Christ in their lives. The old slogan of ‘soup, soap and salvation’ was about helping people in their physical need, in order that they could then see their spiritual need and respond to the transformation offered by the Lord. Is today’s world any different? More sophisticated maybe, but certainly still with a desperate need for transformation in so many areas. The world around us needs the change which only God can bring, and God has chosen his people to be the agents of that change – we, as his followers, must be alert to the opportunities for change and circumstances which demand transformation around us. How good it is therefore, to be associated with a movement which has so recently reaffirmed its mission to include transformation*, realising

There is a growing emphasis on the fight for social justice, a passion to get involved and bring about the changes needed to minimise the injustices we see all around us. include the initiating of the first labour exchange to help people find meaningful work, the safety match factory in order to alleviate the suffering of workers, the raising of the age of consent and of course the vision of William Booth in regard to In Darkest England and the

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that this applies at all levels of the whole person – transformation needs to take place at the heart of the person. So often, though, the first element of transformation for people in a broken world is the bringing of some change in their physical circumstances. We are called to all of this, but always our key desire is the transformation of the soul and relationship with God, who is all about transformation himself. In order for this to happen well, it is so important that we have leaders who have been transformed by the Holy Spirit, who will take the mission forward and to bring about that change in the world and in the lives of people. The ethos of the William Booth College is built around the desire to be able to develop leaders who are transformed and transforming. That is, leaders who are a) transformed by

Listen to the Holy Spirit prompting, which for many is certainly taking place, and then be courageous and respond, and ‘be the change’

the renewing of their own lives in Christ, b) continually being transformed as they grow in Christ, c) leading others to being transformed. ‘Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect’ (Romans 12:2 NLT). It has been a huge encouragement in recent years to witness what I perceive to be a new determination, perhaps especially among the younger generation, to bring about change and to challenge some of the accepted norms of the world today. There is a growing emphasis on the fight for social justice, a passion to get involved and bring about the changes needed to minimise the injustices we see all around us. This again needs leaders, and leaders who are prepared to step out and step up to the challenge in bringing about that change. The wonderful truth is that, within the orbit of The Salvation Army, there are untold opportunities for bringing about the changes that are so desperately sought. The Salvation Army needs leaders who have been changed themselves, so that they can become the ones who lead

others towards the change that God wants for them too. First, they need to ‘be the change’ and then become the leaders of change – or agents of transformation. Perhaps a reflection is needed by everyone in this – do we really want to see transformation or change? Are we prepared to pray for that change and to pray for leaders who are able to bring about that change? As we pray, listen carefully to what God says, as his response to you may well be that you are part of the answer to the prayer and that you must ‘be the change’. Therefore, why not think about giving careful consideration to what God is calling you to? Listen to the Holy Spirit prompting, which for many is certainly taking place, and then be courageous and respond, and ‘be the change’. *(T.I.D.E. – Transformation, Integration, Discipleship, Effectiveness)

Lieutenant Colonel Mike Caffull is the Principal at the William Booth College.

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THIS IS MY STORY Salt is vital to life and found all around us; in water, rocks, animals, plants and humans. It plays many roles: flavouring, preservation, aiding nutrition in our bodies, cleaning, and even melting ice on wintry days. In Matthew 5:13 Jesus said, ‘You are the salt of the earth.’ He may have meant that his disciples were everywhere, and indeed Christians can be found across the earth. He may have been indicating that followers of Christ are vital to life. Both of these could be logical leads. But one thought which I haven’t included clearly is that salt, wherever it is found and in whatever quantities, does make a difference. Sometimes it’s a drastic change in terms of taste, and sometimes a subtle change as in the cells in our bodies. I really like the idea that by saying we are salt of the earth Jesus could be saying, ‘You are making a difference, you are bringing about change.’ I am a fairly new officer, having been commissioned from William Booth College as a member of the Disciples of the Cross session in July 2014. Like many others, my journey to officership was an unexpected one. I was born and raised in Evesham, West Midlands, in a non-Christian home, but I attended The Salvation Army from a young age. At 18 I moved to Plymouth to study Psychology at university. It was when I was approaching the end of my course, with no real direction for my life, that God called me using Proverbs 3:27: ‘Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it’s is in your power to act’ (NLT). I was not always aware of this calling on my life. But some of you may be like me – blessed with being able to identify the people (agents) who have brought about transformation in your life, those who have played an active role in your faith journey. When I think back over the years there are many I can identify: members of Evesham Corps who transformed my experience of family; those in Plymouth who transformed my understanding of what it meant to reach out to others. The training college involved an abundance of people who testified to God’s love and transformed my attitude to study and worship, and placement corps transformed the way I saw myself in Christ. There have been more along the way, but an even greater blessing is being able now to witness transformations in other people’s lives from the perspective of being myself an agent God graciously has been willing to use. Even in just a short time in ministry I have been privileged to learn of transformations that have happened in the life of Bishops Stortford Corps. I have seen a family who had lost hope transformed into a family restored; a lady who had suffered abuse transformed in her sense of worth; transformations in the lives of addicts who now find a sense of purpose. Witnessing these transformations that we know are of God is encouraging, invigorating and inspiring. And what I still stand amazed at is that God would invite me, invite you, to play a part in these transformations. We are all found in different places: in cities, villages, houses, schools, cafés and gyms. We have the opportunity, like salt, to make a difference. It might be a big difference or it might be a subtle difference, but we can transform our communities into the Kingdom of God. The verse in Matthew goes on to say that salt that loses its saltiness is worthless, and actually we can ‘lose our saltiness’. We are created to be in relationship with God and to be agents of transformation. If we stop striving for the Kingdom, stop striving to reach out, stop trying to bring about transformation in the places we go and people we meet, then we stop being the salt of the earth. After 18 months I am excited to see what more transformations God will enable me to witness, not only in my appointment but also in every place that I go. I encourage each of you to take any opportunity you can to transform your community. God will be at work… get involved! Megan Lowe is the corps officer at Bishops Stortford

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BOOK

‘There is some good in this world. And it’s worth fighting for.’ (Sam, The Two Towers) I had just begun to read Visions of Vocation when the tragic random shootings in Paris took place. Garber’s searching question ‘Can you know the world and still love it?’ rang deeply in my heart as I tried to make sense of the shock and despair shared around the world. I was captivated by Garber’s ability to take me on a journey from my initial answer – ‘Yes, I do love the world’ – to actually asking myself: How deeply do I know the world? How genuinely do I love it? How much do I love it in words only, when I feel so overwhelmed by what the world is actually like and what it’s capable of? If you are looking for a light, superficial and unchallenging read, then Visions of Vocation may not be quite the ticket. But if there is anything in you that shares Sam’s passion to fight for the world, because there is some good in it, then this book is for you. For Garber, the key lies in a God who knows the world more deeply than anyone could, and who still loves it. Garber challenges us to recognise how the ‘Info-Glut Culture’ of our time leaves us numb.’ I too end up trying to protect myself from being overcome. In response he takes us on a journey into what it means to truly know. ‘You cannot really know someone by asking, What do you believe? It is only when you ask, What do you love? that we begin to know one another’ (p123). Words have to become flesh. Through the stories of real people – ordinary and well known, people in business, in education, in healthcare,

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Review in childrearing – we see answers to the profound question: Knowing what I know, what am I going to do? Garber opens our eyes to the possibility and to the need for us to be ‘fighting for it’ – in our particular places and times, and with habits of the heart to help us keep loving. For Garber, hope is about having an answer for those who ask ‘Can we find a way to love the world? Or are we all just rats in a cage with no way out?’ (p81) It could be said that a weakness of the book is its heavy application to a US context. However, the stories told are about people engaged in transforming the whole of the world. What translates it is this inspiring vision for this generation: ‘Vocation is integral, not incidental, to the missio Dei (the mission of God)... Ordinary people doing ordinary things see the sacramental meaning of their labour’ (pp155,190). Living with the painful tension of knowing what is and what ought to be, we can cease to be acted upon. We can become the actors who chose to do what we could. Reading this book can help you make it happen.

Major Liesl Baldwin is a tutor at the School for Officer Training.

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A famous proverb says: ‘Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.’ Recently, we’ve added a third part: ‘Train a man to organise and his community will feast for ever.’ However, in our part of London, the problem isn’t about having fish to eat – it’s about having a home to live in. Soon after Naomi and I arrived at Ilford Salvation Army, I met a man called Mustafa who had been an accountant. When I met him he had been on the street for a couple of days and came to us for help. What followed was a crash course in navigating bureaucracies. I met Mustafa at around 10 am. It was around 11 pm when I had to say to him: ‘I’m sorry, Mustafa. Here’s a sleeping bag. Come back in the morning.’ I had never felt so powerless in my life. Power – which in community organising is defined as the ability to act – is the fundamental component of bringing about any sort of change you want to see. We could only make as much change as we had the power to compel.

GIVE A MAN A FISH - GIVE A MAN A BED People often come to Ilford Salvation Army because we are immediately next door to the council’s Housing Advice Centre. They come to us if they haven’t got the answer they wanted. Too often we can just give someone a sleeping bag and make a referral to set them on the path to finding appropriate support, as with Mustafa. After meeting him, however, in November 2011, we discovered a group of other Christians looking to establish a winter night shelter, following the deaths of two rough sleepers the previous year. Somewhere was needed to host the shelter, and with a large upstairs hall used only for storage, we offered our building as a venue. Within weeks, 25 men and women were sleeping in sleeping bags on foam mats in our upstairs hall. Soup was served each evening and donations of clothing given out. It was basic, but it kept people alive. Over four winters, over 300 people have stayed at the night shelter. Each guest can tell their own story of the chain of events that led them to sleeping

rough on the streets. The shelter is only possible because of the commitment of over 150 volunteers from a wide range of backgrounds. Salvationists are joined by members of other churches: Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists and nondenominational. We are joined by people of other faiths and none. The current volunteer team includes Muslims, Sikhs, Jews, atheists and agnostics. We are a diverse community brought together to meet a common need. I’ve experienced more meaningful unity of the Body of Christ at the night shelter than I have in any other ecumenical setting.

TEACH A MAN TO FISH - HELP HIM FIND A HOME A couple of years into the life of the night shelter, we realised that we shouldn’t just be giving people food and a bed. Lifesaving though this was, the night shelter needed to be a base for people to get their lives back on track and move on to a home of their own. We began convening a meeting between different local organisations to discuss what options there were for each person. Unfortunately not everyone can move on. Last winter less than a fifth of our guests

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justice and the common good. Self-identifying as a ‘power organisation’, Citizens UK trains local institutions in the practice of community organising, so that with their neighbours they have the power to challenge politicians, councils and businesses. By building power, people can change their neighbourhoods, cities, and ultimately the country for the better. At Ilford Salvation Army, we realised we needed to get serious about organising if we were to make the change we wanted. The local elections of 2014 provided an opportunity to take action.

We are a diverse community brought together to meet a common need.

moved on to a more stable environment, whether rehab, hostel or flat. For some, their options are limited by having no recourse to public funds. For others, the obstacle is the lack of genuinely affordable housing in our borough. With the lowest stock of council housing of the London boroughs, people in Redbridge are dependent on private landlords. Rents are much higher than the local housing allowance, which means that people we have worked hard to build relationships with are moving out of the borough. This is true not just for people staying in the shelter, but also for families at our toddler group, and people who consider The Salvation Army their church. Suddenly, we all became aware that the housing crisis isn’t affecting just a niche group of homeless people. It is affecting our families and our friends. It is ripping the heart out of our community.

TRAIN A MAN TO ORGANISE – BUILDING A COMMUNITY Ilford Corps is a member institution of Redbridge Citizens, the local chapter of community organising alliance Citizens UK. Citizens UK is an alliance of over 350 schools, churches, mosques, synagogues, unions, youth groups and universities committed to social

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On Tuesday 6 May 2014, 93 citizens met at Ilford Salvation Army hall to hold a public negotiation with the three electoral candidates for leader of Redbridge Council. The three councillors were pressed by this diverse assembly to make commitments to pay a living wage to all care workers, create a private landlords register, explore the possibility of a Community Land Trust (CLT) in the borough, and to meet regularly with Redbridge Citizens to work together in addressing the issues raised at our assemblies. A lot of hard work had gone into the assembly: negotiations with politicans; a script carefully crafted; conversation convincing members to turn up. This was just the beginning. We didn’t ask the politicians to do something for us; we asked them to do something with us. Months later, a small delegation met the newly elected Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council to follow up on their commitments, including exploring developing a community land trust (CLT). A CLT is a way to develop genuinely affordable housing by taking the land into the shared ownership of the community. This removes the inflationary considerations of the land value from the cost of rent or purchase, meaning they can instead be linked to the median income of a given area. Stepney Salvation Army, through Citizens UK, had already been involved in pioneering the

‘I had no power, but you trained me how to take it back’

first urban CLT in the UK, and we believe that developing one within our borough will benefit local people struggling to find affordable places to live. After months of public actions, we engaged with the borough’s Fairness Commission and succeeded in getting them to recommend that two parcels of land be allocated towards large-scale CLTs. In November 2015, we went to a council meeting at the town hall. We filled the public gallery with 80 of our members and stood together to table a question to seek the Leader of the Council’s endorsement of the CLT. He committed to attending another assembly in February 2016 where we would celebrate signing up 300 new shareholders of the CLT – the Pound4Power campaign. The night shelter guests have all signed up as shareholders, and one of the guests at the night shelter has signed up nearly 60 new shareholders on her own!

CONCLUSION Matthew 25:34-36 says: ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you

visited me’ (NRSV) A key aspect of these verses is that the situation is transformed. For example, the one who is hungry is fed. In other words, the homeless person gets a home – not homeless any more! What if we go a step further and recognise that one of the roots of each of these situations is the incapacity to act? Perhaps it’s also appropriate to say, ‘I had no power, but you trained me how to take it back’, so that there’s a fighting chance in that struggle ‘against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms’ (Ephesians 6:12 NIV). My dream for Ilford Salvation Army is that it will not just be a community where lives are saved (though it is), where a community comes together to meet a common need (though it is) and where those sleeping rough come to realise that they are valued and loved by our community (though, again, it is) – but that it will be a place where people find the capacity to act – that power might be built.

Lieutenant John Clifton and his wife Naomi are the corps officers at Ilford Corps.

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THIS IS MY STORY My life is a story of transformation. The person I am today is not the person I was yesterday, and certainly not the person I was seven years ago. It is a journey that has made my life a lot more exciting and colourful and it has brought me to where I am now, in a place where I am waiting to be transformed further. Just over seven years ago I was saved by the grace of God. I realise now that the journey has been much longer than the few months when I was being influenced by the leaders who loved and discipled me before I accepted God. In fact it started the day I was born. Born into a family who are opposed to the church and often opposed to me too, I felt a sense of injustice toward me. I was angry with the world. I was angry with myself. If I knew then what I know now, I would have been angry with God. I will never understand how important it was for me to have the experiences I did throughout my early life, but it brought me into my teenage years as a pretty messed up person. I hated myself. And I had all the reason to. The other children at school didn’t like me. I was a geek, or ‘boff’ as I was labelled then. I was ugly. I was rejected by my own cousin because I wasn’t in with the crowd. I was different, liked spending my time differently. And when I came home to ask why, the answers were ‘Because you are’ or ‘Why do I care?’. I was upset, and when I look back now it’s a miracle alone that I came through all of that as well as I did. To take the words of a song, ‘I have decided to follow Jesus; no turning back, no turning back’. As obvious as this may sound, it got pretty tough at the transformation point. You know the first problem, where you have to accept something is wrong with you and it needs changing. I can’t possibly begin to write all the ways in which God has transformed me here, but to highlight how dramatic it has been I can write a few. When I accepted Jesus, I accepted the principle that humans were created in God’s image. I had to learn to accept that others (me too, but that had to come later) were creations of God and all are special. I began to accept the world around me instead of hating it. This was hard and involved me meeting people who genuinely cared. It took me a long time to get to grips with the idea that anyone could really care for someone else. I accepted the world. But I still hated me. As my defensive walls began to crack because of the love that was being showered over me, I realised that these people were caring about me too. I had a bit of an issue with this, because I felt no one could possibly love me. I had come to accept this as the norm, and in order to protect myself from the emotional trauma that it can cause, I didn’t think about it. Instead I built an emotional wall. God broke through this when I accepted that Jesus died for me. I accepted that God could love me. That put a huge hole into my defences. Over time these defences broke and I stopped hating me, which in turn caused me to love the world. Looking through different eyes allowed me to see what Jesus was doing in the rest of the world – how he was at work – and this was amazing to see. It was like a reward for letting him make me a better person. It never ends, though, and today I am in a place where I can love others and share with them my love for Christ, but I still struggle loving myself. While I have moved on to a place where I have accepted who I am and can see God working in my life and all that I am, I can often fail to see within myself positive personal traits that I have to offer to others in the way that I see them in others. Transformation is a never-ending process. I pray that God transforms me a little more every day to be more like him. And that he reveals who I am in him more and more every day. Today I am not the person I was yesterday or seven years ago. I’m much more colourful. I’m also not the person I will be next year. But I am chosen by God to open my heart and be ready to be transformed. No turning back. Amy-Jo Battersby is a cadet at the William Booth College

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WHY

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JUSTICE? Most children go through a stage of constantly asking the question ‘why?’. Those early ‘why?’ questions show their wonder and curiosity at the world in which they find themselves. If their questions are answered, they learn that ‘why?’ is a great way to make sense of the world. At some point they will also discover the power of ‘why?’ ‘Why do I have to go to bed?’ is as good a question as any for delaying bedtime. They will also realise that ‘why?’ gives them a different quality of attention from their parents. Parents have to stop and think rather than give the standard parental replies of ‘not yet’, ‘I’m on the phone’, ‘not until you’ve eaten your lunch’.

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What brings this stage in a child’s life to an end? Well, no parent is a saint and so their patience will eventually snap, especially when the question is being used to resist a reasonable request. I also think that starting formal education brings a child into an exciting new world where the main questions are: what, when, where, who and how? ‘Why?’ tends to fade or even seem childish. It is the job of the Public Affairs Unit to help The Salvation Army in the UK ask ‘why?’ questions about its work. A definition of justice I like is this: If you find yourself fishing people out of the river, send someone upstream to find out why they are falling in. The Salvation Army has a great reputation for practical and pastoral help. We engage with people where they are and take seriously their view of the world and the help they need. Seeking justice is about listening with a second ear to find out why things are as they are. In the week in which I wrote this article, these were some of the ‘why?’ questions the Public Affairs Unit was working on: 1. Why do Job Centres expect homeless people to prove they are looking for a job? 2. Why to GPs object to

emergency accommodation for single people sleeping rough and others don’t? Reading questions 1, 2 and 3 you probably recognise some of the issues that you would expect to be important to The Salvation Army. Issues 1 and 2 are things where national government decides how people will be treated. In the case of question 1, I spent some time with a senior civil servant who makes policy in this area. In the case of question 2, our Director of Older People’s Services went with a member of my team to talk to the government minister responsible for the care of older people. Question 3 is more challenging because private sector companies cannot be directly held to account by churches and charities. The need is to influence the way in which government regulates what they do and also to encourage public opinion to change. The reality is that large companies invest more money in lobbying than churches or charities could possibly afford, and so we often feel like a peashooter next to a cannon. You can see on the

Why are some brewers selling single cans of lager that contain more units of alcohol than it is safe for a man to drink in one day? providing free care for residents of old people’s homes? 3. Why are some brewers selling single cans of lager that contain more units of alcohol than it is safe for a man to drink in one day? 4. Why should ministers of religion be exempt from paying tax on the homes they occupy rent free? 5. Why do some local authorities make small cash grants to people on benefits facing a crisis when others don’t? 6. Why do some local authorities provide

Army’s YouTube channel a video (www.youtube. com/watch?v=ERsAnRlAVI4) of an event we did in which people helped by our Employment Services and Homelessness Services talked about the effective of cheap high-strength alcohol on their lives. Question 4 about the taxes officers pay is an example of a question about the place of the Army in our society. What is a just balance between what members pay for, donors pay for and the state pays for? The current

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Government is raising a number of questions like this which ask the churches to be clear about their role in society rather than assume they have a historic entitlement to support. Questions 5 and 6 mention local authorities. The UK is going through a political process of devolution and localism. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are gradually gaining powers that were once held in Westminster. In England, the current Government is giving more responsibilities to local authorities, either as Combined Authorities or through City Deals. Some of the things which make a difference to the people we serve will be a combination of what central, devolved and local governments do. As a small team sitting in

Integration means in TIDE: that we are more effective in delivering the mission because we work in a joined-up way. Seeking justice is transformational because the source of the problem is changed alongside helping the people with the problem. An interesting aspect of justice-seeking questions is that they don’t go away. They are like the grit in an oyster that keeps irritating until it becomes a pearl. As a team we have learned that we need to stick with some questions and continue to find opportunities to raise them with people who have the power to make a difference. If you are reading this, you are probably someone who is exploring their sense of calling or helping others do the same. This is the biggest ‘why?’ question any of us can ask: Why am I here? It is both a powerful and challenging question and

Why do some local authorities provide emergency accommodation for single people sleeping rough and others don’t?

London we cannot hope to influence every local authority. It wouldn’t be credible if we did. So we are gradually working with areas that want to partner with us in engaging professionally with local authorities on matters of social justice. We can provide the know-how but the energy needs to come from the front line. There is a group at THQ bringing together all the departments and teams with an interest in localism so we can work in a joined-up way. This can all sound a long way from the reality of being on the front line when someone comes to you and says that their washing machine has broken or that they are sleeping rough. But if we are to ask the ‘why?’ questions as well as respond to need, the Army will need to work in a joined-up way. For me that is what

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it can be simpler to say ‘not yet’. However, if we feel able to ask the ‘why?’ question about ourselves, it will equip us to ask the ‘why?’ questions we meet when we listen to others. I have the privilege of describing what my team does to the cadets as they prepare to leave the college. It is evident from that encounter that for some, justice-seeking is part of their calling. ‘Why?’ questions can be dismissed as childish, but they remain powerful questions that can lead us to listen and act in new ways. People who have the courage to ask ‘why?’ can be agents of transformation.

Helen Cameron is Head of Public Affairs for The Salvation Army. She writes and speaks on practical theology.

Save the date y a D ip h s r e d a e L g in r lo p Ex ian & Rosalie With Commissioners Br

Peddle

7 1 0 2 h c r a M h t 2 1 y a Sund ooth College William B

rg.uk

y.o vocation@salvationarm

EXPLORE 2016/17

‘I WOULD LIKE SOME INFORMATION ABOUT BECOMING A SPIRITUAL LEADER IN THE SALVATION ARMY BUT I DON’T WANT TO MAKE AN OFFICIAL APPLICATION AT THIS POINT.

WHAT CAN I DO?’

THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS YOU CAN GET THE INFORMATION YOU NEED: Have a look at the Candidates Unit website Visit www.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/William-Booth-CollegeCandidates for more information about becoming a spiritual leader.

Pick up a leaflet The Candidates Unit stand will be at some Youth Councils and other Salvation Army events in the UK. Alternatively, give us a call and we will send you a leaflet through the post. Telephone number: 020 7326 2820

Attend the Exploring Leadership Day Conference Every year the Candidates Unit organises an open event for those interested in spiritual leadership. You must be over 13 to attend. In 2017 it is taking place on 12 March at William Booth College. Booking forms will be available from your corps officer and the Candidates Unit from October 2016 onwards or online at www.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/William-Booth-CollegeCandidates. This is a free event.

Candidates Sunday In the Salvation Army calendar, one Sunday in every year is dedicated to the subject of spiritual leadership with a particular emphasis on Candidates. The official date for 2016 is Sunday 8 May, although some corps will hold it on a different date. Some time prior to this date resources will be available from www. salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/William-Booth-College-Candidates to help the congregation focus on the need for all Christians to follow God’s call, wherever that may lead. This year the theme is ‘Transformation’.

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A WEEKEND TO HELP YOU DISCOVER GOD’S DESIGN FOR YOUR LIFE

2016

2-4 September

2017 All weekends at William Booth College

27-29 January 19-21 May 1-3 September

DFL is an event that seeks to help people discover God’s design for their life. For more information and an application form contact the Candidates Unit

Call 020 7326 2820 Email vocation@salvationarmy.org.uk Visit www.salvationarmy.org.uk/William-Booth-College-Candidates