I have removed the name of the ‘Major’ from this copy of the email.
My letter to the leader of The Salvation Army in New Zealand.
Commissioner,
Today, at my Corps we had a visit from our Divisional Commander. Not only that, but my wife and I had some friends attend for the first time. At the end of the service we asked our friends what they thought about it and the first question they asked was “is this like the Mormon church”?
Obviously, this is not the case, however I can see exactly why they asked this question. When the Major got up to preach, she made reference to preaching from God’s word and that it was like a GPS which would always get us home. Unfortunately, on this occasion, I think that she left her GPS switched off and didn’t really know how to get herself home yet alone the people in the congregation.
In her message she spent most of her time referring to William Booth (the founder of The Salvation Army), rather than talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. She talked more about things that had been said by William Booth than about the teachings of Christ. While sharing a couple of “token” verses from the bible, she didn’t even open it the entire time that she preached!
Let’s say that William Booth was in the service. Well, he would have been appalled! He would not have been happy about there being so much attention on him rather than on Christ Jesus. I can see exactly why our friends were left with the impression that The Salvation Army and the Mormon church were alike.
Now just for the record, William Booth was NOT a profit, rather he was a fully surrendered, committed follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was called, by God, to raise up an organization which would go for souls and the very worst at that. The only reason that The Salvation Army is involved in humanitarian/social/aid work is that through meeting the needs of humanity they may be able to lead them to Christ.
Tonight, we went to a service which was a gathering of people from The Salvation Army throughout the Auckland area. Again, Major gave the address. While there was not a lot said about William Booth, there was also little if anything said about Jesus. Instead, it was all about The Salvation Army! It was a “talk ourselves up session”!
During her address, she talked about the fact that the Territorial Strategic Mission plan which came about in 2006 had now come to an end and that they were now reviewing what to do from here. Along with this she welcomed ideas from the people in attendance.
Here are my ideas:
- Repent! The Salvation Army in New Zealand is very proud of its track record, and what a record it has. However, it is now being held back as it has and is rapping itself in pride. It has become a movement based on what man can achieve rather than what God can achieve through man.
- Get back to the bible. It is high time that the people preaching from the pulpit started to familiarize themselves with the bible as a daily part of their lives. If you hear anyone preaching without the message coming directly form the Bible, it is a strong indication that they are not spending time reading their bible. If they were, their messages would be inspirational and bible based. Preaching a message and using the odd bible verse to back up what you have to say is NOT preaching a bible based message. That is a ME based message.
