It's not often that we take the time to ask foundational and searching questions about who we are... both as people and as communities... and it's not an easy task.
Today John Cleary (a Salvationist historian) was asking some hard questions along those lines and I found myself challenged and invigorated by the exercise.
Who is the salvation army?
Best answer of the day (in my opinion) was: God's Commandos
The best strategy for the Salvos is to ask where the Kingdom isn't... and then take it there... where is the darkness thickest - where is hope the least - where are the churches/social structures NOT - and then we should show up in full force.
'to go where no man has gone before'. We will never be great at competing with traditional middle class churches - we just aren't really that. We will be great (maybe smaller) at taking new ground... which leads me to the question - where is that?
Where is the darkness thick and the hope fading... where are the lost? Where are the places neglected by the mainstream church.... we ought to find out... and then go.
ideas?