The Way Forward — John Gowans

Well, what can I say? Well, I can remind you of Mrs. Beaton. Do you remember me? Oh, you're not old enough to remember Mrs. Beaton. The marvellous cook whose recipes were world famous. And let me remind you of her first and most famous recipe.

And that is how to make jugged hair. Now, when she says how to make jugged hair, she doesn't say put the tablecloth on. She doesn't say go and get the biggest pan and get your salt and herbs ready. She says first, catch your hair.

Reaching People Before Winning Them for Christ

Now, we Salvation Army people, we can't help it. We want to win people for Jesus. We haven't changed in a hundred and odd years. We still want to meet people meeting Jesus because we think that an encounter with Jesus can enrich anybody's life.

So we're anxious that people get to know Christ. But first you've got to catch the people. You've got to catch the people. And how do you do it? Well, I was interested by that testimony that was given to us.

And two words came over to me. One was friendship and the other was love in time of need. Brothers and sisters, the world is a sad, sad place. And people are hurting in these days. When I was a kid, there was a neighbourhood feeling.

The people on either side looked after each other. And you had friends across the street. I used to live in a little narrow house in Lancashire where everybody used to scrub their step, you know. You don't know, no.

You're not old enough. But everybody used to scrub their front step and put a bit of a stone mark round it. But if Mrs. So-and-so was sick, the neighbours scrubbed her step. So were all the steps in the street.

That kind of thing is gone now. There's a lot of people lonely, you know. And one of the biggest things and the best things that any of us can give to this lonely, solitary and suffering world is friendship.

It's a precious gift, wrapped round with a blue ribbon. Give somebody your friendship and you've won the person. And then if you're a real Christian, you stand a chance to win them for Christ. Befriend.

Catherine Booth's Three Secrets of Evangelism

And that way the army will grow and the kingdom of God will come. The founder of the Salvation Army had eight children. Now that must have been a mixed blessing. I have two and it shortened my life. What do you do when you've got eight?

Anyway, all of his eight became great evangelists. They followed their daddy and they became great evangelists too. And one of the most famous ones was a lady, the eldest daughter of the founder called Catherine.

And she was an aggressive lady. I've got nothing against aggressive ladies. I married one. An aggressive lady, a militant lady. In fact, they called her the Field Marshal. She began the work of the Salvation Army in France and Switzerland and they called her La Maréchal and she was an aggressive lady.

But she was a very successful evangelist. And they often used to say to her, Catherine, La Maréchal, why were you so successful as an evangelist? And she'd say, well, I've got three secrets. And everybody would be a god, three secrets.

How do you win people so well? Three secrets. The first one, she said, is love. You've got to love them. No hope of winning anybody if you don't love them. Then there was a pause usually and then she'd say, and my second secret is love.

There's no chance of winning anybody for Jesus if you don't love them. And then they got ready for the third secret, didn't they? The third secret, she said, is love. Love, love. And if you ask me how to get it, you get it first by sacrifice and secondly by sacrifice and thirdly by sacrifice.

Love is not an inexpensive commodity. It costs you sometimes to love the other person because the other person isn't necessarily lovable. The Salvation Army doesn't only love the lovable, it loves the unlovable and the unloved in Jesus' name.

We sometimes say we should love them to death but we in the Salvation Army, we love them to life. And in that way I believe we make a contribution to the Kingdom of God. Now I've got seven 45-minute sermons ready for this Congress so I'll leave it at that.

The Salvation Army Must Recover Its Original Calling

I'm going to say, Salvation Army, please, Salvation Army, I implore you, Salvation Army, be what God created you to be. Some weeks ago we had a gentleman, British gentleman, a lord of the realm called Lord Hattersley, speaking in a Salvation Army meeting.

Now what was he doing there, especially as he's not a Christian and certainly not a Salvationist, what was he doing in the Westminster Central Hall with 2 ,000 Salvationists? He was there because he's written a new book.

Lord Hattersley is a politician. He was the deputy leader of the Labour Party for many years and now he's in the House of Lords in Great Britain. What was he doing in the Westminster Central Hall? He's written a book and his book, strangely enough, has the title Blood and Fire.

Rather unusual for a politician to write a book with a title like that, don't you think? And underneath the title it says, Blood and Fire, William and Catherine Booth and their Salvation Army. I was curious, of course.

Lord Hattersley had been to see me and he'd asked if he could do this book and I said, what's it going to be about? He said, I'm not sure but I'm going to do some research. Can I go in the archives of the Salvation Army and read anything I like?

I said, yes, anything you like. He read everything he liked. He was in there for months and he produced this book about the Salvation Army and he came to the Westminster Central Hall at my invitation to be interviewed by one of our captains and the captain asked me some very pertinent questions and they were very direct because the book isn't all in praise of the Salvation Army but he does give a very good, balanced view of the Salvation Army from its birth until now.

Now when the interview was over and everybody was very excited because he spoke very well as a politician always can. Whatever they do, they always speak well. He spoke very well indeed and then the captain made the mistake, well it was a risk anyway, if not a mistake, to say to the politician, to Lord Hattersley, Lord Hattersley, you have a couple of thousand Salvation Army people here.

Have you got a message for this Salvation Army? You've studied the army, you've read about it, you've come close to it, you've discovered it, you say. Now what would be your message to this Salvation Army?

And you know what Lord Hattersley said? He said, oh Salvation Army, be what God created you and don't apologise for it. Oh, I love that last bit. We're so apologetic in the army. We're no good, the Baptists are better, the Pentecostals are better.

We don't sing as well as Hillsong and we go on and on running ourselves down. We're not much good. Do excuse us for living, you know. And here is a politician who studied the army and is a man of this world and isn't a believer, but he says, please Salvation Army, be what you were created to be.

The world needs a Salvation Army like you are. Stop apologising. I thought that was lovely. And as I steal anything that's any good, I've stolen Lord Hattersley's words. And I'm going round the world now saying, please Salvation Army, I implore you, be what God created you to be.

Be what God meant you to be, what you're called to be. You see the temptation of all inspired movements, not excluding the Salvation Army, the temptation of all inspired movements is to forget what they were made for and to wander away from their primary ambition and to become something else, something less beautiful, something less useful than they were intended to be.

The Salvation Army has begun to apologise for itself at a time when the world needs a Salvation Army. You may be asking, what exactly was the Salvation Army created for? What is its raison d 'etre? Well, I'll tell you what it is in my view.

I believe, I put my hand on my heart, I believe the Salvation Army was created to achieve three things and I'm going to tell you what they are. And in the next three years of my generalship, you will hear me say it a thousand times.

Saving Souls From Sin and Meaningless Living

The Salvation Army was created by God. I believe that to start with. It wasn't William Booth's idea, it was God's idea and he got William Catherine to put it into action. But it was God's idea and God created the Salvation Army to achieve three things and the first one of these, and I hope it doesn't surprise anybody here, the first reason why God created the Salvation Army, He created it to save souls.

Does that surprise anybody? I hope not. The Salvation Army came into being to save souls, to rescue people from sin, to rescue people from mediocrity, to rescue people from materialism, to rescue people from meaningless, pointless living.

Growing Saints Into Christlike People

The Salvation Army was created to save souls. That's why God made it. Salvation Army, I implore you, be what God made you to be. Secondly, the Salvation Army was created and I hope you are sitting comfortably.

I don't want to shock anybody but the Salvation Army was created to grow saints. The Salvation Army is supposed to be a hot house for growing saints. God intended the Salvation Army to be a garden in which people grew into beautiful people, lovely people, beautiful people, people who were generous and kind and forgiving and sympathetic and pure and honest, gentle, compassionate, sympathetic, loving, forgiving, Christlike.

God intended to produce a Salvation Army that would grow beautiful people. And if the Salvation Army is not growing beautiful people, it is not being what God created it to be. The Salvation Army is a holiness movement for producing holy people who act like Jesus and forgive like Jesus and give like Jesus and work like Jesus and love like Jesus and suffer and sacrifice like Jesus.

The Salvation Army was created to do that. And if the Army isn't doing that, I implore it in Jesus' name as its international leader. Oh, Salvation Army, be what God created you to be, a hot house for holiness.

Serving Suffering Humanity

And thirdly, this surprises nobody. The Salvation Army was created to serve suffering humanity without question. Wherever anyone is hurting, the Salvation Army should be there as part of our calling. And when we are not serving suffering humanity, we are something less, something else than the Salvation Army.

I am sorry to say that the Army isn't exactly what God intended it to be everywhere. There are some Salvation Army Corps that are more like clubs than anything else. I have to tell you, and I have been in the Salvation Army as an officer for 45 years, I have to tell you I can take you to Salvation Army Corps where they don't save souls, they don't grow saints, and they do nothing for suffering humanity.

Now you can take me, if you like, to a beautiful building with a Salvation Army crest on the side full of smartly dressed people in Salvation Army uniform. But if that unit is not producing people who save souls, who are growing like Jesus, and who are desperately trying to do something for the suffering of this world, then you have not a Salvation Army Corps there.

You have not a Salvation Army. Call it something else. These three fundamental passions are what have made the Salvation Army. And the devil loves to prevent us from being what God intends us to be. Oh, the devil is clever.

The Devil's Strategy of Diversion

I hope you have got a respect for the devil. Do you believe in the devil? I believe in the devil. The devil follows me around. He sits in my office. Oh, he does. One of my predecessors, the illustrious General Osborne, used to tap his shoulders and say, the General is subject to the domination, the irritation, the temptation of the devil.

And the devil, he used to say, loves velvet. Oh, the devil does not leave me alone. He comes to all my meetings. I am sorry folks, you are in good company tonight. He never misses one of my meetings. He is always there, contradicting everything I say.

I say God loves you and he whispers in somebody's ear, don't believe it, it's a lot of rubbish. Oh, the devil comes to all my meetings. I wish he would stay away. Don't you? Does he come to your meetings?

Perhaps he doesn't need to. He certainly comes to mine. He doesn't waste his time, you know. I am sure there are one or two calls he doesn't bother about at all. Why should he worry they are safe? They won't do him any harm.

No, I have got a great respect for the devil. I will tell you why. There are two good things. You can always say something about the devil that is good. And I will tell you two things that I have an admiration for.

The devil is industrious. He is not lazy. You have got to admire it. He never goes on holiday. He is hard at work in season and out of season to do his damaging and dastardly work. And the other thing you have got to say that is good about the devil is that he is clever.

Oh, isn't he clever? He is cunning. And one of his ambitions, I will swear to you, I know him well. One of his ambitions is to demolish the Salvation Army. Well, if you were the devil, wouldn't you like to demolish the Salvation Army?

You would be not very bright as a devil if you didn't try and demolish the Salvation Army. I mean the Salvation Army is a dangerous thing to hell, you know. Hell can't hear of the Salvation Army without going into fits of rage.

If you were the devil, you would like to demolish the Salvation Army. But the trouble with the Salvation Army is it is very hard to demolish. When you have got a Salvation Army in 106 countries, you can't really demolish it, you see, because by the time you have strangled it almost in a little country in Europe, it breaks out in India and has revival.

And you just think you have sat on India. When Africa takes fire, the devil is going crazy. He can't demolish the blessed thing. He can't demolish it. But, oh, he is clever. So, do you know what he does?

I have watched him do it. He doesn't demolish it. That is a bit too hard even for the devil. But he makes it deviate from its true path. He knows that this is what God created the Salvation Army to be.

And the devil says, well, just turn a little bit to the left or the right. Just a little bit. Just a little bit. Just a little bit. Just a little bit. And before we know where we are, he has diverted us from our first intention so much that we are going in the opposite direction.

Now that is clever. And he has had some success with the Salvation Army. Because in some places, he has managed to make the Salvation Army something it wasn't intended to be, and to prevent it from being what it was intended to be by getting it to major on minor matters and to get excited about peripheral things that have no significance.

And salvationists are using all their God-given energy on rubbishy things, while the main things are not receiving the attention that it should have. We should stop trifling with peripheral things that have no significance and concentrate on winning souls and growing saints and serving suffering humanity.

And don't let the devil detour us from these first things. Why is it that the Salvation Army in some places is less than what it should be? Isn't very effective? In these three areas. Well, perhaps it's because we've forgotten what Catherine Booth calls the great fundamental principle.

Adapting Methods Without Changing the Gospel

I want to speak to you something that the mother of the Salvation Army said. Now, when mother talks, the children listen. Okay, so this is our mother speaking. And she's talking sense as most mothers do.

They asked her why the Salvation Army was so successful. And she said this, the Army's achievements were built on the great fundamental principle of adaptation. That is, making the means suit the end.

She goes on to say, God forbid, that I should ever teach any adaptation of the Gospel. I teach no adaptation of the Gospel, but I contend that we may serve it up on any sort of dish that will suit the people and encourage them to partake of it.

She's talking here about menu and dishes. And she says, the Salvation Army only has one menu. We serve up the Gospel. But, she says, if we've got any intelligence, we'll serve it up on any kind of dish, a green dish, a long dish, a short dish, a yellow dish, a dish with yellow spots.

We'll use any dish we can to get them to eat it. Now, this is the great fundamental principle of adaptation. And our mother said, we grew when we remembered the great fundamental principle of adaptation, flexibility, change of methods.

We never change the Gospel, but we're altering the method all the time so that we might win other people for Jesus. And we don't care what dish we use as long as they eat it. Now, this is the Salvation Army.

And this is why we were so good in days gone by. We were so flexible. We'd do anything. We'd stand on our heads. For goodness sake, when William Booth was taking the liner, I think it was out of Australia, going home, he'd had a demonstration on the beach and there'd been one of those kind of holy hallelujah dances.

And Rudyard Kipling, the great English literature man and writer, said to William Booth, well, you made a bit of a fool of yourself on the beach, didn't you, before you got on the boat, all those drums and tambourines?

And William Booth said to Rudyard Kipling, if I could win one more soul by standing on my head and beating the tambourine with my toes, I'd learn how to do it. Now, that's the Salvation Army you belong to.

And if you belong to something else, you don't belong to the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army is an army of people who will stand on their heads to get somebody saved. The method doesn't matter. We've got so rigid.

We've got fixed patterns. That's not the Salvation Army. We need to be adaptable and to adapt our methods to the people we want to win. Now, Catherine Booth believed in the great fundamental principle of adaptation.

And she said the army was successful when it was the most concerned with adaptability. But she didn't invent it, you know. I'm not the only one that steals other people's ideas. Catherine stole this one.

Oh, yes, you did. Mother, you got it from somewhere else, didn't you? Yes, she said, I got it from somewhere else. I got it from an early-day Salvationist called Paul, Saint Paul to be exact. Saint Paul, well, yes, he was the first Salvationist.

He was the Salvationist before there was the Salvation Army. He was number one on the roll before we had a roll to put his name on. But Saint Paul was the first Salvationist. Listen to Saint Paul. And I'm reading now from Corinthians.

Listen to Saint Paul. I'm a free man, says Saint Paul, and I own no master, but I have made myself every man's servant to win over as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew to win the Jews.

As they are subject to the law of Moses, I put myself under that law to win them, although I'm not myself subject to it. To win Gentiles who are outside the law, I made myself like one of them, although I'm not in fact outside God's law, being under the law of Christ.

To the weak, I became weak to win the weak. Indeed, I have become everything in turn to men of every sort, so that in one way or another I may save some. That's the Salvationist speaking. And the Salvation Army has got to start speaking like that again.

We've got to save them somehow. Desperate we need to be. Willing to become all things to all men. If by any means I can save some. The Salvation Army isn't desperate enough. It's unwilling to try the unusual or the non-palatable or the unpleasant or the not comfortable.

We're looking always for some easy way to save souls that doesn't cost us anything or hurt our sensibilities. And we've got to get to the stage where we're willing to do anything. God helping us to save some.

That's the Salvation Army you belong to. And if you think it's some sort of army other than that, you're making a mistake. We were invented by God the Holy Spirit to save souls and to use any legal method however outrageous, however outlandish to save some.

Creativity and Variety in Salvation Army Ministry

It is where the Salvation Army is doing these three things that it's growing. Talk about church growth. To achieve our primary aim of soul winning we've got to become more flexible and more cunning and more clever and more creative.

God knows He's blessed the Salvation Army with creativity of a stupendous degree. You saw the people playing about here tonight. Weren't they superb? What clever artists they are. They're creative. They're gifted.

God has gifted this Salvation Army with ingenuity. And we don't use it in the cause of soul winning. We need, for example, to develop more and more variety in our core. When I was a young captain there was only one kind of core.

They had a kind of a pattern for it. You had a congregation in a certain kind of hall and then you had a band if you could, you had a song if you could, you had a home league or else you were in serious trouble.

You had a Sunday school and you had collections and you had three meetings on a Sunday. When I was a lieutenant in my first corps I had three meetings on a Sunday. A Sunday morning holiness meeting, a Sunday afternoon praise meeting and a Sunday night salvation meeting.

Now we call them by fancy names my brothers and sisters but those meetings were a deeper life meeting. We called it the holiness meeting. A praise meeting. Now we talk about worship as if we've invented it.

They were worshipping in the praise meeting when I was a kid in arms, believe me. And the kids ran up and down and everybody sang and everybody swang and it was a free and easy meeting and we used to swing from the rafters before you invented this worship business which I love like my life but it's been going a long time.

And then the Sunday night meeting was the salvation meeting. Now they talk about the seeker friendly meeting. OK. The Sunday night meeting was a seeker friendly meeting. It was the meeting when we stood on our heads to make the outside people feel comfortable and to get them nearer to Jesus.

It was that kind of pattern. You had to have one of these and two of those. Some time ago I went to see a corps in Sun City in California. I was at DC in California. Sun City is a lovely corps but it's a special corps because Sun City is a special kind of town.

You can't live in Sun City unless you're over 55. And you can't live in Sun City if you've got any children. They permit dogs but not children. Beautiful place, deserves the name Sun City. Sun shines every day.

It rains three times a year and when it's three times you know it won't rain again soon. Blue skies, bliss but everybody old and no children. But they have good congregations there. I went to see them and I said to my friend Glenn Glenn how's it going here?

He says oh we're having a good time. We have a good meeting. We have people getting saved. So I said what's the problem? Have you got any problems? He said no I haven't got any problems. Oh yes he said I have.

I've got a problem. He said it's the divisional commanders. Well we all know that divisional commanders are a problem don't we? I've been one. I was a problem. I said what's the matter with your DCs? Well he says they're all the same.

They come here and they review my work and they say Glenn you're doing a great job. I've been here years and they say you're doing fantastic but you know I'm very disappointed in your corps. And I say what's the trouble Colonel?

And they always reply well you haven't got a Sunday school. There's no kids in town but you've got to have a Sunday school. It's on the paper. You've got to have a Sunday school. If you haven't got a Sunday school it's not a Salvation Army Corps.

Now listen you have the General's permission to tear up all those patterns. There is no typical Salvation Army Corps anymore. There is a corps where souls are getting saved and saints are being made and suffering humanity is being served and we don't care what shape, style or...

Don't come to me and say we want to change this and we want to change that unless the object of that change is to do one of these three things. If it's just to make people happy and comfortable and to entertain them you can throw it out.

Any new idea has to be tried against these things. Will it help the Salvation Army to do these? If it will do it, if it won't forget it however much you like the idea. We can't waste our time on things that don't do something in these three years.

The varied menu is one of our tools. Some corps serve the same menu Sunday after Sunday. It's incredible anybody still comes to the restaurant. There should be at least three times of meetings going in any corps.

One that keeps the kids happy that want to hear those big noises that most of us have to go like this with. You've got to have one of those somewhere. How else are you going to win the kids these days if you don't make a big din somewhere?

You need one like that. But maybe you need another kind of meeting. A more reflective meeting. A more introspective meeting where we look at ourselves and we look at Christ and examine our spiritual position more seriously.

Building Bridges Through Shared Interests

Perhaps there are other kinds. I think one of the things we've got to do is to get hold of people somehow. And I want to tell you that if you're going to win souls these days you've got to look at the markets.

You open any newspaper in England or in Australia and it goes like this. The first page is the headline news of the moment. The second page is parliamentary news and politics. The third page is business and the rest of the pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 are sports pages.

Isn't your newspaper like that? So if you're going to win the people of these days you're going to have to learn sports. Every corps in Australia where everybody is sports crazy every corps has to have a football team.

How are you going to win those people these days if you don't play rugby or football or something? Call it fancy names like sports ministry but if you don't talk sports for men of this generation you'll never win them.

I've got a 13 year old grandson and to my horror he's a Manchester United fan. See what I mean? I was the divisional commander in Manchester and I was a Manchester City fan. But my grandson, he's a Manchester United fan.

He's crazy about it. You should see his bedroom. You can't see the wallpaper for pictures of all the teams, you know. His bedspread is in the colours of his team. His pyjamas are an imitation kit of the football team he admires.

He knows their names. He knows their addresses. He knows their wives' names. He knows what kids they've got. He knows what aftershave they use. He's crazy about Manchester United. Now I want to talk to him.

How am I going to talk to him? I don't care a tinker's cuss about him. I open the sports page every day. What's Manchester United doing? If I've got to have a conversation even with Theo, that's his name, how am I going to do it if I can't talk Manchester United?

Listen friends, if you want to win people for Jesus you've got to talk to them about something they know something about as long as you remember that you begin with a sports team but you're edging round to getting those footballers on their knees as well as on their backs.

Anything will do, you know. Anything will do. A common interest of any kind to get people. Anything will do. For example, stamp collecting can be a very good evangelical weapon. Have you tried stamp collecting at your core yet?

All that you have to do is to discover that in your town or in your area there are people who are mad about collecting stamps. And then you look around the court and you find the three or four people who are similarly crazy.

And then you advertise in the local newspaper saying the Salvation Army is starting a club for stamp collectors and the three or four people who are Salvationists and they love stamps, they run the Stamp Collectors Club.

And of course they come and they discuss stamps and then once in a while they get invited to something else at the Army. And before you know where you are, some of those who came to stick stamps in their album find the Lord Jesus.

You think I'm nuts, don't you? I know a core in the south of France that has a stamp collectors group for that reason. What are they doing? They're saying with Paul I became like the Jews to win the Jews.

I became like the Manchester United fans to win the Manchester United fans. I became like the stamp collectors and I don't care about stamp collecting to win this. Listen friends, we've got to be at least as cunning as the devil.

Ministering to People in Crisis

We've got to save them somehow and we've got to serve suffering humanity. You know this is a sad world, don't you? Oh, it's a sad world. I remember our British Commissioner, Commissioner Cooper, who served in Australia for a while.

I remember Commissioner Cooper as our British Commissioner. He used to put his glasses on the back of his head to see his congregation. It was rather a funny affectation but it got our attention. He used to say, boys, boys, behind every fourth door there's somebody in trouble.

Knock on any four doors and one of those four has behind it somebody who's suffering. Knock on those doors and find out which one's suffering and minister to that one. One in four are in trouble. I want to tell you in these days every other door is in trouble.

Some kid, some family's got a kid behind that door who's on drugs and some people have got a kid behind that door who are in prison. Some kid here has got depression and some woman has just been told she's dying of cancer and some woman has just lost her husband who she's lived with happily for 50 years.

Behind every other door there's somebody suffering. Thank God there's a Salvation Army who cares for them all. We've got to find out the modern day sufferers and minister to them. You could start with the single parents.

You think it's any joke bringing up kids on your own? Some of them manage particularly well but couldn't you start a group for people who are bringing up a kid on their own and not just thinking of single parent women and thinking of single parent men who are trying to bring kids up and they don't know what to do to group them, to help them, to love them in Jesus' name.

That's what we've got to do for hurting society in these days. Just imagine for example, you know one of the curses of our present days is still something that they haven't been able to cure and that is what we call in England cot deaths.

What do you call them here? Do you use that word? The baby who's put to bed happy and healthy and you go up in the morning to wake the baby and the baby's dead and you're the mother. You say to the doctor but why is my child dead?

And the doctor says I don't know. It's one of those things that happens in the first year of a baby's life. Suddenly it's dead and we don't know why it happens. We're studying it but we don't know. But what does the mother feel?

I can't tell you what she feels. I've never been in that position. Perhaps there are some mothers here who have and you don't know what to say to yourself. You say what should I have done differently?

Should I have done this? Should I have failed this child somehow? And the trauma and the anxiety is terrible. That woman is suffering. Thank God there's a Salvation Army who cares for the hurting and is going to do something, isn't it?

For women that are going through that kind of trial at Staines Corp in West London they have a club for mothers who have lost a baby in the first year. And who is it run by? It's run by three sons one of whom lost a child that way herself.

The Salvation Army has to do something for hurting humanity and I'm not just thinking of our beautiful social institutions who are doing a marvellous job for suffering humanity but every corps should have something on its programme that addresses some of the hurting people in its community.

What is your corps doing for the hurting people of today's generation? The Salvation Army was created to do something for the hurting and if it isn't it's no longer the Salvation Army. What about this third theme?

Blood and Fire: Salvation and Holiness

The Salvation Army was created to grow saints. That's why its motto was blood and fire and it still is. Blood was for salvation the power of the blood of Jesus to forgive our sins and to wipe the slate clean.

The other word is fire and it's the fire of the Holy Spirit who burns up as we often sing in the Founders words to burn up every trace of spring the light and glory in. The revolution now begins. May the people have every Sunday morning when I was a kid a holiness meeting.

Wasn't the best attended meeting not by any means. It was the smallest attended meeting. In the afternoon the praise meeting would be full. In the evening the seeker friendly meeting the salvation meeting would be crowded but Sunday morning wasn't crowded.

Who came to the holiness meeting? The salvationists who were progressing in their spiritual lives who were hungering and thirsting after righteous and they sang some of those lovely songs about being whiter than the snow.

Holy Spirit come, oh come let Thy work in me be done. All that hinders shall be thrown aside. Make me fit to be Thy dwelling. They used to sing with tears in their eyes. They wanted to be like Jesus determined to grow like.

In my heart when I was eleven years old I began to understand that to be like Jesus was the object of every Christian's life. And that's still my testimony. And you're kind enough to sing it for me sometimes.