Caring Vol. 15 No. 4 (Winter 2009/2010)

The holistic ministries of The

Salvation Army

The birth of innovation Pharisees anonymous

VOL. 15, NO. 4 • WINTER 2009/2010

Essential assessment

A map that gets our ministry from here to there

Reclaiming wonder Strictly liberating Boot Camp 2010

caring The holistic ministries of The Salvation Army

“Wonder is the moment when we stand before him and realize there is so much more than we can ever grasp about our God.”­—ANDY FREEMAN

8

Mission: Literacy

by Dawn Sharp

Essential assessment

by Kara Powell

17

Inside the ring

by Roger Miller

Boot Camp 2010

by Jim Sparks and Ivan Wild

Fresh resources, same mission

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by Donna Ames

Pharisees anonymous

by Danielle Strickland

A JOURNEY FOR CHANGE

by Warren Maye RECLAIMING WONDER

by Andy Freeman

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DEEPLY KNOWN

by Tony Ferraro

8 11 14 17 20 22

25 28 31

41 A talent show of thousands

by Ronald Waiksnoris............... 33 ‘I am not the Messiah’

by Lorrie Davis....................... 36 The birth of innovation

by Greg Atkinson.................... 37 Moving Sunday school beyond Sunday mornings

by Kelly Igleheart.........................39 Ageless ministry

by Tony Wood......................... 41

GROWING This issue is meant to encourage anyone who encounters young people—parents, pastors, teachers, caseworkers, friends and role models—to make every child feel confident, loved and destined for a life of achievement.

MY CORNER 2 • PERSPECTIVE 3 • IN THE NEWS 4 • AND FINALLY... 44 WINTER 2009/2010 • VOL. 15, NO. 4

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MY CORNER

Growing Are you still growing? Still learning—willing to evaluate BY your interpersonal style?

ROBERT Are you bound by dogma and social norms in support of DOCTER goals long forgotten?

Are you an effective change agent?

How’s your self-image? Got a lot of “can’ts” in there? Where do you live—in the past, the future or right now—in the immediate moment?

Growing involves a process of change. We see the result of that change as either positive, or negative. It depends on the value system of the observer and the meaning one assigns that which has been altered. Mankind makes judgments about these results from cultural perspectives that become evident in personal bias. One person’s positive perception of a growing cycle may be another person’s negative.

Anything that can change experiences growth in some form or another—countries change, populations change, institutions change, individuals change. Some change is rapid, like the impact of the computer on the world; and some change is very slow, often retarded by the weight of tradition.

Humans have the power to predict the future on the basis of present trend lines. Some ignore this ability. They seem unwilling, possibly fearful, to elevate his or her awareness of these factors and thus inhibit the change choices available. The person with the most choices is the person with the most power.

Where religious belief systems seek to dictate behavioral choices, the change process is often much slower. Zealots are those among us guided by values involving strong legalism whose limited choices demand behavioral patterns in support of goals long forgotten.

The change process is non-linear. Its timing is somewhat disorderly and unpredictable. A single input does not necessarily result in a predictive output. Timing counts. That same input at a different time may achieve a very different result. Under the right circumstances one match can initiate a weeklong conflagration involving thousands or fail to ignite a prepared campfire. The difference stems from the phrase “under the right circumstances.”

Institutional change is often stimulated by a single change agent who, through the power of his or her belief system, perception of reality and personality, senses a moment of opportunity. Then, with the dynamism and power of a committed advocate, the change is ignited. Booth was such a personality. He believed poverty was an affront to God built on a foundation of unlove. His linking of social and spiritual issues changed the role and function of the church and successfully contributed to a MY CORNER page 6

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Caring is published quarterly by The Salvation Army and seeks to: • •

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Reclaim ‘acts of mercy’ as imperatives to holiness.

Bring the Army’s ministries of evangelistic and social outreach into one holistic ministry.

Describe exemplary programs seeking to integrate the goals of the Army’s holistic ministries.

Foster innovation and the development of creative approaches to ministry.

Edify, enlighten, enrich and stimulate discussion among Salvationists involved in caring ministries.

Provide a forum for examination of critical social issues within the Army.

Report on important and relevant research in areas of holistic ministry.

Review critical contributions of scholars and writers within relevant fields of ministry.

Examine The Salvation Army as an organization in respect to its history, purpose, mission and future.

STAFF Robert Docter, Ph.D. Christin Davis Karen Gleason Buffy Lincoln Edie Jenkins Sue Schumann Warner

Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Contributing Editor Associate Editor Editorial Assistant Contributing Writer

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Betty Israel, Major Geoffrey Allan, Major John Cheydleur, Major Kevin Tomson-Hooper Allie Niles, Major

National Headquarters Central Territory Eastern Territory Southern Territory Western Territory

LAYOUT & DESIGN Kevin Dobruck Stephen Martinez

Art Director Graphic Designer

CIRCULATION Christin Davis

562-491-8723

USA WESTERN TERRITORIAL HEADQUARTERS Commissioner Philip Swyers, Territorial Commander Colonel William Harfoot, Chief Secretary P.O. Box 22646 180 East Ocean Blvd.

Long Beach, CA 90802 562/491-8723 • Fax 562/491-8791 e-mail: caring@usw.salvationarmy.org www.caringsa.org Unless otherwise indicated, all contents copyright© 2009 by New Frontier Publications, The Salvation Army, USA Western Territory, 180 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90802 USA. If requested, permission to reproduce is usually freely granted. Please contact the publisher before reproducing.

PERSPECTIVE

Growing into success

Offsetting the ‘accumulative advantage’

I am not a parent, pastor or teacher, BY but I was once a little kid.

CHRISTIN We’ve all experienced the pressure DAVIS to succeed while growing up—ace the

spelling test and your name gets a star on the board; score enough points and you become a star for the team; make as many friends as possible; receive A’s in your first couple years of high school and you’ll be accepted into the Advanced Placement classes, which will give you a better chance of getting into a better college and thus finding a better job.

Societal expectations communicate a need for a child to be “better” than his or her peers because only the “best” truly succeed in life.

But how much of this success is based on public influence?

The all-stars In Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell uses an example from the sports world to demonstrate the dramatic influence society has on an individual’s success.

A “meritocracy,” as Gladwell calls it, the Canadian Hockey League is considered the finest junior hockey league in the world for 17 to 19 year olds. Boys begin playing hockey before they are in kindergarten and are sifted and sorted at each age class, channeling the most talented players into an elite league by the mid-teen years.

Gladwell suggests the elite are not simply better, but are afforded better opportunity simply by chance.

He sites the work of Canadian psychologist Roger Barnsley who discovered in the mid-1980s that in any elite group of hockey players, 40 percent have birthdays between January and March, 30 percent between April and June, 20 percent between July and September and 10 percent between October and December.

As Gladwell points out, the eligibility cutoff for ageclass hockey in Canada is January 1. A boy who turns 10 on January 2, then, could be playing alongside someone who doesn’t turn 10 until the end of the year, and as he writes, “a 12-month gap in age during preadolescence represents an enormous difference in physical maturity.”

The all-star players—who are bigger, more coordinated and older—receive better coaching, better teammates, play more games and practice twice as much.

Barnsley argues the separated out “talented” receive a superior experience and have a huge advantage over everyone else.

Gladwell notes that this system of sorting the talented can be found in many endeavors—it’s how America selects baseball players, Europe and South America pick soccer stars, Olympic athletes are chosen, classical music picks its future virtuosos, the world of ballet elects its future ballerinas, or the way our educational system picks future scientists and intellectuals.

The ‘Matthew Effect’ Of course, society cannot be entirely credited or blamed for the success or failure of an individual. It is, however, interesting to note the slight and seemingly insignificant influence our decisions can have.

Sociologist Robert Merton called this phenomenon the “Matthew Effect,” based on Matthew 25:29, For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

“It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success,” Gladwell wrote. “It’s the best students who get the best teaching and most attention. And it’s the biggest nine and 10 year olds who get the most coaching and practice. Success is the result of what sociologists like to call ‘accumulative advantage.’”

Making it In the church, our influence cannot be underestimated.

“We overlook just how large a role we all play—and by ‘we’ I mean society—in determining who makes it and who doesn’t,” Gladwell wrote.

This issue of Caring, “Growing,” is meant to encourage anyone who encounters young people— parents, pastors, teachers, caseworkers, friends and role models—to make every child feel confident, loved and destined for a life of achievement.

Collectively, we can offset the accumulative advantage with enough support and love so that each child grows into success. n Christin Davis is the managing editor of Caring.

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In the news Compiled by Karen Gleason

Pro-prostitution lobby targets The Salvation Army Canada’s pro-prostitution lobby declared that the greatest threat to the city’s prostitutes is The Salvation Army.

After working on global sex trade issues for years, The Salvation Army in Vancouver launched its local anti-trafficking campaign in Sept. 2008, joining other churches and organizations that fear an increase in trafficking with the approach of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The Army is focusing its attention on the pimps and johns—the demand side of prostitution—rather than on the prostitutes themselves, with techniques like hanging posters of abused and beaten women over urinals in downtown bars in an attempt to reach these men.

“Our campaign is not against or about prostitution, it’s about people who are forced into sex slavery,” said Brian Venables, Salvation Army spokesperson and author of the campaign. “The issue is about those who don’t have a choice.”

Susan Davis, member of Vancouver’s pro-prostitution lobby, doesn’t agree. She claims that anti-trafficking campaigns are dangerous and prompt law

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enforcement to raid massage parlors and drive the industry underground.

Davis and supporters protested the Army’s Anti-Trafficking Day of Prayer on Sept. 27, 2009, and continue to attack Army volunteers who pray with street women.

“Salvation Army people have no comprehension of the way that we live,” Davis said. “They assume we need rescue when in fact what we need is rights.”

Nevertheless, when she waves her protest sign outside a Salvation Army church, she’ll be included in the prayers—whether she likes it or not.

From Vancouver Courier (Sept. 9, 2009) World hunger World Food Day (WFD)— observed each year on Oct. 16—is designed to increase awareness, understanding and information on year-round action to alleviate hunger. The first WFD took place in 1981; today in the U.S., the endeavor is sponsored by 450 national and private organizations.

While reports on the global economic crisis dominate the news, the focus is often on banks and large companies and the people who work for them. This crisis, however, is stalking the small-scale farms and rural areas of

DOING THE MOST GOOD

the world, where 70 percent of the world’s hungry live and work.

In 2009, with an estimated increase of 105 million hungry people, there are 1.02 billion malnourished people in the world—one sixth of all humanity suffers from hunger.

For more information, visit fao. org and worldfooddayusa.org.

From worldfooddayusa.org and salvationarmy.org.nz/socialpolicy Socially conscious snacking Stop The Traffik (STT), an international movement, consistently calls for improved ethical standards from companies that produce chocolate. STT recently escalated its pressure on the confectionary giant Nestlé, demanding that it use cocoa free from forced child labor and child trafficking.

Chaired by Baptist minister Rev. Steve Chalke, STT targeted Nestlé following a successful campaign earlier this year on the mega chocolate-producing conglomerates Cadbury and Mars Inc. In summer 2009, proponents of Fairtrade celebrated as Cadbury quietly accomplished one of the biggest changes in its nearly 200 years of chocolate-making— producing its first Fairtrade Dairy Milk chocolate bars. Cadbury promised not to raise the price of the candy bars.

Mars pledged to buy 100 percent of its cocoa from sustainable sources by 2020 and is working with the Rainforest Alliance.

Nestlé will work with the International and World Cocoa foundations to achieve a similar goal.

For more information on the work of Stop the Traffik, visit its website, stopthetraffick.org and its blog, stopthetraffik.wordpress. com.

From The Baptist Times and guardian.co.uk Discord in Fiji over choir competition This year, Fiji’s interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama decreed that the Methodist Church—the largest in Fiji—would not be allowed to hold its annual conference, fearing that the convention and choral competition could lead to political destabilization.

Methodist leaders then asked to hold the competition on a regional, rather than divisional basis, and the government initially accepted this proposal.

Bainimarama, however, revoked the promised permit.

Rev. Dr. Kerry Enright, UnitingWorld national director, finds these current decrees

troubling for the church.

“The military government seems determined to cripple the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma, which followed a consistent approach of seeking negotiation and conversation with the government,” he said.

“The church bent over backwards to meet the government’s requirements.”

Fijian authorities detained seven Methodist leaders for questioning about the conference.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said, “The fact that a leader of the Methodist church can have their door banged on in the middle of the night and be taken off by authorities, whacked into jail, then charged with some trumped up offense...is profoundly disturbing.”

From journeyonline.com/au, victas. usa.org.au, and news.bbc.co.uk Worldwide Muslim population The global Muslim population currently stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that about one in four people practice Islam—the world’s second largest religion behind Christianity—according to a recent report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The report also breaks down actual numbers of Muslim population by country, with some surprising results: Germany has more

Muslims than Lebanon, China more than Syria, Russia more than Jordan and Libya combined, and Ethiopia almost as many as Afghanistan. Pew researchers gathered information from census reports, demographic studies and general population surveys from 232 countries; the report took three years to compile.

“The whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report,” said Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University.

The study highlights the fact that while Islam’s heart may lie in the Middle East, its largest numbers lie in Asia, where more than 60 percent of the world’s Muslims reside.

The report also notes countries where Muslims live as minorities, primarily in India, Ethiopia, China, Russia and Tanzania. In many of these countries, divisions between groups have incited violence.

A 2010 Pew Forum project will build on this data to estimate growth in the Muslim populations.

The research group is also set to begin a study on global Christianity in 2010; current estimates show that about 2.2 billion people worldwide practice Christianity.

From foxnews.com

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MY CORNER

from page 2

change in other institutions. This brought about an extensive modification of the class system that resulted in societal change.

Abraham Lincoln both resisted and facilitated change. He resisted change in his commitment to maintain the integrity of the Union, and, with his Emancipation Proclamation, he achieved a change of America’s understanding of what it means to be human. Changing systems is more easily accomplished than changing the attitudes of people.

Slaves were considered property. Their freedom from slavery legally changed their status. It was a beginning, but centuries of slavery does not cause individuals to feel differently about themselves. It is just as difficult to change the viewpoint of individuals with whom the former slaves associated. Much of that same resistance to attitude change is evident in some of the white population even today.

The shelf life of the change is a function of both the willingness of those involved to engage in precise and painful fine-tuning of the change and acceptance

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by the culture in the direction it is taking society.

Physical growth results in larger size. Size alone, however, does not guarantee greater intellect, improved interpersonal skills or what the culture would call a “mature” life style. These factors engage bodily systems other than size alone.

God gives us the resources we need to achieve levels of maturity appropriate to our physical, mental, social, emotional and spiritual development. “Life won’t let us settle down to nothingness” (E. Stanley Jones). We sense an out-of-balance condition—the push-pull of an innate drive toward maturity. These resources are at our disposal, but we must exercise the will to use them. The will to be mature must be at the center of our maturity. Its presence is a prime indicator of our on-going, ever changing drive—a drive we call “growing.” n Robert Docter, Ph.D., is editor-in-chief of New Frontier Publications.

MISSION:

The American Bible Society and The Salvation Army team to teach reading BY DAWN SHARP

Only 18 months after whispering to me that he couldn’t read very well, Carlos beamed at the receipt of his very own brand new Read and Learn Children’s Bible. He earned it after reading 30 texts as part of the Mission:Literacy reading program. Upon completion, his reading ability jumped from an early first grade level to a late third grade level.

Mission:Literacy, a vision of the American Bible Society (ABS), provides academically at-risk children—like Carlos—with a research-based reading program comprised of Bible stories.

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The first lesson book, In the Beginning, centers on the story of creation. The tutor explained to Carlos that the stories were from the Bible, to which Carlos responded, “What is a Bible?” Together, the tutor and this young struggling reader looked through the first chapters of Genesis and read along in the lesson book.

Following the story, Carlos launched into a string of questions: Who is God? Where is God? Is God invisible? Can he see us all of the time? The tutor talked with him about how we can talk to God anytime and he will listen. Carlos’s shyness subsided as his intrigue grew of an invisible God who knew him, whom he could talk to anytime, who had a Bible full of stories and who was so powerful he could create something brand new by speaking a word.

A brief history Mission:Literacy is a multi-cultural, Scripturebased literacy curriculum developed by the ABS

LITERACY in conjunction with the Bank Street College of Education. The program is designed to equip academically struggling first to third grade children with necessary literacy tools and character-building Scriptures for daily living.

In January 2006, the ABS conducted a pilot of Mission:Literacy with strategic partners on the East Coast. Three Salvation Army New Jersey Division corps—Paterson, New Brunswick and Newark Westside—participated. After documenting significant student improvement, Mission:Literacy was enthusiastically recommended to other corps.

Later that year, the ABS offered the New Jersey Division a 10-year Copyright License Agreement. Mutual signatures of the two organizations gave the New Jersey Division royalty-free ownership of Mission:Literacy and the right to print, use and distribute it to Salvation Army sites across the United States.

The ABS granted Mission:Literacy in good faith

that the New Jersey Division would “get it to the streets” of the communities where the Army already had established trust with families in need. A thriving multi-layer partnership resulted as the ABS supplies the Army’s foot soldiers with necessary resources.

In 2008, Eastern Territorial Headquarters administered a generous three-year grant from the Thomas Lyle Williams Foundation to be used for Mission:Literacy, and the ABS funded a second revision and reprinting of the curriculum and trainings for implementation in Salvation Army corps. It also provided a mission manager to facilitate the growth of the partnership into other areas: residential camps, back-to-school backpack programs and emergency disaster services.

A learning strategy In Salvation Army programs across the country, Mission:Literacy is impacting children’s reading

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levels—98 percent of children who received 16 or more tutoring sessions improved an average of seven reading levels, as measured by the “Sentences to Read” assessment provided in the curriculum.

“Mission:Literacy is a way to introduce kids to the Bible while you help them learn to read,” said Marc Mueller, a Salvation Army tutor in Raleigh, North Carolina. “It’s a good system that encourages the kids to succeed.”

The program consists of 30 Bible stories, written at two different reading levels. Each 28-page story is beautifully illustrated and all materials are vetted by the ABS Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship.

The foundation of Mission:Literacy is its studentcentered, small group instruction that encourages a nurturing relationship between tutor and child. This individualized program secures both the attention and support critical to the child’s educational and spiritual development. Mission:Literacy combines a phonics and whole language approach to decoding words through active, hands-on learning.

Melissa Martinez, director of The Learning Zone in Lorain, Ohio, said, “With such a thorough curriculum that offers two levels of reading books, pre- and post-assessment materials and pre-planned worksheets for each lesson, the teaching staff is able to better plan weekly themes and enrichment activities.”

At least one person from the corps must attend the introductory training, where they receive a free curriculum kit that includes a tutor’s handbook with lesson plans, the “Sentences to Read” assessment, learning activities, information on the basics of tutoring, and an alphabet and phonics book with illustrations based on biblical vocabulary. The American Bible Society funds related travel expenses to attend the training. When a launch plan and start date are established, the corps can then order additional free materials as needed, incurring only the cost of shipping.

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Moving forward, the American Bible Society seeks to continue supporting The Salvation Army as the primary implementer of Mission:Literacy. As the Army continues to train individuals on the curriculum and put it to use with at-risk children, the ABS is supporting those efforts with the financial and biblical resources necessary to expand the program to corps across the United States.

Current participation Since the program began in 2006, 360 individuals from 126 different Salvation Army corps have been trained in Mission:Literacy. Roughly 318 children are currently registered in 65 different tutoring groups.

All four U.S. territories have launched Mission:Literacy, currently involving 11 states: New Jersey, Ohio, New York, Connecticut, Minnesota, North Dakota, North Carolina, Arizona, Washington, Wisconsin and Kentucky.

Several corps are even using the program to help adults learn English as a second language; seven individuals from these classes are now active members of the corps, having left the Buddhist faith.

To continue drawing awareness to this literacy program, Mission:Literacy developed a quarterly newsletter and standardized training manual. A resource website is currently under construction and will be available soon. n Dawn Sharp is a childcare and literacy consultant for The Salvation Army in the New Jersey Division.

Contact Sharp (dawn.sharp@use.salvationarmy. org) for more information about Mission:Literacy and upcoming training sessions in the East, South or West.

Contact Major Jan Hendrickson (jan.hendrickson@usc. salvationarmy.org) for information about sessions in the Central Territory.

Photos by Judith Fetzer, John Kelley and Dawn Sharp

BY KARA POWELL

Gather your youth workers, teenagers or parents, and you are sure to receive entirely different opinions on which direction your ministry needs to head in the future.

More worship…

No, less worship…

More outreach…

No way, we need more discipleship…

More justice work and less small group time…

Forget that, we need just the opposite…

As leaders—in the midst of conflicting opinions about what should be changed in your ministry—it is crucial to align with God’s vision, not just the loudest voice in the crowd. As you’re starting 2010, consider an assessment of your current ministry and the direction you’re heading.

One helpful organizational leadership map is an analysis called “SWOT”—strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This tool isn’t new; it has been around for so long that nobody really knows who invented it. Yet in our experience, few leaders understand what it does and even fewer leaders know how to use it as a map to deepen their ministries.

The four elements of SWOT 1. Strengths Well-known leadership consultant Peter Drucker wrote in Leader to Leader

ESSENTIAL ASSESSMENT A map that gets our ministry from here to there DOING THE MOST GOOD

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Questions to assist in a SWOT analysis Strengths •

• •

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What are we doing well that we can thank God for?

Whose contribution can we celebrate?

What are we doing that is producing the outcomes we desire?

What should we continue doing because we do it better than most?

Weaknesses • • • •

What is not working well?

What can be improved?

What needs to be removed altogether?

What do we want to avoid in the future?

Opportunities •

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What opportunities can we take better advantage of?

What benefits can we leverage from the natural strengths of our ministry and community?

What things outside our organization will help us achieve the results we are looking for?

Threats • •

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To which threats must we pay attention?

Which threats could potentially jeopardize our ministry efforts?

What events happening in the world outside our church/ministry could potentially negatively affect our students or our ministry and therefore need more attention and examination?

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(Spring 2000), “Most of us underestimate our own strengths. We take them for granted. What we are good at comes easy, and we believe that unless it comes hard, it can’t be very good. As a result, we don’t know our strengths, and we don’t know how we can build on them.”

Accurately assessing our youth ministry strengths can be difficult for a number of reasons. We may be in a setting that does not allow us to share such things, or we may not want to be perceived as arrogant or proud. As a result, we either remain blind to those successes or we keep them to ourselves. Because of this, many of us do not know what our ministry does well, what we should replicate, and what to celebrate with the rest of our team.

Identifying strengths provides two primary benefits. First, we are immediately encouraged to repeat certain behaviors because they seem to produce the fruit we desire. Second, we see what we should be celebrating. Our team deserves the encouragement and the opportunity to see how our collective contributions are transforming kids.

Questions to help you understand your ministry’s strengths: - What are we doing well that we can thank God for?

- Whose contribution can we celebrate?

- What are we doing that is producing the outcomes we desire?

- What should we continue doing because we do it better than most?

2. Weaknesses In the same way that we do not often take the time to identify our strengths, we are also afraid to look at—much less articulate—the weaknesses of our ministry. As a result, we rarely name and speak of the things that are not going well.

There seems to be this lingering fallacy that to acknowledge that something is not working is to call into question the effectiveness of our entire ministry. But a call for continuous improvement is not a criticism of our work or calling. Instead, it is an inherent part of our

journey to deep leadership. As leadership guru Max De Pree reminds us in Leadership is an Art, “The first job of a leader is to define reality.”

To look honestly at a situation and define reality is to speak the truth. It is not placing blame; it is not accusing anyone of wrongdoing; it is fulfilling the first responsibility of leadership.

Questions to help you understand your ministry’s weaknesses: - What is not working well?

- What can be improved?

- What needs to be removed altogether?

- What do we want to avoid in the future?

3. Opportunities A friend of mine once described his ministry experience as more of a “here it comes, there it goes” cycle. He could envision what he wanted the ministry to look like, but more often than not, the ministry team couldn’t hold on to the positive aspects of their work before they disappeared. The successes left as quickly as they came.

I would guess many of us have experienced this dynamic to some degree, and we know how frustrating it can be when the “there it goes” occurs more frequently than the “here it comes.”

If we can identify opportunities that are brought before us, then we will be able to choose the paths that God is leading us toward instead of blindly racing—or even stumbling—past them.

Questions to help you understand your ministry’s opportunities: - What opportunities can we take better advantage of?

- What benefits can we leverage from the natural strengths of our ministry and community?

- What things outside our organization will help us achieve the results we are looking for?

4. Threats Threats exist both outside and inside our ministries—both minor and imminently

dangerous. They may be obvious (you only have one volunteer and she’s moving away next month!), or they may be relatively hidden (parents remain disconnected from youth ministry). We might be tempted to initially look past these threats; however, ignoring them generally doesn’t make them disappear.

On the contrary, the longer that threats are ignored, the more damaging they become.

Threats can be minimized and even neutralized when we approach them honestly, directly and thoughtfully.

Questions to help you understand your ministry’s threats: - To which threats must we pay attention?

- Which threats could potentially jeopardize our ministry efforts?

- What events happening in the world outside our church/ministry could potentially negatively affect our students or our ministry and therefore need more attention and examination?

An ongoing analysis A hiker who cares about where he will end up does not only check a map at the start of the trip and then never refer to it again. In the same way, no team that wants to move from here to there does the SWOT analysis and then forgets about it. Keep your SWOT analysis in front of you. Review and prayerfully update it every three to six months. When you get to a fork in your youth ministry trail, it might just show you which path to take. n Kara Powell, Ph.D., is the executive director of the Fuller Youth Institute at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. This article is adapted from Powell’s upcoming book, Essential Leadership (Zondervan, 2010), and an article entitled “Evaluation Part 1: Giving the Gift of Evaluation to Your Ministry” by Mark Maines, available in full at fulleryouthinstitute.org.

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INSIDE THE RING

Building confidence, structure and discipline through boxing

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THEY COME DOWNSTAIRS and enter the room, not knowing what to expect. When they finally leave, they know they can handle the unexpected. They come here by choice to learn about their capabilities, strengths and weaknesses. They are members of the Cox-Lyle boxing program at the Denver Red Shield Community Center.

BY ROGER MILLER

For the past seven years, kids and adults of all ages, ethnic backgrounds, beliefs and other demographics have come to the boxing center. If they decide to stay and work at it, it’s a place they’ll learn the importance of nutrition and health, build their self-esteem, learn to respect themselves and others, become mentally and physically fit and prepared—not just in the ring, but also for life’s challenges.

Boxers come from miles around to train at the Red Shield Center with coaches including Boxing Hall of Fame member Ron Lyle, Red Shield Boxing Director Everette Elliston and Strength Coach Lyle Nurse—not only coaches, but mentors to these kids and young adults.

In 1975, Lyle was the world’s No. 2 heavyweight who knocked down George Foreman three times and came within points of taking the title from Muhammad Ali. Nurse, the strength coach, had two spinal cord surgeries and is on full disability, but still works four to five days a week in the weight room as a volunteer. Elliston is a U.S. Certified Boxing Coach who has helped boxers earn 16 state, regional and national titles with five boxers turning professional. But talk to any of the coaches and they’ll emphasize that this program is not about them, but about the kids.

Noemi Noemi Cabello Rodriguez, 18, came to Red Shield through a nutritional and physical internship at her high school. Overweight and out of shape, she thought she might be able to learn some “tricks” that boxers use to get in shape and earn easy school credits. Little did she know that her four-hour per week internship would move her life in a different direction.

“I always thought I would be a cook or bakery chef.

I love to bake pastries,” Noemi said after one training

session. “I never thought I would ever box but after I landed my first punch, I knew what I wanted to do with my life.”

What started as an internship nearly a year ago has turned into training four or five days a week, eating healthier, adding physical and mental toughness and losing more than 25 pounds. It has also made her more confident at school.

“Coach E [Elliston] came to my school as part of my internship and we showed them what I learned. He had the target training gloves on and I hit him with my boxing gloves,” she recalls with a wide smile. “I hit him hard and fast. Afterward, my friends came up to me and said, ‘I’m not messing with you anymore.’”

Elliston also helped Rodriguez evaluate her educational and professional goals. All school-age boxers must maintain a certain grade point average to participate in the boxing program. Rodriguez is now taking community college courses to help her earn a degree.

“Coach E cares about me. He gave me toughness I didn’t know I had,” she said. “He helps me to be more responsible and keeps me going. Without him, I would probably be in lots of trouble like my friends.”

As for her career, Rodriguez wants to become a professional boxer in three to four years. It is in her blood; one of her grandfathers was a professional fighter.

Carlos We’ve heard the story dozens of times before of a life destined for trouble and hard times: teenage boy hangs out with the wrong guys, cuts school, uses drugs, fights with parents and receives poor grades. Unless someone or something intervened, Carlos Santos, 16, was headed down the wrong path at breakneck speed.

He started to take out his anger and frustrations at a

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boxing ring near his home but was still going nowhere when a friend told him about the Cox-Lyle program at Red Shield. Nothing to lose, he thought.

As it turns out, he did. He lost the chip on his shoulder, his poor grades, trouble-causing friends, bad eating habits and 20 pounds of fat. He gained discipline, direction, structure, confidence and respect from his family. It was an answer to his mother’s prayer.

Lyle, his trainer and mentor, said, “Carlos is one of our very best junior students. He travels one hour on a bus to get here and he comes four or five times a week.

That’s discipline.”

“Coach Lyle really helps me,” Santos said. “And not just in boxing stuff; he gives me good advice about other things, too.” But the coaches at Red Shield are only part of the team.

Carlos’s mother turned to God for help with her family. First, she prayed that her husband would stop using drugs. God helped her. Next, she prayed that her son would also turn his life around.

While running by himself during one training session in the summer of 2008, Santos began to wonder how real God is. He must be real, he thought, because he changed his parents’ lives.

“I wasn’t that good with God,” Santos admitted. “I just got to thinking about God a lot during that run.”

He isn’t quite sure how it happened, but he recalls that, all of a sudden, he stopped running, was on his knees, and with great emotion, asked God for help.

Soon after that, his friend told him about Red Shield.

“My mom was praying for a change in me,” he proudly said, “and God and Red Shield did it. My family is now proud of me. My little brother and cousin, they look up to me. I thank God for helping me.”

Melik He is under five feet tall and weighs just under 75 pounds soaking wet, but don’t let those numbers fool you. He is the “big” man in the boxing program. Melik

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Elliston, 14, is the reigning National Silver Gloves Boxing Champion and 2008 Colorado Golden Gloves Champion. He’s also the coach’s son.

“Melik knows what it takes to become a good fighter. He puts in the work every day,” Elliston, coach and father, said. Melik’s three-hour training regimen includes running, weights, jumping rope, heavy bag and sparring. But the training doesn’t begin until all of his homework is done.”

“When I first started, I didn’t always believe my dad.

I thought I knew what was best. Now I know to listen to him,” Melik said. “I didn’t like doing all the stuff he said but it has made me a better fighter and person. We are a team, me and my dad.”

Melik is shooting for the 2016 Olympics and then to turn professional.

“Boxing is a physically tough sport,” Melik said, “but it is tougher mentally. You have to push yourself every day, even when you may not want to. But if I want to get to the Olympics, I know what I have to do.”

When asked about his boxing style and philosophy, he quickly said, “Hit them and don’t get hit.”

The boxing program has 40-50 boys, girls, men and women enrolled. Until they are ready to step into the ring, only an $8 pair of hand/wrist wraps is required. Boxing shoes are required inside the ring.

Any boxer competing in sanctioned events must have a USA Boxing Passport (registration). Red Shield does not charge any program fees for training or use of equipment.

“It is an honor to train these kids,” Elliston said. “We give them structure, discipline and guidance. I get to see them mature right before my eyes and they achieve so much confidence in themselves. You know it when you can see it.” n Roger Miller is The Salvation Army’s public relations director in Metro Denver, Colorado.

Photos by Roger Miller

STRICTLY LIBERATING

2010

In January 2010, youth workers from throughout the Western Territory converge upon Mt. Hermon Camp and Conference Center near Santa Cruz, California, for the third and largest “Boot Camp”—a leadership conference for Western Territorial youth workers.

The inaugural Boot Camp took place in January 2005 at Camp Redwood Glen in the Golden State Division. Two hundred youth workers and instructors gathered for general sessions and nearly 50 workshops. Western Territorial Commander Commissioner Philip Swyers ended the week with an affirmation of the youth leaders and sent them out with a new passion to work with youth. This time, Swyers will open the conference and set the tone for a liberating week.

Numerous programs started in corps across the territory following the 2005 territory-wide event and attendance in existing programs made a big jump. The success of the first conference led to approval of a second Boot Camp in 2008, which included officers in the training in order to build a vision for youth work in their corps. Over 460 people attended the second conference.

In 2010, the new venue will allow for more seminars, programming areas, recreational options and adequate housing.

The goal is for each delegate to be encouraged, refreshed and inspired. Delegates can select seminars based on their particular needs and general sessions will feature guest speakers with expertise from youth culture to innovative programming.

For the third time, Western territorial leadership offered an all-inclusive scholarship for a youth worker and officer to attend Boot Camp 2010 from each corps in the West—a clear sign that supporting our youth leaders is imperative and a priority in the West.

BY JIM SPARKS

boot camp 2

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2010 theme This Boot Camp will focus on the idea of “Strictly Liberating.” Too many times youth programmers feel like they are handcuffed or pigeonholed into a programming structure.

Unfortunately, creativity and new ideas get squashed because of this. We want delegates to be free in their programming and not be held back in their creativity. We want them to get out of the cage and explore new ways to be relevant within the community and culture.

2010 chaplain Bart Tarman, a former chaplain of Westmont College, Young Life staff member, and associate pastor, is an ordained Presbyterian minister and holds a Master’s of Divinity. For the past six years, he has worked with members of the U.S. House and Senate prayer groups to encourage friendships in Jesus around the world. He and his wife of 38 years, Linda, help serve as liaisons on behalf of these groups to Latin American nations. Tarman has been associated with the National Prayer Breakfast for more than 30 years.

2010 speakers As always, Boot Camp will include a number of top-notch youth specialists, including: Mark Oestreicher knew he wanted to work in youth ministry by the time he was a high school senior. Following completion of undergraduate and graduate degrees at Wheaton College, Oestreicher worked for Scripture Press Publications as a junior high curriculum editor and simultaneously as a parttime junior high pastor. To this day, Oestreicher says middle schoolers are some of his favorite people on earth.

Most recently, Oestreicher was the president of Youth Specialties and regularly spoke at the organization’s National Youth Workers Convention.

He previously served as the executive pastor at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena, California, junior high pastor in a few different churches, and written

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curriculum and books for multiple publishers.

Currently, Oestreicher volunteers with young teens at Journey Community Church in La Mesa, California, and leads a small group of middle school guys each week from his home.

Oestreicher married his wife, Jeannie, almost 24 years ago and has two teenage kids. He regularly blogs at ysmarko.com.

Charles Lee is the lead cultural catalyst and pastor for New Hope in Torrance and Los Angeles, California. He is also the vice-president and founding member of JustOne, a non-profit organization committed to addressing issues of poverty, orphans and human trafficking (modern-day slavery). In addition, Charles is the creator of grassroots efforts including the Idea Camp and the Freeze Project.

Lee regularly speaks around the country on topics such as creativity, innovation, leadership, social media, ministry, community development and compassionate justice. Lee and his wife have two children. He regularly blogs at charlestlee.com.

2010 workshops The seminars for Boot Camp are broken up into seven categories: basic programming, covering the basics of The Salvation Army character-building and leadership development programs; personal growth, featuring seminars that focus on the self and building a stronger Christian life foundation; media, everything from video editing to graphic design; advanced programming, teaching delegates to take existing Salvation Army programs and move them to the next level; how to…, covering vast topics like: dealing with discipline, creating fun teen nights, planning and executing events, helping hurting kids, and learning how to communicate to teenagers; culture, focusing on topics like youth culture and building bridges to first and second generations; and forums, discussing current trends in youth ministry today. n Jim Sparks is the director of youth leadership development in the U.S. Western Territory.

Photo by Nikole Lim

liberating

S T RI CT LY

A THEME FOR US ALL

Someone once told me that in the United States, “Christianity is 2,000 miles across but only two inches deep.”

Could this be true of The Salvation Army—spreading the good news of Jesus through action across 118 countries, but only a couple inches deep into the word? I hope not; I pray not.

True liberation occurs when we come to know the person of Jesus Christ and understand who we are in him, why we fight, and for whom we are fighting.

Liberation is a lifestyle, not a planned event. More and more young people are asking what they can do at their corps. Action is positive; however, this desire must be coupled with a longing to deeper understand the word of God. It is possible to be involved in the fight without an understanding of grace or an intimate relationship with Christ. People will be helped, people will be blessed and good things will happen, but as soon as the individual no longer “feels good” serving, they walk away on to the next “big thing.”

Those who are entrenched in Scripture will understand what personal holiness is and find themselves unable to sit still as they are bursting with love for the unlovable, unable to sit silent with all the injustice and unable to watch suffering without serving.

BY IVAN WILD

Demanding justice Holiness demands justice and cannot tolerate injustice. The Bible says in Isaiah, The Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. He is so just that he provides a remedy and complete liberation from the captivity of sin and the injustice it promotes. That is why God sent his one and only son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross and rise again, so that we may be a free and

BOOT CAMP 2010

liberated people.

The fight is so that others may also experience true liberation. It’s a fight worth fighting for; it is a cause that should never end until Jesus returns.

The Salvation Army has a deep theology of holiness and its doctrine prepares soldiers with a firm foundation and framework to grow in the knowledge of God. As an Army, we should never shy away from the fight; we should never be silent about the injustice of the world; we should always be ready and willing to serve the suffering; and we should give joyfully and generously.

Rooted fight I recently heard a young person say, “I didn’t realize serving others could be so fun; it’s liberating.”

Youth in The Salvation Army have taken up fighting for a cause, for “social justice.”

The idea behind the “I’ll fight” campaign, Revolution Hawaii, Revolution Northwest, Battle School and extreme outreaches is not to be catchy initiatives, but rather to be an attitude of the will and of putting faith into action.

Our young people have passion, energy and zeal and are connecting with all kinds of social causes.

When presented with an opportunity, they will respond. This fire of activity combined with an understanding rooted in the word of God, becomes an explosion.

May our fight against the social ills of the world continue, may it be rooted in the word of God, centered on Jesus Christ, surrendered to the Holy Spirit and done with a clean heart. n Major Ivan Wild is the territorial youth secretary in the U.S. Western Territory. He will be speaking during the closing session of the West’s Boot Camp 2010 event.

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Fresh resources, same mission

Newest

BY DONNA AMES

Our opening has received a lot of positive media attention, but of all the great press coverage, my favorite is a column from our local paper, the Statesman Journal.

The author, a mom of four, highlights family friendly outings in the area. She wrote after one of our opening events: Outside the spacious chapel, glass cases displayed a bit of The Salvation Army’s history. On the surface, the grandiose Kroc Center may look like a huge departure from the organization’s humble beginnings. But our time there showed that even with all the bells and whistles, it’s still about serving the community.

In all the fundamentals, a Kroc Center is just like any other

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Kroc Center now open in Salem, Oregon

corps in its aim to “preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and meet human needs in his name without discrimination.” In Salem, Oregon, the Western Territory’s newest Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center opened in September 2009—a $40 million, 92,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility that provides new resources and opportunities to carry out the Army’s mission.

The facility is well placed in northeast Salem.

The largest concentration of low-income families and some of the worst performing schools in Oregon are within a three-mile radius of our location. Salem has a few family oriented centers, which low-income families cannot afford. Gang activity is on the rise.

Our congregation has had five years to strategize, plan and pray about how this gift can help us reach the youth and families of our community for Christ. We take the stewardship of our facility very seriously and have taken to heart a fourfold purpose to “promote wellness, encourage excellence, build character and inspire faith.”

Acknowledging worth In our first two weeks of operation, staff members received complaints about a teenage boy who seemed suspicious and spent hours lingering around our facility each day. They made it a point to talk to this boy periodically so he knew he was being watched; however, one staff member took a different approach. She asked if he might be interested in volunteering. He got almost weepy, realizing that someone saw some potential in him.

It turns out he wasn’t a troublemaker; he just didn’t have anywhere else to be.

We simply don’t know the home situations or the challenges kids who come through our doors face every day. They may just be waiting for someone to see they have worth and potential—a job that we have taken on.

The draw Of course, much advertising went into the opening of this Kroc Center, but in actuality, the center itself is the draw.

“I don’t have to do anything!” said Christi Sondheim, youth ministries coordinator, on how she is attracting young people to the center.

“My office is right off of the hot spot for teens,

Photo by Nikole Lim

the game room. I have constant interaction with kids of all ages just outside my door.”

Sondheim leads a committed group of corps volunteers who are finding their vision, energy and time stretched in new ways. She is new to the Army but has caught the vision, and like many of our new employees, has found ways to use her gifts and express her faith.

“Joan Kroc’s vision of building positive opportunities for children and teens is the core of the mission,” Sondheim said. “So while we provide these opportunities, we have the awesome responsibility to reach out to people with the love of God. For many, this center is a dream come true.”

New activities Low fees, community collaborations and scholarships provide opportunities for all youth to participate, regardless of income. Plenty of time for the gym, swimming, games, library and a variety of classes provide positive, pro-active alternatives to being home alone or on the street.

On Tuesdays, the free Kroc Church programs for kindergarten to sixth graders include choir, musical training and troops. This program already has 80 kids enrolled, with 40 more on the waiting list.

Teens are welcome on Wednesday nights for “h2o” (hydrate to operate) youth group. We play games, hang out, and examine God’s word to explore how it is relevant for our lives today.

A new contemporary service has been added to our Sunday offerings of traditional and Spanish-language worship, and Sunday school classes are available for all ages.

The Salem Kroc Center may allow new opportunity for ministry with fresh tools and resources, but our mission remains the same. At the heart of this center, we are reaching people in the name of Christ, and meeting the needs of body, mind and soul. n Major Donna Ames is the executive director of The Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in Salem, Oregon. Ames is also corps officer of the Salem Kroc Corps with her husband, Jerry.

Photo by Sue Warner

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Stepping beyond preconceptions to attain relationship

It’s tempting to be seduced by the idea that reaching “poor people” is difficult. Think about it—there are books upon books stuffed full of strategies on how to reach the poor.

Honestly, I’ve read a bunch of them and they’re OK; but my experience is that the recipe for reaching “marginalized people” can’t be found in a book. It’s not rocket science; it’s just hard work.

That work is made all the more difficult because the majority of training available is designed to lopsidedly equip students for a ministry that’s neat and tidy—and living on the margins with Jesus’ closest friends is anything but that. We need to step past what we’re comfortable with and get ourselves dirty, in Jesus’ name.

My growing conviction is that we need to act justly, and to act justly means to choose to position ourselves on the side of the oppressed. Check out Micah 6:6-8, Isaiah 58 and 61, all the words of Jesus and the actions that went with them and virtually any biography of a Christian hero. Take my word for it; they are all about the poor! Jesus is biased toward the poor, and if the Bible is right, then we understand that it’s only when we reach the poor that our own healing occurs (Isaiah 58:8).

This is often a pitfall in Christian churches. We think that we should hold off on doing outreach and mission until the church is “healthy enough” or “big enough” or some other elusive “enough,” but Scripture clearly reveals that our healing will

BY DANIELLE STRICKLAND

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appear as we go to the poor. Talk about a new strategy for infusing life into your youth group.

That being said, here are a few modest suggestions to get you started: Find them Where are they?

I once talked with Salvation Army staff at a headquarters office about opening a church in the poor part of town, but came to realize that no one in the office knew where the poor neighborhood was.

The thing is, they are not alone. Most of us who call ourselves Christian leaders don’t know where the poor people are in our own city. (For more study, watch the movie Millions [2004, Pathé Pictures International].)

The first step in fighting against injustice and for the marginalized is to choose to see. Find the poor; there you will find injustice.

Pray for them Begin to hang out in the neighborhood and pray, asking for a strategy. When my husband and I felt called to move to the slum in our city, we found out that our boss had been prayer-walking in the neighborhood almost daily for a year. We recognized the Lord’s strategic timing for an advance into that place and knew we weren’t going in our own strength, but with the power of God. Everything since has also started with prayer.

Prayer-walking a neighborhood is a great way to

begin to reach the people in it. One of the great learning curves for me in reaching “marginalized” youth is to see them with the eyes of Jesus, not with color-coated glasses that may see them better or worse than they are, but just for who they are.

Jesus sees us for who we really are. That gift of sight only comes through prayer.

Talk to them What do they need?

We once assigned a group in mission training to connect with the skateboarding youth that hung out in a rough park. They seemed to never move beyond praying about the assignment. I finally invaded the perpetual prayer meeting and suggested the Lord would love to finally answer all this prayer.

Arriving at the park, I asked everyone to find one person and ask them what we could do to help them while they were in the park. The suggestions were awesome. They have no music; could we bring tunes? They have no water fountain; could we provide cold water? We realized that many of the skaters often went hungry, so the answer to our prayer of how to reach them ended up being a barbeque with music at a skateboard park that is “hard to reach.” Our strategy came from their needs, which we found out by asking them!

Be friends with them I have a friend who refers to short-term missions in the inner city as “petting the poor.”

Instead, focus on relationship; one good relationship is enough to start with. Have that person over for dinner or pick them up for youth group. The point is to establish a real relationship with them that creates trust between you, which can take a while.

The real problem with authentic relationships tends to be that they become dangerous to your lifestyle. Once you really start to learn the problems and stories of the kids who are hurting, it is hard to drop them off and leave them at “home.”

Compartmentalization ceases to be an option and they become a part of your life.

Partnership Reaching “marginalized” people is complex.

Often, their problems are multi-faceted and it takes a whole community of committed people to make the transformation happen. Connecting with other groups that are already at work with the same population of youth will do several things.

First, they will help you learn. Many of them have been working at it for decades. Listen to them.

Second, they increase efficiency because often we don’t have the time to do the “whole” job ourselves (or the capacity, to be honest), but with the help of others we can contribute a portion toward the long walk to freedom. Partners will also give you good feedback on the effectiveness of your strategies.

We—as the church—cannot be competitive and keep great ideas to ourselves. We need to share what works because we don’t have the luxury of territorialism and we need all the help we can get.

Our part in the Gospel I had always considered myself to be a good Christian. I radically followed Jesus, read my Bible most days, prayed a fair bit and went on regular mission trips. How much better can you get?

One day I was practicing listening prayer—the kind where you stop talking and listen for God to speak to you. I was reading through the Gospels when the Lord asked, “Whom do you relate to when you read the Gospel?” Naturally, I told him that I related to him. He suggested (very nicely) that he and I don’t have much in common, at least not the Middle-Eastern, Jewish rabbi in Israel wearing a dress, Jesus. I relented.

I then suggested that I related to the disciples, but he gently proposed that I didn’t have much in common with them either. For one thing, I went to Bible college. Nuts.

Next, I tried the people who needed healing— the poor. This is when Jesus began to get sarcastic with me. “Really?” he said. “The poor? When was the last time you were oppressed, or beaten, or begging for your daily bread?” Good point.

That left the Romans (whom I have less in common with than Jesus) and the rocks (which I have more in common with than the Romans).

“I guess I don’t relate to anyone in the Gospels,” I finally, lamely, suggested. Jesus told me to look closer. “But where?” That’s when Matthew 23:23 hit me like a ton of bricks; I had the most in

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common with the Pharisees.

Before you freak out, I’ve since decided that this is really good to know. Perspective is everything and Jesus, in his great kindness, showed me this truth not to embarrass me or even to make fun of me, but to get me to listen.

Not a fad What I began to understand is that the promises he makes in Scripture about those who help the poor are all true. The need and desire I have within me to serve him are also true. The Pharisees were not bad people; they were hungry for truth but didn’t hear Jesus well. I have the same problem. Jesus didn’t speak to the Pharisees to hurt them but to help them. I’ve started a Pharisees Anonymous group now. I was the first member, but there’s still plenty of room.

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I think it’s time “the church” (us) takes seriously the biblical narrative. We need to recognize that reaching marginalized people is not some kind of latest fad—it is the oldest story. It is the gospel itself. We have good news for the poor. That’s the point Jesus came to make. Now is the time to empower a generation of young people who don’t just “know the truth” but who “do what it says.”

Reaching marginalized youth is not just something that you need to do because of the gospel in you, but it is something you need to model, embrace, budget for, include and plan in order to make your church a gospel church.

The spirit of the Lord is upon you. n Captain Danielle Strickland is the social justice director in the Australia Southern Territory.

Salvation Army kids serve as global ambassadors and travel to South Africa BY WARREN MAYE

Thirty kids from the Brooklyn (Bushwick), New York, corps had the adventure of a lifetime, thanks to Malaak Compton-Rock, a long-time supporter and friend of the corps. Soledad O’Brien, host of CNN’s “Black in America 2,” captured their two-week trip to South Africa on tape in 2008 and aired the story in July 2009.

Compton-Rock; Captain Travis Lock, Bushwick corps officer; and 30 trained chaperones led a “Journey for Change” to Salvation Army and Olive Leaf Foundation centers in Johannesburg. The youth— dubbed “Global Ambassadors” in a oneyear program of service—visited homes and orphanages and assisted families in the neighboring township of Soweto and shantytown of Diepsloot.

In an interview with O’Brien, ComptonRock revealed her personal connection with the Bushwick Corps.

“This is the community center that my husband [comedian Chris Rock] attended as a child,” she said. “He always talked about it being ‘an amazing place’ and—what if he

A JOURNEY FOR CHANGE didn’t have it?”

Bushwick, a working class neighborhood, has a history marked with drug trade, under-achieving schools, destitution and a staggering rate of teen pregnancy. Half the children under age 18 still live below the poverty line.

The Rocks join forces with The Salvation Army on a variety of national fundraising projects involving the Target Corporation.

“These kids have always been on the receiving end of aid. They’ve never been on the giving end of service,” said ComptonRock of the Bushwick ambassadors, ages 12

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to 16. “[Going to South Africa] has opened up their world. I also think that travel gives you a sense of confidence. These kids are going to be our next civic leaders.”

Experience of a lifetime While on the trip, many youth experienced “life-changing” days. For instance, Sydney Smart wrote in his journal, “Today, we visited an orphanage and homes.

It was so sad to see people of the 21st century live in such poverty. They live in shacks with broken roofs and dirt floors. It was so sad to also see children living in these conditions. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“In the orphanage, I picked up this little 7-month-old baby. She had a twin brother. She’s so intelligent that she copies everything that you do. She is so sweet.

“When we left, she cried with the other children. Today was a life-changing day [for me].

“Tomorrow, we will shop [in the stores for items] to help make their lives better. I can’t wait to see the smiles on their faces.”

Since returning to the United States,

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the young people have demonstrated their newfound understanding of life outside the U.S. by sharing their experiences with the community and continuing to do service work as Global Ambassadors. They’ve served as volunteers, helped to rebuild in New Orleans, traveled to Washington, D.C., and spoken to other youth about community service opportunities.

Captain Lock explained why it is imperative that these children experience such journeys for change. In an interview posted on Compton-Rock’s “The Angelrock Project” website—an organization of which she is founder and director—Lock said, “Bushwick is a neighborhood with startling statistics. There is a population of 100,000 people. It has consistently struggled to overcome obstacles, such as drug trafficking, a high incidence of child neglect, rising crime rates and broken families.

“Over half of its population lives below the poverty line and receives some form of public assistance. Only a little over 50 percent of the students of its largest high school, Bushwick High, graduate in four years.”

Lock said his goals include providing visual and performing arts experiences for the kids as a way of offsetting the effects of declining public school budgets.

“It is important for the [corps] to pick up where the schools are leaving off,” he said.

“We cannot leave our children behind.”

A revelation Chris Rock and Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., hosted the Global Ambassadors’ inaugural graduation ceremony and genealogy presentation, held at Time Warner Center in Manhattan in September 2009, which was televised by CNN. Friends, family, partners, sponsors and donors also listened as Gates shared with each of the 30 graduates genealogical and DNA interpretations that revealed where their

ancestors had come from.

A number of high-profile individuals— from the presidents of Pratt Institute and the Fashion Institute of Technology, to the editors of ESSENCE and Redbook—presented the graduates with completion certificates.

Greater New York divisional leaders, Lt. Colonels Guy and Henrietta Klemanski, represented The Salvation Army.

In 2010, the Journey for Change program will include young people from The Salvation Army’s Bedford Temple and Brownsville Corps, both located in Brooklyn, New York.

Giving back Compton-Rock’s motto is: “Service is the rent we pay for living.” An advocate for volunteerism, social responsibility and sustainable change, she said, “I want the children to understand that to whom much is given, much is required—that you must give back to the next person.”

One of those people is Wakey W. Anton, a South African touched by the visit to his country. “Please tell my Journey for Change family that they are always in my mind and prayers,” he wrote in an e–mail.

“The photos of the group hang in my house so I can see them every morning.

Thank you, Captain [Lock], for your friendship and for the whole Journey for Change family.” n Warren Maye is the editor for Good News! and the assistant literary secretary in the U.S Eastern Territory. Read more about Compton-Rock in her upcoming book, If it Takes a Village, Build One: How I Found Meaning Through a Life of Service and 100+ Ways You Can Too, available in April 2010.

Photos by Sergo LaLanne and Michael Ortiz

Coming soon

A photo memento book entitled A New Worldview was released for limited distribution in October 2009 by Others Press®, an imprint of The Salvation Army’s U.S. Eastern Territory. It will describe the Journey for Change experience as seen through the eyes of Captain Travis Lock, Brooklyn (Bushwick), New York, corps officer; Sergo LaLanne, photographer and the corps youth program director; and several Journey for Change Global Ambassadors.

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BY ANDY FREEMAN

There was one story that G.K. Chesterton, a prolific English author of the early 20th century, wanted to write but never properly did. Chesterton confesses in his landmark book, Orthodoxy, that he always wanted to write a tale about an explorer. His idea was of a man who sails away from England on a great adventure to find new lands. When he reaches shore, the man steps bravely onto what he thinks is an undiscovered kingdom, only to discover that he has merely sailed back to England. He plants a flag in what he thinks is paradise, but turns out to be Brighton.

At first hearing, we think the explorer is stupid. But as Chesterton examined the idea, he realized it was an allegory for something much deeper. Was it really so bad that the man went out on a dangerous quest, yet discovered something known and comfortable? After all, “what could be more glorious than to brace oneself to discover New South Wales, and then realize, with a gush of happy tears, that it was really old South Wales.”

Chesterton’s idea pushes us to recognize our own familiarity with life, our surroundings and often with God. “How can we contrive to be at once astonished at the world and yet at home within it?” he wrote.

Non-stop prayer Ten years ago, my life took an unexpected change of direction. I was a youth worker in a growing Anglican church in Reading, England, but I had a problem. Our youth work was fun; we hosted good events, but we weren’t really making an impression on teenagers who didn’t yet know God.

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“You can feel God in here,” I remember one self-proclaimed atheist told me.

“You don’t believe in God,” I replied.

“I know,” he simply murmured back.

In desperation and without—if I’m honest—much faith, we decided to pray. We heard about this thing called 24-7 Prayer and decided we’d arrange a non-stop prayer room for a weekend. To our great surprise, God decided to move.

As we manned our little prayer room, people came to faith, prayers were answered and the room was packed. We held prayer weeks and the same happened. People began to ask why we didn’t have this facility all the time in Reading, so in October 2001, we opened a Boiler Room—a simple Christian community that practices a daily rhythm of prayer, study and celebration while caring actively for the poor and the lost [see more at boiler-room.com].

The Reading Boiler Room was the first of many 24-7 Boiler Rooms now all over the world.

In our town, this little prayer room led us to the Forbury Gardens park to work with over a hundred unchurched, lovely young people. These goths and skaters felt excluded by the community, yet somehow included by God through a prayer room.

Wonder Like Chesterton, we decided to explore and in setting out on a journey, we found something familiar that was lost to us—the gift of prayer.

We found that many of the young people who discovered a simple expression of faith in prayer had lost their wonder at religion and God; they needed to go on a new adventure to rediscover it once more.

Wonder of God is the moment when we stand before him and realize there is so much more than we can ever grasp about our God. It is a deep form of praise.

Plato concluded that all philosophy begins and ends with wonder. Wonder is what the shepherds and kings had in common. Wonder was the only valid reaction to the resurrection of Christ. Wonder is what we do when we realize God is God and we can neither box nor package him. Wonder seemed to be central to what people were experiencing in the first century.

Time after time, we’d hear similar things. As people took a step into the prayer room, they’d often be open-mouthed, a little surprised.

“You can feel God in here,” I remember one selfproclaimed atheist told me.

“You don’t believe in God,” I replied.

“I know,” he simply murmured back.

Built on prayer Last year, my friend Phil took a 24-7 prayer room into a local school. One teenager recorded her thoughts like this: “I’ve never seen prayer displayed or experienced like this before. It has made me realize how many different ways prayer can be appreciated. It has opened up religion in my life again. Thank you.”

Many people have experienced a 24-7 prayer room—paper on the wall to write prayers, candles

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At Reconcile we want to introduce people to a space, to a different rhythm of life and to Jesus at our center. or lights, a visual and creative sense, space to sit and reflect, and music. This idea is not new; the existence of continuous prayer stretches back into monasteries and the early church.

At our Boiler Room, this rhythm of prayer was mixed with simple community—shared meals, openness and welcome, relationship-building and inclusion. It’s an idea that’s now taking shape all over the world. In Ibiza, community and prayer join together to reach out to clubbers on the island. In Skopje, goths and punks welcome the lost and hurting of that city to Glasnost, the Skopje Boiler Room. In Kansas City, prayer and community come together in the Boiler Room where almost 200 now find their spiritual home.

It’s this mix of community and prayer that’s setting me off on a new adventure—a community called Reconcile of 15-20 core members and a number of others in the fringe who are dedicated to prayer and to sharing life in a more intentional way.

The name gives away the heart of what we want to live by, and comes from 2 Corinthians 5:16-20.

ministry, I lost sight of this wonder. The shroud of busyness, most of which had honest intentions, hid some things in my life. In working hard to serve my God, I had instead managed to miss him while getting everything organized. Like Martha in the story of the meal in Luke 10:38-42, I learned to be “fussing far too much” about my work, but neglected the true duty of sitting before the master, “hanging on his every word.”

At Reconcile we want to introduce people to space, to a different rhythm of life and to Jesus at our center.

Second, we find that Jesus also reconciled us to each other—our relationships flow through him. We are to be agents of reconciliation, his “ambassadors.”

Here we found the wonder of friendship rediscovered. Community takes on many different guises, but for us, Christian community is found in Christ and flows from the trinity. It means prioritizing inclusion and peace. Through that people can find peace with God, maybe for the first time.

This is a wonder I’d like to live out for the rest of my days.

A different rhythm In these last 10 years God seems to have redirected my life around two reconciliations he achieved on the cross.

First, Jesus reconciled us to God. That in itself is incredible. Yet in all my youth work and church

n Andy Freeman spent 10 years helping others develop Boiler Rooms in their communities as part of the 24-7 Prayer international team. He recently co-authored Punk Monk with Pete Greig and is now training to become an ordained pioneer minister in the Anglican Church. See more at 24-7prayer.com.

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Deeply known Filling the need for relationship through social networking BY TONY FERRARO

It is not good for the man to be alone (Genesis 2:18).

Several months ago, Mark Horvath, an activist who travels around the country meeting, serving and chronicling the stories of the homeless, posted a video on his video blog: invisiblepeople.tv. It told the story of “Joanne,” a woman who became homeless when the house where she sublet a room entered foreclosure. Mark helped move her belongings off of the street and into a storage facility. He also interviewed Joanne for several minutes on video.

“Don’t be afraid of me,” she said. “If you don’t have money, that’s OK. Just say, ‘hello.’ I just want people to talk to.”

Joanne had nothing. Yet, more than money, food or shelter, she simply wanted relationship.

That is the way God made us. Because God exists in eternal relationship by way of the Holy Trinity, and man is made in God’s image, we have a desperate need to be deeply known and not alone.

Man often accomplishes this by identifying with entities that are known, therefore making him known as well. Certainly, team flags waving from the windows of cars during playoffs come to mind. Sports franchises, hobbies, clubs, etc., often become rally points around which man finds relational belonging.

In recent years, people obtained relationship through online social networks like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Facebook alone claims more than 250 million active users; 120 million of these users log on at least once each day, and the fastest growing user demographic is those 35 years and older.

The church as a vehicle for relationship Like the Good Samaritan, the church must be willing to meet people where they are. In Joanne’s case, it was on a street corner; however, in today’s society, sometimes those meetings can be initiated by

relationally unconventional means.

A church, for example, should be made of more than a building, but even a “steeple with people” does not really cross the threshold of what God intended.

The body of Christ is defined by real, authentic relationships that exist between its members. Do the people in your church live in relationship between Sundays, or just on Sunday and Wednesday? Are they living life together? Where do they go for immediate support?

Identifying ourselves with the body of Christ naturally creates dependencies. But, most church attendees simply do not rely on one another in relationship outside of the typical Sunday greeting of, “How are things?”

Answering today’s relational demands Churches need to engage in the ever-expanding social marketplace. The world is crying out for relationship and the most equipped organizations on Earth for filling this need have yet to engage. Those churches that have simply not committed themselves to relationship outside of the traditional means must adapt. Seekers will turn to some medium to find relationship. Will the church be there to answer?

We have boundless means to engage people; minimally, churches should create Facebook and Twitter accounts and a church blog. Each of these can be done at no cost and yet have a tremendous impact on engaging people and connecting them with the church all week long.

Another fantastic outreach tool is to create an online campus. The key to establishing a solid Internet campus strategy is to ensure that the basics of Christianity can be answered within this environment. Elements including evangelism, baptism, communion, discipleship and small group administration must be addressed and outlined.

Those that attend online should have as close as possible to the same experience as those that

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Mark Horvath of invisiblepeople.tv, right, talks with Denver City Councilwoman Judy Montero and Katie Symons of The Salvation Army’s Road Home Project in Denver.

physically attend a church.

Creating real relationship If a church can deploy a strategy using social media while continuing to create real relationship that is geared toward “next step” Christianity, the impact can be great.

People are generally willing to go deeper, reveal more and handle confrontation better in an online environment. The key to real discipleship, however, is that the online experience must be brought to a real physical relationship at some point. Even when churches pursue an online campus strategy, the eventual goal must be to move people to physical church attendance, even if it means encouraging them to attend elsewhere.

While it is always easy to get people “involved” with various activities, the goal of any social media

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strategy must be real relationship and not “fad hopping.” If a church does anything simply because it is popular, it is significantly off track. Social media strategies only work when their motive is sincere.

The reason they work is because people have a genuine need to be deeply known and not alone.

An initial meeting—in person or online—is just a start. The church must be willing to provide and display a true love for individuals and a desire to walk alongside them regardless of where the encounter takes place. n Tony Ferraro is a licensed minister with Sandals Church (Riverside, California) and president of 360Hubs, a developer of Web 2.0 online collaboration solutions. Read more on church leadership and social media at tonyferraro. com or follow him at twitter.com/tferraro.

Photo by Roger Miller

A TALENT SHOW OF THOUSANDS Star Search hits its 25th year in the Eastern Territory In a time when millions of people tune in weekly to watch “American Idol” or “America’s Got Talent,” The Salvation Army in the Eastern Territory is celebrating its 25th year of showcasing young talent in the “Salvationist Star Search.”

The Eastern Territory began its own Star Search program in 1984, inspired by the Ed McMahon Star Search television show, to involve young people in music-making. Throughout the last 25 years, thousands of kids have enhanced their musicianship; over 1,450 kids participated in Star Search in 2009 alone.

The program’s purpose is four-fold: • Encourage the development of soloists and groups in music and dramatic arts; • Provide a goal that will help motivate soloists and groups to work toward becoming their best in the chosen artistic fields; • Provide opportunity for performance, giving

BY RONALD WAIKSNORIS

additional motivation for development of skills through participation at both local corps and divisional levels; • Help soloists, groups and leaders

focus on doing their best to glorify God by developing the talents he gave them, and then using their skills to bring a message and a blessing to those who listen.

The process The program encourages 6- to 21-year-old brass players, vocalists, pianists, sacred dancers, timbrelists, percussionists and dramatic performers throughout the territory to develop and grow during the year with the assistance of his or her corps. By providing a platform to share talent, corps officers and leaders help develop and encourage young people in high quality arts worship at Salvation Army corps.

Each fall, the territorial music department distributes the selected “test piece” for each of the various performance categories. Within the category, every participant competes based on the same test piece. In some categories, an additional “choice piece” is required.

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By providing a platform to share talent, corps officers and leaders help develop and encourage young people in high quality arts worship at Salvation Army corps.

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The first round of competition is held in each of the 11 divisions during the spring. One winner from each age-divided performance category is selected to compete at the territorial level.

The Star Search final talent display is held during the annual Commissioning [graduation and ordination ceremony for Salvation Army cadets] weekend. Each year over a thousand people from throughout the territory gather with excitement and expectancy to see the 11 finalists in each category compete.

The first, second and third place winners in all categories receive a trophy. The first place winners in the over-13-year-old performance categories (roughly 15 kids) also receive a scholarship to attend the summer’s Star Lake music camp in Bloomingdale, New Jersey.

“This program takes people out of their comfort zones and motivates the kids to reach for a goal,” said Thomas Scheibner, assistant territorial music secretary in the East, who has been involved with the program since its inception. “It gives kids a chance to be involved

DOING THE MOST GOOD

in a number of different areas and encourages them to stay in The Salvation Army. In the last 10 years, we have expanded the program to include creative arts such as drama, sacred dance and snare drum. The key to holding people in the Army is to get them involved in their corps and doing something they enjoy.”

The competition While some believe competitions like this are dangerous, we believe Star Search is a healthy and exhilarating way to share God-given talents. Learning to be in front of a crowd and building confidence helps these young people be better suited for job interviews or public presentations in school.

This program also motivates young people to work toward a goal and provides a safe arena in which to learn how to support one another, no matter what the final outcome is. Encouragement is a priority of the talent display—whether a child receives a high or low score, they are equally prepared for life’s trials and challenges and surrounded with love and support.

A few participants have gone on

to become professional musicians, including Derek Lance who now plays trumpet in the U.S. Army’s West Point band, and Michael Baker who now performs in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and in various Broadway shows.

Others now teach music in schools or colleges, and a few are officers in The Salvation Army.

Most contestants who participate in Star Search will not make a living on stage, but they are building skills and memories and learning about giving his or her best to glorify God. We often remind them of Philippians 2:3-4: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Star Search to West Point

BY DEREK LANCE I first participated in Star Search in the Eastern Territory at the age of 9. Over the next six years of my life, I played cornet in every level of competition. I looked forward to the event each year; every time I performed, I stretched myself as a player and attempted more difficult, challenging pieces.

I occasionally won, but it was the experience of playing on stage in front of others and dealing with nerves that I found worthwhile. I also appreciate that participating in Star Search motivated me to practice and gave me a sense of responsibility for my own preparation. This program trained

n Ronald Waiksnoris is the territorial music secretary in the U.S. Eastern Territory and has provided leadership of the Star Search program since its creation.

me well for schooling at the Curtis Institute of Music in

Photos by Donahue Hall

a judge for the past few years and help kids at my corps

Philadelphia and The Juilliard School in New York City and for my present job as principal trumpet of the West Point Band.

Star Search is still part of my life as I have served as prepare for their own Star Search experience.

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I am not the Messiah A reminder that helps encourage one longtime youth director

BY LORRIE DAVIS

I have held positions of full-time youth ministry in The Salvation Army for the past 18 years; Thirteen of these years have been at the Gresham Corps in

Oregon.

It was with great reluctance that I decided to write this article. Discouraged in my ministry and questioning my effectiveness as God’s servant, the thought of writing on youth ministry caused me to question myself even more. If I really knew what I was doing wouldn’t I have made better choices? Have I really made a difference to anyone? I recalled my many mistakes and failures along the way. I briefly prayed about writing this and then dismissed the idea for the aforementioned reasons. I am no role model.

Then God began whispering into my heart that perhaps others needed to be reminded that they are not the only ones who get discouraged and weary.

Sometimes as I look at the ministry of others I think, “If only I had their charisma, or their creativity to plan amazing programs or what I desire most—the ability to speak about Jesus in ways that stir young people to follow him.”

God gave me a love for youth and I cherish it. It is not a flashy gift that is easily recognized. Sometimes the business of expanding our opportunities to reach

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more young people distracts me from the ones he already entrusted to our ministry. More often, it is hard to draw a line between the role of pastor and of caretaker; some of these kids seem to have no one else to love them, no one else to encourage them and show them the way.

I also have a wonderful husband and amazing children who are God’s gift and blessing to me. Sometimes I feel pulled in a million directions—I am so blessed that I don’t know how to handle it all.

I have a good friend who reminds me that I am not the Messiah! I need to hear that occasionally, not because I think I am, but to reveal my pride in thinking that I can fix all that is wrong—or just one thing. I need to be reminded that God has a love far greater than mine for the kids and for me. I will do what he calls me to do; I need to stay connected to him above all else. I need to listen for his voice and be filled with his spirit; I need to be in his word.

When I fully trust in him and listen to his voice, the discouragement fades and the peace of Christ fills my heart. I can see the failures as opportunities; though I have failed many times, God continues to renew and redeem my life.

I am discouraged at times, but not defeated. I am humbled every day that God allows me to come alongside him and minister to young people in his name. It is an incredible privilege to have even the smallest of influence in directing someone to a relationship with Christ. n Lorrie Davis is currently in her 13th year as youth director at the Gresham Corps in Oregon. She has held full-time youth ministry positions in The Salvation Army for 18 years. The Gresham Corps recently received a $20,000 gift from Soroptomist International to complete its new facility for food assistance, worship and after-school activities.

THE BIRTH OF I N N O VAT I O N O P P O R T U N I T I E S

F O R

N E W

I D E A S

BY GREG ATKINSON

Noah was an innovator. He barely flinched when God asked him to construct a seemingly unimaginable structure to protect his family and a number of wild animals from a flood—an entirely foreign concept.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God (Genesis 6:9).

Credit for this innovation is God’s. Because Noah listened and walked with God, he was spared.

Innovation—the act of introducing something new— is a popular buzzword now and a sought after topic of discussion in the ministry resource world. I try to look at it through a biblical lens.

Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand new.

It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? (Isaiah 43:19).

In Henry Blackaby’s Experiencing God, he teaches: “When you recognize where God is working, you can join in what he is doing.” That is at the very core of being innovative—to be so in tune with God that his dreams become your dreams.

Innovation requires that we grasp onto this concept of joining God in his mission.

Blackaby wrote, “God’s activity is far greater than anything we could aspire to do for him.” Let that one sink in a little bit. For some of you it may be painful; for others it may be a relief.

When new ideas arise Innovation is born throughout the scale of human emotion and experience.

Revelation. God speaks to you. You know in your spirit; you have a dream or vision; you wake up singing or humming a new song; you arise with a fresh idea;

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you discover something in Scripture. It’s that still, small voice.

Inspiration. You are challenged, stretched, encouraged and inspired by the example of another; ideas come to you from watching other churches, organizations or companies; you get an idea from someone else’s idea, from hearing or seeing someone’s story or even from reading a book. Sometimes inspiration comes simply through communing with him in nature and taking in his amazing creation.

Observation. You are a student of culture, a learner and watcher of those you come in contact with. Maybe you observe other churches or organizations—how they lead, grow, organize and structure.

Conversation. Blackaby teaches that God uses people and circumstances to help us discern his will.

I believe that in our dialogue with friends, family, coworkers, co-laborers in ministry and especially our lost and unbelieving friends and family that God uses discussion to show us areas of need and new ways of doing things.

Situation. I know a church that didn’t have any musicians in their congregation for a worship band, but they did know a DJ. Now, they are known as the “cool church with the DJ” when in actuality they are just making the most out of their situation.

Frustration. I recently heard Pastor Larry Osborne of North Coast Church in Vista, California, say that innovation often comes from the guy who questions things: “There has got to be a better way to do this” or “Why do we have to always do it like that?” I

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believe God can and does use the things that drive us crazy to allow us to find new and creative solutions for doing things in a new way.

Desperation. I think of small churches and church plants that are in survival mode and are so desperate as a church to make it that they are willing to risk it all. I love seeing new church plants with hunger and passion. The traditional, older and established church has to be intentional and work hard to keep that hunger and fire that a new church plant naturally has. We can also learn a lot from our brothers and sisters overseas who are sometimes meeting underground and are in true “survival” mode. They are seeing God move in mighty ways and are finding new and successful ways of reaching the lost and making an impact in their community.

Continued dependence Innovation does not come with any shortcuts.

You cannot bypass prayer, which isn’t just the way to open a brainstorming meeting; it is the meeting. To be truly innovative and start doing new and exciting ministry, you must be dependent upon the Holy Spirit.

Call to me and I will answer you. I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own (Jeremiah 33:3). n Greg Atkinson is a consultant, teacher and writer on the subjects of innovation, technology, church planting and social justice. Previously, Atkinson was a worship pastor for 11 years, Director of WorshipHouse Media, and most recently, the Director of Technical Arts at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship in Texas.

Moving Sunday school beyond Sunday mornings SQUADS meet in Southern communities throughout the week BY KELLY IGLEHEART

Sunday school—Christian education in a classroom setting— was once the backbone of the church.

These weekend classes first appeared in American cities in the 1790s as a way to provide basic literacy training to poor children and adults on their one free day. The First Day Society of clerics and merchants paid local teachers to conduct Sunday classes based on the Bible. By 1830, the Sunday classes basically disappeared.

In their place, a new Sunday school emerged with a largely Protestant curriculum taught by volunteer teachers.

In 1898, Sunday school enrollment in North America totaled 12,167,127 people, according to Organized Sunday School Work in America, 1905-1908.

Today, Sunday school attendance continues to decline—including within The Salvation Army.

Annual reports from the past seven years display steadily decreasing numbers for attendance at Salvation Army Sunday classes in the U.S.: - 2003: 2,859,147 - 2004: 2,783,341 - 2005: 2,668,402 - 2006: 2,616,154 - 2007: 2,533,582 - 2008: 2,496,706 - 2009: 2,384,403 “One of the reasons the early church grew in

size and in spiritual power was because they met together daily for communion and fellowship; nothing strengthens and bonds believers like a desire to study the word of God,” said Major Nancy Lants, the Army’s U.S. national consultant for Christian education. “The Salvation Army will only grow in size and in spiritual power as its soldiers meet together on a regular basis to study God’s word.

Whether it be traditional Sunday school classes for all ages, SQUADS, home Bible studies, young adult fellowship Bible studies, or adult groups, study of the word must be the life and breath of the Salvationist. Without it, our organization will at worst die, and at best disintegrate from a loving, discipling branch of the Christian church to a well-respected, moral social club. That is not God’s intention for The Salvation Army!”

Taking school outside of Sundays In the Southern Territory, Sunday school has long been branded a priority program; it was believed that if individuals and families attended Sunday school, they would likely also attend other programs within the corps.

As we began to consider how to address the steady decline in attendance, we decided that we could not wait for people to show up for services; we knew we had to be proactive and take the gospel to the people and resolved that the best method would be through intentional outreach. By making Sunday

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Traditional Sunday morning classes remain valuable programs for our soldiers and visitors, but when faced with steady decline across the country, we had to find new and purposeful ways to engage others who cannot or will not participate in our traditional programs. school classes available as a Bible study during the week, we could build relationships with those around us—at the work place, schools and throughout our neighborhoods. Through relationships, we can influence lives.

The solution came in the form of SQUADS, not an acronym, but chosen for its meaning: a small group of people organized in a common endeavor or activity; a group of soldiers working on a special task, trained to meet a specific goal; a class or activity designed to encourage discipleship.

Within these small groups, people in our territory would meet in the community and establish relationships centered on the Bible, often using the Barefoot Ministries resources from our Sunday school curriculum provider, Nazarene Publishing House.

Traditional Sunday morning classes remain valuable programs for our soldiers and visitors, but when faced with steady decline across the country, we had to find new and purposeful ways to engage others who cannot or will not participate in our traditional programs.

Listening in SQUADS launched in the Southern Territory in June 2008. Now over a year later, multiple groups meet in each division on Sunday nights and weekdays in coffee shops and college campuses. Participants vary from students to those who have simply grown weary of traditional church attendance.

On a college campus in Hickory, North Carolina, students with varied church background come to meetings.

“As a part of my college outreach, I offered a

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SQUADS Bible study on Sunday night,” Lieutenant Nina Borum said of the Hickory group. “Originally, I wanted to attract non-Christians and create an open environment for them to learn more about God, but instead I attracted believers at various points in their relationship with God with backgrounds including Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist and of course Salvationist.”

Captain Rob Reardon, who began a SQUAD in Washington, D.C., reports two positive by-products of the group meeting in a local Panera Bread restaurant.

“The first is hardly noticeable, but happens every week. Inevitably, random people sitting with their coffee and danishes around us begin to listen in on our conversation and discussion. This is encouraging, because it is showing all involved that God’s word is something that is of interest to people even when they’re not in church, listening to a sermon,” Reardon said. “More importantly, we have become witnesses of Christ to the management of this particular restaurant.”

What group is not currently represented at your corps? Gather a group of friends and spread the word that you’ll be meeting in your neighborhood. Begin relationships and discover the needs of the group. n Major Kelly Igleheart is the territorial youth secretary in the U.S. Southern Territory. Resources to begin a SQUAD are available from Nazarene Publishing House. Visit youthdownsouth.org for more information or contact the youth department, via sheila_livingston@uss. salvationarmy.org, with questions.

Joining young adults in united worship

AGELESS MINISTRY BY TONY WOOD

I read a frightening statistic recently, via the Barna Group, which said that 69 percent of young adults leave the church by the age of 19.

As youth pastors who care about the future of these young adults, we wonder at this. Is it boredom, culture, distraction, multi-tasking, rebellion, tradition, or distrust in authority that pushes them away? It could be a little of each or it could simply be lack of a church to adapt its trusted truth to the worldview and proclivities of a new generation.

For 30 years the entrepreneurial mega-church founded itself around “life stage” ministry. Many churches funnel children from classroom to classroom, craft to craft, trip to trip, and new pastor to new pastor in a valiant attempt to change lives. However, the 69 percent dropout rate aforementioned signals that something is broken.

A step back For centuries, children became adults at the age of 12. Work was required. Marriage was common.

Modern thought has detoured our children,

delaying acceptance of responsibility, work ethic and passionate diligence until age 18.

Imagine if the church returned to its roots and adapted the philosophy that much is expected of their youth.

Right now in a large church setting, a child is expected to forcefully adhere to the teachings of a junior high pastor. Two years later, parents funnel their son or daughter to a new life-shaper called the high school pastor. In college, the kid is now required to gravitate to another leader. Finally, we hope that the young adult will walk into a Sunday service, appreciate the senior pastor’s vision and enjoy the corporate experience to which they’ve had no previous allegiance.

Why do we keep launching ministries into the same failing system?

It’s time to let the church be the church—a place where a generation can collectively gather for passionate world change, not sit in subdivided cul-desacs of non-influence.

When we start framing our next generational ministries around the idea of unity, everything

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changes. When we place ages 15, 20 and 28 in a room together, we suddenly have numbers, maturity, future and movement.

Rising to a new level We attempt to highlight and motivate a generational gathering each week at a midweek service, Generate, which is stylistically targeted toward 22 year olds. We’ve intentionally left age descriptions or designations out in an effort to reach anyone (both younger and older) who feels this paradigm of ministry fits their worship needs. Both high school and junior high students rise in maturity in a natural quest to fit in among older peers, which allows an audience of ages 14-26 to rally around a common cause and common experience. By asking this generation to be truly passionate world changers (disciples of Christ), we discover great reward.

...next time in

During the week, smaller life stage communities meet to support age specific needs and provide deeper community. These small groups all stem from the main gathering and point back to it to maintain a similar focus.

A generation wakes each day to the same technology, culture, sarcasms, globalization, media, advertisements and social initiatives. Why won’t we allow them to wake each day to the same united church as we collectively seek the same kingdom and savior? n Tony Wood is a teaching pastor at Generate, a ministry of Crossroads Christian Church in Corona, California, with over 2,500 Gen-Y (Millennial) young adults. Read more at generatelife.com.

caring

THE SPRING 2010 issue of Caring, “Intelligence Department,” will feature an exclusive look into the International Social Justice Commission—both its work at the United Nations and its interaction with the global Salvation Army in an effort to achieve basic human rights for all.

Commissioner M. Christine MacMillan, ISJC director

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For advertising or subscription info. call 562/491-8723

CHILD TRAINING

from page 44

The one great rule to be observed in all teaching is to make your lessons interesting and practical in the highest degree.

Your children want to know how to comport themselves now in the little duties, trials and enjoyments of their daily life.

these is an inordinate estimate of the value of money. “What will it cost?� is the first question that meets every suggestion of improvement in any direction and not because money is scarce, but simply because it cannot be parted with!

Another great evil is the yielding in an emergency on points of principle for the sake of expediency.

God has laid on you, parents, the responsibility of training your children, and you cannot possibly delegate that responsibility to another without endangering their highest interests for time and for eternity.

Cautions Catherine Booth I would like, in conclusion, to add a few cautions against evils, which I have seen to be very common in families. First amongst

n Catherine Booth co-founded The Salvation Army with her husband, William, in 1865. She is known as the mother of the Army.

DOING THE MOST GOOD

WINTER 2009/2010 CARING PAGE 43

AND FINALLY...

The training of children An address to parents The following is an excerpt from BY Catherine Booth’s Practical Religion, CATHERINE which is based on various speeches she BOOTH delivered.

My dear friends, I feel a special interest in addressing you on the present occasion. The first important matter for a parent to settle in her own mind is this: To whom does this child belong? I say that your child belongs absolutely to God and not to you.

The responsibility arises, first, out of the command and ordination of God. Both under the old and new dispensations, the Lord has laid the obligation on parents to train their children for him.

Secondly, this responsibility arises out of the nature of the relationship between parent and child. The parent is in the most complete sense the owner, guardian, director and controller of the child.

Thirdly, this responsibility arises out of our ability for the task. We are able to train our children in the way they should go, or God would not have enjoined it upon us.

Training a child in the way he should go does not necessarily imply a scholastic training. A child may be trained for the highest moral and spiritual development and where there is natural ability, for the highest mental development also.

But, fourthly, this responsibility is increased by the opportunity that parents possess. Being constantly with them, what splendid opportunities occur daily for pruning, correcting, inspiring, leading and encouraging them, as the case may require.

Then, fifthly, what an awful responsibility arises out of the influence that God has given us over our children.

The method Well, I think I hear some mother say: “How am I to do it?”

First let us look at the meaning of the word “train.”

It does not mean merely to teach. When parents teach what they neither practice themselves nor take the trouble to see that their children practice, the children

PAGE 44 CARING WINTER 2009/2010

DOING THE MOST GOOD

see through the hollow sham. Mother, if you want to train your child you must practice what you teach, and you must show him how to practice it also, and you must see that he does it.

But, secondly, how is this training to be given?

The first and most important point is to secure obedience. Obedience to properly constituted authority is the foundation of all moral excellence, not only in childhood, but all the way through life.

In order to do this, you must begin early enough.

There is a way of speaking to and handling an infant compatible with the utmost love and tenderness, which teaches it that mother is not to be trifled with.

In exceptional cases it may be tempted to become obstreperous, and then the mother must show her authority. Almost all mothers mistake here; they give up because they will not inflict on themselves the pain of a struggle, forgetting that defeat now only ensures endless battles in the future.

Fulfilling your part Do not be afraid to use your authority. One would think, to hear some parents talk of their relations with their children, that they did not possess an iota of power over them. All they dare to do seems to be to reason, to persuade, to coax.

Parents, if you fulfill your part of the covenant, never fear but that God will perform his. Only you train your children truly for him, and he will charge himself with their future.

Another important point is to train them in the practice of truth and integrity. Untruthfulness is one of the most easily besetting and prevalent sins of our race.

Of what advantage would it be to train them in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord,” if he did not purpose to bless this training to their conversion and salvation? Here is the order of God: firstly, the feeding and strengthening of all that is good in them; secondly, the reproof and caution against evil; and thirdly, instruction in righteousness.

CHILD TRAINING, page 43

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