Ragamuffin: preaching

… an odd animal

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reaching is an odd animal in the sense that we generally have a person standing and giving a “lecture”. It is usually a monologue. To do this effectively one must have some passion concerning the subject. Most preachers do have passion but, for some reason, it may not shine through as clearly as it does when they watch their favorite sport.

Along with passion there must be preparation. This should go without saying but I said it anyway. Pastors are generally busy and in my line of work I have added responsibilities that can consume any preparation time. Passion, preparation and - I need another “P” word here … raPport. Oh, well I tried. In the effort to get rapport does the use of notes hinder? I don’t think so. I have heard several speakers who had passion and preparation and they still gained a rapport even with the use of notes or a manuscript.

Now, I have also heard persons try to speak with very few notes and have no rapport. So I think connection is the key, not the lack of notes/eye contact. Maybe it comes down to letting your personality blend with the Holy Spirit and then flowing into a message from God to the people (through you). Personally, I seldom use notes. This fits my personality. I endeavor to put true passion and preparation into the sermon. Hopefully God will work in spite of my feeble attempts and authentic rapport (or a connection) will be made. The critical issues of our preparation and presentation are: Is it accurate? Is it clear? Is it practical?

Ragamuffin appears every Monday on theRubicon. Find past Ragamuffin posts and a bio of Capt. Jay Davis here.

Double~take | Psalms

… I know this song

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sometimes visit corps who keep their songbooks in the holders at the back of the chairs. Since the most recent use of songbooks at my corps was to prop up some lopsided lighting gear, reading the songbook for me is like reading a dictionary. Idly I flick through, and occasionally I will see a song I recognise…

“Omigosh!!! I know this song!!!”

Which means it’s a Christmas carol, “How Great Thou Art” or “Dare to be a Daniel”.

At the moment, I am reading my way through the Psalms. I had just finished 2 Kings, and hit 1 Chronicles; when I remembered that it was the boring rewrite and history section, and skipped to Job. Such perseverance, I know…. So, there are two ways I read the Psalms - informed, and uninformed.

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Vox populi | resolutions

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have resolved on the eve of many new years to lose 20 pounds. It is even more poignant that the resolution comes after a week of indulging in all kinds of epicurean entanglements. Is it possible to live out our convictions to the fullest or are we always at the mercy of our own hypocrisy?

This past year A.J. Jacobs attempted to live exactly how the Bible prescribes. He chronicles his journey in the bestseller, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. Donning a hemp robe and a staff he does his best to live exactly as the characters in the Bible live. I’m guessing stonings and the like are not part of his prescriptive lifestyle.

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Too much to handle

by Peter Lublink

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f you have spent any time either as a member of The Salvation Army or with people who have been a part of The Salvation Army, you have likely come across the following phrase: “I didn’t realize that you’re a church!” Or perhaps you have come across one of these other common reactions: “Can a government social services provider really be a church as well?” “Don’t you guys just recycle old clothes?” “Don’t you just help poor people?”

Over the years, many Salvationists have begun to doubt themselves, their essence and their place in the global church as a result of these kinds of questions. For example, the question “Is the Salvation Army a church?” has been raised in the minds of many in and outside the Army. While at times these discussions can be interesting, the reality is that we are unquestionably a “church” in the most biblical sense of the word. But we are also a social services provider on behalf of the government; we do feed and clothe the poor; and we do operate a variety of services internationally that seek to aid people and their needs. And of course, we do recycle clothing and bring new life to old furniture, but that doesn’t mean that this takes away from our number one priority: to see new life breathed into people and their families.

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Deeper shade of grey | balance

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was reminded of this quote that connects with the Moltmann observation and the source of a many a mission essay!! “Evangelism is mission but mission is not merely evangelism” (Moltmann 1977).

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Whenever the church reduces its way of relating to the world simply to the task of making disciples, something hugely important is lost. We are left with the picture of the church as the Ark of Salvation: all we are called to do is draw people into it to safety from the destruction around them, In this picture, ‘the world’ is no longer a manifestation of the wisdom and love of the good creator but a hostile environment from which we ourselves must escape, within which we must keep ourselves safe and from which we will eventually be taken into heaven.

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From a God we hardly knew

by William Willimon

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;
and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace
[Isa. 9:6].

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robably most of us have had the experience of receiving, right out of the blue, a gift from someone we really don’t know all that well. And, perhaps, to our consternation, the gift turns out to be nice, something that we didn’t know we wanted and certainly didn’t ask for, but there it is, a good gift from someone who is not really a good friend.Now, what is the first thing we do in response?

Right. We try to come up with a gift to give in return - not out of gratitude (after all, we didn’t ask for it) or out of friendship (after all, we hardly even know this person), but because we don’t want to feel guilty.

We don’t want to be indebted. The gift seems to lay a claim upon us, especially since it has come from someone we barely know. This is uncomfortable; it’s hard to look the person in the face until we have reciprocated. By giving us a gift, this person has power over us.

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Ragamuffin: TSA and its bible

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n The Salvation Army there is the accepted/approved version of the scriptures that are used. Currently this is the New International Version. It is time to change our preference. How about TNIV - Today’s New International Version? This version is an updated NIV with only about seven percent changes. Some alterations are in-line with our co-equal ministry of the sexes. “Brothers and sisters” is often the replacement for the older “brothers” or “men”. Two versions I like are the NLTse and the TNIV.

Would it be possible to adopt TNIV as the one we generally use officially for The Salvation Army? Why should we? Well, it is accurate, with some claiming it’s the most accurate translation to date. It is clear; Zondervan’s target audience for it is youth and young adults - although it appeals to boomers as well. It is also practical for reading, studying and preaching.

Although officers are free to use any reliable translation it seems that if we had the NIV as “official” we could now upgrade to the TNIV.

What say you?

Ragamuffin appears every Monday on theRubicon. Find past Ragamuffin posts and a bio of Capt. Jay Davis here.

Off duty

… reflection by Andrea Demchuk

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nder the category of true stories that are so strange as to be impossible to concoct… late last night, my pre-teen son and I were traveling home on the subway from the live musical version of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. Now I can’t speak for the lad, who was buried in one of his books, but I was exhausted from a cold, damp Christmas kettle shift, still wearing my jacket with the nine-inch Salvation Army shield on the back

While slouching there, a woman with a crying eight year-old tapped my shoulder and asked me if I worked for The Salvation Army. Having been somewhat hardened by two decades of riding Toronto Transit with all manner of characters, I was in the middle of sizing-up the two and their angle while answering that I was a volunteer, when the child handed me a twenty dollar bill and the mother explained that it was for the Army to help the homeless.

The mother and child had been at the same performance of White Christmas and the child had become very upset during their walk to the subway on seeing homeless people. Because my donation bubble wasn’t handy, I asked if she could write a cheque which she did while saying she was so glad that I was there wearing my Salvation Army gear.

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Double~take | understanding God

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lbert Einstein once said: “God doesn’t play dice with the universe.”

This was his response to the basic theories of Quantum Mechanics – a stream of science where the outcomes of various experiments can only be determined using probability. You can never say for sure what the results will be, and the greater you try for accuracy, the higher your error margin creeps elsewhere.

Einstein didn’t like this theory. That there was something he couldn’t dissemble in its entirety – something that couldn’t be fully understood didn’t fit in such a beautifully ordered universe. Until that point, discoveries in science had been stunning in their simplicity – all of a sudden, a novel idea would come along and BAM! Theories adjusted, and once awkward anomalies slipped easily into their rightful place – your results became MORE accurate, not less….

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Vox populi | destiny

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’m reading a book, “Origins of The Salvation Army” by Norman H. Murdoch, for a course I’m taking. I am finding that Murdoch takes an interesting approach to our history, and the activities of our founders. His premise is The Salvation Army’s practice is based on the influence of 19th century American revivalists, Caughey, Finney and Palmer, and he contends The Salvation Army was not successful in east London. He also puts forward that William Booth moved into East London, not by divine calling, but rather by circumstance. He says Catherine was a far better preacher, and was more effective than William in reaching her audience. Regarding leadership style, Murdoch argues that William wrestled with wanting the freedom that non-sectarianism afforded, and being drawn to an autocratic controlling style of leadership.

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