Straight to the Heart

Last week I began a series of blogs which draw on the life and example of William Booth to help us understand how to change the cities we live in. Wherever we live and whatever our circumstances, we all have plenty to learn from the founder of the Salvation Army who transformed late-nineteenth-century London through his radical lifestyle. I’ve been studying many of the best biographies to come up with Ten Things William Booth Did Which Changed The Face of His City. I believe that they are the things which we can do to change our cities too.

In the first blog in this series, I looked at Factor #1: Radical Personal Commitment to Jesus. In this blog, I will look at factors #2 and #3.

FACTOR #2: FIERCE AMBITION FOR THE NAME OF JESUS.

Ambition gets a bad press in Christian circles, but William Booth’s example reminds us that our biggest danger is not too much ambition, but too little. Sure, the English translations of Philippians 2:3 warn us to “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit,” but they are actually a mistranslation of what Paul says in Greek. He doesn’t warn against ambition in such verses, but against strife. When he uses the Greek word for ambition, he does so positively, assuming that a Christian will naturally be ambitious for Jesus’ name. He writes in Romans 15:20 that “It has always been my ambition to preach the Gospel where Christ was not known.” What set William Booth apart from the other Christians of his era was a relentless ambition to see Jesus honoured as Lord.

Perhaps his best biographer, Roy Hattersely, writes that “William Booth believed in ‘active Christianity’ - the moral duty of God’s ministers to go out into the highways and byways and make them come in. His style of evangelism was a living reproach to every vicar in whose parish he preached and every minister whose circuit he invaded … ‘Go to the people with the message of salvation, instead of expecting them to come to you.’”

He confided to his wife Catherine that he could never be satisfied with preaching Jesus to a few faithful believers in church on Sunday. How could he, when the majority of Victorian Londoners did not honour Christ as Lord? He insisted, “The Saviour didn’t command His apostles to be preachers of sermons; He sent them forth as witnesses of their experience of saving grace. I must do no less.”

William Booth’s fierce ambition for Jesus’ name was easily misinterpreted by his enemies. They accused him of trying to build a name for himself, of interfering in their parishes, and of generally making an exhibition of himself. He retorted, “Some may find fault with me and say that I made an exhibition of myself. That is what I have been doing with myself for my Master’s sake all my life.”

If you are reading this, then it’s probably because you want to change your city like William Booth. Ask God, therefore, to give you a similar fierce, burning ambition to see the name of Jesus glorified in your city. Ask him to make you grieve over the way his name is dishonoured and used as a swear word, and ask him to show you ways to risk your own name for the sake of his. Be willing to look foolish so that he can look great. Ambition for Christ begins by seeing your city as it truly is. William Booth asks us: “How can anybody with spiritual eyesight talk of having no call when there are still multitudes around them who have never heard a word about God, and never intend to, who can never hear without the sort of preacher who can force himself upon them?!”

FACTOR #3: DEEP HUMILITY

Humility is the flip side of fierce ambition for the sake of Christ, since it is usually pride and a desire for self-preservation which prevents us from risking everything so that Jesus can be glorified. Booth was relatively unsuccessful in his first few months and years in London because the Lord wanted to teach him in no uncertain terms that he was just a frail man. He wanted to teach him to be still and know that God was God. It was only after Booth wrote to a friend that “I am waking up as from a dream and discovering that my hopes are vanity and that I literally know nothing” that God started using him in amazing ways.

Stripped of his pride and of his desire to be seen as someone great, William Booth was finally ready to be used by God. He booked one of the city’s worst brothels for a series of evangelistic meetings in order to proclaim Jesus’ name in the place where it was most defiled, and he immediately experienced an angry backlash from the city’s Christians. “Go there and you will lose your reputation at once and forever,” he was told. “It is the most disreputable den in the country, the worst slum in the city.” Booth simply shrugged his shoulders and declared, “Then that’s the place for us.” His evangelistic mission in the brothel made him one of the most hated and unpopular figures in the city, but it also reached thousands of prostitutes, gamblers and mixed-up sinners who gave their lives to God.

So let’s end this blog with a question: When did you last risk being hated so that Jesus would be loved? When did you last throw away your reputation so that Jesus would be held in high esteem?

It’s time to ask the Lord to give us a deep humility with regard to self, and to replace our pride with a fierce ambition to see Jesus glorified. It’s time for us to stop playing safe and to go on the offensive with the Gospel. It’s time for us to learn from William Booth how to change our cities.

The final four installments of “How to Change Your City” will follow over the next few days.