The new year holds great promise for the direction of the Southern
Territory. The territorial mission - answering God's call to make radical
followers of Jesus Christ who love inclusively, serve helpfully and disciple
effectively in the communities where they live - 
remains the same. However,
Commissioners Max and Lennie Feener have envisioned the territory with a fresh
focus and new priorities for accomplishing the mission.
Commissioner Feener said the way forward is to "Lift Jesus
Higher." This is the focus under which all four territorial priorities
will be emphasized. Those priorities, birthed out of the Feeners'
experience as corps officers, are "priorities that Lennie and I felt were
key to Kingdom and corps growth," he said. They are Effective Prayer,
Visitation, Sunday School / Discipleship and Dynamic Worship.
To lead each division in effectively implementing these priorities
in every corps, a group of THQ employees and officers, known as T.R.A.I.N
(Teach - Resource - Achieve - Inform - Nurture), is being assembled to conduct
teaching institutes on the four priorities in each division (See related
story). With T.R.A.I.N and institutes as a resource, divisions will be better
able to equip corps and, thereby, empower officers and soldiers to extend the
Great Commission. The result will be that people are attracted to Jesus as He
promised, "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people
to myself" (John 12:32).
...if my people who are called by my name will
humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I
will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. 2
Chronicles 7:14 NLT
The Bible makes it clear
that effective prayer is vital to the Christian's nourishment, 
growth and
development as an effective soldier of Jesus Christ. The surest way to build
God's Kingdom is to seek God's will and His direction. The only way to
do that is through a prayer life that is both regular in occurrence and
heartfelt in practice. It takes discipline to pray effectively, and God will
ultimately reveal what great things He will accomplish as we patiently and
faithfully wait to communicate with Him.
Resourcing the Field:
1. Prayer Partners - Calling the territory to prayer, Commissioner
Feener will supply prayer topics that fuel the Prayer Partners program, which
will be integrated with the existing Prayer Warriors program and will be
launched during the 24/7 Prayer Campaign Kickoff in June 2007.
2.
TEC-Corps / Divisional Prayer Meetings - Each division is encouraged to conduct
regional concerts of prayer. Groups of corps will gather together to launch
concerted efforts toward corporate prayer.
3. TEC Hour of
Prayer - The Territorial Executive Committee is being challenged to devote one
hour of prayer each week for the needs of the territory and divisions.
4. Officer South Prayer Focus / Reports on Answered Prayer - In
his newsletter, Commissioner Feener plans to share prayer requests and answers
to prayer as they are communicated to him from each division.
5. Southern Spirit Focus on Prayer - The Southern Spirit will
regularly feature articles on testimonies of answered prayer and will also
print prayer requests from the 24/7 prayer vigil.
6.
T.R.A.I.N's Resources - T.R.A.I.N has been established to conduct prayer
institutes in divisions so that effective prayer can be taught and
practiced.
7. 24/7 Prayer Campaign Kickoff - Beginning with
the June 2007 commissioning, the 24/7 Prayer Campaign will be a concerted
effort to cover the territory in prayer all day, every day for the June
2007-June 2008 year. Corps, ARCs, DHQs and all territorial institutions will be
asked to adopt certain days on which to pray so that the Southern Territory is
praying 365 days of the year leading up to the Holiness Congress in 2008.
8. World Evangelization Database - Set up by IHQ, this database is
accessible to all Salvation Army personnel in any country connected with Lotus
Notes. It communicates up-to-date prayer requests and praise reports from Army
entities across the globe.
Other Suggestions:
At the discretion of each corps, additional means of carrying out
effective prayer are:
- Intentional tracking of specific
prayer requests for the corps body as a whole with a focus on consistency and
answered prayer
- Southern Spirit providing monthly book
reviews and articles on prayer
- Powerful prayer visuals
with written prayers on signs, art work, bulletin boards - anything that is
eye-catching
- Prayer meetings that are conducted with
simplicity, focusing on prayer only instead of socializing, and that use
"praying the Word" topics to focus the meeting
-
The Lord's Prayer modern-day application studies
- Corps
all-night prayer vigils
- Spending personal time in prayer
to enhance your individual prayer life
- Establishing a
prayer ministry to challenge others to pray together consistently
- Gathering a leadership team to take time for prayer in
leadership meetings
- Inviting soldiers and Christians in
your community to pray for corps mission and ministry
-
Forming small groups that make prayer a vital part of each meeting
- Praying specifically for each corps event or outreach, and
praying for specific people involved in various corps programs
- Creatively praying with fervency and consistency
-
Conducting prayer warfare events in urban corps
...He calls His own sheep by
name and leads them out. When He sets them all out, He leads them and they
follow because they are familiar with His voice. John 10:3 (The
Message)
The essence of
visitation is to leave the confines of our corps buildings to venture into
neighborhoods and
communities where many live who would not otherwise darken our corps doors.
Visitation also fosters the constant shepherding of church members by
demonstrating love for them in times of sickness and hardship. It is actually
extending the gospel outward to those who need it most. When best used,
visitation can be the single most effective tool in growing a
church.
Resourcing the
Field:
1. Corps Officer
Pastoral Visitation / Shepherding - This territorial focus encourages corps
officers to re-discover their pastoral responsibility to visit soldiers and
members of their corps.
2. Soldier Visitation Program called Feet on the Street - This
program, aimed at challenging soldiers to do community outreach, was developed
by Major Bette Jo McDonald. The curriculum can be obtained through the
Evangelism/Adult Ministries Department.
3. Occasional Worshipers Visitation - Contacting people
who irregularly attend the corps can be an effective way for officers and
soldiers to conduct visitation.
4. Constituent Families Visitation - Many people come into a corps for
services or programs such as a social services need, holiday program or
community club. Keeping accurate records on individuals who come to the corps
can expand the field of visitation.
5. Seminar Training - These inner-city training seminars
will help re-engage corps with their neighborhoods so that outreaches meet the
current needs of residents in changing communities.
Other Suggestions:
- Organizing care groups of three to five people allows
care group leaders to make a different type of contact with care group members
each week.
- Providing
opportunities for people to be involved according to their gifts (prayer,
telephone calls, soul-winning visits, etc.)
- PIE Night (People in Evangelism): delivering dessert
to families and inviting them to the corps or to special events
- Bakers for Men: following up with
newcomers by enlisting people to deliver baked goods to them, thanking them for
their attendance, answering questions they may have and building
friendships
- Grow:
rotating visitation into four groups so that each group does visitation one
week of the month
-
Literature visits: canvassing a neighborhood and distributing door hangers and
other information about the corps
- Visitation blitz: contacting a large amount of people in a short
amount of time, allowing as many soldiers as possible to be involved in
one-time visits
- Seven
stations of outreach: prospect visits, absentee visits, letter writing,
telephone contacts, prayer, pastoral care and discipleship
Suffer
the little children to come unto me and forbid them not: for of such is the
kingdom of God. Mark 10:14 (KJV)
Study the Book of the Law continually. Meditate
on it day and night so you may be sure to obey all that is written in it. Only
then will you succeed. Joshua 1:8 (NLT)
Sunday school classes provide structured instruction to
Christians of all ages, teaching the vital importance of Scripture to our
children, teens and adults in an effort to disciple them in their Christian
walk. It is one place where disciples of all ages can be taught the doctrine of
holiness, enter into the experience, and be guided in the process of becoming
more like Jesus through regular Bible study and personal spiritual
accountability.
Resourcing
the Field:
1. Sunday
School / Discipleship Conference - Special guest Charles Lake of New Church
Specialties will be the main speaker for the discipleship track, and
organizations such as Word Action and Walk Thru the Bible will conduct seminars
on Sunday School at this June 2007 conference.
2. Home Company (SQUADS) - This new format for Sunday
school can be conducted in a person's home any day of the week. Using the
same curriculum that would be taught in a traditional Sunday school class,
SQUADS is being developed by the territorial Youth Department.
3. Cell Based Bible Study - These
small groups can meet anywhere to encourage Bible-based
discipleship.
4. Sunday
School Teacher Day of Renewal - Honors and recognizes Sunday school teachers
for their service in discipleship
5. Promotion of Sunday School by Youth Department - The Youth
Department will develop materials to draw awareness to Word Action curriculum,
including Sunday morning, SonDAYSchool, Alpha and Home Company
(SQUADS).
6. Southern
Spirit Quarterly Articles - Southern Spirit will feature four articles
illustrating Sunday school and discipleship methods, classes and teachers that
reflect the territorial mission.
7. Promote Churches at Home - The Multicultural Department will
continue to train corps about how to establish this integral growth program.
8. Regular Sunday
School Attendance - Corps officers will be instructed to encourage and model
the importance of attending Sunday school on a consistent basis.
* All eight of the preceding field resources
have the same objectives:
- To be doctrinally sound with materials evaluated
regularly and teachers training emphasized
- To be mission driven, thereby effectively
demonstrating the mission statement
- To be Salvation Army distinctive, emphasizing the
importance of ceremonies, sacraments and uniforms.
O come, let us worship and bow down: let us
kneel before the Lord our maker. For He is our God. Psalm 95:6-7a
(KJV)
Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool; He is
holy. Psalm 99:5 (NIV)
As God desires
our worship, people have an innate need to worship. Our lives are enriched when
we worship, and we are better able to deal with the difficulties and tragedies
of life when we connect with God in a meaningful and dynamic exercise of
praise, adoration and thanksgiving. 
Worship is as central to spiritual
health as breathing is vital for our physical existence. Worship is the breath
of God, available to us to draw into our soul's lungs for a full measure of
Christian growth. We are to be participants as we worship. Worship is not for
spectators.
Resourcing
the Field:
1. Define
and Develop Worship Leaders - As a component of T.R.A.I.N, training institutes
will contain a worship track and will be conducted at the divisional
level.
2. Development of
Corps Worship Committees - Resourced by THQ and T.R.A.I.N team members, corps
committees will meet a minimum of once a month to plan themes, special music,
drama and Scripture presentations for upcoming services.
3. Planning - Word and Worship study
guides will continue to be resources for worship leaders.
4. Preaching for a Verdict - Part of
the teaching in the worship institute, this call reminds officers to deliver
sermons that enlist listeners to make a committed decision.
5. Music and Gospel Arts - These
resources - band and songster publications, worship recordings produced by
transMission and the encouragement of drama and dance - will strengthen
traditional and alternative ways to present the gospel and worship the
Lord.
6. Appeal / Mercy
Seat - Officers will gain training about leading prayer and invitation at the
conclusion of a service.
7. Holiness Meetings (A Non-Negotiable) - Corps are resourced to
conduct weekly holiness meetings, not necessarily on Sundays.
8. Leading Cadet Body in Worship
Services - Specific resources will be provided for the cadets' worship
enrichment.
Territorial T.R.A.I.N
resources divisions to advance the mission
By Brooke
Turbyfill
SOUTHERN SPIRIT STAFF
To make
radical disciples, it takes a corporate commitment to "lift Jesus
higher" in every division, every corps. It's a joint effort. However,
because divisions juggle multiple responsibilities, the joy of the mission can
sometimes get shuffled under a heap of tasks and meetings. That's why
territorial headquarters has developed a group called T.R.A.I.N - to resource
each division with tools that can be passed along to every corps in the
territory.
T.R.A.I.N
stands for Teach - Resource - Achieve - Inform - Nurture. This group of
officers and employees from THQ has developed an institute containing four
modules in alignment with the four priorities: Effective Prayer, Visitation,
Sunday School/Discipleship and Dynamic Worship. Under each of the four
priorities, a list of field resources describes the kind of content that will
be discussed in each teaching module. Divisions can request teaching on any one
of the modules, or on all four, as part of an already-existing event - such as
family camp, officers councils or concerts of prayer. All teaching is provided
at no cost to the divisions.
Lt. Colonel Charles White, territorial program secretary, said,
"This is one more way to accomplish the mission. Soldiers will be trained;
equipped to fulfill the mission;
affirmed in their skills, roles and
spiritual gifts; and ultimately, multiplied to enroll soldiers to join the Army
and the Kingdom."
Each module of teaching can be tailored to fit the time constraints of
that divisional event, and the institute is structured so that a division can
receive just some of the teaching or all of it. White emphasized the
significance that T.R.A.I.N holds for equipping Salvationists in the South. It
is not meant to be another add-on, he said, but is to be seen as "a wealth
of resources" for discipleship and growth.
White used the analogy of how best to meet the needs of
a hungry man - giving him a fish or teaching him to fish. The latter approach
is what T.R.A.I.N has been established to do. "What we hope is that each
division will develop their own T.R.A.I.N. THQ is available to provide
resources for them to go into local corps and teach."
To inquire about a T.R.A.I.N
representative coming to your division, contact White at (404)
728-1340.