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By Caleb Danielson
The sentiment of honoring the past and looking toward the future held true throughout the Pasadena Tabernacle Corps’ (Tab) 125th weekend anniversary celebration, Feb. 2-3.
Led by Corps Officers Majors Darren and Mary Norton with Territorial Leaders Commissioners James and Carolyn Knaggs participating, the event began with a banquet at the University Club, where 93 current soldiers were recognized for service of over 25 years as soldiers at the Tab, including three who have served more than 70 years: Millie Corliss, Harry Sparks and Corps Sergeant Emeritus Robert Docter, O.F.
A free concert at the corps brought in over 500 people, while over 200 watched online. The program opened with a joint presentation by the songsters and the band of “Holy Ground.” The audience joined in singing: “We are standing in his presence…Yes, we are standing in his presence on holy ground.” Other highlights included “flashbacks from the past” with soloist Major Fred Rasmussen and Bandmaster Bill Gordon conducting the band in Gordon’s very own “Salvation’s Song.”
Former Tab corps officers including Majors Ron and Keilah Toy, Lt. Colonels “Dusty” and Shelly Hill, Majors Ed and Joyce Loomis, Majors Ron and Marilyn Bawden and Majors Ed and Dorothy Covert, shared memories.
The evening concluded with a mass number resulting in more than 170 musicians performing a song featured on the Tab’s newest CD “Joy to the World,” a remastered collection of recordings by past and present corps music groups. Sales proceeds go toward the corps’ $125,000 World Services goal to build a new girl’s home in Panama.
On Sunday morning, Knaggs challenged the congregation with a sermon based on Joshua 1:1-9. The Lord has given us the promised land, a land of opportunity, flowing with milk and honey, where you set your foot” (Josh. 3:3). One may wonder: “What is the promised land in my life?”
Knaggs submitted that it’s not about geography, and it’s not a physical land that we are to claim in the name of the Lord; instead, it’s the lives of those who have fallen away from the Lord; it’s the lives of those who have never known Christ as their Savior; it’s the lives of our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends and countless others who we need to claim for the Lord.
That is our challenge, said Knaggs: to be like Jesus when he claimed our lives with his blood on Calvary, with every step that he took claiming the land he walked on, claiming our lives—through his love for us.
As Commissioner Samuel Brengle wrote: “Love is the life of the Army; if we love one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us…let love not leak out.” May it be true for the Pasadena Tabernacle Corps, and all Salvationists.
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