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Church and church
by
Commissioner Wesley Harris
OUR founding fathers may not have been keen on the Army being
known as a church but they certainly held that they were part
of the Church or the people of God and the Body of Christ.
Like them I am not comfortable about calling my corps a church
although I know comrades who relish the use of ecclesiastical
terms – like a young sergeant major of my acquaintance who
wished to be known as the senior elder, presumably with the
unlikely thought that it would make his position clearer to
people in the highly secular situation in which he lived. As
if!
In some countries there is the problem that many people think
of us only as a social agency that they are happy to support
with their dollars without realizing that we are a worshiping
community to which they could actually belong.
It is a sad fact that in some parts of the world the word
‘church’ does not resonate positively with many in a secular
society and borrowing tired ecclesiastical terms does little
to help although it may make some among us feel a bit more
respectable!
We should be glad about the degree of acceptance we receive on
account of our social service but strive to extend that
acceptance to include the Lord in whose name we serve. That is
in our DNA as Salvationists and should not be lost.
By all means let us define what we are and placard our corps
buildings not only as bases for community service but also as
places of worship. Still, in our terminology, we should remain
‘originals’ and not merely carbon copies of others in the
Christian community. Like love the Church is a many
splendoured thing and we should dare to be different for the
glory of God.
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