Soldiers of the Lord!

On holiday recently I was reading ‘Red Cloud’ – his story. ‘Red Cloud’ was a Native American (Indian) who in the mid 1880’s led a large band of warriors from many different tribes in battles against the ever encroaching ‘white man and his ways.’  It was in many ways the last throw of the dice and ‘Red Cloud’ himself ended his days living as a ‘white man’ accepting the inevitable.

In the story ‘Red Cloud’ battles in particular against Colonel Carrington who had been dispatched to guard the top end of the Bozeman Trail just south of Montana. His first task was to build a fort. To establish the Garrison Carrington needed three principal things. He needed a ready supply of new recruits, a good strong cohort of active soldiers and an infirmary for the wounded and the

dying.  Naturally being in such a far flung place none of the first two were in regular supply whilst the third, the infirmary continued to expand as more soldiers were wounded and fell victim to battles and skirmishes to say nothing of the privations of frontier life in the mid 19^th century. 

So, what happens if we translate this idea to a regular parish church?

Could we not ask and ascertain what our strengths are, how many recruits are coming on through, how many active soldiers do we have that we can call upon and how many are in the infirmary?

If our churches have rather full infirmaries, does this not tell us that what we are able to achieve as a Garrison is going to be limited? 

Therefore, no matter the quality of the Garrison Commander, unless he/she has the active soldiers to engage in battle, their effectiveness will be limited.

What is the answer? Well, certainly one way is to draft in a new cohort of active soldiers. In Brighton we have seen this work to good effect at an HTB Church plant developed first out of St Peter’s in the centre of Brighton and who have recently sent another cohort of troops to Whitehawk. (Although sources tell me that Whitehawk are struggling a tad without a strong Garrison Commander.) 

One of the reasons why the Native Americans were eventually beaten back was because they were fighting with bows and arrows against ever developing Spencer rifles, ‘the guns that shoot twice.’

Some of the Old Guard, some of those in our infirmaries, who do need loving and caring for, can find change to new ways of doing things difficult to accept.

In some ways we need to grow up alongside the infirmary new ways of being church that are more adaptable and better suited to 21^st century culture.

However there are stories told of a completely different and unexpected outcome. Such is the story of the Tube Station in Cornwall. Here a very small group (of mainly ladies) embarked upon a journey that would lead to the total transformation of their little Methodist Chapel to become a Surfer Café and Church, a real Fresh Expression of Church.

All models and analogies begin to break down at some point and this Garrison analogy is no exception.

However as it stands, it might help to give an insight in the very practical reasons why church growth may be difficult.  There may well be too many people in the infirmary who need loving care and not enough active soldiers and too few recruits coming through. 

To move from soldiers to farmers and to recall Jesus’ words…

“The harvest truly is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.”