What is your new role?

 

I am the Outreach Mission Partner for Music and Creative Arts. It’s a long job title and I’m still establishing just what the role entails, but the long and short of it is I help local Salvation Army corps and centres across the UK and Ireland use music and the arts to reach people in their communities. It means my role is varied - from filming and editing Dance Fit tutorials to writing kids musicals, from supporting community bands to training dementia-friendly singing group leaders.

 

What excites you about your new role?

 

The endless possibilities! Whatever we can do to grab people’s attention and point them towards God’s love is worth doing and doing well. Whether it’s something that I feel quite at home doing (like writing worship songs for the under 5s) or something I’m entirely out of my comfort zone doing (like exploring the visual arts through bible journaling), I’m ready to throw myself into it and see how God will bless the outreach work that we’re doing.

 

How do you see worship playing an integral role in the life of corps as they engage the community?

 

Worship has to be part of everything that we do. After all, worship means acknowledging God’s worth in our lives. If you came along to Singing by Heart (our dementia-friendly singing groups), you would see people worshipping through music. If you came to Dance Fit Tots, you would see under 5s and their parents worshipping through movement and song. If you picked up our new Drawing Closer resource, you would see people worshipping through art. When we engage people from our communities and draw them into a worship experience, we see that they start to get to know God and that is what we are all about.