Transforming Justice

Today’s session explores the biblical meaning of justice and righteousness and gives the group the opportunity to think about how these concepts should impact our lives. God values every single person on this planet. As the group chooses to explore a specific territory of The Salvation Army, they will discover more about our work across the globe and the type of ministries that are taking place.

WELCOME

Today we will be considering the work of The Salvation Army across the globe. First, let’s see what your geography skills are like. See if you can guess the country using the emojis. You will get ten seconds to write down your answer, and then the correct country is revealed. Mark your quiz as you go along. At the end of the game, use the points system shown at the beginning of the clip to work out your final score.

Guess the Country by EMOJI! (6:59)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilosrVvwqOE

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY

• Out of all the countries mentioned in the clip, which one would you most like to visit? Explain your answer.

WORD

In the Bible, we discover that everyone is made in the image of God.

‘So God created humans to be like himself; he made men and women.’ (Genesis 1:27 CEV)

This means that we are all greatly valued and precious to him. It also explains why God has so much to say about injustice in his word. Watch the clip together and discuss the issues it raises about injustice.

Timings are given to stop and start the clip with follow-up discussion questions.

Justice - Bible Project (6:17)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A14THPoc4-4

0:00-0:28

• Why do humans care so much about justice?

0:29-0:52

• What is the bedrock of the Bible’s view of justice?

0:53-1:11

• In what ways do humans constantly redefine good and evil for their own benefit?

1:12-1:59

• What purpose did God give to Abraham?
• What does the Bible mean by the word ‘righteousness’?

1:60 – 2:36

• What are the two main meanings of the word ‘justice’ in the Bible?
• ‘Justice and righteousness are about a radical, selfless way of life.’ How should the meaning of these two words impact the way we live our lives as Christians?

2:37-3:56

• What was the ‘tragic irony of the Old Testament story’ mentioned in the clip?

3:57-4:22

• In what ways do we all participate in injustice?

4:23-5:52

• What is God’s response to humanity’s legacy of injustice?
• How should/does this gift change our lives?
• What does it look like when we live our lives ‘courageously making other people’s problems our problems’?

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY

• What is your response to the following quote?

‘God’s personal, passionate concern for justice and righteousness was the starting place for his people to build them into every part of their culture. The place we should all live from is “justice and righteousness”. Everything we do, from the way we raise our families to the way we run our businesses to our own relationships with the vulnerable, should reflect “justice and righteousness”.’

– Jessica Nicholas

WITNESS

The Salvation Army works across the globe to ensure that people can live equal, safe and dignified lives. Over the course of these sessions you will have the opportunity to focus on one Salvation Army territory and view it through the lens of social action. You will consider how The Salvation Army could work and is working in your chosen territory.

How this activity unfolds will depend upon your group. They may prefer to work individually or in small groups. Each group can explore the following website, first choosing a continent and then homing in on one territory of The Salvation Army. They may choose to focus on the United Kingdom Territory.

https://www.salvationarmy.org/ihq/zones

The Salvation Army Yearbook also provides a wealth of information for each territory.

The group can record their information digitally or take notes, but they will all need to be able to access the information. Give them time to explore the website and collect key information about their territory.

• Who are the leaders?
• What is the makeup of The Salvation Army in that territory?
• What kind of ministries are taking place?
• What needs are being met through the work of The Salvation Army?

Place a world map in front of the group. As each group feeds back the information they have gathered, place a sticker on that location on the world map. Take a picture of the world map and share it with the group digitally.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY

As you reflect on what you have discovered about the work of Salvation Army territories across the world, what is your response to the following quote?

‘The Salvation Army’s calling is linked to the poor and to the marginalised and if we ever abandoned that we would cease to be The Salvation Army.’

– General Andre Cox

WORSHIP

• Do you think prayer makes a difference to those facing inequality and injustice? If so, why/why not?

It may be tempting for the group to say what they think you want to hear. Try and encourage the group to answer honestly.

• How often do we pray, either individually or as a church, for those facing injustice?
• If we believe prayer makes a difference, and people matter to God, then how should this motivate us to pray more?

The phrase ‘thoughts and prayers’ is increasingly seen as a dismissive phrase, but praying for people facing injustice is extremely important. In partnership with prayer, God also calls us to be his hands and feet in this world.

‘To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.’ – Martin Luther

Prayer is the driving force behind the action we take to address injustice in this world.

Place the world map in front of the group and take time to pray for each territory marked on the map.

Follow up: Over the coming week, explore your territory in more detail.

What social justice issues is The Salvation Army tackling in your chosen territory?

We all lead busy lives, but take time to consider whether focused prayer and research about your chosen territory is worth your time.

You may want to send the group a reminder during the week as they will need to bring their social action research to the next session. The focus of the research this week is the following question:

What social justice issues is The Salvation Army tackling in your chosen territory?

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY

• What relationship is there, if any, between the level of suffering in the world and the effectiveness of the Church?

In today’s session we will explore what the Bible has to say about social action and the way we, as Christians, should respond when we see injustice. We will also consider how this work continues across the globe today and how God is using this organisation to live out its purpose.

WELCOME

Create a short quiz and split the group into two teams.
A link is provided below if you need a starting point for your quiz.
https://www.radiotimes.com/quizzes/pub-quiz-geography/ 

Give one team really easy questions and the other team extra hard questions. Show favouritism towards the team with the easy questions and give the members of this team a prize at the end. Then ask the other group how it felt to be treated unfairly in this way.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY
What is your response to the following quote?
‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.’
– Martin Luther King Jr

WORD

In our sessions this month we will be thinking about social action and considering the role that Christians should play in ensuring that everyone can live equal, safe and dignified lives.

Discuss:

• Why should we be involved in social action?
• Why should we be concerned with other people’s lives, especially on the other side of the world? And even if we are concerned, is it possible that we could make any difference?

In social action, we demonstrate the love and justice of God. We seek to meet the needs of our fellow men and women. We show them that they matter, to us and to their creator. Time and again, God shows his compassion and love for the poor and marginalised people in society. Justice is at the heart of who God is and what God does. If we want to show his nature and purposes in the world we must therefore include an active demonstration of such compassion and care.

Each member of the group will need a Social Action Scripture handout. The full Scriptures are listed below, but the handout only contains the references. Encourage the group to explore what the Bible says about social action and jot down their ideas on the handout. Using the Scriptures as a guide, ask them to create a word picture of the key themes raised. Provide the group with felt-tips and paper and ask them to get creative. They can include words, phrases and images to represent the importance the Bible places on social action. Share the word pictures together and summarise the key message of social action found in Scripture.

SEE SOCIAL ACTION SCRIPTURES HANDOUT BELOW

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY
Read and discuss the following extract:

‘Our God is a God who greatly honours the underdog. Much of his message in the Old Testament through the prophets was “care for the orphans and widows; stop cheating to get more money; provide for foreigners and the poor.” And again, much of Jesus’ message in the New Testament is “sell all you have and give the money to the poor”, and Paul agrees. Throughout the entire Bible, and still today, the Lord has a passion for the orphans and the widows, which I believe today translates to orphans (including many Aids orphans) and single mothers. I believe that the references in the Scriptures to the orphans and widows is not limited only to those specific categories (though they are certainly included), but that it represents a people group who hold a special place in the heart of the Almighty – the vulnerable, hopeless and weak … Most believers probably do not know that neglecting the poor is sinful and something that God takes extremely seriously. And the reality is, the poor do not live in the Western world. Even the “poor” that we do see around us are wealthy when you compare them to the majority of the world. So, in order to obey all of the commands laid out in all of these Scriptures, we must look out for, and defend the cause of, the poor in the second and third world.’ 
Munn & Court – The Uprising, A Holy Revolution

WITNESS

Each year The Salvation Army publishes international statistics in its yearbook. This book provides people with an opportunity to discover what The Salvation Army is doing across the globe. 

Discuss the following questions:

• Have you been involved in The Salvation Army’s work in any of the above areas? If yes, share your experience with the group.
• Have you been involved in social action with The Salvation Army that is not mentioned above? If yes, share your experience with the group.
• Which statistic / area of work stands out to you the most in the above list? Why?
• How does it feel to be part of a church/organisation with such a huge heritage in social action?

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY

At the age of 15, The Salvation Army’s founder William Booth said these words:

‘God shall have all there is of William Booth.’

• How have these words impacted the world?

WORSHIP

Over the past week, the group members have hopefully researched their chosen territory and answered the following question:

What social justice issues is The Salvation Army tackling in your chosen territory?

If this hasn’t happened, then give the group time to answer the questions.

Bring out the map from Session One and work through each territory, highlighting the key prayer points and recording them in a way that can be shared with the rest of the group. You could use Post-it Notes on the map and take a picture to share, or ask each group to record their prayer points digitally with everyone.

Ask each group to pray for their territory.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY

Follow up: Over the coming week, encourage the group to find out the wider issues facing their chosen territory.

What are the current news stories impacting the territory?

Is there a particular area of the territory facing conflict or turmoil? What prayer is needed?

Encourage the group to research these questions and bring what they have discovered to the next session.

From its inception, social action has taken a central place in the work of The Salvation Army. In today’s session we will explore the beginnings of The Salvation Army and the way it tackled injustice in society. We will also consider how this work continues across the globe today and how The Salvation Army supports those whose lives have been impacted by human trafficking.

WELCOME

Ask the group if they know the value of the following items.

• Mars bar        
• Walkers Salt & Vinegar crisps          
• A cinema ticket
• Vinyl album        
• 2-litre bottle of Coke              
• A bus fare into town
• 2 pints of milk     
• 1-month subscription to Netflix        
• Football season ticket 

Add your own … 

Finally, by way of introduction to this session, the value of one human being.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY

What is your most valued possession? Explain why.

WORD

One of the main things that birthed The Salvation Army and its mission was the fact that its Founders were immersed in a world rife with poverty, starvation and injustice. William and Catherine Booth, so stirred up by the degradation they saw on the streets, realised that if the gospel story was to have power amongst the poor of their time, it needed to be backed up with actions. Their approach to mission changed and the ‘three S’s’ became the underlying theme of The Salvation Army: first soup, then soap, and finally salvation. Social action was central to William and Catherine’s spiritual and evangelistic beliefs – a vision that would help mend and heal a broken society.

• In what ways is The Salvation Army’s original vision still applicable today?
• How do you think the original vision has changed and developed?

In 1890 Booth published In Darkest England and the Way Out, which revealed the full extent of the poverty in Britain’s urban slums and strengthened calls for action. He wrote about what needed to be done to change these poor conditions, and as a result he rallied his members to put this into action. This book shook the country when it was published and had a great impact on social action and political reform in Britain. 

• If the General of The Salvation Army wrote a similar book today, what would it say and what do you think the response would be?

As we discovered in our first session, a call to social action can be traced throughout Scripture.

8 Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
    for the rights of all who are destitute.
9 Speak up and judge fairly;
    defend the rights of the poor and needy.
(Proverbs 31:8-9)

Watch the clip to discover how the early Salvation Army lived out the words of Proverbs 31:8-9.

Watch: Match Girls’ Strike and The Salvation Army (6:34)
 

• What social action issue do you think William Booth would get involved with today?
• What would he see as a priority for The Salvation Army?
• What part could you play in speaking up for and defending the rights of the poor and needy?

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY

• What is your response to the following quote?

‘You cannot warm the hearts of people with God’s love if they have an empty stomach and cold feet.’ – William Booth

WITNESS

Throughout these sessions we have focused on the importance God places on responding to those who are in need.

• What could our personal response be to these words from Scripture?

‘Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.’
(Psalm 82:24 ESV)

People are of great value to God. He made each one of us in his image. One of the many evils going on in the world that devalues people is human trafficking. People are bought and sold for a whole variety of reasons, but always without their consent or even their knowledge. Many victims of human trafficking are deceived into thinking they are agreeing to a better life, but end up being exploited in terrible ways. Many are children; they may have been kidnapped or their parents tricked into selling them. Victims of human trafficking are trafficked all over the world to work for little or no money – including to, out of, and within the UK. People are trafficked into prostitution, begging, forced labour, military service, domestic service or forced marriage.

The aim of this activity is for the young people to consider how The Salvation Army provided support for the victims of human trafficking in the past and continues to do so in the present. Each member of the group will need a copy of ‘The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon’ (printed below). Spend time reading the extract and then watch the clip below. Discuss how The Salvation Army’s involvement in this social action issue has changed and developed over the past century.

The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon

In the late 1880’s, Bramwell Booth (William and Catherine’s oldest child) and his wife Florence became aware of the horrific underground sex industry, trapping girls as young as ten years old into a life of prostitution and sexual exploitation. The Salvation Army responded quickly by opening homes for women and girls caught up in these awful schemes and developing intensive rescue work. Within 30 years, Salvation Army rescue homes grew from one to 117. Their efforts eventually evolved into a battle to protect women and children from the horrors of sex trafficking. In one of the most fascinating chapters of the Army’s history, Bramwell Booth enlisted the help of WT Stead, a controversial journalist, to plan and execute an undercover investigation into the trafficking of young girls for prostitution. The plan, devised to expose the full horror of this trade, was to buy a girl and ship her to the continent, proving beyond doubt how easy it was to accomplish such a thing and how regularly it was being done. They recruited Rebecca Jarrett to find someone who would sell them a child. As an ex-brothel keeper, Jarrett understood the inner workings of the sex trade and had the necessary contacts. The girl they bought was 13-year-old Eliza Armstrong, for £5. She was taken to a brothel where WT Stead was waiting, and then sent across the English Channel to one of The Salvation Army’s rescue homes in France. ‘Although this particular girl was unharmed, the ease with which the sex trade was generally conducted could no longer be denied: an English girl had been bought for five pounds, left in a brothel with a stranger, and shipped to the Continent with little more difficulty than would have been met buying a bag of groceries.’ After ‘successfully’ carrying out their plan, a detailed account of what happened was published in July 1885 by Stead’s Pall Mall Gazette in a series of articles called ‘The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon’. Stead, Bramwell and their helper Rebecca Jarrett were all prosecuted for their actions as the nation turned against them for exposing the ugly realities most people preferred not to know about. But Stead’s articles eventually created enough fervour to gather public opinion in support of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, a measure which, when passed in August 1885, raised the age of consent from 13 to 16 (although reformers sought 18). The Salvation Army’s advocacy efforts were a major catalyst in the Bill’s passage.
(Read more in Insane chapter four.) 

How The Salvation Army Helps Victims of Modern Slavery (2:52)
 

WORSHIP

Over the past week, the group should have researched the wider social and political issues facing their chosen territory and addressed the following questions:

• What are the current news stories impacting the territory?
• Is there a particular area of the territory facing conflict or turmoil? What prayer is needed?

Encourage the group to give feedback on what they have discovered and ask them to share their key prayer points. Using the world map, visit each territory in prayer, focusing on the issues raised by the group.

The group will need all the information they have compiled throughout the sessions next week. Each group will need some way of recording the information digitally using a laptop or tablet.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY

Follow up: For this week’s follow-up activity, each member of the group will focus on one social action area they have discovered during their research. Focusing on this one area, they need to compile a list of prayer points. Their research may link to a specific community, or an individual, or on an area of social injustice that they feel needs more attention.

In today’s session we look to the example of Jesus and the way he cared for those facing injustice. We’ll explore what the Bible can teach us about justice and what it means to love our neighbour. There will also be an opportunity for us to respond to God’s call for each one of us to stand up against injustice.

WELCOME

Throughout these sessions you have spent time learning more about one specific territory in the global Salvation Army. Using your chosen country as a starting point, create a quiz question based on the life and culture of that place. When you have written the question, share it with the rest of the group.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY

• What’s the most fascinating fact you have discovered about your chosen Salvation Army territory?

WORD

Today we are going to explore how Jesus treated those facing injustice and how we can follow his example in our own lives.

Watch the clip together, stopping at the times noted below and spending time discussing the questions.
Jenny Yang: How the Bible Has Informed My Thinking on Justice Issues - YouTube
 

0:00-3:32    How has the Bible informed your thinking on justice issues?

• The first question posed in this clip is, ‘How has the Bible informed your thinking on social justice issues?’ What would your answer be?
• What biblical examples does Jenny Lang give of OId Testament characters that experienced injustice? What did they learn from their experience?
• Explore the following Scripture references. What do you discover about the way that Jesus treated those facing injustice? 

Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 5:25-34; John 5:1-14.

• Read Matthew 25:31-46. How do these verses shape our understanding of the way Jesus viewed social action? In what way should/does it change the way that we view injustice? 

3:33-6:04    What does it mean to love thy neighbour?

• What do you think it means to love your neighbour?
• Who is your neighbour?
• How is Jesus’ idea of hospitality similar to / different from the way the Church lives it out today?
• Jenny Yang says the following: ‘As we consider loving our neighbour, it really means that we have to redraw the lines of neighbourhood, from a geographic sense to a Kingdom sense.’ How do these words impact your understanding of what it means to love our neighbour?
• What can we do individually to love our neighbour the way Jesus did?

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY
Explore and discuss the following passages of Scripture where Jesus stood up against injustice.
Matthew 5-7
Matthew 12:9-14
John 8:2-10
Luke 15:3-5

•    What other examples can you find?

WORSHIP

Over the past week, each member of the group should have focused on one social action area to research in more detail. Give each group time to share what they have discovered over the past week. They will then need to prepare a prayer sheet using all of the information they have gathered over the past four sessions. The aim of this activity is to create prayer points to be distributed within the wider church/corps and to encourage everyone to pray for their chosen territory.
Discuss with the group how their prayer points will be shared with the wider church/corps and put a plan in place to ensure that this happens.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY
Place the world map in front of the group. There have been so many issues raised over the past four sessions that need their prayer. Encourage the group to pray for their chosen territory as they listen to the song.

Pentatonix – Prayers For This World (Official Audio) 3:44)
 

WITNESS

For the Witness section this week, the group will have the opportunity to reflect on all they have discovered over the previous four sessions. Briefly recap with the group the key messages from each session and discuss what they have learned. Explore how their perspective has changed in this area and how they could take a more active role in standing up against injustice.

Give the group time to reflect personally on what they have learned and jot down one point of action they will take going forward. The following music could be used as a time of reflection.

God of Justice (Live) – Tim Hughes (5:23)
 

Ask the group to share their point of action and then spend time praying for each other. Discuss with the group how they can ensure that they live out God’s call to stand up against injustice.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY

To bring the session to a close, read the following prayer based on the lyrics of Tim Hughes’s song ‘God of Justice.’

God of Justice,
You sent your son to rescue the weak and poor.
You came to serve and not be served.

Jesus,
Help us to go and live to feed the hungry,
Help us to stand beside the broken.

Holy Spirit, 
Fill us with your power to step forward,
Keep us from just singing,
Move us into action.
Fill us up and send us out.
Amen.