Leader or Rebel?

“Here we go again, round and round we go again…” It has just come to my attention that a territory somewhere in TSA Western world has again mandated “Church” a no no. Oh my, where have I heard this before?

Church: The company of all Christians regarded as a spiritual body (Mirriam-Webster).

Corps: A group of persons associated together or acting under common direction (M-W).

Temple: A building for religious practice (M-W).

Citadel: A fortress that commands a city (M-W).

Corps/Community Center: ?

The Kingdom isn’t about semantics; it’s about salvation. Why does it matter what we call the place of salvation: Church, corps, temple, citadel or “Cathedral of the Open Air?” Who cares so long as people are getting saved there? Are they?

Now, the question always begs itself, “How do I respond to a mandate of this nature?” First of all the word, Church, is not needed to get our Salvation message across to an unaware public. After all, Salvation is our middle name and still most don’t get it. How about “Salvation Place” or whatever? Though I think the purists among us will still be dissatisfied. For what its worth, in a previous post, I offer four sets of questions for consideration: “Leadership or Rebellion.” The choice is yours alone to make.

JN

Envisioning the Future!

I would like to whet your appetite for my post now playing over at The Rubicon with the following excerpt from it:

“Yet Harris, a young Southern Baptist pastor, believes Southern Baptists will play a diminished role in gospel work in the next quarter century unless Southern Baptist leaders begin envisioning the future through the eyes of an emerging generation less brand loyal than previous generations.”

“Substitute Salvation Army, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran or any other mainline denomination into that paragraph and you get the same result.”

Now, you must read it in its entirety before jumping to conclusions. I suspect that TSA primitive purists will have some difficulty with it, but that’s all right. The important thing is to keep the dialogue going in a constructive, searching way, simply because all of us, no matter on what side of the divide we stand, want the best for the future of our beloved Army – envisioning it’s future through the eyes of those who will lead it tomorrow: Forward! (Hopefully)

JN

HQ H2O

On the road again, thus the reason for an absence in posts lately. Along the way, I had conversation with a corps officer who has just received a change of appointment, as have so many others this side of the equator; his to a DHQ Staff Secretary position. Interestingly enough, the matter of consultative leadership came up, this officer having not been consulted in the process. Incidentally, my take on this “lack of consultation” (control) being a possible contributor to “The Shrinking Pool” is coming shortly over at The Rubicon.

The conversation brought back to mind one of my first posts on the subject of leadership and what happens when one begins to sip the HQ H2O. I am reminded of the advice given to those (including this officer) receiving these elevated appointments (in some minds). It can be found in the concluding paragraph of the Management Vs Leadership – July 15 2006 post. Summed up: "Be careful what you drink."

Also the following message received from Steve Court over at ArmyBarmy:

We're experimenting with a three-camera live-edit online broadcast of this popular Salvo series - Famous Last Words, and we're inviting you to join us.

The event is live Wednesday 20 May 7:30pm - Melbourne time (that is 9:30am in England, 3:30am NYC, and 12:30am Vancouver (West Coast U.S.A – I won’t be up at this time, but maybe some of you night owls out there will be).

It features noted Salvo holiness teacher Colonel Lyell Rader preachingas if it was hisopportunity and Salvo worship leader Cadet Nathan Rowe on worship. You don't HAVE to watch it live but we'd love if you'd share this information on this experiment to your networks. Thanks.

http://www.salvationarmy.org.au/sstv/

JN

Outreach!

This past weekend at the SAW-ROA (West retired officers) retreat, we resurrected The Salvation Singers, more or less. Didn’t sound too bad after a 45-year hiatus. I feel the makings of a CD coming on. Check out my series on the “60’s Era” awhile back (June-August 08). The photo above was taken in a coffee house in North Beach, San Francisco, Coffee and Confusion, where we had a gig weekly for a year (That's me on the bass fiddle, believe it or not). A continuation of that series is forthcoming.

http://joenoland.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html

You might be interested in one outcome of my son, Rob’s, incarnational ministry on the West shore of Oahu in Hawaii. He writes in an email as follows:

"Joe Boy" (Josiah ChongTim) was in Sunday’s paper. You might remember him. He and his two brothers and sister lived 4 houses down from us. His sister is Maka who has two kids a 3-year-old girl and a little boy the same age as the twins. Big kids that were always over at our house watching tv and playing video games. Great Article."

http://hawaiipreps.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090503/SPORTS03/905030393/1042&template=PrepSports

Finally, you will know of my interest in the Kroc Center phenomenon, watching with interest to see if the Army gets it right. John and Lani Chamness are about to open one in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, doing it right. You may be interested to hear what a stay-at-home dad has to say about it in his blog:

A Family Runs Through It (scroll down to April 23). Check out the responses as well.

A smorgasbord of Army programs, past and present, all reaching out successfully in their unique, culturally inclusive ways.

J

Love Leakage!

This focus appears to be making the rounds lately. I touch on it over at The Rubicon: "If Love Leaks Out," as does Bruce Redman with an excellent piece: "Really – Love the Sinner." Again, I tackle the same subject, tongue-in-cheek, over at Slightly Irregular, "Say What?"

If we get this right, we will be right, and the Army will be right. After all, it speaks to our holiness distinctive doesn’t it? Brengle underlines, with an exclamation point, the danger of losing this distinctive in his prophetic warnings, me thinks. It’s also the thesis of my book, Lean Right, Love Left: Balancing the Body.

It's also foundational to transformative leadership, touched upon in my tribute to Commissioner Hillmon Buckingham in the "Lives Lived" section over at The Rubicon.

JN