Salvo Faith Collectives forging new ground
Salvo Faith Collectives forging new ground
15 February 2023
Faith Collectives are a missional, healthy and sustainable way of being The Salvation Army in local communities, according to the NSW/ACT Division.
A new way of being the local Salvation Army, in partnership with other churches and organisations, is taking shape across Sydney, with ‘Faith Collectives’ being led by the Holy Spirit to transform communities.
The new way is being labelled Faith Collectives, but according to Commissioner Miriam Gluyas, who is championing the concept at an upcoming divisional event, it’s not a new ‘strategy’ that’s being rolled out from ‘head office’.
“It didn’t begin with a strategy meeting in the division, but it began with Salvos in their communities who wanted to do things better,” Miriam said.
“Missional, healthy and sustainable. The Faith Collective Project is a project to develop a new approach to corps life in the Army that sustains it locally and then supports it to flourish by establishing it on a culture of multiplying discipleship.”
The Salvation Army in all areas of Sydney is taking a ‘Faith Collective’ journey to work collaboratively with each expression of the Army and other churches and community organisations.
Mark Soper is Mission Leader for Shire Salvos in southern Sydney, leading the way in forming a local Faith Collective.
Shire Salvos in southern Sydney will this month host a Faith Collective workshop for Salvos from across the division to hear about how the process is working in their local area.
Shire Salvos Mission Leader Mark Soper said the key to the Shire’s Faith Collective is ‘Kingdom-thinking’.
“We keep asking ourselves, ‘Is this a Kingdom agenda? What is God doing in this?’” he said, reflecting that the Faith Collective journey for the Shire started several years ago when he was Corps Leader at Menai Salvation Army. Nearby at Miranda Corps, new officers Captains Peter and Rebecca Gott had a saying: “We’re better together,” and because the two corps were located in the same local government area, they started to work together more and more.
“It was a little bit of glorified chaos at times, and a little bit messy,” Mark admits, but eventually finances and congregations merged. Shire Salvos Menai is the home of the gathered worshipping community, and Shire Salvos Miranda is a Community of Hope that provides food relief and other welfare supports to the local community, as well as working collaboratively with several other Salvation Army services on-site.
A key aspect is Shire Salvos’ vision to create a Jesus culture in every Salvation Army space in the local area and to employ a mission leader at every Army location.
“One of the key things that we thought we could do is ensure that across our seven locations, including Salvos Stores, that we would make sure that there is no wrong door for anyone to come to The Salvation Army and be able to find faith, community and love,” said Mark.
“We believe the part that The Salvation Army has to play in the [Sutherland] Shire is actually to enable all of the churches to come together ... we’re not trying to compete with them, we are trying to bless and resource and help connect people to their church and community because it’s about the Kingdom as a whole.”
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