Doing the Most Good
September 20, 2013 New Frontier
Nuturing the seed within us Mile after mile of arid high desert; extensive and almost incredible expanses of ancient lava flows; upthrust cliffs: red and black, brown, yellow and shining white—for the past several days Sharon we have been driving Robertson among almost incredLt. Colonel ible reminders of the geologically violent past of America’s Great Basin. The awesome landscape slides by, waves of heat rising from the roadway ahead—all viewed from the closed windows of our comfortably cool, air-conditioned car. Believe me, we are thanking God for air conditioning. Here and there—few and far between— are the most amazing sights of all: lush green fields of crops; golden-ripe grain waving in the desert breeze; cattle, horses and sheep grazing in seeming perfect contentment. We could not help but be reminded of the words of Isaiah: For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody (Isa. 51:3 KJV). But as we drove on, the words of Jesus to his disciples came to mind with even more impact: “The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred
MORELOCK
The future of Salvation Army social work
times what was sown” (Mark 4:14-20 NIV). The green and gold acres of thriving crops in the desert are not accidents of nature, the simple coming together of the right conditions. They are the result of careful planning and incredible determination. Rocks by the thousands have been moved to clear the land. Untold hours have been given to plowing, preparing the soil, fertilizing land to which life-giving water must be applied in abundance: a commodity in short supply in this arid land. All this must be brought to the inhospitable desert environ and maintained through heat and cold and storms both wet and dry. And I wonder if, in spite of the warning words of Jesus, we who claim to be his followers are willing to put the same kind of devotion, dedication and just plain hard work into maintaining our relationship with him. A crop cannot be planted and then totally neglected. It requires attention: watering, clearing away the weeds and thorns that threaten, protection from the harmful beasties that would destroy it before ever it had a chance to ripen, and from the heat and cold and storms that would flatten the fields before harvest. It requires careful pruning or thinning at the proper time, even when the farmer feels reluctance to do so. (My peach tree had so many peaches on its branches that I, an amateur at best, couldn’t bear to thin the fruit. It got so heavy it broke the branches!) The fact is inescapable: if you want a good harvest, you have to work hard to tend the garden! And if we want our relationship with Christ to be one that is full, mature, joyous, sustaining us through whatever ills may come our way—if we want a fruitful Christian life that proclaims Christ in the midst of a hostile environment, we must be willing to exert real effort—to work hard— to develop the seed of the fruit of the Spirit God has implanted in us.
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Hundreds of non-stop prayer rooms have housed extravagant prayer since 2011. The purpose of the global call is to motivate and focus attention on prayer throughout The Salvation Army’s international family, with a united purpose in intercession. A renewal of prayer is happening in our day. We in the Western Territory are called to be part of it. Your corps is called to be part of it. Every Salvationist is being challenged to a greater commitment to prayer. Prayer does change things! It will
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ISSN 2164-5930 New Frontier is published twice a month by The Salvation Army USA Western Territory Commissioner James Knaggs, Territorial Commander Colonel Dave Hudson, Chief Secretary We welcome submissions of news stories of interest to the Western Territory. If you have something you’d like to share, submissions can be sent electronically to: new.frontier@usw.salvationarmy.org or by postal service to: New Frontier, P.O. Box 22646, 180 E. Ocean Blvd. Long Beach, CA 90802 The editor reserves the right to edit material submitted. Articles should be roughly 300 words in length.
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change us, our corps and institutions, our communities, our nation, the world. “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14). To request prayer and view other prayer requests and praise reports visit saprayusw.com.
EDITORIAL STAFF Robert L. Docter, Editor-In-Chief • 562/491-8330 email: bob.docter@usw.salvationarmy.org Christin Davis, Managing Editor • 562/491-8723 email: christin.davis@usw.salvationarmy.org Karen Gleason, New Frontier Editor •562/491-8332 email: karen.gleason@usw.salvationarmy.org Buffy Lincoln, Associate Editor • 562/491-8329 email: buffy.lincoln@usw.salvationarmy.org Erica Andrews, Assistant Editor • 562/491-8334 email: erica.andrews@usw.salvationarmy.org Edie Jenkins, Editorial Assistant • 562/491-8785 email: edie.jenkins@usw.salvationarmy.org Jared McKiernan, Editorial Assistant • 562/491-8345 email: jared.mckiernan@usw.salvationarmy.org Vivian Gatica, Editorial Assistant • 562/491-8782 email: vivian.gatica@usw.salvationarmy.org LAYOUT & DESIGN/ADVERTISING Kevin Dobruck, Art Director • 562/491-8328 email: kevin.dobruck@usw.salvationarmy.org Adriana Rivera, Graphic Designer/Web coordinator • 562/491-8331 email: adriana.rivera@usw.salvationarmy.org CIRCULATION Arlene De Jesus, Circulation • 562/491-8343 email: arlene.dejesus@usw.salvationarmy.org new.frontier@usw.salvationarmy.org
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I tend to live in the present—the here and now—not the there and then of the past nor the “sometime-maybe” of the future. But life demands that we look ahead, see what’s coming, understand trends, even make a few predictions. Some others have made profound predictions. In 1943, Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, stated: “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” At least he had the word “think” in his prescient prediction. In 1981, Bill Gates said: “640K ought to be enough for anybody.” In 1962, this young, English, singing group with a strange name—the Beatles—tried to get a contract with Decca Records and were rejected. When asked why, Decca responded: “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” Let’s face it, the future is what we make it. The plan emerges from the problems of deficiencies of the past. The Salvation Army has a difficult time planning ahead. If someone outside the command structure comes up with a valid and tested idea, it often requires successful navigation through several levels of bureaucracy. If it originates at the top of command structure, it can be done quickly when the appropriate power base seeks the change. This is rare and most often becomes simply a surface change. If the future pushes us to change the quality and effectiveness of our social services, we have considerable data from a wide range of input reflecting the status quo. I’m not aware of whether or not these data are actually examined, what range of social programs they examine, or their level of accuracy. And what about the future? Will we become the Decca Records of social work? The Lehman Brothers of social change? Disappeared historic names. Is the Army’s status quo sufficient? I am taken with the concept “transformation.” We tend to see transformation in a spiritual context wherein a human being recognizes his or her separation from God, feels overwhelmed, and decides to make a total and distinct change in lifestyle—a spiritual conversion of such depth that the individual becomes an entirely new, a different person. Transformation. We need to expand our understanding of the word. Transformation is a new paradigm. It’s systemic, and affects all involved. It is what systems people call “second-order change”— a change in depth that frustrates leaders and threatens followers. Sometimes, it’s unplanned and almost happens by itself with inventions that modify how the society communicates and interacts. We tend, much of the time, to limit change planning to first-order changes. These are “superficial and do not call into ques-
tion the existing culture, mission/purpose or organizational paradigm” (John Hillary). Changing the time the meeting starts or renovating the building does not change the system running the Robert organization. Docter Second-order change Editor-In-Chief “calls into question the status quo and disrupts the alignment among organizational attributes.” The eventual outcome of such change is a transformed, or renewed, organization—and, possibly, a traumatized workforce. I believe The Salvation Army has a greater obligation to work toward dramatic social change—second-order change, not the cosmetic action with which we seem to limit ourselves. We move with great caution and miss many great opportunities. Why do we play it so safe? Why aren’t we making, at least,—like the New Zealand Salvation Army,—annual reports to the congress about the status of society—about the changing nature of society? It could be about crucial data assembled by its own Census Bureau— information like the dramatically unequal distribution of income. The wealthy are significantly wealthier today while poverty erodes more and more lives. Middle income people have stayed at the same income level as last year, while lower income people have earned less. What are the implications of these data? What is the rationale that causes us to believe that it’s perfectly alright that a salary received by a woman is 23 percent less than a man receives for the same work? Why is that? Why are we silent about the 20.5 million Americans living in extreme poverty, earning less than $10,000 a year? That’s a cash income less than half of the poverty line. The high level of hunger continues. Last year 17.2 million households were food insecure. I know, “the poor will always be with us,” but that doesn’t mean we let them starve, or ignore their need to escape poverty. We need to abandon the status quo, get “outside the box,” and begin thinking, planning and testing a new system in, what I hope, is our ongoing commitment to reducing poverty. Big thinkers think big. Often they are laughed at. But just look at the change we have experienced in the last couple of decades. To meet the challenges of tomorrow, we need a “think tank” with a few problem analyzers who are able to begin the process of moving us toward a transformation that will examine in detail “off the wall” ideas about how to deal with massive spiritual and social problems. Let it begin with social workers, because they know the problems that need to experience transformation.
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