Booth

A Post-Reformation Model of Worship: Salvation Army Worship

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The earliest record of a Salvation Army worship service is found in the publications of William and Catherine Booth’s London East End ministry that began in the late 1860s.

Introduction

The organization that would become The Salvation Army in 1878 commenced its ministry in July 1865 in a series of tent meetings in the East London district of Whitechapel (Robert Sandall, The History of the Salvation Army, Vol. 1: 1865–1878 [London: Thomas Nelson, 1947], 37).

William Booth. This is a likeness of the portrait presented in 1856 to Booth by his friends in Sheffield in appreciation of his labors there and in other parts of the country.

The format of these early day services was modeled on the “free and easy” nineteenth century Methodist song service. These unstructured services included a combination of extemporaneous prayer, hymns, numerous personal testimonies, and often a concluding sermon.

Text: The first recorded example that provides the details of these services are found in The East London Evangelist, the monthly periodical that William Booth first published October 1868 as a record of the “Christian Work Among the People” of his East London Christian Mission. The March 1869 issue includes a reprint of a report from The Revival, another religious periodical of the 1860s:

On the afternoon of Sunday, January 31, I was able to see some of the results of William Booth’s work in the East of London by attending his experience meeting, held in the New East London Theatre. Probably about 500 were present, though many came late. The meeting commenced at three, and lasted one hour and a half. During this period forty-three persons gave their experience, parts of eight hymns were sung, and prayer was offered by four persons. After singing Philip Phillips’ beautiful hymn, “I Will Sing for Jesus,” prayer by Mr. Booth and two others, a young man rose, and told of his conversion a year ago last Tuesday, thanking God that he had been kept through the year.

A negro of the name of Burton interested the meeting much by telling of his first open-air service, which he had held during the past week in Ratcliff Highway, one of the worst places in London. He said, when the people saw him kneel in the gutter, engaged in prayer for them, they thought he was mad.

Hymn, “Christ, He Sits on Zion’s Hill.”

A young man under the right-hand gallery having briefly spoken, one of Mr. Booth’s helpers, a genuine Yorkshire man, named Dimaline, with a strong voice and a hearty manner, told of the open-air meetings, the opposition they encountered, and his determination to go on, in spite of all opposition from men and devils.

A middle-aged man on the right, a sailor, told how he was brought to Christ during his passage home from Columbo. One of the Dublin tracts, entitled “Johns Difficulty,” was the means of his conversion.

A young man to the right having told how, as a backslider, he had recently been restored, a cabman said he had a deal to talk about. The Lord had pardoned his sins. He used to be in the public-houses constantly, but he thanked God he ever heard William Booth, for it led to his conversion.

Three young men on the right then spoke. The first, who comes five miles to these meeting, told how he was lost through the drink, and restored by the gospel; the second said he was unspeakably happy; and the third said he would go to the stake for Christ.

A middle-aged man in the centre spoke of his many trials. His sight was failing him, that of one eye having gone entirely, but the light of Christ shone brilliantly in his soul.

Hymn, “Let us walk in the light,” etc.

Two sailors followed each other. The first spoke of his conversion through reading a tract while on his way to the Indies four months ago. The other said he was going to sea next week, and was going to take some Bibles, hymns, and tracts with him to see what could be done for Christ on board. He thought the conversion of sailors was fulfilling the passage, “The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto Thee.”

Hymn, “I believe I shall be there, And walk with Him in White.”

A young man of the name of John, sometimes called, “Young Hallelujah,” told of his trials while selling fish in the streets, but he comforted himself by saying, “Tis better on before.” He had been drawn out in prayer at midnight on the previous night, and had dreamed all night that he was in a prayer meeting. He was followed by another, a converted thief, who told how he was “picked up,” as he termed his conversion, and of his persecutions daily while working in a shop with twenty unconverted men.

A man in the centre, who had been a great drunkard, said, “What a miserable wretch I was till the Lord met with me. I used to think I could not do without my pint a day, but the Lord pulled me right back out of a public-house into a place of worship.” (Gawin Kirkham, “An Afternoon with William Booth,” The East London Evangelist [March 1, 1869], 89–90).

The report continues in a similar vein for several more pages (the portion reproduced here is only one-third of the whole account), and concludes:

Mr. Booth offered a few concluding observations, and prayed. The meeting closed by singing: I will not be discouraged, for Jesus is my Friend.

Salvation Army, The

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The Salvation Army began in 1865 as an evangelizing agency to reach those who lived in the dreadful British city slums, which at that time had no churches. William and Catherine Booth, a Methodist couple, started an independent ministry in the heart of London. They pitched their gospel tent in the slums and won over many despite the taunts of most of the locals. In 1878 William introduced military features into his organization, which was already growing beyond England. As general of the Salvation Army, he continued to direct its policies with autocratic power, establishing posts in various cities of England, North America, the European Continent, and Asia. With unique methods, including band music, people were drawn to open-air meetings on street corners and in halls and were told to give up their sinful lives. Again and again, men and women were rescued from the depths of despair and were transformed by the power of Christ’s love. The Army later broadened its work to include social services because of the great needs of the people among whom it ministered. After 1889 the Army established rescue homes, farm colonies, and labor bureaus. Booth obtained money for his enterprises from the sale of his best-selling book, In Darkest England and the Way Out, and from wealthy friends of the movement.

Impact: Catherine died of cancer but not before she had worked tirelessly to secure the passage of laws that improved the lives of women and children. William lived another two decades and saw his organization spread to 55 countries. During his lifetime he traveled over five million miles and preached about 60,000 sermons. The Salvation Army continues to thrive and provide help for those in need, in Christ’s name, throughout the world.

Booth, William and Catherine

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William and Catherine Booth (1829-1912 & 1829-1890) were the founders of the Salvation Army. William was born near Nottingham, England into an Anglican family. He converted to Methodism and began a ministry of street preaching and attending to the needs of the sick and poor. Catherine was born in Derbyshire, England. She was very sickly as a child and young woman and seldom left home. She moved to London with her parents in 1844 where she met and later married William. Together they began a vital ministry among the lower classes in East London. They founded what was first called the East London Christian Revival Society and later the Salvation Army. Catherine died of cancer but not before she had worked tirelessly to secure the passage of laws that improved the lives of women and children. William lived another two decades and saw his organization, well known for its military themes and disciplines, spread to 55 countries. During his lifetime he traveled over five million miles and preached about 60,000 sermons. The Salvation Army continues to thrive and provide help for those in need, in Christ’s name, throughout the world. They worked together as a couple to found one of the most influential and respected charitable organizations in the world.

Sunday Worship in Salvation Army Churches

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The Salvation Army, founded in London in 1865 by William and Catherine Booth, is an international, evangelical part of the universal Christian church. Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and meet human need in his name without discrimination. Salvation Army officers (ordained leaders) and soldiers (lay members) operate corps community centers, schools, hospitals, shelters, feeding sites, and other programs in ninety-six countries around the world.

Two-Front War

From its beginning, the Salvation Army has been thoroughly evangelical. Its founder, William Booth, was a revivalist who served in the ministry of Wesleyan and New Connexion Methodism from 1849 to 1861, and conducted an independent ministry from 1861 to 1865. As an evangelist, Booth preached convincingly on the themes of personal conversion and sanctification. Using almost any means available—open-air preaching, tambourines, brass instruments—to attract attention to his gospel message, Booth soon had a following of loyal supporters.

From the early open-air meetings, Salvation Army worship moved inside to disused pubs, dance halls, theatres, even a tent on a Quaker burial ground. The meetings were lively. Army musicians took secular tunes from pubs and dance halls and gave them unmistakably evangelistic words. For instance, “Here’s to good old whiskey, drink it down” became “Storm the forts of darkness, bring them down.” Converts testified enthusiastically to the change wrought in their lives by salvation. Preaching by both men and women Salvationists was fiery and always aimed at the individual’s need for salvation in Christ.

In an 1889 article, “Salvation for Both Worlds,” Booth expanded his message to include the social dimensions of salvation. Redemption meant not only individual, personal, and spiritual salvation, but corporate, social, and physical salvation as well. He and his followers believed that preaching had to be complemented by caring for the physical needs of the poor to whom they preached. Booth’s book, In Darkest England and the Way Out (1890) became the textbook for an all-out, aggressive two-front war for the souls of people and for a rightly ordered society. Today, Salvationists are still fighting “The Great Salvation War” on those two fronts.

Worship and Theology

Salvation Army worship emphasizes spontaneity, personal experience, and congregational participation in worship. A typical worship service might include congregational singing with brass band accompaniment, spontaneous testimonies from members of the congregation, and an invitation for individuals to respond publicly to the biblical call to holy living.

In theology, The Salvation Army is Wesleyan. In philosophy it is practical. An Army slogan, “Heart to God, Hand to Man,” explains the commitment of salvation soldiers around the world to preach, teach, counsel, shelter, feed, clothe, and befriend their brothers and sisters of all races, colors, creeds, and ages.

“We are a salvation people,” William Booth wrote in 1879. “This is our specialty, getting saved, and then getting somebody else saved, and then getting saved ourselves more and more, until full salvation on earth makes the heaven within, which is finally perfected by the full salvation on the other side of the river.” More than one hundred years later, the heart of all Salvation Army worship and work is still the preaching and personal experience of salvation for all people and sanctification from all sin.