Review: Praise the Lord for Covenants

Book Review  - Praise The Lord For Covenants: Old Testament wisdom for our world today By Captain Michael Ramsay

Covenant seems to be a word shied away from in 21^st century society and culture. Contract disputes in sports, mortgage foreclosures, criminal and civil suites, and broken trust between employees and employers and among family and friends have left most people disillusioned about special agreements. Well, praise the Lord for Captain Michael Ramsay’s book Praise The Lord For Covenants: Old Testament wisdom for our world today.

In Covenants, Ramsay has defined and declared the importance of covenant(s) to our spiritual lives and journeys as Salvationists. His goal for the book is that it will “remind us that as we are bound to the Lord in a Salvific covenant that indeed we can be holy as the Lord is holy.” He hopes “the Lord will use this book to encourage us all to take advantage of that both for eternity and for here and now as well.” (Praise The Lord For Covenants, page 98). Mission accomplished.

The word “covenant” carries significant theological and spiritual weight. Ramsay’s book and exposition of relevant passages of Scripture from the Old Testament is a helping hand in the lifting of reflection and study. Among the texts explored are Genesis 15, Numbers 6, Judges 2, and the story of Samson. Chapter seven is particularly helpful. It is a study of the word “berit[h]“; the most common word translated as covenant in the Bible.

Praise The Lord For Covenants is well written and very readable. Captain Ramsay’s depth of knowledge and care for the subject matter is evident. This book is another great theological and spiritual volume in Salvation Army literature.

General Eva Burrows contributed the foreword and describes Captain Michael Ramsay as “a passionate student both of Biblical covenants and Salvationist covenants, and we should be grateful to him for bringing us a 21^st century view with thought-provoking insights.” (Praise The Lord For Covenants, page 11). General Burrows admonishes the reader to read Covenants “with your Bible in hand, and make some inspiring and challenging discoveries.” (Covenants, page 14).

Read it for theological reflection and study. Read it as a part of spiritual direction. Read it to be inspired and edified.

Praise The Lord For Covenants: Old Testament wisdom for our world today was published by credo Press out of Vancouver, BC, Canada. It is a Salvation Army approved book and is available for order through email at covenant@sheepspeak.com or through snail mail…

            The Salvation Army- Swift Current Corps

            P.O. Box 2061

            Swift Current, SK

            S9H 4M7

1929 (in 1,929 words)

1,929 words regarding, reviewing, and reflecting upon 1929 by Mark Braye

One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.

Niccolo Machiavelli

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous  to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Change is the law of life.

                                                                                               John F. Kennedy  

Regarding and Reviewing

General John Larsson (Retired) is the author of the book 1929: A Crisis That Shaped The Salvation Army’s Future. The text was published by Salvation Books in 2009. Larsson was the General, world leader, of The Salvation Army for four years, from 2002 until 2006. Throughout his officership, Larsson served in the United Kingdom, South America, New Zealand and Sweden. He was Chief of the Staff prior to becoming General. General Larsson has written several books besides 1929 and is a widely published composer and the co-writer of ten musicals.

General Shaw Clifton, current world leader of The Salvation Army, contributed the foreword for 1929. He writes that no one “likes having their dirty linen washed in public, still less if it is the ‘linen’ of a Christian organization anxious to retain a reputation for Christlike integrity.” (1929, pg. v). To a large extent General Clifton feels that in the publishing of 1929 “we are re-opening old wounds.” (1929, pg. vi). Maybe. However, it is the re-opening of these wounds and in the full disclosure telling of this story, which is part of our story, our history, that these wounds may be healed.

 For years, 1929 had and has been a four-letter word among Salvationists and in The Salvation Army. In his preface General Larsson writes: “So traumatic was this event that for many years ‘1929′ - for that is how it was known - was only talked of in hushed tones in Army circles. The telling of what happened was left to those from outside the Army family.” (1929, pg. vii).

General Larsson has crafted an amazing report and tale using primary and secondary resources that have been written about the crisis of 1929 or that alluded to the crisis of 1929.

1929 is, essentially, a book about change; change you can believe in. It’s the story of an organization growing up; learning; evolving. It tells of an event in our collective Salvation Army history; warts and all.

1929 tells the story of an episode in the life of General Bramwell Booth and The Salvation Army; General succession; reform to the constitution of The Salvation Army; and The Salvation Army’s style of governance.

I will try to give a “Coles Notes” version of 1929. However, I encourage you to read the book. What follows pales in comparison to General Larsson’s text.

General Bramwell Booth was a great man. Considered by, if not all, the vast majority of Salvationists and SA historians to be the second greatest General The Salvation Army has ever had or may have; second only to his father and first General of The Salvation Army William Booth. Quoting again from General Clifton’s foreword: “Of all those playing a significant role in the saga of 1929 Bramwell Booth is one of the very few who emerged with dignity intact.” (1929, pg. v). (This does raise the question, though, of who did not emerge from the saga of 1929 with their dignity intact?). General Bramwell Booth’s contributions to The Salvation Army’s life and ministry are surpassed only by his father and mother, Catherine Booth.

The Salvation Army, formerly the Christian Mission, went through three constitutions in its infancy: 1870, 1875, and 1878. One of the clauses in the Foundation Deed of 1878 stated: “…every General Superintendent… shall have the power to appoint his Successor to the Office of General Superintendent…” (The Salvation Army, Foundation Deed of 1878).

In 1904, however, after having second thoughts about the power the 1878 Deed vested in the General, William Booth had an amendment attached to the Constitution that provided, essentially, checks and balances for the General of The Salvation Army.

The above two facts combined to create the tipping point for the story of 1929. General Bramwell Booth was ill and could not carry out his roles and responsibilities as General of The Salvation Army. This is in no way a knock or put-down. The man had given his life, his blood, sweat, and tears, to The Salvation Army, he was sick, and he was 73 years of age. Bramwell was a workaholic as well; that he was serving into his seventies is to be commended.

The High Council was called to work through this issue as well as the issue of reform to the Constitution and governance model of The Salvation Army.  After many prayers, debates, hurt feelings, speeches, and tears, General Bramwell Booth was asked to retire and Commissioner Edward Higgins, his Chief of the Staff, became the third General of The Salvation Army. There were secret meetings in “civies,” letters written back and fourth across The Salvation Army world, and court proceedings, that most involved, felt were too bad.

In the end I think everyone wins. Times change; culture changes; people change; organizations made up of people change.

1929 is an easy read. This observation in no way demeans the author’s intelligence or the scholarship of the book. It’s well-written and progresses through the story and history with ease. Larsson cuts through some of the legal documents and correspondence of the day to give us readers a relevant picture of what it all meant.

General Larsson’s book 1929 is a great read for anyone and everyone. It’s a must-read for Salvationists who want to know about this story that still has implications and raises questions and thoughts for us and our organization today, over eighty years later.

reflecting upon

The following reflections, observations, and questions came to mind while reading through 1929. They may spark thought and conversation; or incite internal riots.

 - Larrson quotes Robert Sandall from volume one of The History of The Salvation Army: “Power to alter the constitution [by The Salvation Army] was not retained, consequently the [1878] deed poll can be varied only by an Act of Parliament.” (1929, pg. 20). Does this mean, then, that our official statements of faith, The Doctrines of The Salvation Army, cannot be reworked or rewritten after years of thought and study unless the British Government allows it? It strikes me as odd that our most explicit statements of Salvation Army faith and theological distinctives, although I would imagine most Christians would agree with and appreciate them, would be so tied to the state.

 - There was a War Congress held in 1878. General William Booth addressed the crowd with his first speak entitled “The Past of the War.” General Booth said: “Let us try to look at the flaws of the past. Let us never be ashamed to learn. And let us say to all our critics ‘Be merciful to us.’ We are travelling along a road on which none ever trod before…” (1929, pg. 21). Is our first General speaking to us from the grave? Are there things we can learn and rework today? Doctrines? The S-word? (Sounds like “peppermints”). Systems of leadership and governance? Appointment process? Think of the change that occurred during William Booth’s lifetime. The amount of change since then has gone up exponentially.

 - On page 25 of 1929 Larsson reports that William Booth had second thoughts about the arrangements of succession of Generalship, which eventually led to the 1904 amendment. (Pg. 24). Did our Army father have second thoughts about anything else from the Deed of 1878? Did our Army father have second thoughts about any other elements of faith in the life of the Army?

 - General William Booth’s favourite saying was: “What I have done, I can undo.” (Pg. 30). Can we “undo” any elements of our Army systems today? Are there any elements of our Army systems that need to be undone?

 - There was a “Trumpet Blast” heard round the Army world. The writer of the manifesto in question said the structure of TSA was “thoroughly and unqualifiedly bad” and went on to say that “it must be destroyed.” (Pg. 59). No one would feel as strongly today. However, could our systems and structures be reworked or redone?

 - Following the 1929 High Council, Territorial Commander of the USA Southern Territory at the time, Colonel William McIntyre wrote: “The recent events have not come as the result of sudden action, but they have been the steady growth of perhaps a quarter century or more - a growing feeling that some day, somehow, a revision of our constitution must take place and be adjusted to the purposes, the conditions, and the needs of the present day.” (Pg. 61). This was written in 1929 or 1930. The present day has changed ten-fold in the past eighty years compared to the changes that took place between 1878 and 1929.

- Close to his death, General William Booth, in what appears now to have been an element of foreshadowing concerning the next General of The Salvation Army, spoke to his son-in-law, Commissioner Frederick Booth-Tucker, and said: “Tucker, when I am gone, I want you to stand beside Bramwell. Don’t be his ditto or echo. You have an independent mind and judgement, and I want you to express it freely. While he will have the deciding voice, I want you to express your own views frankly and fearlessly.” (Pg. 65). Have we lost a little of this in TSA? Have we lost this spirit of open, honest, and candid conversation? When we are open and honest and thoughts and opinions differ, why do we see it as insubordination or disrespect? See also pages 74, 79, 114, as well as others throughout 1929.

 - Pg. 118. Once a leader has made a decision the debate is over? Sometimes, and rightly so, a decision being made is only the beginning of true debate. There are some cases, issues, and elements in life and faith where on-going conversation is vital.

 - 1929 in general and page 120 in particular paint Bramwell Booth as a worker; maybe even a workaholic. Admirable. However, not something to be emulated to extreme measures. At one point in his life he never again had a work-free day. How much did this contribute to his poor health? Woman/man needs rest; the mind, the soul, the spirit, the body, needs rest. God rested. Christ rested. We’ve been given a day of Holy rest.

- Lieut.-Commissioner William Haines was the Managing Director of The Salvation Army Assurance Society and Vice-President of the High Council. He stood among his comrades and delivered his thoughts about the Army’s need to free itself from the bondage of “forbidden speech, forbidden thought, forbidden conscience, and forbidden action.” (Pg. 228). Is there such bondage to which we need freedom from today? Could we free ourselves today from such bondage or situations similar to Haines’ thoughts? Are there “forbidden” topics of thought, conversation, debate, and action today?

- There was a Salvation Army Act of 1980. (Pg. 329). It seems to me that one of the provisions allows the General to make changes to the main schedules, or appendices, of our Deeds with written approval of more than two-thirds of Commissioners. If I’m reading and understanding this correctly, we could, for example, reword or rework a doctrine. What are some other implications of this fact, if indeed it is a fact I have understood correctly?

Just some thoughts; for better or worse.

 Writer: Mark and Nancy Braye are the pastors/officers of The Salvation Army Tri-Town Community Church in Temiskaming Shores, Ontario, Canada. They have two children, pictured above, Hannah and Micah. The four of them love to play and watch Sesame Street, Dora the Explorer, and The Wiggles.

The Hitchens brothers

Review of: Peter Hitchens, The Rage against God, Grand Rapids, Zondervan 2010, hb, 224 pp.

by Maxwell Ryan

Christopher Hitchens is among the more prominent of the current crop of atheists, which is one reason why The rage against God (subtitled “How atheism led me to faith”) by his less well-known brother Peter, is such a fascinating read. This is a marvelous read, for form as well as content. Readers who are looking for a defense of the Christian faith against atheism will not be disappointed. Yet this is far from being a fundamentalist rant.

Peter - a British journalist, author and broadcaster - is currently a columnist for the Mail on Sunday. A former revolutionary, he attributes his return to faith largely to his experience of socialism in practice, which he witnessed during his years reporting in Eastern Europe. Three years as a resident correspondent in Moscow during the collapse of the Soviet Union confirmed his growing doubts about secular salvation.

This is a beautifully written and poignant book. The carefully crafted language is a delight to read as the author leads his readers along a winding autobiographical journey that is honest, thought provoking and kind. As the younger brother (by three years), Peter early learned to fight physically and verbally with a brother who defined much of his life. As Peter writes, “Christopher and I have had over the past fifty years what might be called a difficult relationship. Some brothers get along; some do not. We were the sort who just didn’t.”

The poignancy is evident as Peter muses, “My brother and I agree that independence of mind is immensely precious. This will not make us close friends at this stage. We are two utterly different men approaching the ends of two intensely separate lives. Let us not be sentimental here, nor rashly over-optimistic . . . But I was astonished that the longest quarrel of my life seemed unexpectedly to be over . . . as I have long hoped it would be.”

The rage against God is an important book, not only because it is a sparkling example of a well-written book, but also because it reveals that no one is outside the providence of God.

I find it interesting that the book is published by a Christian publisher and not by the well-known secular publisher that has published Christopher’s attacks on Christianity.

Writer: Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell Ryan is a former Editor in Chief in Canada and the UK. In retirement has been a copy editor of theRubicon and the author of two series on theRubicon - Resurrected Writers and Thinkaloud

Boundless Salvation - DVD review

 Back to the Battlefield!

Merv Collins looks at Boundless Salvation, a four part exploration on DVD of Salvationist History, Theology, Culture and Mission (courtesy of ON FIRE magazine)

Boundless Salvation Episode 1 Trailer from Salvos Out There on Vimeo.

In the old Gilbert and Sullivan musical The Pirates of Penzance, there’s a wonderful three layered chorus of police marching around shouting ‘Tarantara!’ and beating their chests, while the girls encourage them to ‘Go on to glory.’ ‘We go, we go!’ cry the police endlessly till eventually, the Major General shouts in exasperation, ‘Yes, but you don’t go!’

It’s almost a metaphor for the Salvation Army of the second half of the 20^th-century. We spent hours singing martial songs about fighting the salvation war, banged the drum and wore the uniform but precious few of us seemed to do much about it.

It wasn’t always thus.  Certainly William and Catherine Booth, the founders, and their early converts actively engaged in the war against sin and poverty, and for social justice. But as Salvationists became more affluent and middle-class, so we became more passive and complacent. A great fighting force for the Lord gradually preferred to leave the hand-to-hand combat to a committed few and busied itself making bigger halls and more polished musical sections.  The ‘lost and the outcast,’ those for whom Booth set up his Army, were largely unsighted by the vast majority of the movement’s members.

But the tide is turning, there is a desire to get back to our roots; to examine who we were and why, who we are now and what we ought to be.

To this end, John Cleary, the ABC broadcaster, author, historian and Salvationist, examines the history, the theology, the culture and the mission of the Army from Booth’s beginnings to the present day in a splendid boxed set of four DVDs entitled Boundless Salvation,.

It’s a series every Salvationist - officer, soldier, adherent - would do well to spend time with.  Cleary is no Johnny-come-lately to examining the Army’s mission. Many years ago, he edited the unofficial Army magazine Impact which frequently raised questions about the Army’s direction; he was a founder member of Solid Rock, a group which tried to bring its music into the 20^th-century and, more recently, has become a leading layman in policy making for the future.

That, and his position in the media, makes him uniquely qualified to put together this visual challenge to the current soldiery. His documentary style is reminiscent of the wonderful Ken Burns of American Civil War and Jazz fame - albeit with more limited resources!  He uses modern film clips, still photography, old film footage, great art and music - band, choral and popular songs of the past and present - to illustrate his points.

He canvasses the views of religious academics such as Dr. Gary Bouma (Monash University, Melbourne), and Professor David Bebbington (University of Stirling, Scotland) as well as some of the Army’s leading strategists. He talks to senior personnel including Chief of Staff, Robin Dunster, Comm. Philip Needham, (U.S. Eastern Territory), and U.S. musician Bill Himes but doesn’t neglect the younger movers and shakers like Russell Rook and Phil Wall in England and Geoff and Sandra Ryan in Canada who are pointing back to Booth’s vision and putting it into practice in modern-day situations.

We even hear the old General himself growling ‘Enjoy yourself as a Salvationist, but don’t forget the sons and daughters of misery. Pity them, feed them, reclaim them, employ them.  Our business is to help them all and that in the most practical, economical and Christlike manner.’

Boundless Salvation leads us to examine what the Army is not almost as much as what it is.  It shows we spring from John Wesley’s Methodist traditions, but we’re not Congregationalist (each church independent of others) or Pentecostals waiting for the rapture. We’re a global Army serving Christ here and now amongst the most marginalized and neglected in society.  If we fail in this, Phil Wall reminds us, we are no longer a ‘Salvation Army.’

Boundless Salvation takes us step-by-step.  Each DVD, about 45 minutes long, has a well presented study guide with ‘hotspot’ features where groups - anyone from recruits to Census Board locals - can stop the program for further discussion and examination.

It starts with Booth, a very successful and charismatic preacher in the north of England, ‘finding his destiny,’ a calling to serve the wretchedly poor and dispossessed London’s East End. His movement grew rapidly and crossed the world to the U.S. and Australia.  At the first open-air meeting in Australia, one of the leaders declared, ‘If there is any man here who hasn’t had a meal today, let him come home with me.’ Booth would have approved - Salvation and social work hand-in-hand.

Not unexpectedly for an Australian Southern Territory production, program one has emphasis on the Army’s work in Australia but many initiatives there, like James Barker’s Prison Gate Brigades, set up to accommodate and find work for ex-prisoners, and the Limelight Department’s pioneering use, not just within the Army, of film and multimedia extravaganzas, had worldwide application.

The Limelight Department was established to promote Booth’s worldwide Darkest England campaign, and his great literary work, Darkest England and the Way Out, used examples based on Barker’s work in Victoria.

The theology of the Army, outlined in the second program, is traced back past Wesley to Calvin, Martin Luther and the Reformation. It may sound dry but Cleary’s lively script and visuals are engrossing.  He links it, using scenes from the film Amazing Grace, to Wilberforce and the antislavery movement in England and to Abraham Lincoln and Charles Finney in America.

Finney’s message about conversion, and our responsibility to take action to change the world, fired Catherine particularly. New converts to the Army were expected to immediately take up the fight. In those days there was no padded pew after conversion; it was straight into action. As Commissioner Wes Harris says, ‘Service begins where salvation is received.’

Boundless Salvation Trailer Episode 2 from Salvos Out There on Vimeo.

The third program starts by celebrating what the Army quickly became in the early days - a brand of Christianity with its sleeves rolled up.  Its social work was universally admired. It developed its own international magazines for the soldiers and the unconverted, its own music publications for bands and songster brigades, and leadership programs through Y.P. and corps cadet classes. It became, as Bramwell Booth put it, ‘a nation within the nation,’ with its own art, culture and music.

This was achievement with inherit dangers: self-satisfaction and complacency.  Was this when, as Bill Himes puts it, we started ‘doing the Army, without connecting with community?’ Phil Wall is blunter. ‘We marched off the battlefield onto the parade ground,’ he says.  Activity for its own sake quickly lost all meaning, soldiership became mere membership and the songs of war became ‘praise and worship.’ Congregations sat and listened to the pastor, becoming increasingly less involved in the mission. We became a settled church not a dynamic army which leads the final program to call for a return to our roots, to become again an Army fighting social evils and poverty. 

John Cleary’s Boundless Salvation doesn’t hector or preach but through his diligent research and presentation, its message and challenge are clear. The world still needs a Salvation Army, but it needs the one set up by William Booth who himself warns us that ‘if she (the Salvation Army) is slothful and slackens her zeal, she will perish.’

The series ends with an anthem from Les Miserables, ‘Will you join in our crusade, who will be strong and stand by me?’  It makes a compelling rallying call to close a wonderful DVD series which should be compulsory viewing for every member of our great international church - no, make that Army! 

Boundless Salvation

(A four part exploration of Salvationist History, Theology, Culture and Mission)

Running time: Ep. 1, 33 mins; Ep. 2, 42 mins; Ep. 3, 50 mins; Ep. 4, 50 mins.

A Radiant Film Production

Written and presented by John Cleary for The Salvation Army, Southern Territory.

Producers: Corey Baudinette and John Cleary, Production Consultant: Bruce Redman

For additional information and resources see: http://www.boundlesssalvation.com/

Our People DVD - Review

Review by Ryan O’Connell (’On Fire’ magazine)

Our People opens with William Booth’s granddaughter regaling BBC’s Michael Parksinson with a tale of her grandfather berating her claim to have ‘tried her best’. The Founder calmly explains; ‘When God helps us, we can do better than our best.’

The documentary that follows cements his words. Our People chronicles the tale of an orphaned pawn shop worker and bookish young girl meeting, marrying and relentlessly pursuing the souls of the forgotten.

At its conclusion, this reviewer found himself viewing today’s Army’s mission, culture and reputation in much greater perspective.

While bereft of footage, Our People gleans great narrative mileage from photographs and vivid sketches of 19^thcentury London.

A neat and engaging narrative, the film avoids the usual pitfall of cramming in too many voices, opting rather for a handful of extremely well-versed historians and descendants of early Salvationists. Excerpts from the diaries of William and Catherine are particularly tasty.

Even handled poorly, a story this good would stand on its own two feet; two idealists catapulting their efforts into an international ‘religion of action’.  And it’s handled well.

Our people is available via the website - www.ourpeoplefilm.com

Review - Christianity in Action

Maxwell Ryan recommends “a good read”

There is an enduring and worldwide interest in The Salvation Army, interest that is evidenced by the number of histories that have been and still are written in an attempt to capture the essence of this international Christian Movement.

The latest volume to enter the lists is Christianity in Action, subtitled “The international history of The Salvation Army”.  This 286-page hardback publication has been written by retired Salvation Army Colonel Henry Gariepy, an American officer who has been described as “The Salvation Army’s foremost writer today”.

This book is primarily for people who have a casual acquaintance with the Army and who would like to know more about what has been called a modern ecclesiastical miracle.

The writing is easy to read and understand, and the contents are wide enough to satisfy budding Army historians. In short, it is a very good read that deserves a place on any bookshelf.

Christianity in Action was published in 2009 by noted evangelical publisher Wm. B. Eerdmans and should be available from general booksellers and from Army stores.

Theological Puberty

Jonathan Gainey finds a little gem

Review: A Little Exercise for Young Theologians by Helmut Thielicke

Every once in awhile, a book comes along that literally changes a person’s life. Recently that book for me was A Little Exercise for Young Theologians by Helmut Thielicke.

This very small, 41-page book should be read by everyone who goes about the task of theological study. The sins of young students of the Word are brought out so simply and powerfully that one cannot read this book without reflecting on his or her own arrogance as an adventurer of holy writ.

So much of what Theilicke had to say was powerfully accurate. His insights should be considered by everyone who attempts the task of theological education, formally or otherwise. Just about every page of the book has an amount of highlighting, because I could not resist the urge to be able to go back to his thoughts with ease.

The arrogance or “theological puberty” that Thielicke speaks about is deadon with most of us, and few can resist the urge to “wallow in our ownership” of new findings. These are shared with passionate urgency as if all the secrets of the universe have been discovered by the young theologian, and others have been left in the dark.

The temptation to speak down to the congregation rather than speak with them is also a temptation that is sometimes heightened by theological studies.  Pouring out our defense for hymns of old as more theologically stirring and rich as opposed to the simple and shallow words of newer worship music becomes a constant agenda of the learned master of all things God.

As a Salvation Army officer and pastor, I have found myself with the same urges, especially in Sunday school settings, Bible studies and small groups, to correct all those who have not been privy to my level of discovery. I say that with sarcasm. I can go back and almost hear my words sending the message, “Oh ye of simple faith.”

Even the introduction of Thielicke’s book is full of informational wealth. As Martin E. Marty points out, those who study deeply do change their minds about what they believe quite often. This is a healthy sign of a growing Christian, but the one experiencing such a crisis must be patient with those who rarely question anything spiritual. I find myself in this predicament of philosophical transitioning so often that I have wondered if there are any definite truths to be discovered from the biblical text. And then, I realize that I am also guilty of the tendency to read the Scriptures only to discover what can become a sermon.

This book has truly opened my eyes to the dangers of theological adolescence, and I am determined to get this book into more hands, especially those who are called to the task of teaching.

As for my own ministry, I have been made more aware of my task to learn as much from my pastor - the church, as I teach. Although the need for life-long learning is a given, I realize that there will be times when the learning that I am able to glean from the most humble of theologians may very well contain the richest, life-giving instructions of my life.

As Thielicke so wisely states, “Even an orthodox theologian can be spiritually dead, while perhaps a heretic crawls on forbidden bypaths to the sources of life” (Thielicke, 37).

Writer: Capt. Jonathan Gainey was born in Jacksonville, FL in June, 1969. He has been married to Staci, the daughter of retired Salvation Army officers, for twenty years and they have four children ages 18, 16, 12, and 4. Jonathan was commissioned as an officer in June of 2002, and is currently serving in his third appointment in New Bern, NC, USA. He is working on a Masters of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and is the creator and manager of the Flocks Diner website, where his passion for learning and teaching is expressed and shared through writing and a weekly podcast.

Hold Fast Hope | Album review

reviewed by Jon Bukiewicz

H

old Fast Hope, an up-and-coming band out of Toronto, Canada, brings us a four song EP entitled Acoustic Ep. The songs on this release The Last, The Lost, The Least, A World That Bleeds, Until Love Comes Through and Never Let Go combine to create an engaging debut that is full of acoustic-based arrangements and challenging lyrics.

Listen to all the tracks on MySpace

With influences ranging from pop/rock bands like Coldplay to Dashboard Confessional and the emotional drive of worship teams like Hillsong United, Hold Fast Hope fill these songs with layers of acoustic guitars, upbeat drums and accents of rock-influenced piano.

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The Twenty-Piece Shuffle

Book review | The Twenty-Piece Shuffle
Author: Greg Paul | Reviewed by Stephanie Hung

“Because when you’re out in the big bad world and things go terribly wrong, or wonderfully right, you want to go home. To mourn or to celebrate. To not have to be strong or reserved anymore - to give in to the need to tremble with fear, or be giddy with joy. To be able to do all of that without being humiliated or alone.”

The first time I saw the movie Amazing Grace on a flight from LA to Sydney it seemed one of the most boring, drawn out movies I could remember seeing, and so I stopped watching half way through. I must have been dead-tired at the time because when I re-watched it a few weeks ago, it struck me as one of the most amazing stories I’ve seen in a long time.

I’m wondering if this might be the case with Greg Paul’s work. When I read his first book, God in the Alley, I thought it was reasonable, but nothing to rave about (like many were doing). So, when I read his newest book, The Twenty-Piece Shuffle, admittedly I wasn’t expecting very much. I may now have to eat my words and borrow another copy of God in the Alley, because if it’s anything like The Twenty-Piece Shuffle, then it’s definitely worth a second look.

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Music review: Bruce Peninsula

A Mountain is a Mouth

L

ately , I find myself shying away from the swarm of new music that is increasingly readily available. The energy required to sift through the constant stream of new artists and next-best-things is beyond my capabilities or available time. Maybe it’s just easier for working dads like myself to stick with the artists we already like or already know.  As musical tastes shift so quickly and constantly, maybe it’s simply easier to focus more on those who have been making music over the long haul. These are the kinds of songwriters you can grow old with, whose music and artistic merit goes deeper than hyped-up marketing or incessant cross-promotions.

It is for all these reasons that the Ontario-based band, Bruce Peninsula came to my attention as a pleasant surprise. Their first full length album, A Mountain is a Mouth was released on February 3rd to a small fan base and through the band’s own record label. With only minimal publicity, and no formal distribution, the album that these musicians put together runs little risk of being swept under the “well-known” or “who’s next?” line of new artists. Yet, it is an album worth getting one’s hands on.

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