WHAT HAPPENED TO
THE
SALVATION MEETING?
By David Woodbury
Of
the two main meetings held in Salvation Army centres in the mid 20th
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 little closer home and see if somehow, we contributed
to its demise.
Did
we lose the plot? Did we get so caught up in hanging on to our Salvation Army traditions
and trappings that we didn’t see what was happening? Or were the cultural
changes taking place around us not observed or understood? Probably these and
other ancillary factors combined to sound the death knell of The Salvation Meeting.
I
guess we could just leave it there and pass it off as a lesson in evolution and
history. Or, perhaps, we could reach back in our history and see if there is
not a lesson to be learnt.
While
none of us was present in the very earliest of a salvation meeting, we can only
draw from history and try and get a sense of what was taking place, and why it
was taking place. Certainly, the culture was very different, not all the
distractions and entertainment of the present age. But it was an age soaked in
alcohol abuse, particularly among the poor and working class.
Try
to picture an early salvation meeting: the soldiers sat on the platform and the
sinners packed the body of the hall. The air was pungent with the offensive odour
of unwashed bodies and stale alcohol. Speaker after speaker gave testimony of a
changed life, a lengthy sermon and finally an appeal was given to find
salvation in Jesus Christ, and the prayer meeting may go on for some time.
As
I cast my mind back well over half a century I can see a large Salvation Army
hall, a large band, hall packed mainly with people in uniforms. Great music and
inspirational singing: and in most cases, a challenging sermon with a strong
evangelical emphasis. Most of the elements one would think needed for a
salvation meeting: sinners present? Not so much.
This
begs the question; is there no longer need for people to find salvation? And if
that is the case, then the corollary is that The Salvation Army has outlived
its purpose; a scary thought for those who have had a lifelong commitment to
God through the Army.
Or
is there another answer? Is there the possibility that God is not finished with
the Army’s salvation meeting? Is the answer so glaringly obvious that we can’t
see it?
Who
were these people who packed the early Salvation Army halls? What was their
common need? They were people looking to find a better way of life, they were
people seeking recovery.
As
I look around community today I find many people in search of recovery,
recovery from drug and alcohol abuse, recovery from domestic violence, recovery
from sexual abuse, recovery from low self-esteem, recovery from financial
failure, and the list goes on. Many of these people just simply want someone to
hear and understand their pain. Can we not at least offer them a listening and
empathic ear?
Already
The Salvation Army has strong and effective work among those recovering from
substance abuse, and anyone who has attended a chapel service at a recovery
centre will have witnessed some sense of what an early salvation meeting was
like.
Perhaps,
when we look at Jesus, who we know as the friend of those seeking recovery, and
the early Salvation Army, who had the genius of being able to identify and
connect with those looking for recovery; we just might think that a recovery
meeting in every Salvation Army corps, might keep us true to our name, The
Salvation Army; we might even call it; A
Salvation Meeting.
Thanks for the article David. It brought back many memories of vibrant Salvation Meetings at Wollongong Corps where I grew up in the 70s and 80s. I loved those meetings, mainly because I would invite any number of friends along with the confidence that the Gospel would always be preached.
ReplyDeleteI remember Salvation meetings very well. In my memory they were not usually attended by sinners of the non-Salvationist variety so maybe they had already stopped serving their intended purpose but they surely had as much purpose within our own ranks as they did outside?
ReplyDeleteDid we not give away the Salvation meeting because we got burnt out? lazy? or just plain proud?
If we were to start up a modern version I might not call it a Salvation meeting because the word is little used these days, nor a recovery meeting (recovery might imply victim?)
Hope is something I think we all are looking for.....although hope implies it hasn't yet arrived, Salvation is present tense.......
hmmmm, I seem to have come full circle!