Slightly Salvation Army?

WARNING: Sally Army Specific post on the way ;-) (with resonances for other Christian denominations!)

One of my e-mail buddies, Pernell Goodyear, who I'm yet to meet in the flesh has posted a some really interesting thoughts on people's impressions and experiences with church/denomination identification/branding?. Pernell is the main man at The Freeway in Hamilton, Ontario - a small, local church community and coffee house with definite roots in The Salvation Army.

The gist of the post is I guess "how much do we need to broadcast & display that we are part of The Salvation Army"*

*These are my words - not Pernell's.

The whole post is worth a read, as well as the responses.

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Here's a bit of mine:

One thing I do worry with about the SA's branding and the message it conveys is what the broader world - most particularly in North America – seems now to understand about our movement. From here, what I see is a huge imbalance which seems to have the general public seeing us as some kind of social service agency that has taken a lurch to the political right. The big corporate picture isn’t really reflective of what we are internationally. Recently I've been reading some secular blogs which have really saddened me and made me want to jump in and say "that's not the Sally Army I recognize or belong to!" Maybe we have to look at ourselves more closely, right some wrongs if they are there and find ways of graciously & lovingly reaching out to those who have such a low opinion of us. Maybe we can only really do that on the ground.