I know you must be asking the question as to why I am blogging here again. The answer is simple. Even working ‘in exile’ from The Army, the whole of my spiritual make up, background, theology and spiritual DNA is Salvo flavoured. I still preach like a Salvo, pray like a Salvo, mission like a Salvo…still ‘defined’, even in my current role as ‘Salvo’. As in, ‘This is Andrew Clark from The Salvation Army working with us here at Trinity’. I don’t correct them, to be honest.

There are still many aspects of institutional SA that are less than inspiring or attractive – I am not forgetting that at all. I have no rose tinted spectacles and was never under any illusion that the grass would be greener anywhere else. You may know that it was never our intention to leave, we planned to stay at Torry as bi-vocational soldiers until it became clear that it wasn’t going to financially possible for us to stay in the light of a few Army decisions and we had to move for work in the end.

This ‘exile’ may be permanent. The call might be to make my home ‘out here’ in the wider church. The call might be to come back and take my place on the field. What is certain though is that whatever the future holds, it is the Lord God who must be the one who gives the command. We are in no doubt that we are following where he is leading. He often reveals just glimpses of his sheer competency to work out his will in spite of the odds. We simply want to be at the centre of his will for us wherever that is and in whatever way he wants us to serve him.

The Army at it’s best is a Jesus centred movement. Salvation, holiness and mission fused together with a passion for Jesus. These are the things that are essentially Salvo that no one in their right mind walks away from. As for covenant and calling, the Lord has that in his grasp.