More rear-mirror views

MORE REAR-MIRROR

A MOTORISED EVANGELIST General John Larsson (Retired) shares fascinating glimpses of the early Army

BARELY a fortnight after the close of the third international congress in 1904, William Booth set out on what the War Cry described as ‘one of the most daring exploits of his career’. Taking hold of the latest technology, still in its infancy, he boarded an open motorcar at Land’s End, Cornwall, and set out on a journey of 1,200 miles to Aberdeen, visiting 62 towns on the way and conducting three, sometimes four, meetings a day for a month.

So successful was this first motorised campaign that it became an annual feature for the next five summers, with William Booth’s motorcade of six cars criss-crossing Britain from north to south and east to west. His routes were announced in advance, so people gathered by the roadside to wave him on. And in the towns where he was due to stop, they gathered in their thousands – in Oldham, in their hundreds of thousands – to hear him speak from the car or in the largest hall of the town.

As the motorcade bounced along Britain’s rutted roads, William Booth, in his ankle-length green coat and peaked motoring cap, was often covered in white dust or drenched with rain. With the local papers covering each stage of his journeys, he almost became a national treasure.

Aged 75 at his first campaign and 80 by his last, William Booth’s stamina was extraordinary. During these tours, some of them lasting six weeks, he spoke on average for three hours each day. He slept in a different bed each night, except at weekends, when he stayed two nights. He ate almost every meal under a new roof – breakfast in one house, dinner in another, tea elsewhere, and supper late at night at his sleeping billet. But William Booth was in his element as an itinerant evangelist and described the tours as ‘a rush, a whirl, an excitement, a happiness, a hallelujah, a taste of Heaven’.

He left an imprint on every town he visited. In Fleetwood they remembered how thousands of servicemen had blocked the highway because they wanted to hear the General. In another place they recalled how his car was halted by factory workers who had

playfully blocked the road with a rope, and how William Booth had them mesmerised when he rose from his seat and said, ‘Some of you men never pray… but I am going to say to you, won’t you pray for your children, that they may be different?’ Within minutes the street was an unending vista of bared heads as 700 men knelt in silent worship.

The novelist H Rider Haggard described in 1910 how he was waiting at one of William Booth’s destinations on a miserable, wet afternoon when the motorcade was late because of the weather. ‘At length,’ he wrote, ‘the motors dash up through the mud and wet, and out of the first of them he appears, a tall, cloaked figure. Already that day he has addressed two such meetings beside several roadside gatherings, and at night he must speak to a great audience in a city 14 miles away…

‘Five minutes later he has been assisted on to the platform… and for nearly an hour pours out a ceaseless flood of eloquence, telling the history of his organisation, telling of his life’s work and of his heart’s aims, asking for their prayers and help. He looks a very old man now… but there is no weariness in his voice or gestures; and, as he exhorts and prays, his darkening eyes seem to flash.

‘It is over. He bids farewell to the audience that he has never seen before, and will never see again, invokes a fervent blessing on them, and presently the motors are rushing away into the wet night, bearing with them this burning fire of a man.’

But the impact lives on, and will never be forgotten.

There are hundreds of corps and centres up and down the United Kingdom Territory with the Republic of Ireland, but what makes them The Salvation Army? In this series, Salvationist discovers just that

We’re building momentum

says Faversham Pioneer Leader Jonathan Munn

WE are Faversham Fresh Expression – a year-old re-establishment of The Salvation Army in this beautiful, historic market town. We are a team of four: my wife, Bethany, and I plus Joseph and Lucy Halliday. The team has been together for about 18 months and we are now building what the Army in Faversham will look like for the 21st century.

God’s work through the Army began here in 1898 and continued faithfully for just shy of 100 years, before closing its doors for what they thought was the last time in 1991. The re-establishment of that work began in August 2018, when my wife and I took a leap of faith in following a call from God.

We are still in the very early stages of building on initial relationships and conversations, and 2020 looked to be an exciting year. Our main goals were to be present and approachable and to share the gospel in new ways.

One of our foundations was to use the market, which is the town hub. We wanted to be where the people are, so getting a regular spot in the market was pivotal in helping make us an approachable presence. We aimed to

share information about who we are, e what we do and why we do it. We would always look to how we could get people’s attention – for example by making doughnuts!

Before the coronavirus outbreak this proved fruitful for so many different reasons. It gave us the opportunity to mingle and pray, share the gospel and chat with our community about life.

Another part of our most effective outreach has been serving through our Community Wardrobe. We started with school uniforms and are now in the stages of moving on to winter essentials. This came out of the social media ministry we run; we simply asked for donations of uniforms and they came flying in. This has been a vital method of communication between us and the wider town. God spoke to us through this ministry to look at doing it on a wider scale, which we are currently praying into and seeking guidance on.

Since the pandemic things haven’t felt out of the ordinary in terms of our ministry. Being a predominantly online church, we didn’t have to start or change how we communicated the message of Jesus Christ. While our market stall and plans for a coffee shop ministry have

B e t h , L ucy, Joe and J o n

been put on hold, we have remained been put on hold we have remained present in the community through the Community Wardrobe, our food bank and social media.

We have been able to offer support – practically and prayerfully – to our community by being a 24/7 presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Within this online ministry, we have in the last ten months started publishing the At The Table podcast,