testimonies

Testimony is an old-fashioned word in some respects. I daresay there are those that think of it as a legal term, and have never considered its use elsewhere; but the action has never really gone out of fashion - as anyone who has ever tried to sell anything will know! There's really nothing more effective than somebody standing up and saying how greatly improved their life has been, since they acquired or began using this or that...

And so it is in a religious, faith context - and the best part of that is, most people who testify the effectiveness of their faith, or of God or one of the persons of God or their relationship with him, don't even realise they're doing it! Songs and hymns are perhaps the most obvious means of such unconscious testimony; but some churches also use more conscious, deliberate testimony to help 'sell' their goods. As far as I can gather, this also used to be more fashionable, and is now largely the preserve of some of, what in the UK might be thought of as the more obscure and probably American-inspired (because for some reason, lots of people think that anything wierd and religious must be American-inspired), denominations and traditions - and everywhere, the Salvation Army!

For years, I struggled to fit myself into other churches and occasionally eyed the Salvation Army from afar, secretly wishing I might be accepted there despite all that I am, should I ever find the courage to transfer my allegiance. There's just so much about Salvation Army worship styles that I feel I can readily identify with - it just presses the right buttons for me. Okay, so there's no sacraments - not even the quarterly communion tradition that I was raised with, in the Church of Scotland - but for me, the whole bread and wine ritual was always a bit of a mystery too far anyway: I mean, why do it like that? The bible quotes Jesus as having said, "do this each time you eat or drink," or words to that effect - not just when you happen to be celebrating something the church calls communion; so is it not better to remember Jesus and his sacrifice every time you put something into your mouth, as opposed to concentrating the memory into a weekly (or whatever frequency) ritual? Though I'd be the first to admit that, try as I might, I don't often achieve that...

'Army worship leaders also tend to make much more of the actual words of songs being sung, than any other Christian church I've come across. To me, this is important, because otherwise, you soon fall into doing things without thinking about them - especially if like me, you're not especially good at singing and thinking about what you're singing - at the same time! They'll often read words, or have others read words and therefore highlight them before they invite you to actually join in the singing of them - so that by the time you do so, you're fully conscious of the words passing through your lips, and what they mean - both to yourself, and potentially to others in earshot - and to me, that's really important as true worship is not passive!

Each to their own, but personally, I think a lot of churches in what the English might call the reformed traditions, fall into this trap of allowing worshippers to be too passive. Indeed, I'd also go as far as say that churches of the Anglican & Roman Catholic traditions are even worse in this respect - with their worship services often taking place in beautiful, historic, interesting buildings that are, nonetheless, not suited to their purpose and arguably, never were suited to it - because most of the people in attendance simply witness the worship taking place! How can they be doing otherwise if the priest/clergy/professional choir/minister is doing all the talking - especially if they also happen to be doing so in a room that's at least half-hidden from view, by a rood screen - or worse still, doing it in latin, or some other language that most of the lay congregation does not use or understand?

And the 'Army makes extensive use of conscious testimony - and I think that's just great, because however educated the worship leader may or may not be - however good or gifted they are at teaching, or putting their message across - there's nothing more encouraging than hearing the voices of ordinary folk in the crowd, confirming that it actually works for them! To hear somebody's account of how their prayers have been answered - never mind the theory, or how a particular passage from the bible moved them - well, to me, that's just awesome. Even to hear what it is they're struggling with or concerned with - that changes them from being just another faceless member of a congregation, into a real person - and that's important too, because it is real people with who I feel I can most readily identify. Of course, I know that clergy/priests/ministers/what have you are also real people - but they don't always behave like real people, or at least like ordinary people. I mean, we don't all get to wear brightly coloured vestments, stoles, surplices, dog collars or funny hats - so they can't be quite the same as the rest of us - can they?