Doctrinal Maintenance

It’s no secret that I think the Doctrines of The Salvation Army should be updated. I’ve written on that topic before and I’m definitely not one who thinks of them as somehow beyond the need of revision. Whilst they are historically significant, and the “Truth” that they point to is definitely something (or should I say “someone”) that my faith is built upon, the actual wording itself is cultural formed and so this in itself demands frequent updating over time to ensure that they are doing their job in the best way they can.

Having said that, I also take my Officer’s covenant seriously and it includes the following line.

“…to maintain the doctrines and principles of The Salvation Army…”

How do I reconcile a belief that the doctrines will always require ongoing revisioning with a covenantal promise to “maintain” those very doctrines?

Hearing God's Voice Through the Word

Recently I was asked to lead a workshop on at a Youth Councils on hearing God’s voice through the Bible. I approached this task as someone who’s tried a few different methods of reading the Bible in a personal private time and so I hoped to give some advice for those also on this journey we call Christianity. I thought some of this might be helpful for a wider audience.

Before asking how to read the Bible the first question you need to ask is why we read the Bible at all. What’s the purpose of setting aside a regular time for this task? The short answer is that this is about relationship, not reading. The Bible has been one of the main ways God has communicated with his people and I’m convinced that he hasn’t decided to abandon it today. The primary purpose, then, is not to say that we’ve read the Bible cover to cover, or for sermon preparation, or for academic research, as important as all of those things can be. Rather the purpose is to commune with God. In this sense, then, the purpose of the Bible reading that I’m talking about here is a form of prayer.

No More Excuses!

At the beginning of this year I was having a conversation with an Officer friend of mine, Captain Grant Sandercock-Brown. We've known each other for a long time, going back to the days when he was the bandmaster at Hurstville Corps and I was a know-it-all teenager. For my last two years of high school he was a teacher at the school I attended. All that's just to say; we go back a long way. Grant and his wife Sharon were appointed to the staff of the Training College at the beginning of the year and it's been great to work alongside them.