To Battle We Go: Mission Creep
There is an old joke in the military that goes, “The Army has a navy, the Navy has an air force, and the Air Force has an army,” and there is some truth to this. The U.S. Army has had as many as 300 ships afloat. The U.S. Navy has over 4000 aircraft, making it the second largest air force in the world, while the U.S. Marine Corps operates the fifth-largest air force in the world. The actual largest air force in the world, the U.S. Air Force, also has thousands of ground troops.
Sometimes, there is a good reason for one service trying to do another service’s job. For example, flying on and off a moving aircraft carrier is different enough from normal flying to make it necessary for the U.S. Navy to have its own aircraft and pilots. But most of the overlap is “mission creep,” the unnecessary and unwelcome intrusion on another service’s turf because of interservice rivalry and/or a lack of trust in the other services in a combat situation. These forays often don’t end well because each service has its own DNA, a culture rooted in its primary mission, that doesn’t translate well into performing the role of another service. The result is often poor battlefield performance.
If we’re not careful, we in The Salvation Army can creep into the missions of other churches, Christian movements, and charities. When a hot new philanthropic idea is popular with thought leaders or donors, it’s tempting to move into those areas, whether because of rivalry with other organizations or because we think we can do it better than others. But our Army also has a cultural DNA that has developed around its unique mission and role in the Church universal, and often things don’t go so well when we operate outside of that DNA.
What is the cultural DNA of The Salvation Army? Here are a few strands of it:
We “love the unloved,” the so-called bottom rung of society. What we do must serve them and, crucially, must point them to Jesus. We love the middle class and wealthy folks too, but not to worry, there are plenty of churches ministering to them!
We are theologically orthodox but radically welcoming. There are many welcoming churches that, sadly, have jettisoned biblical Christianity, and there are many Bible-believing churches that aren’t very welcoming of folks who don’t act or believe as they do. Our special niche, and the biblical requirement, is to be both.
We have a quasi-military structure. This structure was developed to support our mission, and it’s still the best for what we do. It has evolved over the years, as have the structures of our military services, but weakening our structure, however out of step with modern culture it may seem, will weaken our ministry.
We are, by design, not self-sufficient. We depend on the public to support our mission, which makes us more responsive to the needs of the community and more dependent on God to provide. We have to trust the Lord and our community for support.
Of course, we must evolve with the times and try new things too. But we can’t change our DNA, and we leave our mission lane at our peril. Let our Army be the Army, and let someone else sail the ships and fly the planes!