Vox populi | covenant

… for others

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or me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Phil.1:21).  These words mark a place of significance in my life, a place of formation in my walk of discipleship.  I’m presently in preparation for the upcoming commissioning for cadets, and focus on covenant, and I’m reminded again we need to decrease that Christ may increase (Jn.3:30).

There has been a lot of discussion about officership on here.  Actually, I notice when we blog about holiness, discipleship etc., it is pretty quiet.  If you throw in smoking, drinking, uniform, sacraments or officership then comments tend to fly fast and furious.  Regardless of officer, soldier, laity, Jesus follower or any other label one may choose, the issue of my rights is something we all wrestle with.

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Vox populi | following

going where Jesus already is

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ave you ever sat in a church service and wondered where God was?  I’ve been there, and thankfully not too recently.  In fact, this past weekend I had the privilege of serving alongside cadets as we went out for a weekend of ministry.  We all had opportunity to share how God expanded their learning, and highlights from the weekend, and there was a comment that keeps coming back to me.

Matt shared how his team had gone out on a midnight patrol taking food and drinks to women who were prostituting themselves on the streets.  He explained how he thought the purpose of the evening was to minister God’s grace to the prostitutes, but when he met them on the street he was reminded that in a mystical way God was already present.  They had only come to join Him in the places where He was moving.  Campolo preaches the immediacy of the kingdom, and explains that in a missional sense we should not be going to the places where the church is absent, but with a shift in paradigm, ought to be going to the place where Jesus already is.

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Vox populi | trust

Do we trust God?

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ot topics on theRubicon that are sure to get a slew of comments:  smoking, drinking, uniform and officer leadership to name a few.  I’m avoiding all of them this week even though my ego can get fueled by a plethora of comments from the vox populi.  Andrea hit me a couple of weeks back, in a good way, to ask why we always talk about officers and soldiers when we talk about leadership.  Why don’t we talk about the laity?

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Vox populi | self-determination

… ‘calling’ isn’t about the best career fit

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get thinking these days about Salvation Army Officership, and those places in the territory where people who aren’t officers are running ministry units - corps/church and other, and I wonder why it is we don’t have officers in those positions/places?  I could easily get bugged by this too, especially when I hear stories of leaders claiming they’d never go to training college, but not because of training college.  They cringe at the thought of a life as an officer that may see them getting appointed to no-man’s land in the territory.  It bugs me, and it probably bugs me because I’d like to be the person spending the Army’s cash in the place of my choosing, setting down roots and calling the shots.

So what about that?  We can’t blame people for thinking like this.  We promote it, and make it possible.  Is that a bad thing?  Most of the time I say no, but then I read the blogs, and get so ticked off at the criticism aimed at the hand feeding the dog.  I get all bent because if you can be so critical of the “system” or the “organization” then don’t take the cash.

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Vox populi | generational sin

Who pays for the sins of the fathers?

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he first time I heard it made me a little nutty. As it emerged time and time again in the context of “what is needed for deliverance” it started to grate on my nerves. The sins of the fathers will be visited upon their children is the text often wielded by those who claim deliverance is only truly possible when you break the sins of your forefathers. The problem isn’t whether or not it’s true, but whether or not it is meant to be applied to individuals and their need to atone for the sins of their father. In this sense it’s heretical because we are all responsible for our own sin, and Christ atoned therefore we are not required to atone.

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Vox populi | moving officers

How would you mobilize our Army?

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am not getting moved today.  Oh, I’m sure Hillary Clinton will say something that I will find moving, but I mean in the sense The Salvation Army is not moving me today.  It is appointment day in the Canada and Bermuda Territory.  Some people will be thrilled their officers are moving while others will be devastated by the news.  Some officers will be surprised at their move while others will be thrilled, and some will looked surprised while being secretly thrilled by the news.

In our territory there is a consultation process with officers, consultation in the sense a discussion about a possible move would take place with an officer while in other territories a consultation between officers, the congregation and DHQ takes place long before the move is made.

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Vox populi | missions

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have some good news and some bad news in regards to the plight of the poor and marginalized in our world.  The good news is… God has solved the problem of financial burden and poverty in the developing world.  The bad news is the answer is in the pockets, bank accounts and investments of people who sit in our pews.

Every year, around the time of Lent, The Salvation Army begins an appeal to Corps/Ministry Units/Churches to raise funds for overseas missions.  It used to be called the Self-Denial appeal when I was younger.  We were taught/encouraged to deny ourselves a luxury we would usually indulge, and instead, give the money we saved to missions.  The name has been changed to “Partners in Mission”, and this is only a guess, but I think it’s because denying self and giving to missions is something we do “to” others, but “Partners in Mission” suggests we do this “with” others.  We’re partners, not patrons.

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Vox populi | responsibility

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ack in the day we had “Territorial Evangelists”, people who had an appointment to criss-cross the country and preach to rallies and big events, crusade type stuff on a Canadian Salvation Army scale.  Today I see job postings for “Outreach Workers”, people who reach out to groups in the community, be it youth, the poor etc.

Isn’t it odd that we have specific roles designated for people; roles which should be the task of all Salvationists?  I remember my mom as the “Bus Ministry Coordinator” at our corps, back in the day when we had bus ministries, in the days before finance boards and risk management.  If a “bus kid” went awry in Sunday School, then someone would find my mom to fix the problem.  In a corps of 200-300 people, she was responsible for the actions of the 150 “bus kids” that came into the corps on a weekly basis.

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Vox populi | show me the money

How much should I give?

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n corps, I was always dubbed the money guy.  Should we take an offering on Christmas Eve?  You’re kidding right?  I’m the money guy.  Pass the plate.  Is giving for the members of the congregation only?  Nope, why rob all the visitors of an opportunity to worship God through their giving.  That is the thinking of the “money guy”.  You hate me, but having me around keeps the lights lit so you can pray longer in the corps.  Well, here we are again, and here’s a blog from… yes, you’ve got it right… the money guy.

It’s tax time in Canada, and I suspect other places too. Here we have a system of accountability, others call it government intrusion.  Okay, I call it government intrusion and others call it accountability.  The official term is “audit”, and it isn’t seen as a positive experience.  In fact, people fear the tax audit, even when they have nothing to fear.  Audits are triggered by anomalies in your tax return.  For example, you claim childcare expenses of $4,000 for the year.  It sounds reasonable except you don’t have any children.  Over the past five years you’ve separated from your spouse every November 15th and reconciled by May 11th of the following year, just long enough to get a single parent deduction on your taxes.  These ‘anomalies’ will find you in front of a tax auditor.  Actually, you don’t even speak to a person.  They have computer programs that weed out these things.

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Vox populi | Sunday Bloody Sunday

… a whole different meaning

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just heard a sermon about the Blood of Jesus.  It’s been awhile, and I have to admit I’m in a bit of a quandary.  The message was bang on theologically, and it was absolutely the truth.  So why am I still wondering what to make of it?

I remember my mom telling a cadet they need to preach the blood of Jesus, and its power, and I recall the cadet preaching up a storm… “There’s Power in the BLOOD!”  It was the blood of Jesus in my mom’s experience that wrought such a dramatic change in her life.

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