Emerging Images of Salvationist Mission

Paper title: Emerging Images of Salvationist Mission
Author/researcher: Craig Campbell
Country of origin: Australia
Publication/completion date: December, 2004
Length: 204 pages
Keywords: The Salvation Army, mission, hospitality
Abstract:
A compelling, comprehensive and contemporary image of mission is needed if The Salvation Army is to remain as a vigorous and vital presence in Australia. Such an image of mission functions to create an imaginative space into which people can enter with new energy.

The search for a contemporary image of salvationist mission employs a model that gathers tradition, culture and experience into creative conversation. This model is supported by a research methodology that brings together critical theory, constructivism and participatory inquiry, and is complemented by a theological method that begins ‘from below,’ in the human experience of God. The theological formation of The Salvation Army is traced through Arminianism, Evangelicalism and focussed in Wesleyanism. The Army commenced as an activist movement convinced that salvation for the world to come should also be experienced in all aspects of life here and now. True religion incorporates good society, and real transformation is to be expected in individuals and structures of society. Original salvationist mission incorporated dual emphasis on spiritual and temporal needs and possibilities, a practical theology seeking to connect the experience of the transcendent with daily life.

The second fifty years, following the Great War, saw The Salvation Army undergo a profound shift in theological world-view, removing God’s concern more to the spiritual and hereafter. Images of mission from Salvation Army history are readily described as ‘bringing in’ and ‘going out’, although the meaning of each is determined entirely by the theological view of history that is predominant. Echoes of a third image are still powerfully present, ‘meeting God in people’ or ‘being with’, an image of mutual hospitality, of accompaniment, of participation and sanctuary.

Comparing two practical theologies of the twentieth century provides helpful reference in analysing salvationist theology and method. Christian Realism affirms ‘mythical method’ as a means to retain a sense of the transcendent within daily existence, cultivating a necessary passion while avoiding an unhelpful fanaticism in mission, and offers further insight into the separation of Corps and social services mission. Liberation Theology brings a postmodern perspective to the challenge of naming the transcendent in daily existence. The themes of promise and fulfilment emerge for the contemporary era that is rightly suspicious of the manipulations inevitably practised by powerful interests. The voice of lived experience, which stands alongside tradition and culture, is heard through three case studies; the first through participants in the Theology in Mission focus group as they reflect on the personal challenges and changes brought by this shared journey; the second through Shop 16, an example of new forms of emerging mission; and the third through Human Capacity Development Responses (HCDR) facilitated by the Army’s International Health Team.

Reflection on the ‘hospitality of God’ as a dominant theme in Luke’s gospel leads into a positive statement of mission image for The Salvation Army in postmodern Australia, emerging from the three-way conversation of tradition, culture and experience. Mission as hospitality, expressed in accompaniment, participation and sanctuary, emerges decisively as the image best suited to The Salvation Army in Australia.

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