In an age of customer loyalty cards and rewards programs, have we lost the meaning of membership?

Why should we become members of The Salvation Army? What advantage is it to us?” The first time I heard these questions in a soldiership class, I was shocked. Not so much by the question as by who had asked it.

You might think it was spoken by young people finding their way forward, trying to sort out values and direction in life. Not this time. It was a man in his early 80s who, with his wife, had come to The Salvation Army from another church. As part of entering into our fellowship, they signed up for soldiers’ classes to learn more about the Army and to consider becoming members.

Now they wondered what advantage it would be to them. It seemed obvious that they viewed the issue of soldiership as one of benefit. I thought of the advertising slogan for American Express: “Membership has its privileges.” Is that what this is about? The issue of privilege versus pledge bounced about in my mind.

The neighbourhood of that particular corps was not dissimilar to other communities in which The Salvation Army finds itself. There were homes of great need and those of great privilege. The building sat on a major thoroughfare and thousands of people passed us each day. Did they see us, I wondered, as adding value to their community? Like any corps officer, I wanted to “save souls, grow saints and serve suffering humanity,” as General John Gowans so eloquently put it. But did the community want to be part of that effort? Who would join us?

In a day when we are encouraged to carry membership cards for big-box stores and buy into company rewards programs, I wonder if we are membership saturated. And is membership really the road to discipleship? That seems to be one of the questions we are struggling with.

At a recent church planting conference in Ottawa, Ed Stetzer, director of the American-based Center for Missional Research, revealed raw data showing that while the North American population has tripled since the end of the Second World War, the number of those attending church has remained relatively flat. In real terms, we’ve shrunk.

Alan Hirsch, author of The Forgotten Ways: Re-activating the Missional Church, suggests that by adding value to a community, the church will find a voice. Do we truly desire to add value to people’s lives? Or are we more interested in adding value to our corps by putting more names on a roll? For some time I’ve wondered if our motives, though good, have been misunderstood, even by ourselves. We want our corps to grow but sometimes we send the wrong message to those who are new to our fellowship-that we are happier about our increased numbers than we are about their spiritual health.

What does it look like to focus on the spiritual health of those in our neighbourhoods? Can we envision ourselves being in the community in places where non-believers are already finding friendship and belonging,such as the local bowling alley or coffee shop? Could our egos set aside the chase of greater numbers for deeper involvement in the places where God has put people? What would happen to an Army that re-deployed its troops to the place of battle rather than the place of safety? Soldiership implies active participation, but what percentage of our soldiers are only passively engaged?

For me, soldiership and membership are separated by the simple act of covenant. Covenant is about giving oneself; membership is about gaining for oneself. Covenant implies a belief in something greater than oneself; membership implies a time of belonging that will one day come to an end. Covenant requires that I am prepared to place the mission as priority; membership implies that I expect to be considered a priority.

Perhaps if our soldiers saw membership in line with covenant, they would seek more than just membership. They would know that the question is not “What advantage is it for us?” but rather “How might my life make a difference?”

by Major Fred Waters, Area Commander, Prairie North, Prairie and Northern Territories Division