Session 1a

The Salvation Army 2014 USA Salvation Army Conference for Social Work and Emergency Disaster Services 25 to 28 March 2014 GLOBAL TRACK SESSION 1A

“What does fullness of life (full salvation) mean in the 21st Century?”

Commissioner Torben Eliasen International Secretary for Americas and the Carribean International Headquarters Introduction The phrase “Fullness of Life in the 21st Century” naturally suggests three steps to its understanding and that is how this paper will address this issue. Firstly, it will seek an understanding about fullness of life. Secondly, it will seek an understanding about the twenty first century. Thirdly, it will seek an understanding of how the first fits into the second.

Comprehension of this theme might help to answer the most crucial question of our days, which is: How to remain faithful to the Word of God and yet be relevant to the present society?

As we engage in this Social Work and Emergency Disaster Services Conference to discuss the way forward for “serving suffering humanity” there are some unavoidable facts to consider if we are to truly be The Salvation Army.

The first fact to consider is what is The Salvation Army? Our mission statement answers this affirming: “The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian church. Its message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is motivated by the love of God. Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination”.

The second fact to consider is what does the Salvation Army believe? Its first Doctrine answers affirming: “We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice”.

The Army’s mission statement and doctrine leave no room for doubt as to the nature of service from The Salvation Army. The Army serves suffering humanity as Jesus did. The Army’s service is inspired and shaped by Jesus’ service as clearly outlined in the Bible. Therefore the principles of service set up by Jesus are not to be avoided but embraced. Jesus’ example must not only be the inspiration but the framework of service to be followed.

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1. Fullness of Life

Embracing fullness of life’s possibilities Fullness of life for The Salvation Army is to embrace the life offered by God in Jesus Christ through his Spirit as taught in the Bible. Many are the verses from the word of God that describe this life. John 10:10 is certainly one of the obvious ones: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

While the thief takes from life, Jesus gives to life. While the thief kills life, Jesus creates life.

While the thief destroys life, Jesus builds life. This life as found in Jesus goes beyond the dimension of only material life (Genesis 2:7), it also includes the dimensions of spiritual life (Ephesians 2:5) and eternal life (John 6:40). To limit any of these possibilities as embodied by Jesus Christ and offered by him is to limit the possibility of hope and transformation of lives of people and communities.

Embracing fullness of life’s responsibilities Fullness of life means to receive from Jesus all the possibilities that he brings to us but also to follow him and assume his life-style.

Jesus’ life-style is clearly described by the apostle Paul when writing to the Philippians (2:1-8) urging them to have the same mind-set of Jesus. Paul invites them to assume Jesus’s life-style and like Jesus have total abnegation (v6). Jesus gave up his rights detaching himself of everything he was entitled to! To have total identification (v7) - Jesus identified with all people becoming like them! And to have total consecration! (v8) - Jesus didn’t do his own thing; He did his Father’s thing until the end!

Analysing Jesus’ life and action towards humanity, especially focusing on how he interacted with the marginalised and dispossessed, one has to conclude that his support to people had less to do with institutional service provision and more to do with personal servanthood living.

Fullness of Life for the Salvation Army means that its entire people (officers, soldiers, employees, volunteers) will embrace the possibilities and responsibilities that Jesus’s life brings and will express that to the world through servanthood living in Christlike humility.

2. The 21st Century If someone in the beginning of the 20th Century would attempt to describe that century the most that would be accomplished is a total misrepresentation of it. So to attempt to describe the 21st century less than two decades into it is to embark in the same clairvoyant exercise.

The most we can do is to recognize some present trends and tendencies and try to guess how these will continue to evolve and influence.

The end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century has been called by social scholars as the “post-modern” era. Some will say that we are already passed this “post2

modern” era and are already into a form of a “technology” era (mainly under influence of all the information technology possibilities). Whichever way we understand the present age we can still affirm that the basic characteristics of “post-modernity” are still present.

The main characteristics of “post-modernity” can be described in three terms or headlines, these are: secularization, pluralization and privatization. These characteristics do influence and affect the wide world differently and with different intensities. But to a certain degree globalization has spread it world-widely.

Secularization Secularization is a phenomena or process through which what is spiritual loses its value to people. In other words, the religious ideas and institutions lose the place that they once had as representatives from the divine. In a secularized society the sacred loses its importance giving way to the profane. The spiritual, in the biblical sense, become obsolete, old fashioned, almost stale.

The church continues to advise and lead people, however the people don’t accept it because they no longer accept the church’s transcendence. People don’t accept God, as the one who established the standards from the creation. God created the world with wisdom, but that is no longer the reading people make about the world. The world is seen as a mathematical reason and not a philosophical one and even less so a theological one.

Pluralization Pluralization is the hallmark of a society that has taken to the extreme its desire to choose, to opt and to manifest its preferences. No one in the present days likes to buy whatever item without having the possibility to choose between several products. This desire for choices influences all other areas.

Religion becomes just another item in the market. To survive, the churches need to undergo constant modifications and adaptations. In the market mentality it is the customer who is always right and, as the customers’ tastes rapidly change, the marketing mentality forces the church to adapt to whatever new wind may blow. So many ecclesiastic fashions and winds of doctrine can be understood as the need to please people as if they were customers.

In this setting The Salvation Army is seen as just one other Christian organization amongst many other existing ones struggling to be chosen by the customers.

Privatization Privatization can be defined as the rupture between the private and public spheres. There is an exaltation of the importance of the private as the only sphere for freedom and individual realization. Whatever is done in private sphere and doesn’t affect the public sphere becomes acceptable.

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Privatization means total freedom but only in the private sphere. No one dares to force it in the public sphere, each one with its privacy. If one believes in the Bach flowers it is fine, if another practices swing it is okay, if someone takes drugs it is acceptable, actually it doesn’t matter what is done in the private sphere as long as the public sphere is preserved. In the private sphere everything is acceptable as long as it doesn’t affect the public sphere. As long as everything is done individually and in private there is no harm to the public sphere. One can feel free.

Globalization What the new “technology” era has introduced is “globalization” which is the worldwide sharing of ideas and information at the click of a button. The “post-modern” tendencies are now rapidly available to the entire world.

3. Fullness of Life in the 21st Century One might be perplexed as to how fullness of life can fit in the 21 st century! The amazing thing however is that the word of God is timeless and therefore perfectly applicable in the present days. He who is the Alpha and Omega (Revelations 1:8) cannot become outdated. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

Fullness of life can be expressed in the 21st century as we continue to follow Jesus, and we continue to embrace the possibilities and responsibilities from following him. Jesus never anchored himself on the established religion but sought to express God’s love as he related to people.

Clarity of being As we engage in service as Jesus did one thing that must be asked is what kind of Army are we and who do we really serve? The superficial answer might be that we are a “charity” that serves “suffering humanity” however this answer is wrong. Jesus was the son of God and he served the Father. Jesus did not serve people, Jesus served God (John 6:38) and so does the Army (John 20:21). The Army isn’t just a “charity”, its vision plan is: “One Army – A God-raised, Spiritfilled Army for the 21st century - convinced of our calling, moving forward together” and as such it does not serve people. We serve God. The service to people comes as a consequence of service to God. The reason for being and doing must be clearly understood. If the Army is to meet human needs in Jesus’s way, it must do it for the same reason that Jesus did, which is in obedience to God. To lose sight of this pivotal divine element is to blur the actions allowing the humanistic tendency to become donor or recipient driven and to lose sight of the prophetic dimension of service. In a post-modern society where secularization tends to undermine and to weaken the divine, the way the Army understands its nature is fundamental for its continuation.

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Clarity of doing As the Army seeks to serve in Christ’s name it has to do it with the same manner that Jesus did.

Jesus served to unfold God’s salvation plan to people as he brought about reconciliation to God (2 Corinthians 5:18).

As sin entered the world relationships were severely affected and broken: relationship to God, relationship to self, and relationship to others (people and nature)! Reconciliation enables the restoration of these relationships. Although a consequence of reconciliation the latter two relationships are often referred as re-socialisation.

To enable re-socialisation only is to fall short of the goal. To enable restoration of relationships to self and to others (people and nature) is certainly necessary, meaningful and plausible however it is not enough. To serve as Jesus did means to go beyond and enable the restoration of relationships of people to God. For Jesus, mission was to bring about reconciliation. For the Army it means to promote community development as the transformation process through which communities and its people have their capacity potentials maximised and are encouraged to take ownership of their own destiny, including capacity to relate to God, capacity to relate to self and capacity to relate to others.

The vision plan also states: “One Mission - Into the world of the hurting, broken, lonely, dispossessed and lost, reaching them in love by all means” Clarity of saying For the Army to serve like Jesus did, it needs to communicate like he did. Jesus was an excellent communicator who taught the crowds through simple every day stories and parables. Using everyday situations known to all he explained profound eternal truths that would forever change people’s lives. He anchored what he intended to say and teach to common situations that all could understand and follow.

However Jesus not only proclaimed the message through interesting and captivating words that everyone could understand, and apply to their lives, but he became the message himself.

Living out exactly what he wished people to learn.

In a post-modern society where people are bombarded with information and want to exert their right of choice, to be able to communicate and personify the message to be clearly understood is vital.

No wonder the vision plan envisions: “One Message – With the transforming message of Jesus, bringing freedom, hope and life”.

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Conclusion As we attempt to serve suffering humanity in the 21st century in the way Jesus would it is necessary to understand poverty in broader terms than just lack of material resources. Poverty can be defined as the eroded systemic and personal conditions produced by on-going broken, unhealthy or non-existent vital relationships, including and foremost the relationship to God, to self, to others and nature.

This view helps to understand that the poor are not only the ones that lack material resources and that poverty alleviation does not happen by offering hand-outs. This understanding allows us to comprehend that we are all in need of reconciliation and that we are all interdependent.

Yes! People can be reconciled to God still today!

A response by Major Ted Horwood Angola Command Implicit in Commissioner Eliasen´s paper is the central issue facing the Army today: How does our participation in the Body of Christ affect our lives and what impact should our participation in the Body of Christ have on the community around us?

He suggests that full salvation/fullness of life, is fundamentally dependent upon what God can do through us (embracing possibilities) and how we can contribute to the world around us (embracing responsibilities). Unfortunately, in the development of this concept, we are confronted with the thorny issue that often perplexes us: Are we an evangelical people intentionally living out Kingdom principles today, or are we an evangelical organization that puts into motion Kingdom principles through the mechanics of program? God calls us to both.

If God is going to work his best in us and through us, the Commissioner suggests that our lives must be informed by the context in which we live. This gathering is a reflection of the global Army. We have those living in post-colonial societies and those living in post-Christian societies. We serve in countries of totalitarianism, fledgling democracies, broken capitalism and dysfunctional socialism. And in each of our nearly 130 countries of service, let´s be honest, the Church, our church looks at least, marginally different and in many cases, wildly different.

We are not all the same, we do not see the world around us, or understand the Bible before us, the same. So, how do we live in God´s best, what does fullness of salvation mean in the 21 st century? It means we must adapt and allow our voices to be heard and our actions to be seen where we are and where we live. It means we anchor the daily routines of our lives in the concept of koinonia – the awareness of and involvement with others. It is the practice of sharing our lives and learning from each other.

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For us to experience full salvation and to be a vehicle by which others can also experience the healing, restoring presence of God in their lives, Commissioner further suggests that we must be clear about who we are. If our mission is reduced to a quest for social justice, than we will water down our methods to “mere humanitarianism.” Alternatively, if our motivation is centered on church growth, than we diminish our role in the Body of Christ – a role that dictates that we are the church with our sleeves rolled up. Our vision must be rooted in the hope of transformation: of individuals, communities and nations. Transformation that comes as a result of messages that are culturally relevant, service rendered that is practically effective and relationships established that are meaningful and authentic.

When Nicodeamus approached Jesus in Mark 12:28, he asked the question (in our vernacular), “what´s the most important thing to God?” We all know Jesus’ reply. It wasn´t the Law, the traditions, the history. It wasn´t about bigger contracts or more complex programs. It was simply about the absolute love of God and the unrelenting love of people.

Thank you to both of our speakers, and may their contributions to this conference strengthen our ministries.

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The Salvation Army 2014 USA Salvation Army Conference for Social Work and Emergency Disaster Services 25 to 28 March 2014 GLOBAL TRACK SESSION 1A

“What does fullness of life (full salvation) mean in the 21st century?”

Territorial Envoy Joseph Lalrintluanga Vaikhuma Director for Business Administration India Eastern Territory I am delighted to our leaders for this wonderful opportunity to speak on the fullness of life (full salvation) in the context of the 21st century. The 21st century is a time of great discoveries.

Huge progress has been made in the field of the sciences especially in the field of curative medicines and other lifesaving drugs. Man has gone to the moon and returned successfully, Voyager 1 and 2 which were launched in the 1970s have, during the course of this year, reached the very edge of our solar system and have gone beyond, into deep space. These are wonderful times in which we live. So many new discoveries have been made in information technology that we can now communicate with each other from any part of the world immediately, rendering distances quite irrelevant. We have broken down the strands of human DNA and claimed to have deciphered the very code of life itself and what makes us who we are.

In some countries scientists have begun to grow artificial limbs and body parts to replace parts that are needed by us.

In some cases we are so preoccupied with the idea of prolonging life and doing away with illnesses that we are attempting to play God the Creator of all life. The reality is that in spite of the great advances in science and other disciplines, man cannot create life and although we are made in the image of God, we cannot pretend to be God nor can we ascribe to ourselves the qualities that only belong to God. Indeed, we may ignore God or even make his very existence irrelevant in our lives, but we cannot ignore God and the fullness of life which he alone can bestow.

So what is it about Holiness and fullness of life that is so important in the 21st century, so much so that it still remains at the very crux of our belief and bedrock of our moral, spiritual and physical fibre? For this we have to turn to our Doctrines and in particular Doctrine 10: “We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified and that their whole body and soul and spirit maybe preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”

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Therefore the Salvationist is a person saved by grace but at the same in the process of sanctified holiness until he or she enters into the glory of heaven. Till that day we who are already sanctified but not yet made perfect may be cast in the same mould as the followers of Christ in Rome and Corinthians who Paul referred to as “you who are called to be saints”.

Indeed as someone has said, we are in the process of becoming perfectly holy, however till that day we are “work in progress” and God has not finished working with us. We are a peculiar people, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation; in the world yet not consumed by the degenerative desires of the world but called to be separate and yet commanded to preach the saving Gospel to every creature.

This then is our lot as Salvationists; we are wholly sanctified in body, soul and spirit, living in a community of saints but at the same time reaching out to the unsaved and to those in need.

We cannot live holy lives just to ourselves and for our own benefit, but we must show that we are holy through our interaction with others .Therefore it is self-evident that in order to grow into saints we have work to do and getting saved and redeemed from all sins is but a start to a lifelong journey of discovery, selfless dedication and sacrifice.

We, who have been sanctified by saving grace have a responsibility to all those around us.

Therefore the story found in Luke 10: 28-37 comes to mind. A lawyer asked Jesus what he should do to inherit eternal life .Jesus replied by asking the lawyer: ‘What does the law say?’

The lawyer recited the law saying “Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and thy neighbour as thyself.” He then continued to ask Jesus “who is my neighbour?”

In reply Jesus narrated the beautiful, but poignant, parable of a man who, while travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho, was robbed and left dying by the wayside. A priest passed by and ignored the dying man, then a Levite appeared and he, perhaps out of curiosity, looked at him and he too passed by. Then a Samaritan came, stopped, bound up the wounds and poured oil and wine and took him to an inn. He paid the inn keeper for hosting the injured traveller promised to pay more if any extra was needed on his return. Jesus then asked the lawyer who “among the three was a neighbour to the injured traveller” and the lawyer replied “he that showed mercy” and Jesus said “go and do thou likewise.” Holiness leads us to become involved in society at a direct level with people in their needs both spiritual and practical, advocacy for social justice and human rights, a global sharing of resources and a willingness to work towards this end. Taking responsibility for the weak and poor, the vulnerable and marginalised thus putting into practice the sanctification received by us and in the process growing gradually into saints.

Let me, for a moment, talk about my home town Aizawl. The plot of land where our THQ in India Eastern Territory now stands was, at one time, the site of DHQ. Located in a rowdy part of town, host to many social evils, every third house or so was a liquor den and every tenth house 9

made home brewed liquor for a living. People from all parts of town came there to get drunk and generally make a nuisance of themselves. It was notorious for all kinds of evils that are naturally endemic to such places. Respectable people generally shunned the area and as far as was practicable skirted the place. People seeking work who gave that area as their home address found it difficult to find good jobs because the fame and notoriety of that area preceded them.

The pioneering Salvation Army officers at that time felt a burden for the souls of those residing in the vicinity of their headquarters. Although most of the officers never actually resided in that area after conversion they were convicted by the Holy Spirit to roll up their sleeves, get their hands dirty and do something to change the lives of those in the tight grip of alcohol.

Therefore as a first move they went from house-to-house, making converts along the way. Their work was not easy, prospective converts were respectful and receptive but found it difficult to welcome officers while plying their trade. The enterprising officers soon found an ingenious way to visit the unconverted. They engaged a crier, whose job was to go ahead of the officer and cry out that the officer was visiting them so please be prepared. People then had time to put away the alcohol before the officers arrived!

God works in mysterious ways and soon there were enough people to form a small corps. The problem of alcoholism gradually was replaced by a spirit and desire to make an honest living. A second corps was soon opened in that area and the second corps also took on the social problems head on with encouraging results The Army opened a third corps in that area where membership soon swelled to more than 2,000 soldiers. As Corps Number 3 grew in size and influence a fourth corps was needed to minister to the increasing number of those who wanted to enlist as soldiers. In January 2013, Corps Number 4 was opened with 400 soldiers.

This is the story of the Army’s work in a neighbourhood hopelessly damaged by alcoholism corrupted by all kinds of attendant social evils, home to the dregs of society. Fullness of Salvation means that the free gift of salvation leads us to a deeper commitment to Jesus who exemplified spiritually and physically the goals expected of us. Since our journey will ultimately lead us to be more Christ like in all spheres of our life, the Holy Spirit will guide and lead us in that direction. So it was with the pioneering officers of India Eastern Territory. Today the area around the THQ is no longer a shunned area. Many respectable people are proud to call it their home and the area is marked by the absence of liquor dens or homemade breweries. All it takes to repair a damaged neighbourhood is to take to heart and obey the command of Jesus “Go thou and do likewise”.

In Philippians 2:12-14 Paul tells us to: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputing’s.” (KJV) 10

Here Paul tells us to work out our salvation which is quite different from working for our salvation. Our salvation is not an object yet to be reached or a benefit yet to be inherited. It is already possessed by us, but remains to be explored and developed. So while our salvation has been possessed in full, we need to work it out day by day. In particular we need to work out the path along which we will walk. Each person has a different calling. For some people it may well be along the lines of ministry to the poor, for another – healing, and perhaps a third person may be called to assist in times of disasters and calamities. Whatever it is; it is our task to discover our potential and use it for God’s service.

In Mizoram we have a very unique feature that recurs about every 50 years when all the bamboos in the forest begin to flower. The bamboo seeds fall to the ground and are consumed by rats which in turn multiply in alarming proportions. The increasing population of rats have to eat so they consume all the paddy in farmers’ fields and homes leading to starvation and even death. When this phenomenon last occurred, there was large scale resentment against the government for not giving adequate help. One thing led to another and soon in 1996 this exploded into a secessionist movement. This led to 20 years of misery, deaths of hundreds of people and everybody had to live under a cloud of suspicion fearing both the government authorities and the rebels.

However in 2008 the next round of famine was due but the Army was prepared. An application was submitted by us to the International Emergency Services team at International Headquarters. Soon territories in the USA and elsewhere contributed and in no time our territory received enough funds to meet the food requirements of desperate citizens. We purchased rice and lentils in bulk and distributed them to villagers in the most needy areas. We roped in the assistance of other volunteer groups and soon we had a team which moved from village to village meeting human need wherever required.

Coming back to the letter to the Philippians, Paul’s message to them to work out their own salvation is a message for us too. Once we are saved from sin, it is our responsibility to step out in his name and work out our salvation, not in isolation and without help, because it is God who works in us to help us accomplish the fullness of salvation in our lives. In this way we can also fulfil the mission of the Army “to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in his name without discrimination”.

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A response by Major Comfort Folu Adepoju Nigeria Territory Having perused the whole write up on Fullness of Life in the 21st Century as presented by Territorial Envoy Joseph Vaikhuma, I write to commend his effort, brevity and relevant extension of social responses. He seems to have a good grasp of the concept under investigation and approached it with commendable insight.

Permit me however to briefly say that this concept cannot be treated in isolation with the 10 th Doctrine alone. Our 9 th doctrine has to be considered as well as alongside the 11th Doctrine and perhaps a number of others. The implication being that our doctrines are intertwined, interconnected and interrelated.

Furthermore, the phrase the ‘Salvationist is a person saved by grace but at the same in the process of sanctified holiness until he or she enters into the glory’ does not suggest the possibility of sanctifying experience, whereas, we do not just believe or teach this as only a possibility; by God’s grace, we experience it. This should not mark the end of spirituality but should afford us unlimited opportunity for growth.

One could say that holiness has to do with the whole of one’s personhood (‘wholiness’). For instance a drop of water from the Atlantic Ocean has all the chemical and physical properties of the ocean, but it’s not big enough to allow fishes to swim in it or ship to ply through it. A holy Salvationist has the nature of God in him or her. The size of God in you is determined by the level of ones submission to the leadership of the Spirit.

Also, it is not in the order of our body soul and spirit that we are sanctified but in the order of our spirit, soul and body. Our spirit may be in perfect agreement with God, and the body may have conflict with this. This is what leads to crisis and/or progress in our sanctification experience.

Once we are saved and sanctified, we are already a saint and we can grow in saintliness not growing into saint. Saintliness is a state that continues.

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