Woody's Words

DOES ANYONE REALLY CARE? By David Woodbury Corps Cadet Congress - Sydney - 1972. Perhaps one of the greatest failings of the contemporary church or Salvation Army corps is its inability to effectively care for its people. In the early days of the Army, a ward system operated very effectively which helped to keep the flock together and cared for. In larger corps the operation of sections like corps cadets, band, home league etc. acted as an informal pastoral care group. Over the last half-century or so much has changed in society with the technological revolution changing many of the norms of society. Salvation Army corps have changed and are not as integrated as they once were. Irregular meeting attendances have further fractured any sense of real pastoral care. One of the unfortunate outcomes is that there has been a splintering of the framework that ensured effective care for those within the Christian community. As the fracturing developed, more emphasis was pl...

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SALVATION MEETING? By David Woodbury Of the two main meetings held in Salvation Army centres in the mid 20 th century, the one called The Salvation Meeting , seemed to carry an energy all of its own. Often preceded by a large street open-air meeting and a march back to the citadel, it was a fairly impressive event, to the point that the locals would come out each Sunday night to watch the local Salvation Army band, and timbrel brigade, witness to their faith in a march, generally through a suburban shopping centre. Within two or three decades the whole scenario changed; the Sunday evening open-air meeting and march declined and all but disappeared. The Salvation Meeting continued to exist, although itself in decline, and finally most corps gave up and The Salvation Meeting joined the dinosaur in extinction. No doubt there are lots of cultural and social issues involved in the extinction of The Salvation Meeting, however, perhaps we need to look ...

A letter from James Chapter 2 - Part 3 14 What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? 15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, 16 and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? 17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. (James 2 14-17 – NLT) Faith and action James addresses a subject that has often been a topic of debate within Christian circles; that of faith and works. Many have seen this passage in James as supporting the concept of earning salvation by good deeds, as opposed to Paul’s claim in Romans that salvation is purely by faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and is a free gift of God’s grace. Both writers are simply approaching the subject...

THE CALL TO DISCIPLESHIP By David Woodbury This post was written from my hospital room at St George Hospital in Sydney; my fourth visit here this year (2018) for chronic asthma. Such circumstances have a way of clearly focusing your mind and inner being. I think that sometimes God allows these circumstances to come upon us to get our undivided attention and he waits for the response from the depths of the soul: “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening”. Amidst the earthquake and whirlwind of trying to home-manage a chronic illness and the ongoing debates with doctors as to the best course of action, I have given up and accepted that hospitalisation is the only course open. In the night hours, when sleep is impossible, thanks to the large quantities of steroids being used to treat my condition, I wrestle with God and finally surrender. When you can accept, and understand, that amid the turmoil, a loving God is still in control, you hear once again that “still, small voic...

The lessons of history (Published in Others , May, 2018) By David Woodbury "Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it."  ( Winston Churchill)   In the late ‘70s The Salvation Army in the Australia Eastern Territory  began to explore and embrace the emerging church growth philosophy. We were persuaded that we were a dying organisation and unless we adopted some extraordinary growth measures we would soon cease to exist. It would seem that such a philosophy may well have been flawed since we were still a growing organisation right through until the late 80s. 1950 – 10,257 soldiers 1960 – 11,200 soldiers 1970 – 11,595 soldiers 1980 – 12,271 soldiers Late 1980s – 13,257 soldiers From somewhere in the 1980s officers were increasingly exposed to purportedly church growth experts more often than not from American, personality-centred mega-churches such as Robert Schuller, John Wimber, Wayne Cordeiro, Bill Hybels, Rick ...

SMALL IS BETTER THAN JUST OK By David Woodbury. I notice a recent Facebook post by Others’ journalist, Lauren Martin which read: The evangelistic effectiveness of mini-churches is statistically 1,600 percent greater than that of the mega churches. (Quote from Natural Church Development by Christian Schwartz) The fact didn’t surprise me, the percentage did. Salvationist have long known that serving in a small corps is often the catalyst in meaningful ministry. For many years, the larger number of cadets entering our traIning college came from small, often rural, corps. I suspect that there was a unique spiritual dynamic present, and there was something different about these corps that was a catalyst in the spiritual impact and development on individuals. I believe this to be true from my own experience. I grew up in a large city corps complete with all its Army sections. There wasn’t a day in the week when there wasn’t something happening at the Army. It was an act...

A LETTER FROM JAMES Chapter 2 – part 2 By David Woodbury 8 Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 9 But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law.10 For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws. 11 For the same God who said, “You must not commit adultery,” also said, “You must not murder.” So if you murder someone but do not commit adultery, you have still broken the law. (James 2:8-11 - NLT) Sin is sin In his letter James seems to be entering a debate and can hear others rationalising their action by pointing it they are simply obeying the law and loving their neighbour. He is concerned about discrimination and rationalisation, which he no doubt simply sees as lying. Unfortunately many would see little problem with rationalisation but t...