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Radical
Discipleship
by Major Robert Evans
At our church we are currently exploring clearer discipleship
pathways to effectively equip people on a faith journey to
discover what it means to live as a Christ follower and how to
fully engage in Christ's mission on earth as a part of His
Church.
In our context of The Salvation Army, this discussion has an
added dimension to explore, as we also evaluate the
relationship between DISCIPLESHIP (a Biblical imperative) and
SOLDIERSHIP (a Salvation Army distinctive). Are they
interchangeable terms in a Salvation Army context? If
so, does that mean soldiership is the primary pathway for
discipleship? If not, what's the difference and what are
the options? What makes this part of the discussion
interesting is that there seems to be no uniform definition of
what a Soldier is, nor a consistency in the preparation
material used to prepare people for such a commitment.
In order of date of publication, here are just some of the
diverse definitions of soldiership and descriptions of being a
"Salvationist" I found from various Salvation Army sources:
"To be effective, the warriors of the Cross must be
more than saints; they must be soldier-saints!...We are
a Salvation people - this is our specialty - getting
saved and keeping saved and then getting somebody else saved."
- William Booth, Salvationist, January & February 1879.
"My comrades, you must answer in purpose and character to the
name of the great Salvationist. You must have the
self-sacrificing soul-seeking spirit of Jesus Christ, or
you are none of His...You are to be a redeemer, a saviour, a
copy of Jesus Christ Himself. So wake up all the powers
of your being and consecrate every awakened power to the great
end of saving your fellow-men. Be a
Salvationist!"
- William Booth, 1879.
"The Salvationist is a soldier, an idea purely scriptural.
'Fight the good fight,' Paul commanded Timothy (1
Timothy 6:12) and congratulated himself on having 'fought a
good fight' (2 Timothy 4:7). We are soldiers in an Army
committed to soul-winning. Every soldier is ,
therefore, an evangelist at all times, in all places."
- Preparation for Soldiership, 1956.
"A Soldier of The Salvation Army is a person who knows
Christ as his/her personal Saviour; who believes in the
Army's purposes, standards, and doctrines; who has signed
the Articles of War, and who has then been duly and properly
enrolled as a Soldier under the Flag."
- Manual of Salvationism, 1968.
"No one is a full member of The Salvation Army who has
not been enrolled and sworn-in as a soldier of a corps."
- Chosen To Be A Soldier, 1977.
"Having accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord,
and desiring to fulfill my membership of His Church on
earth as a soldier of The Salvation Army, I now by God's grace
enter into a sacred covenant."
- Articles of War (A Soldier's Covenant), 1989.
"We call Salvationists worldwide to recognise that the
swearing-in of soldiers is a public witness to Christ's
command to make disciples and that soldiership demands ongoing
radical obedience. We affirm that Jesus Christ
stills calls men and women to take up their cross and follow
him. This wholehearted and absolute acceptance of Christ
as Lord is a costly discipleship. We hear our
Lord's command to make disciples, baptising them in the name
of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We believe
that soldiership is discipleship and that the public
swearing-in of a soldier of The Salvation Army beneath the
Army's Trinitarian flag fulfils this command. It is a
public response and witness to the life-changing encounter
with Christ which has already taken place, as is the
believers' water baptism practiced by some other Christians."
- Robert Street, Called To Be God's People, 1999.
"Soldier preparation classes are our form of discipleship and
the soldier's covenant is our form of baptism and
membership."
- Geoff Ryan, Sowing Dragons, 2001.
"Salvation Army church members are known as soldiers.
Soldiers worship at their local Corps (church) and may wear a
uniform."
- Adherent Membership Leader's Manual, 2007.
"Salvation Army soldiership is about developing warriors in
the mode of Jesus Christ with the DNA of William & Catherine
Booth; people converted, consecrated, and commissioned to
declare war on the kingdom of darkness, wherever it may be
found."
- Salvationism 101, 2008.
"There is no question that one of the distinctives of the
Army's identity is soldiership. We are called to be "a
good soldier of Jesus Christ," as the Apostle Paul put it
to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:3. This is a radical call
to action against the enemy of our souls, not passive
church membership. We need soldiers of Jesus Christ
fully engaged in the battle."
- Lt Col James Condon, Pipeline, January 2009.
"Soldier: A person who is 'converted', i.e. came
to faith in Jesus Christ. Soldiers must be at
least 14 years of age and meet with the approval of the census
board. They are sworn-in after signing the articles of
war."
-
http://www.salvationarmy.org.au/en/Who-We-Are/About-Us/glossary-of-terms
2012-2013.
"Soldiership in The Salvation Army is about choosing to make a
covenant with God; a promise to fulfill God’s work
without distraction, to live by the beliefs, values, and
mission of The Salvation Army, and to live a life of
personal holiness and devotion to God."
-
http://my.salvos.org.au/get-involved/membership/soldiership/,
2013.
Despite the diversity of thought among these individual
descriptions, they collectively capture common themes that
gives us some insight into the etymology of a soldier:
Conversion to Christian faith, focus on evangelism and
salvation, a consecrated life of holiness and sacrifice,
radical expression of discipleship, call to action, covenant
relationship, fully engaged member, spiritual warrior.
Scripture describes a disciple as a 'follower' (Matthew 16:24)
and a 'student' (Philippians 4:9) whose purpose is to become
like their 'teacher' (Luke 6:40) in thought, word and deed
(John 13:13-17) and to fulfill His mission to reproduce
'disciples' (Matthew 28:19-20).
When you bring these two descriptions together, you get a
fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ who is fully committed
to Christ's mission and fully armed and engaged in the
spiritual battle against the forces of darkness. A
soldier, therefore, is a disciple who enlists in The Salvation
Army and embraces a covenant relationship to sacrificially
engage in a radical mission for the salvation of the whole
world! Soldiership is a brand of discipleship that gives
a unique expression to a common calling shared by all
believers.
While we continue to explore and discover effective
discipleship pathways for our church, a redefinition of this
unique expression of being a disciple in The Salvation Army
challenges us to rediscover soldiership as a relevant and
radical form of discipleship to advance our "saved to save"
mission today. The journey continues...
See more at:
http://ephesiansfour12.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/radical-discipleship.html#sthash.NKhR1Rcv.dpuf
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