Reflection

Every day with Jesus

Major Alistair Dawson reflects on the greatness of God’s love

MY favourite chorus is ‘Every Day with Jesus’. It is a simple chorus that makes a great claim: ‘Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before,/ Every day with Jesus, I love him more and more.’ Is that what Jesus means to you?

When you have been married 56 years, as I have, you know for certain and on a daily basis how precious and lovely the life of your partner is. Rosemary, my wife, is so worthy of praise, especially after all the years we have spent together. But if that is true of an earthly relationship, why not our friendship with Jesus? Why can’t we love him more and more? ‘Jesus saves and keeps me,’ the chorus continues. He does, simply because I am worth saving and keeping – whatever I might say or do! Jesus knows and understands me so well. An influential bishop and his grandson were voyaging across the Atlantic Ocean when the boy asked him: ‘Grandad, how big is the love of God?’ That question threw the old man until he saw the ship’s compass and was able to reveal its four points. ‘Look to the north as far as you can see,’ he said. ‘The love of God goes on and on still further.’ He did the same with the other three compass points, leaving the child to wonder at the greatness of God’s love. ‘Grandad,’ the boy said, ‘does that mean we are bang in the middle of it?’ If every day is with Jesus, then every day is at the centre of God’s creative love, however hard it is to imagine it, explain it or even understand it. And how do we understand it? Stuart Hamblen was an American singer, actor, broadcaster and writer of more than 200 pop songs. Towards the end of his life, during an interview with the evangelist Billy Graham, he found Jesus to be his saviour. Talking about his conversion with his friend, the actor John Wayne, Stuart said that it was no secret what God had achieved in his life. Out of that conversion was born the song ‘It Is No Secret, What God Can Do’, with its famous line: ‘With arms wide open, he’ll pardon you!’

The beneficial love of God – love that knows no boundary, love that is not hedged in by doctrine, theology or church teachings – is open all hours. It’s a love that is ours to see, believe in and enjoy. On the mount of crucifixion Fountains opened deep and wide; Through the floodgates of God’s mercy Flowed a vast and gracious tide. Grace and love, like mighty rivers, Poured incessant from above, And Heaven’s peace and perfect justice Kissed a guilty world in love. (SASB 169)

Beneficial love! I love that term, for it expresses the truth that God really cares for me. It’s a love that commences every day in a spirit of complete acceptance, with arms wide open to what life may bring. A love whose greatest joy is simply to receive us – just as we are. A love that does not seek to appease an angry God. A love that does not seek to punish Jesus for the vast backlog of accumulated human sin and evil. Rather, Jesus simply brings to us the love of God, to let us know how, by his action, God thinks and feels towards us.

William Barclay, in his book Crucified and Crowned, writes: ‘God is like Jesus. In Jesus Christ we see what man ought to be. Jesus is not, as it were, less human than men, he is more human than men… In Jesus Christ we see the perfect demonstration of the love of God… As we see Jesus on the cross, we can say: “God loves me enough to do that for me.”’

Barclay goes on to say: ‘On the cross God says to us in Jesus Christ, “Nothing – absolutely nothing that you can do – can stop me loving you.”’

So, with arms wide open, he’ll pardon you – and you can live every day singing:

Every day with Jesus, Is sweeter than the day before. Every day with Jesus, I love him more and more. Jesus saves and keeps me, He’s the one that I adore. Every day with Jesus Is sweeter than the day before.

MAJOR DAWSON LIVES IN RETIREMENT IN ST AUSTELL

Valuing People

The ‘Valuing People’ framework: a guide to helping us love God and love others

Based on Jesus’ greatest commandment in Matthew 22:37—39 to ‘love the Lord your God’ and ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ — ‘Love God, Love Others’ underpins, inspires and motivates everything we do in every part of The Salvation Army. The ‘Valuing People’ framework ensures we also give attention, within this, to how we love ourselves and each other.

Introduction

‘Valuing People’ is necessary because people are precious to God and The Salvation Army. The people and the mission are intrinsically linked. Mission is part of our relational journeys with each other, not just what we do or deliver. Our people are not just a means to an end, to be used in an instrumentalist way for the greater purpose. Rather our people and our relationships together are a flavour of the good news that we offer the wider world and that they may share with us. Different roles may be performed by different groups but all are equal in their value as they enhance and build the Kingdom of God through the Army. It is important for The Salvation Army to be a movement where everyone feels valued and where everyone can contribute to the mission, whether they are employees, members, officers or volunteers. It is important for The Salvation Army to be a movement where we take better care of our people and ourselves.

Values

‘Valuing People’ supports The Salvation Army’s values. Our identity, vision and God-given mission as disciples of Jesus Christ are shaped by the values of the Kingdom of God as we love God and love others, reaching for fullness of life for all with Jesus. Our values are reframed as statements of intent to assist us in how we live them out. Our values, expressed as behavioural values and statements of intent, are: Boldness We will courageously and confidently seek to fulfil our five mission priorities: share the good news, seek justice and reconciliation, nurture disciples of Jesus, serve others without discrimination, care for creation. Compassion We will serve with the unconditional love and grace of God as the pattern for our behaviour, with a bias to the poor and marginalised.

Need for change

‘Valuing People’ recognises that society is in a period characterised by exceptional levels of change. It provides a people-centred framework to guide choices The Salvation Army faces in how we seek to fulfil our mission in an unsettled landscape. ‘Valuing People’ came from looking and listening to feedback from a wide range of sources, including officer and employee surveys, which reported negative responses relating to culture. In analysing the feedback, which raised a need for culture change, themes were identified and a vision emerged. As the work on this and formal consultation at the Territorial Leaders’ ‘Valuing People’ has been developed to support the vision, mission and values of The Salvation Army. The framework makes a clear statement about how The Salvation Army wants to value and treat its people. It helps us identify the values and skills needed in those who will help us fulfil our mission. It enables us to set out the culture and behaviours, influencing systems and structures that we wish to foster to enable everyone to have life in all its fullness in working and living out the mission. By supporting and releasing the potential of our people we maximise their effectiveness in mission.

Passion We will bring our best selves, our

God-given energies and our convictions to our work, service and learning, whether as officers, members, employees or volunteers. Respect We will welcome each person with the dignity of those created in the image of

God, valuing their diversity, seeking to serve each other’s flourishing and transformation within God’s love. Integrity We will be honest and transparent in all our dealings with each other and those we serve, being open about our motives and agendas.

Mutual accountability We will willingly and freely give full account for our actions to those we interact with and expect the same in return, recognising the link between individual responsibility and mutual accountability.

Conference and Territorial Advisory Council continued, the themes were consolidated and are presented as principles which we can all work towards and live out.

Six strategic principles have been identified, through which we can achieve this vision:

Innovation and collaboration

Learning together and encouraging experimentation, creativity and agility.

Integration and alignment as opposed to silo working.

Values-driven behaviour

Serving with integrity, helping us develop healthy relationships, contributing to collective wellbeing, helping us integrate what we do with how we do it, supporting how we engage in living out our mission.

Empowering people

Being formed as servant leaders who release and enable people to achieve their potential, moving away from instrumentalism and managerialism towards coaching, contributing to naming, analysing and challenging oppression.

Inclusive community

Valuing everyone, encouraging diversity of thought, growing and developing through learning from the contribution of diverse perspectives and experiences.

Effective systems and structures

Person-centred rather than organisationcentred processes that serve and enable our people to live out our mission while meeting our legal requirements.

Next steps

We will continue to develop ways to listen and work together — whether you are part of our movement as an officer, territorial envoy, local leader, employee, member, friend, volunteer or service user. We want to ensure our identity, vision and mission are shaped by the values of the Kingdom of God as we love God and love others, reaching for fullness of life for all with Jesus.

Healthy and flourishing environments

Contributing to building resilient, inclusive, adaptable communities who work with risk to enable safety and handle adversity in positive ways, embedding reflective practice and using a trauma-informed approach that challenges and replaces toxic environments where they exist. It is important that all of us who comprise The Salvation Army feel able to embrace the ‘Valuing People’ principles and seek opportunities to embed them in our life and mission.

Already before the end of 2021, opportunities were made for people to contribute to The Salvation Army’s work of collaborating on adapting culture and structure to enable greater flourishing of mission. People were able to participate through forums across the territory, corps leadership meetings and a survey. Feedback given and contributions made will continue to develop the ‘Valuing People’ framework and action plan.

Our Identity

In 2021, the United Kingdom and Ireland Territory adopted several new statements designed to capture the mission and vision of The Salvation Army for this territory at this time. These are reflected in the preceding pages in the references to ‘Love God, Love Others’ and ‘Fullness of life for all with Jesus’.

This was the outcome of work completed by the Identity Task Force across 2020—21. Their remit was to also affirm the values of the territory, which are the foundation of our ‘Valuing People’ framework.

The values and principles of ‘Valuing People’ sit comfortably alongside our new territorial statements.