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| With Tears and Prayers and Love |
“What is a Mission Station?” In 1876, William Booth, Founder of The Salvation Army, answered the question this way: “To this I reply that, as I understand it, it is not a building, or a chapel, or a hall; it is not even a society, but a band of people united together to mission, to attack, to christianize an entire town or neighbourhood…draw a line around the breadth of population you can hope to reach, and make that your parish, and aim, with tears and prayers, and the trumpet-blast of the Gospel, to christianize every soul within it.”
In 2011, Commissioner Jim Knaggs, Territorial Commander, is Spirit-led to expand Booth’s vision, culturally, geographically and digitally: “…to attack, to Christianize” an entire cyberspace community – evangelizing beyond the lines. “It presents a pace-setting opportunity for the U.S.A. Western Territory to be on the evangelical cutting edge,” says Knaggs.
Structured Chaos:
Change is a product of innovation. Therefore SAVN.TV should not be seen as a tight, clean, highly structured package, but rather as a very flexible and adaptive work in progress. We are marching into unknown territory to “Open Fire!” Creativity, freedom and flexibility are the order of the day. This attempt at “structured chaos” is but the “beginning” point of something new that is “fluid, mobile, changing and surprising.”
“God’s order is not… the same in every time and place. It is not a matter of repetition and habit. On the contrary, it resides in the fact that it constantly posits something new, a new beginning. Our God is a God of beginnings. There is in him no redundancy or circularity. Thus, if his church wants to be faithful to his revelation, it will be completely mobile, fluid, renascent, bubbling, creative, inventive, adventurous, and imaginative. It will never be perennial, and can never be organized or institutionalized. If the gates of death are not going to prevail against it, this is not because it is a good, solid, well organized fortress, but because it is alive; it is Life that is, as mobile, changing, and surprising as life. If it becomes a powerful fortified organization, it is because death has prevailed.” — Jacques Ellul, The Subversion of Christianity.
Pioneering Spirit
“We never have expected to hit upon that final stable structure. This is important for a church to understand, for when it starts to be the church it will be constantly be adventuring out into places where there are no tried and tested ways. If the church in our day has few prophetic voices above the noise of the street, perhaps in large part it is because the pioneering spirit has become foreign to it. It shows little willingness to explore new ways. Where it does it has often been called an experiment. We would say the church of Christ is never an experiment, but where that church is true to its mission it will be experimenting, pioneering, blazing new paths, seeking how to speak the reconciling words of God to its own age.” It cannot do this if it is held captive by the structures of another day.” (Elizabeth O’Connor…Call to Commitment)
Beginning Phase
In the beginning (1865), The Salvation Army began as a small, compassionate mission station “experimenting, pioneering, blazing new paths, seeking how to speak the reconciling words of God to its own age.” It started small and grew exponentially into the worldwide mission organization it is today.
SAVN.TV represents a “cutting edge” new beginning, likewise “experimenting, pioneering, blazing new paths, seeking how to speak the reconciling words of God to its own age.” The network will be launched in phases, “completely mobile, fluid, renascent, bubbling, creative, inventive, adventurous, and imaginative.” This initial offering is a sampling of what is yet to come, a very flexible and adaptive work in progress. It is “In the beginning…” – under creation – and will expand as “the spirit quickeneth – gives (it) life” (John 6:63).
