COVENANT PART -1-

It was covenant signing day. The officer stood at the pulpit and looked out at us as he prepared to speak about what his covenant meant to him. I was intrigued because during my two years at the College for Officer Training I had come to admire this man and his commitment to educating cadets. He always challenged us to think beyond what was commonly accepted as ‘gospel truth by the tried and true, the faithful of the beloved Salvation Army. What would he say?

The gist of what he said was this. “When I married my wife, I married her for who she was that day. My covenant with her was not based on my expectation that she would improve or change. I accepted her for who she was right then. It’s the same with my covenant with God and The Salvation Army. I accepted what The Army was that day without expectation that things would change or improve.”

For the last 17 years his words have stuck with me. They have been a blessing when things are good and a sore spot when things have not been so good. But they have never left me.

I asked a few officers to answer some questions for me about their thoughts on their officer covenant and what they understood about it. I was not surprised that each one believed that they had signed a covenant with God to serve Him - and the vehicle they chose to do that was The Salvation Army. One said, “… I signed it, with a clear understanding between God and myself, as a covenant with Him alone. As it turned out, I did stay with the institution for His mission purposes, whereas some of my close friends did not. And we all signed the same covenant, each of us fulfilling it in God-ordained ways.”

Not one of the officers who wrote to me considers their covenant to be with The Salvation Army. That is why for many who have left the Army, there is a sense that they have not broken their covenant and consider themselves to be still fulfilling it through other avenues of service.

And yet, The Army as an organization is so intricately involved with our covenant as officers, and some that wrote understood their covenant that way. For why would I be signing this covenant in the first place if not to serve God through The Army itself? I signed my covenant in a Salvation Army owned and operated school. My ordination, recognized by the government, is as a Salvation Army officer. If I then leave the Army, and cease to be an officer, how am I still being true to the covenant I signed? Consider what another officer had to say, “I understood that it was a commitment to The Salvation Army. Of course there was also an understanding that this was a covenant with God, but mostly I understood it as a commitment to officership. I understood that it meant that I would serve as an officer for the rest of my life and that I would be serving God by doing so as a minister of the Gospel of Christ.”

PART ONE

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KATHIE CHIU

Writer: Along with her husband Ed, Kathie Chiu has been the corps officer of Mountain View Community Church and is the Executive Director of The Caring Place ministries which includes a shelter, transitional housing and community programs, located in British Columbia, Canada. Kathie has five children and by June 2009 will have eight grandchildren. For over two years she has been writing a monthly column for Salvationist.ca called Just Between Us and right now is working on a blogazine called Full Potential to help equip leaders for ministry. Her passions include building and equipping others for ministry and writing, knitting and especially her family.