"Going to the Army!" - Marc Harry's Podcast

Had things gone to plan: then today – Tuesday 15th April 2025 I would have been preparing myself for one of my favourite events of the year.   Each Holy Week for quite some years now the Band and Songster Brigade from Lincoln Salvation Army here in the UK have presented an evening of reflective music for Easter.  The music chosen has usually been interspersed with bible readings and poetry written...

To mark the TENTH anniversary of the very first GttA podcast in July 2013 this is the first of a very special 4-part series of podcasts featuring music from each decade of the Army's existence right up to the present day. The Salvation Army began - as The Christian MIssion - in 1865 when William Booth preached outside The Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel, East London.  Spreading throughout the whol...

'The Salvation Meeting' makes its return this Sunday after my summer break. It returns with something, by necessity, a little different from a 'normal' meeting. The 90 minute 'special' has been specially written and recorded to be broadcast the evening before the funeral of our late Queen Elizabeth II and takes the form of a 'Heavenward-looking Vigil' Specially selected Salvation Army music and so...

For the last meeting prepared before I take my summer break (I'll be back in September!) I found my inspiration after seeing a question asked in a Salvation Army forum online:  What is a Salvation Meeting? In these days when most corps only have one service on a Sunday it seems strange to some to imagine we once had at least 3 indoor meetings, Sunday Schools, Open-Air meetings and more EVERY Sunda...

"Send the Fire!" What must it have been like to have been in that room...that day...on that occasion when the sound of a mighty wind brought tongues of flame to settle on each person's head? And then to have gone out into the streets with the followers of Jesus as each man heard the message in his own language - as the sheer POWER of the Holy Spirit on that first Day of Pentecost saw many thousand...

"I've had enough!!" "Stop the world, I wanna get off!" Heard these expressions?  Maybe you've said them? Life can sometimes seem like a trial - one thing after another, problems piling up... Peter gives us reassurance in his first epistle: "So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though the going is rough for a while down here." Of course, nothing we endure could ever get anywhere nea...

Never has there been a more maligned animal than the poor old donkey!  Forever seen as slow, grumpy and - in the words of GK Chesterton  "The devil's walking parody of all four-footed things." But, as the general once wrote "In the service of Jesus there's a place for all" and oh yes, our donkey had his day! There's a lot more to the story than you may know, though...so come and join me for a grea...

While in every way this is a 'traditional' Salvation Meeting in every other way I decided to use exclusively the music of General John Larsson, recently Promoted to Glory. While choosing the music for meeting - songs, choruses, band piece, songster and singing company songs - I tried to keep away from the many songs the General wrote for the many musicals he co-wrote with General John Gowans.  I h...

The meeting is titled "A Prayer for Peace" and we will be lifting up the situation in Ukraine to God in the very best Salvation Army way. Music from the International Staff Band and Songsters, Sunbury Junior Singers, Canadian Staff Band, Portsmouth Citadel Songsters and much more... Music from composers including Eric Ball, Ray Steadman-Allen, Kenneth Downie, 'Gowans & Larsson' and Howard Davi...

There can be no doubt about it! God HAS blessed The Salvation Army over the 157 years of its existence.  He still blesses our ministry today - in well over 130 countries all around the world.  Hallelujah! But, there can be no denying it, the membership/soldiery of the Army has declined to numbers well below those we remember in years gone by.  Should we shake our heads and wonder what has happened...

To mark St David's Day there is a distinctly Welsh flavour to the meeting this evening. Some of the very greatest hymn tunes ever and some beautiful traditional Welsh melodies including 'David  of the White Rock', Suo Gan and Gwahoddiad. Musical items from Cardiff Canton Band and Singing Company, Morriston Corps and soprano soloist Joy Naylor. All wrapped in the wonderful message of Christ's salva...

When David wrote Psalm 51 he seemed to be asking for a New Testament forgiveness - hundreds of years before it became a 'thing'! Ashamed and horrified by his sinful behaviour he opened his heart to God and begged to be given another chance.  According to Jewish Law, the only way he could achieve this was through making a sacrifice, a burnt offering to God - yet he realised that this was NOT what G...

This week's meeting is based on a 2 word phrase that God spoke to me a few years ago - so clearly it may as well have been though my hi-fi speakers: TRUST ME Simple?  Well, not as simple as it sounds...but great advice all the same! But it's a message not just for us as individuals - I BELIEVE IT'S ALSO A MESSAGE FOR THE CHURCH - as we step out into a world that has largely forgotten and ignored i...

This week's Meeting for Fortress Radio - the 52nd in my series - has a very special guest speaker - Capt Nicholas J. Samuel - CO at the London (Ontario) Corps in Canada.  You may know his name also as a well-known SA composer of band and songster music. He reads from and speaks about Judges 2 - with insight about a wandering people and their relationship with an ever-faithful God. Some great songs...

Tired of the same old promises to change?  Still biting your nails?  Not losing weight...again? The world needs more from Christians than trivial changes like these - it needs us to create a REVOLUTION!  If ever this world needed the knowledge of its loving Saviour, Jesus Christ then it needs is right now - it needs the PEACE of Christ, the LOVE of Christ, the HEALING POWER of His Holy Spirit. Ton...

The theme for the meeting tonight proclaims Jesus as 'The Light of the World'. At this time of Advent  I am always made acutely aware of the aptness of Joy Webb';s beautiful song 'Come Into Our World'.  Yes, of course it is really HIS world but, as the song alludes 'men have forgotten Him and how to pray'. Certainly, if EVER this dark world needed a light it is NOW...if ever it needed JESUS - it n...

"Going to the Army!" is a podcast series featuring Salvation Army music. This 39th Episode is for November 2021 and continues the "Going to the Army!" ministry, which is now in its 8th year of broadcasting.  This time we have the first part of a 2 episode 'special' using the music of American composers and recognizing the wonderful contribution they have made to Salvation Army Music over many, man...

A theme question for the meeting tonight may well be something along the lines of ‘Are You Weary’?  It’s that time of year again, isn’t it?  Half way between our summer holidays and Christmas, the weather - in the UK, at least, is turning colder and most of us have resorted to putting our heating on - at home and in our  Army Halls, the trees have turned that wonderful myriad of colours between ye...

It's been a while, friends. It is only now I am feeling so much better that I can look back and appreciate quite how poorly I had become in the late spring/early summer this year.  It is WONDERFUL to feel better and also to be back producing these meetings. This meeting I described as a 'Salvation Army Extravaganza' - and it's theme is the Universal message we share with the whole world about the...

Welcome to a very special Praise and Testimony meeting prepared for Fortress Radio. This is the 47th meeting prepared and presented by Marc Harry since the Covid pandemic began over a year ago. Some great hymns and songs, Salvation Army choruses, band, songster and singing company items and even more - including words of personal witness, bible readings and prayers. Just like being 'at the Army! L...

Ascension! For the 46th in my series of Salvation Meetings for Fortress Radio. I am delighted to welcome my old friend Lt Col. Ced Hills who speaks on the subject of the Ascension. The meeting is a bit of a 'Portsmouth Citadel Reunion'. Ced sat next to me on the euphonium section at Portsmouth when he was our CO a decade or so ago and we became good friends. So both Portsmouth Citadel Band ( John...

The 45th in the series of Salvation Meetings I have prepared for Fortress Radio sees a rare (for me) departure into the Old Testament and one of the great prophets - Ezekiel and his vision of the Mega-Temple. I was led to quote earlier in my preparations: "Discussing Ezekiel's everso vivid prophecies with burning chariots and spinning wheels and dry bones reforming I question what medications he w...

Dare To Be a........Thomas?   The disciple Thomas sometimes gets a bit of a rough ride, I think. His reputation and legacy seems to be based on nothing but his 'doubting' - and hence his name has been used for millennia as the epitome of scepticism! Join me for the Salvation Meeting on Fortress Radio where we look at so much more that we can learn from Thomas - enough that, instead of Daniel for a...

This Easter Day Salvation Meeting is very much a celebration of the Risen Christ - and it's great to be able to welcome Colonel Phil Maxwell (who delivers the sermon), his wife Deslea who also speaks and my friend Matt Woods as well. When Col Maxwell sent a vocal solo to accompany his message he got Matt's name slightly wrong (Mark instead of Matt) and it was only when I listened to the beautiful...

'Meditative Music and Readings for a Holy Day'There is, for today, a BRAND NEW episode of the "Going to the Army!" podcast - especially for Good Friday. This is not a 'normal' GttA episode but a complete 'act of worship' - subtitled a: 'Meditative Music and Readings for a Holy Day' the 2 hour programme I have prepared with the help of the wonderful Jeannine Ridha has music by Salvation Army Bands...