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Five Western delegates attend
Five Western Territory delegates recently traveled to Washington, D.C. for the Cross Connections Discipleship Forum, sponsored by The Salvation Army’s National Capital and Virginia Division and focusing on the idea that “Salvationism is discipleship.”
Major Barbara Blix (Cascade Division), Captain Moy Hernandez (Southern California Division), Cindy Crowell (Cascade Division), Carl Darby (Territorial Headquarters), and Sabrina Tumey (Cascade Division) participated in the united teaching sessions, discipleship tracks, keynote sessions and personal times of reflections. The six discipleship tracks were New Believers, Cultural Approaches, Children, Youth and Young Adults, Models of Discipleship and Decisive Discipleship at the Divisional Level.
Keynote speaker Commissioner Linda Bond (Secretary for Spiritual Life Development and International External Relations) shared from her experience the following truths about discipleship:
We must be convinced of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ…only he is Savior and Lord. We cannot trade him down with other faiths.
• Worship is discipleship; they go together. We need contrition and forgiveness. The mercy seat and songbook can assist in this.
• Nurturing is a must, as seen in the Acts 2 Church and in Colossians 3. Accountability, teaching God’s word,
doctrines of The Salvation Army, theology, etc., all contribute to the training, development, and deployment of leaders.
• The holiness doctrine needs re-visiting. Trust and obedience are given by the Holy Spirit.
• Discipleship needs to be filled out with the mission identity of The Salvation Army of saving souls,
training saints, and serving suffering humanity.
“I especially identified with Commissioner Bond when she said we need to get back in touch with Salvationism,” said Crowell, divisional program specialist in the Cascade Division.
Captain Hernandez, Burbank corps officer, said he was again convicted of the importance of not only living life solely for Christ and putting his private life in order but also helping those under his leadership accomplish the same—through the process of discipleship.
“For so long we have believed the myths that tell us Christian growth will simply happen by believers attending church,” Hernandez said. “But the reality is that without intentional development and close fellowship of believers true spiritual maturity cannot be obtained.
“I long to see a great revival in our Army and I know that it must first begin in each of our lives. I believe the discipleship process can help this along” he said.
“Delegates who attended from the four territories may not be able to disciple the whole world,” said Tumey. “But we can, as an old Salvation Army chorus claims, ‘Brighten the corner where (we) are!’ May a revival of discipleship begin and may it begin with me!”
