Last week I had the incredible opportunity to spend the week with about 150 of my new friends from the
Salvation Army. What most people don’t realize is that the Salvation Army is a denomination, and their corps are actually churches. Like many who read this blog, the Salvation Army is in the business of evangelizing and making disciples through a local body of believers. They have worship services just like other churches and pastors that they call Officers.
These are amazing people with a deep passion for the church to be all she should be.
As you might imagine, my role with the Army (as they often call it) was working with some of the corps/churches doing small groups. While many of their corps aren’t large, they are extremely effective.
So, how does the work of the Salvation Army play into this blog post? Here’s the deal… About five years ago one of the leaders in the Salvation Army recruited
Steve Gladen from
Saddleback Church to help the Army move into small groups. Since that time, more and more corps/churches have begun doing groups. How many of those are growing? 100% of them are growing. You heard me right. This new movement in the Salvation Army is just more proof that God is using small groups to not only bring people into an eternal relationship with Jesus, to make disciples, but also to grow churches numerically.
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