Sunday, August 19, 2007

Dance Halls

a Jesus thought...
Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise! (John 2:16)

a Godly thought...
If you want to change society, then you must tell an alternative story. (Ivan Illich)

a leading thought...
Methods that worked a decade ago may be ineffective today. Leaders who aren't continually growing will eventually find themselves with skills that are obsolete. (p244 Blackaby)

a Dave thought...
This "army" was furnished with uniforms, a flag and, a brass band with martial music. It met in tents, theaters, dance halls and the outdoors.

Last night I was part of the Box Hill Salvos big band playing at dinner function in the local Town Hall for entertainment. It reminded me that the town hall was the dance hall all through the early to mid 1900s - a gathering place on Friday & Saturday nights with dance bands providing the entertainment. So as Salvos we used to gather in these places and have meetings with thousands present, as we owned few buildings and wanted to go to where the people were to preach and minister to the masses.

It was a lot of fun to perform with such a great bunch of musos last night in the old dance hall, but deep down I am a little sad that times have changed and we were't there for the reason we exist. It is maybe a sign that we have moved from being the main attraction that could reform a society to now mere entertainment.

Just a thought.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the inspiration Woosha...reminds of Eric Hoffers famous quote..."In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."

Go Eagles

Brendan

Richard Munn said...

David:

Thanks for the post - keeping pushing us. We need to always remain 'saboteurs of the status quo.'

This, interestingly enough, leads me to the band illustration you share. As the exec of the NYSB I am consistently amazed at how many people come to hear the band over a 3 day week-end on the road - often 3-4 thousand in total. They come to hear the music; I get to surprise them with the gospel. It's a pretty good tag team - I think of it as 'infiltration' as well as bombastic confrontation (marching with drums banging and flags waving down Main Street, claiming it for Christ.

Keep taking the Southern Hemisphere cobber!

Richard Munn