Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps Evangelism Explosion

The first time I ever heard this march was at an International Staff Band concert in Vancouver, Canada. We played this many times in the Northwest Divisional Band in concerts all over Western Washington when Cpt. McHarg was leading the band. Except for the Texas Gulf Coast Area Band, the Northwest Divisional Band during that period was the busiest band I ever played in.

 As a teenager attending church regularly, I would hear stories of people being saved in a miraculous manner. The old Indian, Rudy, at the Harborlight Corps was one of the most memorable. I never saw it happen for myself, but I always wanted to. As I grew older, I resigned myself to "ordinary" worship with no "big," "obvious" miracles. Then my wife was appointed to supervise the church growth of the Spring Branch Church of the Nazarene in Houston, Texas. As a part of her job, we attended many different church growth seminars. Finally, Bonna was trained in Evangelism Explosion. At that point, we decided to move from Houston back to Seattle. When we arrived in Seattle, my wife told me that I had to get trained in Evangelism Explosion. I did. Every thing we did at the Seattle Temple Corps resulted in new people coming to the Salvation Army and people kneeling at the altar there to turn their lives over to God. We saw people saved and we saw people change their lives, including marriage in couples who were living together without benefit of marriage. The results have been spectacular.

I have been a musician all of my life. I have played in spectacular concerts with tens of thousands of people in the audience. I have been thrilled at some of the things I have done in music. But nothing has ever matched the feeling I have received from doing Evangelism Explosion. We visited over 200 homes doing Evangelism Explosion work for our God and the Seattle Temple Corps of the Salvation Army in the first full year of the program.It has been the most spectacular thing my wife and I have ever done. Using Evangelism Explosion, there comes a moment when one realizes that God has set up an appointment for you to do his work. This moment has no other explanation and it sends chills up and down my spine whenever it happens. Here are some samples:

 On Evangelism Explosion night, Bonna and I had no idea what kind of family we would meet or what part of town we would end up in until we left the Corps. We had the "Thomas Guide" maps for Snohomish County, King County, and Pierce County so we could find our way to the homes we were to visit. We frequently had no idea of the kind of contact the persons to be visited had with the Salvation Army. We even visited people outside of Seattle. There were five families which had attended the Seattle Temple Corps and one man whose parents had been Salvation Army officers in the Eastern territory. All of these families had left the Army years ago and had become millionaires. After the first mansion we visited, I began recognizing the names on the list. Over a two week period we visited all of these wealthy families which had attended the Seattle Temple Corps.

Then we came to the man whose parents had been Salvation Army officers in the Eastern Territory. I had no idea who this man was nor did I know that his parents had been Salvation Army officers. We got to the door of his home at the North end of Lake Washington. I rang the bell and he came to the door. I had no idea who he was or where he had come from. To me, he was just the next guy on the list. When he opened the door, I said, "Hello, we're from the Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps. May we speak to you?" He replied, "Sorry, that ship has sailed" and started to slam the door shut in our faces. As the door came our way I heard a voice say, "I knew your mother" and the door slammed shut. Suddenly, it flew open and the man said, "What did you say?"

Then Bonna spoke up and said, "I knew your mother, I'm from Asbury Park Citadel and I used to go to church with your mother." This was news to me. The man invited us in, made us some tea and called everybody in the house to come in the living room and meet us. We sat and talked about the Salvation Army and the Asbury Park Citadel Corps. We talked about his mother and then we found out that he was on the Salvation Army advisory board. When he was younger, he had played Cornet in a Salvation Army band. We invited him to come to the corps and in the next month, this man came to the Seattle Temple Corps twice. We never did figure out how the names of these millionaires got on our list, but except for the guy who slammed the door in our face and then invited us in, they were all very gracious and very much a part of other churches.

One Sunday, Commissioner Rader came to Seattle to visit the Seattle Temple Corps. He was accompanied by our Divisional Commander, Colonel Church. After the service, there was a reception in the fellowship hall. Colonel Church was rushing the Commissioner through the line. This always struck me as a little irritating because it was so obvious that the line moving past the Commissioner was being moved as fast as possible. I shook the Commissioner's hand and was hustled down the line then Bonna shook the Commissioner's hand. As they started to hustle her away, Bonna said, "I knew your mother." Suddenly, Commissioner Rader gripped Bonna's hand and said, "What did you say?" Bonna said "I'm from Asbury Park Citadel and I used to go to church with your mother." Suddenly, Col. Church remembered our names and what we were doing in the corps. He blurted out, "This is Dan and Bonna Ross. They're in charge of the Young People's Band and they do Evangelism Explosion in the Corps." Commissioner Rader than struck up a conversation with Bonna about his parents and had a pleasant but fairly short talk with her.

The reason Bonna knew the parents of these people is because in Asbury Park, New Jersey, there is a large home for retired officers. All of the officers who were able to get out attended the Asbury Park Citadel Corps. Bonna was on friendly terms with all of them and spent a lot of time talking with them. That retirement home is one reason that the Asbury Park Citadel Corps is so vibrant. When we visited Asbury Park Citadel after our marriage, we spent a lot of time chatting with these officers at the Corps and we visited some of them in the retirement home. On one trip to Asbury Park after we moved to Seattle, Bonna bought flowers and took them to the mother of our Seattle Temple Corps officer. She was certainly surprised to get a visit from someone in her son's corps clear across the continent. There are a lot of musicians in the retirement center and one of them gave me all of his music from the "New England String Band Association." I have a ton of great guitar music because of that visit.

 When Bonna was asked to do the visitation program at the Seattle Temple Corps, she was told not to do Evangelism Explosion or anything she had done in Houston because it wouldn't work in Seattle. We have listed 24 people in the Seattle Temple Corps congregation who were added by our work in Evangelism Explosion. On the first Easter Sunday morning after deploying the Evangelism Explosion teams, I sat with the band on the platform of the Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps and looked over the congregation. The results of Evangelism Explosion were apparent.

• On the platform were a new Euphonium player in the band. His wife was in the Songsters and was in charge of the Junior Soldier training program. She was also on the Corps Council. She was an engineer and her husband, the Euphonium player, was an appliance salesman. Their son had played in the YP Band for Sunday School that morning.
• In the audience was Shirley, the new Welfare director at the corps and nine additional family members. Her grand daughter was enrolled as a Junior Soldier that day.
• The two kids, Amanda and J.J. and their mother were there. Amanda was enrolled as a Junior Soldier that Easter Sunday. They had been referred to us because the two kids went to the altar at the Community Service camp.
• There was Milene and her three children. All of them were playing instruments in the YP Band or Sr Band and Milene was a great worker in Evangelism Explosion.
• All of the people I have described in this page were present on the first Easter Sunday morning since Evangelism Explosion was initiated at the Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps. They had all been attending the corps since we visited them several months before.
• In addition, I recognized 16 other people whose homes we had visited the three weeks just before that Easter Sunday morning.
• I counted at least 40 people in our congregation that Sunday morning who were coming to the corps as a result of Evangelism Explosion.

Elsewhere, I have told of five individuals who have spent years as officers because we spoke to them about the Salvation Army. These incidents are just a sampling of what we did at the Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps using the Evangelism Explosion process. Whenever we walked into a home and found that at that very moment someone was praying for a visit from "The Salvation Army" or were praying that God would send them someone to help them through all of the books and Bible they had bought, it would send a thrill through my body that was dynamite. This is what is called in Evangelism Explosion "The Divine Appointment." When you are ready to do the job, God will make an appointment for you with one of his children and you will have the thrill of knowing that God has placed you precisely where he wants you at exactly the moment you are needed.

When I recall these events at the Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps, I feel like singing. If I were singing it would go something like this:

My life flows on in endless song;
      Above earth's lamentation
I hear the sweet though far off hymn
      That hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife
      I hear the music ringing;
It finds an echo in my soul;
      How can I keep from singing?

What though my joys and comfort die
      The Lord my Savior liveth!
What though the darkness gathers round
      Songs in the night He giveth!
No storm may shake my inmost calm
      While to that refuge clinging;
Since Christ is Lord of Heaven and earth
      How can I keep from singing?

I lift mine eyes, the cloud grows thin,
      I see the blue above it;
And day by day, this pathway smooths
      Since first I learned to love it.
The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,
      A fountain ever springing;
All things are mine since I am His;
      How can I keep from singing?

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