FEATURE I Faith in past crises
Now thank we all our God Major Howard Webber continues his series recalling how people of faith have acted in past crises
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ARTIN Rinkart was one of three Christian ministers who remained in the town of Eilenberg, Saxony, during the Thirty Years’ War in the early 1600s. Thousands of refugees poured into the walled town in an effort to escape the fighting and pillaging. With farmers unable to farm their land, famine spread everywhere. This was followed by a terrible outbreak of the plague that then infected the town. The plague took the lives of the other two ministers. On his own, Rinkart cared for the suffering multitudes who sought refuge in the town as well as the townsfolk. He lived with precious little sleep, visiting the sick and comforting the dying. He conducted endless funerals, more than 4,500 in all, sometimes burying as many as 40 or 50 people a day, including his own dear wife. Towards the end of the war the town was overrun once by the Austrian army and twice by the Swedish army. On the second occasion the Swedish general sought to impose hefty taxes on an already impoverished population. Rinkart pleaded with him to change his mind but he wouldn’t. So he turned to his friends saying, ‘Come, my children, we can find no mercy with man – let us take refuge with God.’ On seeing the pastor and his people on their knees, singing and praying, the general relented. This makes the wonderful words of the hymn he wrote after that terrible war all the more remarkable and poignant. Now thank we all our God With hearts and hands and voices, Who wondrous things hath done, In whom this world rejoices; Who from our mother’s arms Hath blessed us on our way With countless gifts of love, And still is ours today. (SASB 45) 18
Salvationist 25 April 2020
REVIEW
A THOUGHTFUL EXPLORATION OF LEADERSHIP Major Mal Davies (Editor-in-Chief) reviews the book Growing Leaders: Reflections On Leadership, Life And Jesus by James Lawrence
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N 1992 US pastor Leighton Ford founded a training and mentoring course for Christian leaders that became referred to as the Arrow Leadership Programme. It is a worldwide and wellrespected course in which leaders of all denominations, including The Salvation Army, have participated. In the UK it is administered by CPAS (Church Pastoral Aid Society) and its leadership principal is Anglican minister and writer James Lawrence. This book – a key text in the Arrow course – was first released in 2004 and has now been fully revised and updated. The book focuses on two simple questions. How do we grow effective leaders for today’s Church? And how do we help Christian leaders safeguard and grow their faith? Early in the book, Lawrence reflects on the need for yet another book on Christian leadership and ‘how much our leadership thinking is genuinely from a reflection on the Scriptures and how much is simply a baptising of secular theories within the Church’. While he recognises we can learn much about leadership from the corporate world, he says there is much we can glean directly from Scripture and, even more directly, from observing the life of Jesus. What unfolds is a book with clear theological aims to explore the call to leadership, the character of a leader, the skills required for leadership and the attitude of a leader – all based on observations from the life of Christ. One core teaching, for example, is that ‘the first priority of every Christian leader is not to be a leader but to be a follower’, as the author expands on the notion of servant leadership. While some readers will see elements of the International Doctrine Council book Servants Together and others will see hints of Major Peter McGuigan’s The Leadership Of Jesus, this new edition of Growing Leaders offers a broader theological reflection on the leadership of Jesus, especially in relation to the call and character required to lead in Christian ministry. This is a thoughtful and well-written book, especially helpful for those who feel God may be calling them to lead. Leaders is available from brfonline.org.uk priced £10.99 (plus postage and packing)
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