When a small idea becomes a book
In January 2019, I met Professor Christophe Chalamet from Geneva University to discuss the first ideas for my Master’s thesis in Systematic Theology. As a Salvation Army officer, I was convinced that Salvationist ecclesiology should be the focus of this research. Professor Chalamet came up with the idea to create a theological dialogue between the Salvation Army and the renowned Lutheran Theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg (1928 – 2014). This was the start of a fascinating journey.
An award-winning academic research
My research was awarded the Chenevière Munier Prize by the Theological Seminar of Geneva University in 2022.
What is the mission of the Church?
In a few words:
Concerning the mission of the Church, three aspects have been identified: Worshipping God, Living together, and Serving the world. Each aspect contains of at least two different facets, as figure 5 shows. The three aspects are omnipresent in recent Salvation Army publications, although not with these exact terms et not always in that order. The wording chosen in this work is personal and may be, of course, debated. Servants Together is the book where these three aspects of mission appear the most clearly. This observation is of the highest importance because it demonstrates a widening in the self-understanding of the Salvation Army and aligns the Army with a biblical vision of the Church. In no way, the formulation of these three pillars of mission withdraws the Army from its historical mission. Serving the world is still there, but now more clearly flanked with Worshipping God and Living together. A visual representation of the historical mission statements of the Salvation Army, including the statements of the present thesis, illustrates the evolution.
Interestingly, the three pillars of mission are also very present in the papers of the World Coucil of Churches examined in this work, even if the words and order might be different. Furthermore, the three aspects of mission are mentioned and developed in the Anglican Church, in the book Mission-shaped Church, where they are described with the three prepositions UP, IN, OUT. Mission-shaped Church infers UP, IN, and OUT from the four marks of the Church. However, it is easy to parallel the three prepositions to the threefold mission presented here: UP concerns Worshipping God, IN concerns Living together, OUT concerns Serving the world. Moynagh and Harrold also use UP, IN, and OUT in their work Church for every context. Instead of inferring the mission of the Church from the marks of the Church, I contend that the three pillars could also reflect a trinitarian view of mission. Worshipping God alludes to God the Father, Living together alludes to God the Holy Spirit, Serving the world alludes to God the Son.
A visual representation of the mission of The Salvation Army
This figure shows the mission of the Salvation Army as a Venn Diagram.
Dangers for the future church
Three dangers must be avoided:
- to be only a ritual gathering (Worshipping God),
- to be only a self-centered community (Living together),
- to be only an evangelization unit or a welfare society (Serving the world).
The Church of the future must contain the three dimensions of mission.
Jean-Marc Flückiger 