Ok. So I am late to the party but it took me a while to form an opinion I wanted to share on this one...
I was in class tonight and we were using the analogy of a lake as the way organizations and churches work. On the outside of an organization all you see is the surface. As on the outside of the lake all you may see is the water and some ducks. But underneath the surface there all kinds of dynamics going on.
For instance, people see bell ringers, thrift stores and disaster canteens. That is the surface of the organization. But underneath the surface are the myths that we all buy into...listen to one:
While women weep as they do now, I'll fight.
While children go hungry as they do now, I'll fight.
While men go to prison, in and out, in and out, I'll fight.
While there remains one drunkard, one poor girl on the streets,
While there remains one dark soul without the light of God I'll fight, I'll fight to the very end!
W. Booth (supposedly)
And another:
"Wherever on earth there is a soul, there, in measure, must beat the heart of The Salvation Army." -Mrs. Commissioner Booth Tucker
These are the statements buried way down, deep in the mud of the so called organizational lake. Though they are not readily seen by the public they are foundational to the whole chemistry of the lake.
What I feel is that I wish, personally, that our brand came from somewhere deeper in our organizational fabric. To me it is a bobber when it should be an anchor. There was a Christian song that was popular a few years ago that went:
I'm diving in, I'm going deep in over my head,
I want to be Caught in the rush, lost in the flow,
in over my head, I want to go
The river's deep, the river's wide, the river's water is alive
So sink or swim, I'm diving in
Stephen Curtis Chapman
Joy asked how to do we engage the public with our faith? Well in my mind our organization has to do it with its statements as well as our soldiers with their personal ones.
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4 comments:
great points.
Interesting! Where did you get that info? It would be fun to read about that.
Chris shared this from a conversation with an officer in the army:
Colonel Gordon Foubister was my first divisional commander. Before he became D.C. for Northern Illinois, he was D.C. in the Midland Division (St. Louis). In those days the Army still operated "Evangeline Residences," which offerred long-term lodging to single business women in metropolitan areas. When Colonel Foubister arrived in St. Louis he found that atop the multi-storeyed Evangeline Residence for Women was a bright neon sign, "Heart to God and Hand to Man." He that this otherwise good slogan was not appropriate on top of a building catering to women! It communicated alright, but not anything very savory in that instance!
Obviously the irony is thick in this case but I am not sure it is the same. This slogan seemed to represent the mission of the army pretty well but the phrase could actually be taken in more than one way and so it was inappropriate in that connotation.
I don't think "Doing the Most Good" misrepresents the army. I think it just doesn't represent it deeply enough. And perhaps your right perhaps over time we will all come to love, "Doing the Most Good."
Hmm.. I agree, it is not representing the army deeply enough. Unfortunately because it is so simple and vague, it is easily misinterpreted:
Does "Doing the Most Good" mean that we are doing better than all the other charitable organizations?
Or does it mean that we are doing the best that we can?
Or maybe we are telling the passerby that by putting their money into the kettle they have done the most good they can possibly do?
What do ya'll think it means?
Also, would our slogan, although now "a bobber" soon become our "anchor"??
just a thought.
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