An agency that does church?

Tonight, my family and I celebrated the one week anniversary of our arrival in our new town. So, far it has been quite a roller coaster ride.

I must say that I am eternally grateful for all that was done by the officers who preceded us. They have done much to turn a large ship. Any thoughts I struggle with within the remainder of this post are not meant negatively toward them. The currents I sensed were, I am sure, a source of frustration for them as well.

I had to travel to a luncheon with one of our key staff members late in the week. Having just arrived at the office on Wednesday, I guess it could be considered early in the week.

Regardless, I decided to inquire about a document I had discovered in my digging through all that was left behind. It was a strategic plan for The Salvation Army of our county. It started with a mission statement that went like this: "Our mission is to meet human need without discrimination all for the love of God."

It seemed to me that this was something I wanted to know more about since we are scheduled to have a meeting about this document this week. I started be asking why half of The Army's mission statement was left off. The conversation quickly deteriorated from there. It ended with a couple of statements that shook me up. They didn't get to me because of their novelty, but because I couldn't believe I was actually hearing them from a key member of my staff.

The first was, "If you are going to see yourself as a pastor first, then you are never going to make it here." Later in the conversation, it became clear to me that what he and others may be looking for from the Army is to be a Social Service Agency that happens to do church. Obviously, I think this is horribly backwards.

It cannot be enough to help people just because we are nice people as a result of what Christ has done for us. If we discovered the cure to cancer and vowed to only live as healthy as we could without ever letting people know of the source of our cure, we would soon be disclosed as selfish egomaniacs.

It has been a while since I have served in a big city command, so I wondered if maybe I had missed something in the way we have to present the efforts of The Army to the community in light of funding. However, after much prayer and time in the Word, it has never been more clear to me that "God-given gifts are for the building of God's Kingdom, not mine." This is a wonderful truth learned from a friend of mine who was Promoted to Glory this weekend. Thank you for the perspective, Reverend G. Rod Taylor.

Having said all of this, after more time with this staff member, it seems to me that he loves the Lord. He may just be seeing things through a glass darkly. Please pray for him, and me, as God reveals to us both what He is up to here.