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 Warren etc. Inordinate funds were spent on sending officers to some of these centres, mostly in the United States, to learn church growth principles which would, we hoped, reverse the perceived decline in our organisation; a practice that continued for some decades. No doubt some officers benefited personally from the strategy; however, there was no impact on the territory.

If this philosophy had been correct, then our soldier’s roll would have continued to grow, however, quite the reverse is true. From around that time, the soldiers roll went into freefall. From 13,257 soldiers in the late 1980s, we have declined to 7,880 by 2016 (around 41% decrease). Now while there may be some cultural issues present and given the fact that Papua New Guinea was separated from the Eastern Territory in this period, the decline is still quite dramatic. Should the trend continue by 2040 there will be no soldiers. Like any army around the world, be it military, secular or spiritual, our strength is measured in our enlisted personnel.

Some of the personality-centred church leaders we have extolled have turned out to be disappointing. One of the protagonists held up as an example of this successful growth movement was Robert Schuller. He was vaunted as a living example of how we might resurrect the perceived decline in The Salvation Army. His TV ministry, The Hour of Power, along with his opulent Crystal Cathedral marked his philosophy out with the all the characterisations of American excesses and consumerism. However, like many organisations, based on a personality the whole empire crumbled amidst bitter family squabbling, his church filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and his Crystal Cathedral was sold off to the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1980, personally committed to church growth principles, along with other officers from this territory, I attended a self-funded church growth seminar at Paul Yongi Cho’s church, the Yoido Full Gospel Church, in Seoul, Korea, then the largest church in the world. The most crucial lesson I learnt from this is that; not all concepts are transferable between church and/or national cultures. Paul Yongi Cho’s integrity was later called into question and he was found guilty of tax evasion and sentenced to three years imprisonment, which was suspended for five years, and he was fined the equivalent of almost $5 million.

There has been a predominant influence exerted on us from the American megachurch movement which needs to be challenged. American and Australian cultures may look the same on the surface but there are significant and crucial differences between them. The words of the two national anthems highlight our cultural differences.

The Star Spangled Banner with its “bombs bursting in the air”;

And Advance Australia Fair with its “golden soil and wealth for toil”.

Not only our national cultures different, but also between church cultures. Not all concepts are transferable.

Perhaps the time has come for some painful and candid self-examination and an admission that in pursuing American mega-church philosophy, we simply got it wrong, in spite of our best intentions. It may well be that we were mesmerised by the spectacle of the immense. Numbers and size do not necessarily demonstrate God’s blessing on a spiritual organisation.

As we seek to unite the two Australian territories and reposition The Salvation Army for the future, what is needed is that we are true to our roots and our calling. It is unlikely we can go past General John Gowans’ triad; The Salvation Army was created to achieve three very definite things. It was created to save souls, to grow saints, and to serve suffering humanity, and Gowans was to add: If we stop doing any one of those three The Salvation Army will cease to be The Salvation Army.

Perhaps it is time that we stopped looking to other denominations and perceived experts, mimicking their philosophies and their practices, and started looking to the history and the essence of our own movement and our own people, if we are to be true to our God-ordained mission.

This article reflects dynamics found in the Australia Eastern Territory, statistics being drawn from the SAMIS program and the Year Book.  Statistics in the Australia Southern Territory have been difficult to locate, as the Year Book does nor record soldiership statistics until around 2000.