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What’s a skill you consider basic, that most people don’t actually know how to do?

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The Salvation Army’s “Nontraditional” Church (Part 11 — “The Misunderstanding of Christianity.”)

Jesus told some religious people in the New Testament, “You nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.” (Mark 7:14)

When the Salvation Army in Nashville invited Ernie and me to start a “nontraditional corps” (church) we took it as an invitation to shift from following religious traditions to being directly led by God the Holy Spirit. (Romans 8:1) As you just read in Part 10, we made many outward changes to the church furnishings and to the Sunday morning routine.

However, the biggest changes were in people’s attitudes and behaviors — in their hearts and actions. The first response of almost everyone who came to a worship gathering at The Salvation Army Berry Street was surprise (even shock) at the lack of human programming and control. Their religious traditions hadn’t prepared them for such a meeting.

Over 9 1/2 years, many hundreds of people came to Berry Street at least once. About 90 people gave their salvation testimony there, and many brought friends and family along. 100 or more individuals and bands led worship for us, and many also brought along friends and family. Our prayer walking drew in a lot of people from the neighborhood.

My frequent Facebook and blog posts about Berry Street’s Spirit-led approach to church also attracted many people who were hungry for or curious about a simpler kind of church. We had visitors from all over, including many high-ranking Salvation Army leaders. The ARC Rehab Center even brought 30-40 men once a week for more than a year. Berry Street became one of the most attended Salvation Army churches. (Keep in mind most SA corps have a very small attendance.)

First-time visitors would react in many ways. Surprise and shock were almost universal. Some were thrilled. Many were nervous. Some were afraid. A very few even walked out. A few jumped up and acted like they were the featured speaker. (In that case, Ernie or I would stand up beside them and say something like, “Thank you for sharing with us. We’re glad you came. Now who’s next?)

As described in the Bible in 2 Corinthians chapter 14, many first-time visitors would stand up and humbly talk about how they felt God in the meeting — sometimes even with tears. Other first-timers would open up their heart, share something they were struggling with, and ask for prayer. When that happened, several people would gather around them, gently lay hands on them, and pray from them on the spot.

Once a noticed a first-timer take notes throughout the sharing part of the gathering. I finally asked her what she was doing. She said she was taking notes on the sermon. I said that there wasn’t a sermon. She responded, “Yes there is. Look!” and handed me her notepad.

I glanced over her notes. They looked like an outline. I said to everyone, “Wow! God has used many of you guys to express a small part of what has become a beautiful sermon.”

Every Sunday on our way home Ernie and I would be in awe at how amazingly the meeting came together. It appeared like someone had planned it, programmed it, and prompted various people what to say and do. We believe Someone did and that Someone was Jesus along with the Holy Spirit.

The meetings would start at 10:00. Instead of having a closing time and a traditional benediction, we would allow them to go until they came to an ending. We told everyone that they were free to leave, but the meetings were so interesting that it was rare for people to do so. At some point the flow would stop and we would all recognize that the meeting was over. It would last somewhere in the range of 1 to 2 1/2 hours. Even when it ended a lot of people hung around. Sometimes Ernie and I would even have to ask people to leave the building so we could go home.

Once a month we would serve a free lunch. We had no budget for that. The first few times it was a potluck. Then a strange thing happened, a church (different from the one that was working with the children during the Sunday morning meeting) ask if they could buy, prepare, and serve a lunch once a week to the people attending Berry Steet. Of course, we said yes. That church had several home groups of mostly young adults who really loved Jesus. For a few years they rotated bringing lunch once a month. It was wonderful to get to know them.

Eventually the church felt led to shift their attention to some other projects. However, there was no let-up in the lunch servers. Another church stepped in and even some friends who didn’t feel comfortable attending Berry Street wanted to be involved in bringing lunches.

And there’s more. During the 9 1/2 years we had numerous large neighborhood outreaches that attracted multitudes with free food, face painting, concerts, a Christian rap singer, magic tricks, games, worship, and more. A couple of those were sponsored by The Salvation Army Area Command. Most however were organized, led, and paid for by different churches who heard what was happening in our community and wanted to be a part of it.

The love we saw and experienced at Berry Street coming from so many people and so many sources kept Ernie and me in awe. Thank you to every person who stepped foot on the Berry Street property. Your presence (even once) was part of the incredible mosaic that the Holy Spirit put together there and in the touching of many individual people’s lives and in the transformation of an inner-city neighborhood!

Because you could since a holy presence at Berry Street, it was difficult not to be inwardly convicted of wrongful thoughts and behaviors. It was common for someone to confess a sin and to ask for prayer to overcome it. People would then pray for them with great compassion and tender mercy. That was always touching to see.

That kind of openness and honesty isn’t easy to be around if you’re not willing to have your heart deeply touched (even to tears) and changed from within. Thus, very few (if any) people stayed with Berry Street for the full 9 1/2 years but quite a few stayed one, two, five, or even more years.

Ernie and I get attached to people, especially in an intimate, Spirit-prompted Berry Street type of environment. It was really hard for us when people quit attending Sunday mornings or volunteers stopped coming, but God told us to bless them and their leaving, and to pray with and for them to continuing growing stronger in God wherever they would go.

Here is what Copilot AI says about The Salvation Army Berry Street Worship Center:

“Berry Street stands as one of the most distinctive experiments in modern Salvation Army history. It revived practices central to early Salvationism — testimony, spontaneity, lay ministry, and emotional honesty — within a contemporary Army context. For nearly a decade, it demonstrated that ekklesia could flourish inside a denominational structure when leadership allowed space for the Spirit to move freely.

Its closure illustrates the tension between institutional conformity and Spirit‑led innovation, a tension present throughout Salvation Army history. Yet its legacy endures in the ongoing ministry Steve and Ernie continue today.”

Coming up next: “More Than I Can Tell” (Part 12: “The Misunderstanding of Christianity.”