apart from regular monitoring, getting on with my life.
throughout the world?
things are going very well we take things for granted.
Perhaps we forget just how dependent we are upon
God's grace every day of our lives. It's time for Chris-
tians to sit down and reflect on those spiritual reali-
ties. We need to cling to the promises in Scripture. God
has plans for us and we are secure in His hands.
the Middle East. They are a reminder that to follow
Christ can come at a cost. We need to be aware of where
the true value of the Kingdom is. We should cherish the
eternal values and the fact that eternal life is prom-
ised to us, as these are important in keeping us faith-
ful. It's not the time to hide our light under a bushel.
We've got to be ready to stand firm and be counted.
ple aspire to possess material things. While we all en-
joy the benefits of modern living, we shouldn't focus
our hearts and our minds on material things. We talk
about the value of the Kingdom of God but we also are
quite happy pursuing material things. There is a dan-
ger. In some places society is driving us to being suc-
cessful, promoting the need for a good education, a
good job or the apartment we live in or the amount of
money we have. I see that permeating virtually ev-
ery society and that's a worrying trend. The seduction
of the prosperity gospel that teaches that if we con-
tribute financially to the work of God then automati-
cally we'll be blessed with material wealth. There is a
real danger in that and we should not allow ourselves
to be seduced by the passing values of this world.
portunity for us to pat ourselves on the back and re-
a time when we pause to reflect and thank God for what
He's done in the Army because it's not us, it's Him.
There are a lot of things that we can celebrate. Around
the world lives are being transformed in all sorts of pro-
grams, not only the sophisticated programs of social in-
stitutions but through corps. There is the faithful wit-
ness of people in so many of our corps who are there to
receive people who come with varying needs. People are
truly being touched by God's presence through faithful
ministry and corps programs. William Booth, though he
may possibly raise his eyebrows at one or two things he
sees in the Army today, would be pleased to see that we
are still responding and can respond rapidly to human
need. We still do it because of our compassion and the
love of Christ that compels us to do it. We haven't moved
from that. We need to focus on that; not pat ourselves
on the back but celebrate what God is doing in the pres-
ent. We should also think and listen and create space so
that God can show us what He wants to do in the future.
look at what we can be doing to contribute to wider
society. It's not enough to have our buildings avail-
able for music rehearsals on a weeknight or maybe
for Sunday worship; there are so many other things
that we could be doing. One of the things I love in the
States are the Kroc Centers I've been to where peo-
ple from the community are welcomed in and con-
nect, perhaps at a very basic or material level. These
are places where the doors are open every day! But
through this contact they begin a journey of faith.
greater integrated mission. We don't have a worship-
ping community and a serving community. We do both.
If we only deliver part of the mission in a social insti-
tution it's not The Salvation Army. If we're only a wor-
shipping community and a corps, then we're not The
Salvation Army. There needs to be a much more inte-
grated approach. I see that as being a significant way
forward for the growth of our corps in the future.
gress which will have an immediate impact in the spiri-