What's a Salvation Meeting for?

In our territory there is a push to bring back the Salvation Meeting. It's even going so far as to require it happen on a Sunday. I'll get really nervous if it ever comes back to the requirement of a 7:00 PM starting time. This is nothing short of a legalistic attempt to make our Army "what it used to be." I have two problems with that:

1) If we want to make our Army "what it used to be," then we need to go back further in time to our beginnings when we were really growing and winning the world for Jesus. It's not good enough to go back 10-20 years, when if you look at the stats, we were losing ground. Dying a slow death isn't what our Army's about. Frankly, most soldier's memory of the "good ol' Army" isn't old enough!

2) A living organism is not supposed to stay the same. It should grow and change. I am certainly glad I have changed since birth! Change can be good as long as we continue to focus on our purpose- winning the world for Jesus. And finding new ways to reach those around us. The Booths were known for quickly trying new things and then dropping them as quickly if they didn't work to make new converts.

In medical terms, germs build up an immunity to certain medicines, so new ones need to be developed. We can't keep using old medicines if they are no longer working on the disease! So too, people have developed an immunity to many of the church's methods. If we expect to win people to our Savior in our day, we better get busy discovering new ways to do it.

When was the last time you remember someone actually getting saved at a salvation meeting? If you're about to tell me about the 1 person you know in your lifetime, then save your breath, because that's a poor record! We should be doing things that have a better success rate. So if our "old" 10-20 year old salvation meetings weren't getting people saved (as is seen by our lack of growth then), they should be dropped to make way for new things that will get people saved.

The real question should be, "What are we doing to get people saved today?" Are we getting people saved today? If not, then resurrecting an old meeting isn't going to make a bit of a difference. In fact, it might just do more damage, because we begin to think we're actually accomplishing something when we're not.