by Michelle Martin
Staff Writer

When Salvation Army Major Geoffrey Allan thinks of Harbor Light, the substance abuse treatment and counseling center that he commands, he feels a connection to Salvation Army founder William Booth.

“My personal opinion is if William Booth were alive today, he would want to be at Harbor Light,” said Allan, a native of England whose parents also were Salvation Army officers.

Booth, who founded the organization that would become the Salvation Army in 1865, was a Methodist minister who took the Gospel to the streets of the impoverished East End of London, ministering to “thieves, prostitutes, gamblers and drunkards,” who became among his first converts to Christianity.

When his new Christians found little welcome in established churches, Booth created his own—one that has not strayed from its emphasis of helping the poor and beleaguered.

“It’s part of our mission,” said Allan, who came to Chicago with his wife, Marian, in 1999, after serving for years in Michigan. “If you’re a Christian, how do you show it? You live a holy life. How do you live a holy life? You serve the poor.”

Indeed, the Salvation Army’s aim is “to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and meet human needs in his name,” now in 107 countries.

That sense of spirituality infuses everything the Salvation Army does, including ringing bells on street corners during the holiday season to raise money, providing disaster relief, caring for children in Head Start centers, housing homeless families, feeding the hungry and, its classic mission, ministering to people with addictions.

“If it’s done right, you can’t tell where the spiritual work ends and the social service work begins,” said Col. William Roberts, who commands the army’s Northeastern Illinois division, which extends as far west as Rockford and east into Lake County, Ind. “It’s all the same thing.”

Between members, clients and volunteers, the Salvation Army touches over a million greater Chicago-area residents every year, Roberts said.

All of the Salvation Army’s “corps,” or centers, function both as worship centers and as providers of services, he said. The 31 neighborhood corps in Northeastern Illinois all have worship services and recreation, activities like music education along with religious education. All are led by officers, who, by definition, are ordained ministers.

Capt. Ruth Wilkerson, who leads the Salvation Army’s Uptown center at 1025 W. Sunnyside Ave., said a spirit of evangelization permeates everything the center does, from feeding up to 500 people a day on-site, to sending out three mobile feeding centers every evening, to providing beds for 45 homeless men on winter nights and food and clothing pantries for those in need.

“I insist that when people come in, whether to eat or use the pantry or use any services, we tell them, ‘You can talk with pastor, you can go to church services,’” said Wilkerson, who received an award for her work from the archdiocese’s Office for Interreligious and Ecumenical Affairs in 1997. “If we can feed you and satisfy your hunger, then we want to help you know who you can really count on, and that is the Lord. … Some of those dear ones have become actively involved and become soldiers in the Salvation Army.”

Installations like the Uptown Center and Harbor Light, at Monroe Street and Ashland Avenue, have many of the same activities that neighborhood centers have, along with specialized services. For example, Harbor Light is first a church, but “a church that has included into its ministry substance abuse treatment.”

And, Allan said, substance abuse and addiction is “a spiritual issue.” That’s why the first step in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous is to recognize a Higher Power.

Perhaps because of its history of serving the addicted, the Salvation Army takes a strong stand against the use of alcohol, tobacco and non-medical drugs. While people who attend services need not make any promises, formal church members, called soldiers, must sign a pledge stating they will avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs, and believe in the doctrines of the church.

Those doctrines resemble those of other evangelical Christian churches, including that the Old and New Testaments were given by the “inspiration of God” and constitute the “divine rule of Christian faith and practice,” that human beings were created in a state of innocence, but because of the disobedience of our “first parents,” all men have become sinners, exposed to the wrath of God.

Salvationists also believe that Jesus died to atone for the sins of all, so that those who live in obedient repentance will be saved.

Nearly 450,000 Salvationist soldiers in the United States have signed onto those doctrines, and all of them must volunteer their services to the church in some way.

Those who go on to become officers must attend Officers’ Training College, like the one at Broadway and Addison in Chicago, for two years. Married couples are trained, ordained and serve together.

While the doctrines follow the same pattern as many Christian churches, the organization purposely borrows the military paradigm.

Booth coined the name Salvation Army in 1878, while he was proofreading the organization’s annual report and changed the phrase “volunteer army” to “Salvation Army.”

That has a theological and Scriptural element, Roberts said, rooted in Paul’s exhortation to Timothy to be a “good soldier of Jesus Christ,” among other passages.

The military structure’s clear hierarchy also makes it easier for the Salvation Army to get things done.

“That’s one reason we are able to respond so quickly in situations,” Roberts said. “We can have people on the front lines in a natural disaster situation within hours.”

Roberts, whose parents were Salvation Army officers, always expected to move every few years because of new orders. It’s a pattern that has replayed itself in his own life. At 55, he has received orders to take over command of the army’s operations in Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina in December, after spending his whole career in the Midwest.