A Sobbering Thought?

Throughout its history the Church has taught that God’s Spirit works through the Church and its people. Wesleyan and Salvation Army theologies affirm that not only does God work through the institution of the Church but through its individual members. A common theme that occurs in Sunday sermons is how God’s Spirit guides and shapes the lives of His people.

Our Officers and theological documents teach that as the believer matures in the faith that their thoughts, words, views, decisions and actions are increasingly under the direction of the Spirit and are shaped by the Spirit of Christ. Such teaching not only goes hand-in-hand with growing toward holiness but is wedded into the foundation of the holiness doctrine. If a person who claims to be in the state of holiness does not have the Holy Spirit increasingly shaping the majority of their thoughts, decisions and actions on a daily basis then the claim to holiness and spiritual maturity is negated.

Yet, we recognize that individuals do error in their judgments. Holiness does not keep them from making errors in judgment and making misstatements. Hence when something happens that is not in keeping with the Spirit it is explained away. The problem is when it is explained away too quickly and too frequently as it starts to negate the theology of holiness and the work of the Spirit that is taught on Sundays.

A sister teaching is that God works through the collective decisions of the whole. While one or two may have errors in judgments, the prayerful deliberation of the spiritual mature leadership works much more in keeping with the desires of the Spirit. The confidences Salvation Army Officers and Soldiers are called to have in their divisional and territorial leaders are founded upon this teaching. The same is said to be of the confidences the soldiery are called upon to have as they obey and support their Corps Officers and Officers in the local social service office and center.

Functionally Orders and Regulations cannot conceive of an Officer commanding a soldier to do something that Officer knows is illegal and/or contrary to Scripture. These holiness teachings and the spiritual state of the Army’s leadership compels the soldiery to obey their leaders unless they have clear and compelling rationale that their leaders are acting outside the leading of the Spirit.

At its core, the Officers and Soldiers of The Salvation Army are duty-bound by their Senior Soldiership vow to view the decisions of their leaders as being divinely guided. They are obligated to view the decisions of such leaders as God’s voice and their actions of God’s sign to them regarding the direction of their lives.

The problem for and the challenge for those who are in leadership positions is to recognize the ramifications of the Army’s theology. It challenges them to be more thoughtful and deliberate in their decisions rather than hasty and reactionary. It challenges them to look for hope, to build for a godly outcome and to see how they can redeem a person or situation. The problem is that when leaders act in haste, speak and make decisions too quickly, think the worst too quickly, or let unchecked emotions guide their words that the recipient is accepting their decisions as God’s will and message.

In looking back over the years I can see how many have interpreted the actions and words as Christ telling them to leave the Corps or even the Army. I doubt the leader viewed their actions and words as being God telling the person to leave, or as God speaking to the other person with a divine message, but the recepient may well be doing so. Our teaching and the senior soldier vows, and the sermons proclaimed from the pulpit encourage them to think in such a manner. Hence, the person’s response in leaving may well be in keeping with our theology just as much as it is an emotional response....and that should give each of us pause in how we respond to others in such a moment.