Are we on the verge of a crisis?
It was pointed out to me recently that there are fewer and fewer musicians in The Salvation Army than 15 - 20 years ago. It's a complicated scenario, but I would like to suggest one contributing factor to this. I suggest that this is the collateral damage of the Worship Wars. I don't need to describe to you what happened during the 90s in particular when whatever was "old" was considered "bad" and so abandoned for the "new and relevant" worship and mission tools. Part of what has been lost, or is being lost in the vast majority of corps is brass bands. Now, I don't want to open up old wounds, nor "take sides" in a dead debate from last century. That's not my agenda here. I just want to highlight what we lost when we abandoned banding on a large scale in The Army.
2000 2010
One thing that banding did very well for a very long period of time was train younger musicians. Once you hit about the age of 6 or 7 you were either handed a cornet (valued somewhere in the vicinity of $1000 each mind you) if you were a boy (generally) or a timbrel if you were a girl (generally). You joined the "Junior Band" or the "Junior Timbrels" and quite often there was someone to tutor you one on one, particularly in those early days. Is it any wonder when you consider the decades that this process continued for that we churned out some of the best brass musicians in the world (My own grandfather was Australian Champion on the Euphonium at one stage).
When we decided that brass bands were no longer relevant, not only did we discard the band itself, we also discarded this process of developing the next generation. What do the replacements to banding (worship teams) do in its place? Nothing but hope that parents spend $40 - $50 a week for 10 years for their child to "maybe" become good enough on the piano, guitar or drums to get a go in the music team. I have not seen anywhere (yet) where young children are being giving the skills in music that will support worship in The Salvation Army into the future.
This, I believe is just one example of a much bigger problem. You see, one of the fundamental philosophical shifts in the period surrounding the Worship Wars was the belief that if you "got the parents" you would "get the children". We got this dead wrong. Consider these raw statistics from The Salvation Army Year Books from 2000 and 2010 in the Australia Eastern Territory (the weak of stomach may want to turn away at this point).
2000 2010Active Officers 603 520 (-17%)
Senior Soldiers 11,193 8,698 (-23%)
Junior Soldiers 1,397 490 (-65%)
What pool do our Officers come from? From Senior Soldiers of course. And what pool do we gain most of our Senior Soldiers from? From Junior Soldiers. Now if Whitney Houston was correct and the children are our future, it's looking pretty bleak.
What are our options here?
- We need to invest in developing good quality resources for children's ministry - Junior Soldiers, Corps Cadets, Sunday School, Music classes/lessons etc. Call it what you want, but we need these resources now. We need to expand the pool from which our future leaders are fished from. One of my lecturers once said that he thought every Sunday School teacher should have a PhD in theology. Probably a little bit of an overkill, but it does emphasise the importance of this point.
- In the mean time, we need to be taking some serious, albeit calculated, risks. The other reality of the stats above is that the Active Officers are mostly heading towards retirement. In the next 5 - 10 years most of those in senior leadership now will retire. We need to consider more seriously now who we appoint to some of those middle leadership positions in our territory. Years of service are a great addition to the resume but they will become a luxury that only few will have. We will need to look at other credentials when it comes to advancing leaders towards senior positions. They will need experience in those middle leadership positions, but they need to be given it now in order to be ready for when that large number of officers retire.
- Investing in eduction in general will remain critical, and in fact should expand. The worst thing we can do is a knee-jerk, panic ridden reaction. Yes, these stats are scary, but we need to think long term. The 6 and 7 year-olds of today will be our cadets in 15 years time. We need to think of them in that way, and start teaching them accordingly (whilst still being age appropriate, of course). There is no quick fix here, and education must be a major part of the solution.
- Pray!
Clearly this is a complicated situation. I would love your comments on this.
Well said Adam, it wasn't just about the band or the type of music, but it has left us with an identity crisis that few Christian and non Christian people understand. They are asking, why we would do such a thing to ourselves. I too, came to the Salvos because of the ministry of the band and I stayed because of many people who invested in me and the faith I found in Jesus.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post Adam it is certainly food for thought.
ReplyDeleteThe statistics you present tell part of the picture. If we were to open them up to even greater detail (such as detailing the age of the senior soldiers) we would notice that we are missing people within a certain age bracket. A statistically significant number of those people would have young families now with children who would fall in the classification of 'junior'.
I have for a long time believed that we understand the past so that we can change the future. If we acknowledge the reasons for the decline in a generation then we will be half way to finding the solution to our issue. This of course is complex and needs to be approached from various angles. I believe current leadership is addressing the issue and while change is slow, I believe it is happening.
I strongly agree that we need to 'invest in developing good quality resources for children's ministry'. However I think the greatest resource in this area (and perhaps in all areas)is people.
We need good people, dare I say holy people to love our children and spend time with them reading scripture, praying, talking, texting, blogging, jamming, surfing, dancing or hanging out, etc.
I recently heard a young soldier (30+ yrs) speak about discipleship. He spoke with passion and commitment, and to pay him the highest compliment, I would love a guy like this to hang out with my son (AGED 9). Parents can do so much, programs and parties are important too, but I believe the greatest resource we still have is the people (as your mum said). Young men and young women who will lead our children into the future Army. And I believe if future leaders listen, respect and try to understand those younger than they are, giving them guidance & flexibility, choices & feedback then the Army will advance to be what God intends it to be.
You have some very good points here, Adam. We have seen similar 'worship wars' in other denominations in the US and are still experiencing the fallout.
ReplyDeleteOne of the other things we have witnessed with this is a decline of hymn writing. While there are some fantastic worship leaders out there who also write great music (some of it theologically rich), the theological content of your average worship song doesn't come close to that carried by hymnody. As a result, music is serving less as a teaching/confessional tool and more as a method to evoke emotional response. I am afraid we are poorer for this.
There is great value in contemporary worship, and its quite enjoyable, but there is also great value and enjoyment in traditional forms of worship. And as you have pointed out, sometimes there is more to it than just making music.
There is much food for thought about our beloved Army, writing as a 71 year Bandsman who has been associated with Army bands since being a young teenager. The demise of Army bands reflects what I think is a fundamental shift in practical Army theology from being The Salvation Army to being The Worship Army, a separate but parallel shift to that of the style of music. The problem to me is not so much the style of muisc (the Army has always been contemporary) but its theological content. Bands and Songsters were all part of our salvation theology, to go out into the community to proclaim the saving news of Jesus Christ. Now if all I sing are praise and worship songs (even Praise My Soul or How Great Thou Art)it is only the first part of the story as it omits the holiness theology of our holiness songs, the salvation theology of our alvation songs, and the evangelical theology of our call to war songs. There is a full story to be told, not just a part. But with the part, we no longer need our bands and Songsters. We have retreated into our Citadels, refer to ourselves as a Church, not an Army, and we come out for lunch. Our welfare work is no longer an outcome of our salvation but something done by our dedicated officers and paid employees.
ReplyDeleteAs to our youth missing out. I have 3 grandchildren at one Army Corps. No problems with them learning an instrument and getting all their sharps and flats right and becoming good ensemble players - that is part of our family tradition. But there is no-one to teach them how to become Army bandsmen/women. There is no YP band and a struggling Corps band. Similarly at another Army Corps (which has a functioning bannd) , no-one is interested in teaching my 4 grandchildren an instrument or encouraging them to be interested in learning how to become an Army bandsmen/women. I well recall John Cleary at the Parramatta Celebration of Salvation Army Bands (packed hall of over 500 on a Sunday night)telling us that when he came to Brunswick Army as a local kid, the person who encouraged him was a bandsman who was extremely vague about the difference between a sharp and a flat. But he took an interest in John, encouraged him to learn an instrument, took him home for meals, and mentored John into becomong saved, and yes, joing Brunswick Band, and ultimately becoming Bandmaster, and laid a foundation for all John's wider work. That for me is what Army Banding is about.
All I can do is pray and support my bandmaster and songster leader as we engage in our one meeting of the week with each other in our Citadel.
Some really interesting comments here. Thanks. There's a lot to think about and a long way ahead, but it's good t at least talk openly and honestly about the problem in order to seek a solution.
ReplyDeleteInteresting thoughts - my experience is that we always take for granted some of mission strengths and advantages, the uniform/Red Shield being one of them.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to music many are starting to realise what an amazing tool bands and choirs are for socialisation, connection, therapy, team building, leadership development and more.
We started Just Brass 6 years ago to meet a need in the community and discovered by accident that those outside our SA walls actually wanted what we already have - it's not just the power of music but more the fellowship.
I heard it said 'I came for the music but stayed because of the community'
I don't think of our Just Brass teachers as brass teachers or band conductors, they are children's workers building relationships with kids, parents, schools etc
The unique thing about investing into a music program is there is a direct connection to a worshipping congregation where they can be involved unlike doing a basketball program or kids club etc.
Also bands are structured in such a way that leadership roles and trading is almost happening automatically - you have section leaders, deputy leaders etc
Lots more thoughts but enough for here
Thanks John. Likewise in my corps there is a significant opportunity for investing in our youth through music. We run a weekly music academy and have 20+ children each week involved, learning and making good progress, including some from outside the corps community. Last weekend the NZFT held a band academy camp and I understand over 50 youth attended. But what's of more significance is we do it for the Kingdom and the building up of youth.
ReplyDeleteWhat a well written comment. My wife, who has no S A heritage before marrying me still laments the lack of Banding, songster and junior activities as mentioned. That is what attracted her to the Army. Add to that , the number of people I meet in my daily job that mentions that they miss to Sallies on the street with their music. Christmas time is a typical period. I know of some corps ( very few I regret) that still endeavour to train young people in the musical field, but -who has heard
ReplyDeleteof Junior Soldiers, Corps Cadet into days Army.. Your are dead right, the youth of today have nothing to aspire to.
Thank you for making your thoughts public.
The issue is of course is not that The Salvation Army has declined because banding has declined, but that the decline of banding is symptomatic of the decline of The Salvation Army in general, and this decline is because the SA as a whole has lost touch with the community around it. So many factors come into play to explain this, and one of the key reasons is the general decline in membership of all churches in Australia. Also an ageing membership will have a profound impact in the very near future. Another factor that should not be ignored, is that the reputation of the SA has been damaged because of what came out of the recent Royal Commission. These reasons aside, the SA is really suffering in membership because it offered very little to an outsider, even if there was a spark of interest. Through the 60's 70's and 80's the SA relied almost entirely on growth through the existing membership, by expecting to enrol the children of existing SA families. However it is clear that this was not successful, and the decline of membership is evident. Corps closed, corps amalgamated, "large & proud" corps are shadows of their former selves, and even where they appear to be large and successful, the SA should not pretend that they are anything other than a gathering of the last of a few key families in one place in a given Australian city. Now put this together with the fact that corps are not necessarily in the same suburb as where the membership live anymore, and you have a reason behind corps closures.
ReplyDeleteOther key factors that "died in the wool" Salvationists cannot grasp however, is that many members of The Salvation Army either 1: believe in a series of myths that involve leaving the future of The Salvation Army to the whim of superstitious hope. i.e that prayer to a greater being will alone deliver growth, without individuals having to do very much at all to engage with others to build community.
And 2: That the SA is to some people, their own sub-culture, and they have very little interest in doing anything to involve other people who are not from known established SA families participating in, let alone disturbing, their comfortable existence. While all the time saying how welcoming and friendly they are.
These two factors more than anything keep the SA standing still at best, and more likely going backwards, that will see the SA a tiny fraction of its former self in the not too distant future.
I have witnessed this scenario played over and over around the western world, in my discussion with people involved on many levels in The Salvation Army, and have also witnessed people with a lot invested in the SA deny this could ever happen in this evangelical organisation.
So the very insular nature of the organisational culture of The Salvation Army, which rarely can been seen from the inside, but is obvious from the sidelines, is what strangles the progress of the SA most. It has little to do with banding or even what worship songs are sung or how they are accompanied. It does have everything however to do with how current members apply their energy to make appropriate links to people in their surrounding communities.
In general, many Salvationists want nice, clean, middle-class people to join the SA, people like them, but in reality the SA has alway had the task of appealing to people who either have fallen on hard times or need assistance in some way, and opportunities to connect and assist those in the community that could most benefit from the assistance that the SA could offer, get overlooked. If you don’t believe me, then look at key projects that involve people working with The Salvation Army, as either volunteers or members to reach those in most need, and you will see a dynamic SA at work, compared to a dying, limping, defeated SA struggling to to keep a few perceived traditions afloat. There is your difference.
Your last paragraph hits the nail on the head - my thoughts exactly. We are desperately trying to become 'attractive' and relevant to the middle/upper class when our DNA is the submerged tenth.
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