The Salvation Army Essay, Research Paper

Thank God for the Salvos

The Salvation Army is an organization which devotes itself to people who have been disadvantaged in todays society. Their mission statement of then Salvation Army is “To provide assistance and resources to the Salvation Army in order that the Salvation Army is able to establish and maintain an internet presence. All this is done in order to further Glorify God and to bring the unsaved to Jesus Christ”

History of the Salvation Army

In July 1865 a man named William Booth spoke to the small amount of people gathered on a hot day in the slums of London. This was the prospects of an army. Thirteen years later, that same person had attracted a band of fighters that, with the stroke of a pen, became an army.

Today, the Salvation Army is known all over the world. Its religious and social service activities have given hope to millions of men and women in more than 96 nations.

William Booth brought together The Salvation Army. He started his ministerial career in 1852 but that was never what he had really wanted to do in life. W. Booth was a great man who wanted to make a difference.

The leaders of the church disagreed with Booths prospects. They preferred traditional methods, so as a result, he withdrew. His wife Catherine and he traveled throughout England conducting meetings.

In 1865, William Booth was invited to hold a series of evangelistic meetings in the East End of London. He began in July in a tent set up in a Quaker graveyard. These meetings were greatly successful and proved to be a proper beginning. They ended his wanderings as an itinerant evangelist, and began his career and renown as the leader of a group of dedicated people to fight for under-privileged men and women.

In Booth’s congregation there were prostitutes, criminals, gamblers, and drunks. He told stories of hope and salvation. His aim was to lead them to Christ so he could lead them to a church for further spiritual help. They were converted but the churches did not want them. Booth didn t desert them, he put them to work to save others like themselves. They preached, marched, and sang in the streets, a living testimony to the power of God.

Later on, in 1867 Booth had 10 full-time workers and by 1874 he had 1,000 volunteers and 42 evangelists. Back then they served under the name “The Christian Mission” and they carried its banner out of the East End of London into neighboring areas and then to other cities. With their hopeful spirits, the volunteers had almost become like an army. They hailed their leader as “General,” a shortening of his title of General Superintendent. They called themselves “The Hallelujah Army.”

In 1878 “General” Booth was reading a printer’s proof of an annual report that stated, “The Christian Mission under the superintendence of the Rev. William Booth is a volunteer Army.” Booth crossed out the words “volunteer Army” and penned in “Salvation Army.” In August of that year the Foundation Deed of The Salvation Army was adopted.

That was how the name Salvation Army came about. It has stuck until today.

The Salvo s Down Under

The Salvation Army came to Australia when two Christian mission converts met in the Pirie Street Wesleyan church in Adelaide and decided to continue Salvation Army activities by holding an open meeting in the Botanic Park there in September 1880. They wrote to William Booth requesting officer leadership and when the first officers, Captain and Mrs Thomas Sutherland, arrived in February 1881 they were met by an enthusiastic group of “home grown Aussie” Salvationists.

One year later while still in his twenties, James Barker was appointed Commander of the Salvation Army in all the colonies of the southern seas . He and his wife Alice Barker arrived that year.

Since then a network of 800 Salvation Army centres caring for spiritual and social welfare has been established.

Their Purpose

The Salvation Army’s purpose is to advance the cause of Jesus Christ in the world on two levels: Spiritual and Social. Salvationists all share the beliefs of most mainline Christian Churches.

There are 1,350 officers, 34,000 lay people and a total of 500 Corps (Church) worship meetings throughout Australia. Anyone can attend meetings such as these.

It seeks to advance the future of persons by building stronger character, encouraging Christian values, training in the Christian lifestyle, promoting emotional health and stimulating creative abilities.

In its Social Ministry, The Salvation Army engages in emergency assistance and rehabilitation.

The Salvos help People such as:

+ Poor

+ Addicts

+ Homeless

+ Finding Missing Persons

+ General assistance to those in need

These are just a few of the things that the Salvation Army participates in.

Emergency assistance is the ministry of helping persons who are in immediate crisis in such a way as to stabilise their lives and provide a better foundation for a hopeful future developing coping skills and strengthening their ways to live on their own.

I chose the Salvation Army because I see what they do as a very admirable thing. It is not the traditional way that the church helps people so I see it as a good thing because its not only helping Christians, but helping anyone and everyone. The shield is well renown and whenever a Salvationist knocks on my door I try to support them by making a small donation because if I was as deprived as some people that they help I d like to know there are people willing to help.

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