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The Army Alongside The Army
Ancient-Future Salvation Army – May 2007
The Army Alongside “the Army”
 A mission devoted to the poor has to depend on people outside of its immediate circle of participants and target neighborhoods for support, and the Salvation Army has known this truth since its inception. In its earliest days, William Booth spend the bulk of his time preaching to “the submerged tenth’ on the streets of East London, but his wife Catherine visited the parlors and drawing rooms of the wealthy in order to raise funds to keep the fledgling Army afloat.
 What began in the drawing rooms of Victorian England was harnessed effectively as the Army moved across the ocean to the United States, and when Ballington and Maude Booth took charge of the work there in 1887, they began to develop Auxiliary Leagues, which became a means “of enlisting the support of the fashionable for the Army’s “social wing,” without at the same time expecting an endorsement of the Army’s religious doctrines and evangelical technique”i Maude took on a similar role to Catherine Booth, her mother-in-law, and soon there were more than 5000 of these Auxiliary Leagues across the United States.
When Evangeline Booth became National Commander in 1904, she raised her mother and sister-in-law’s work to another level, as this once rag-tag Army became thoroughly respectable, especially due to its work in World War I. Says historian McKinley, “support for the movement from the American public, based now on sentiments both grateful and patriotic, grew daily warmer and more widespread.” ii Among her most loyal and influential supporters were John Wanamaker, General John J. Pershing, and Cornelius Vanderbilt.
 In 1912, a further step was taken in the development of the first Advisory Board in the city of Chicago, and these boards began to spring up across the country. Utilizing local business and professional leaders who sympathized with the Army’s mission, the structure of these groups soon became standardized, and now operate as a valuable resource to Salvation Army work in communities in many parts of the world.
In support of the work of board members, the Salvation Army provides orientation and training, and even national conferences approximately every four years. This week, board members are returning home from the most recent National Advisory Organization Conference (NAOC), held April 25-29th in Dallas, Texas. Lt. Colonel Bill LaMarr, NEOSA divisional commander said it best: “I thought it would be just another conference? Boy, was I wrong!” Speakers included First Lady Laura Bush, Jim Collins, author of “Built to Last,” Pastor Dr. Rick Warren (Purpose Driven Life), and Salvation Army National Commander Commissioner Israel Gaither, who took every opportunity to remind delegates of the significance of the mission. “There is no greater call to which we could ever respond than to serve others in the name of our Lord – for His Kingdom’s purpose.” iii
 As one of the highlights of the conference, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones arranged for a Saturday night at Texas Stadium, including locker room tours and autographs from Cowboys players, Rowdy, and the famed Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders. Challenged Jones, “NAOC 2007 is a chance to be inspired and motivated with the power to change lives . . . It’s time to recommit your heart and soul to the vision, the spirit, and the promise of “Doing the Most Good”. It’s time to celebrate, strengthen, enlighten, motivate and empower. It’s a time to come together as “An Army of Champions!”” iv
It is unlikely that Catherine Booth could have imagined the magnitude of NAOC 2007, but she understood the principle of adaptation, and how the roots of the past inform and empower the growth for the future. National Advisory Board chair Rob Pace knows the secret: “The great strength of the Army is our local presence and impact in so many individual communities, coupled with the collective power of the world’s largest army.” v
Often known as “the army behind the Army,” indeed it is truly an “army alongside the Army,” for the work of the advisory organization is best seen in connection and in shared vision and work. As NAOC participants return to communities such as Akron, Wooster, Mansfield, Cleveland and Wadsworth, they will join their brothers and sisters in service, ready to provide expertise in the areas of finance, program, planning, property, and mission. Thank God for the volunteers who have served so faithfully through the years. Indeed, the truth of Proverbs 11:14 is fulfilled in the advisory organizations of the Salvation Army: “Where no wise guidance is, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.”
If interested in volunteering in an advisory capacity to your local Salvation Army, contact the webmaster or your nearest Corps office.
i Edward H. McKinley, Marching to Glory: The History of the Salvation Army in the United States.Harper and Row: San Francisco, 1980, 55.
ii Ibid. 126.
iii NAOC, The Playbook. 2007, 3.
iv Ibid., 5.
vIbid., 4. |
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