Living out our new vision statement the aim of national campaign
Living out our new vision statement the aim of national campaign
12 October 2017
Salvationists across Australia are invited to explore how the new vision statement would be lived out in their local community.
Exploring what The Salvation Army’s new National Vision Statement looks like in the life of an everyday salvationist, corps, centre and social program is at the heart of the “Living our Vision” campaign, launched today.
The campaign, which involves workshops across Australia, gives Salvos the opportunity to explore what the new national vision statement could look like in their local community.
The process of creating a new vision statement began in 2016 and involved input from Salvos across the nation.
“Following the 100 Days of Unceasing Prayer initiative, and a subsequent 100 Days of Shared Scripture, over 2500 Salvos opened their hearts, minds and voices to collaborate in a divinely-led project to discover and articulate our National Vision Statement,” said National Commander, Commissioner Floyd Tidd.
“The new National Vision Statement for The Salvation Army in Australia is not the vision of current leadership alone but a shared vision with all Australian Salvos. A vision we believe God has cast for his Army today and has already been embraced by many across the nation.”
In September, 35 people from every division and region of The Salvation Army in Australia participated in a training weekend, equipping them to facilitate “Leading Our Vision” workshops for local leaders in their divisions. Local leaders will be equipped and prepared to then run a “Living our Vision” workshop in their corps or social program.
“I was delighted to see a real and dynamic excitement as people began to unpack what the national vision means and how it is and can be further expressed in their local settings,” Commissioner Tidd said.
“We are seeing a growing anticipation that as the Army in Australia unites under one banner and each person identifies and commits to locally ‘living our vision’, God will accomplish a new thing in and through The Salvation Army, and we will see people live, love and fight alongside others to transform Australia one life at a time.”
Read another article on the National Vision Statement.
For more information or if you have any questions relating to the Living Our Vision campaign, please go to the Australia One website at australiaone.info. You can also email australiaone@aue.salvationarmy.org or australiaone@aus.salvationarmy.org.
Comments
Having read the vision statement and given it some thought I have the following questions:
Is this statement sufficient to inspire the kind of conviction that creates strong religious communities and impels people to commit their time and other resources to a distinctively Christian regime of witness and obedience in the company of other believers?
Does such a vision provide our people plausibility or a meaningful and compelling faith that is orthodox, Christian and congruent with Australian culture?
How does this vision provide an organizing principle, a confessional centre informed by a biblical-theological core?
Where is Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross as the primary determinant that is supposed to shape the character of the Christian community’s mission in the world, as the body of Christ?
In my opinion thos statement implies that The Salvation Army changes lives. I believe that God changes lives. The Salvos are certainly a great vessel that God uses to transform lives.
Thinking further about the Territory's vision statement. It seems to me that the statement reduces salvation and mission to social justice by means of a social gospel at the expense of the incarnation of Jesus Christ as the event that brings about the salvation of the world and establishes the mission of the Church, or in this case The Salvation Army. Such reductionism needs to be confronted by the person and work of Jesus as both the content and criterion of the Army's witness. For the Army to be and to become Christ's faithful witness will require repentance and conversion.