William Booth Left the Work (part two)

Co-dependency

According to Lieut-Colonel Damon Rader, the assistant field secretary for pastoral care in the USA Eastern Territory, we must pay attention to the need for balance and wholeness among our personnel in order to prevent resignations. ‘We don’t have enough people holding our trampoline,’ he says, pointing to inadequate personal support. Equipping our officers to cope with stress, marital difficulties, co-dependency and similar struggles will not be accomplished with an annual spiritual retreat. The demands are great and our response must meet the demands.

Also because we are no longer the upstart child of a whirlwind evangelist but an organisation like the New Connexion, there will be times when our officers will find themselves up against a bureaucracy that cannot see things from their perspective. There will likewise be times when officers react foolishly or hastily with threats or ultimatums. At such times, mutual flexibility and respect is crucial. Most importantly, officers must learn to communicate - particularly face-to-face or over the phone- and superiors must be careful to listen before the situation reaches a crisis.

The witness of history is that William and Catherine Booth ‘left the work’ of the New Connexion for the right reasons. After prayerful consideration and every attempt to ‘follow peace’, they left the New Connexion in the belief that they were obeying God. ‘I don’t believe in any religion,’ wrote Catherine, ‘apart from doing the will of God.’

For many years Order and Regulations for Officers stated that,

Although the inclination to resign is usually a temptation of the devil, it is possible that an officer can come into such a condition of heart and mind, or of health, or into such circumstances that would make resignation not only allowable but commendable.

Contemplating

The current edition of O & R admits ‘such circumstances as would make resignation correct.’ Some leaders, however, have come to express the feeling that under no circumstances can an officer resign honourably, let alone by God’s leading. One highly respected officer, at a gathering of cadets, said he could not envision an instance when an officer could resign according to the will of God. We point proudly to ex-officers who belong to the past, like George Bennard and Gipsy Smith, but seem far less patient with our contemporaries who were once officers.

Don’t misunderstand. It is important, when an officer is contemplating resignation, to attempt to prevent it by correcting the causes or working through acceptable alternatives. It is important, too, to guard the Army’s interests. An equal priority, however, for ‘shepherd of God’s flock’, must be the condition of that officer’s soul: is he spiritually sound? Is she acting in obedience to God according to the light she possesses? Are they seeking to please God in this decision? According to the Army historians, the answers to those questions in the case of William and Catherine Booth were all ‘yes’.

Covenant

If the Founders’ experience is any indication, it is possible for someone who previously has been committed to service in one organisation to be called of God to a new field of service. When one admits that point, it is no longer necessary to view every officer resignation as a spiritual catastrophe. Lieut-Colonel Rader, who has become one of the Army’s experts on personnel problems and solutions, admits, ‘Life does get our of balance for officers, that’s true, but not every crisis is a spiritual problem.’

Provided that it is possible to resign honourably, it is possible also to fulfill all the particulars of an officer’s covenant and yet follow God as a non-officer. ‘To love and serve [Christ] supremely all my days; to live to win souls and make their salvation the first purpose of my life; to maintain the doctrines and principles of The Salvation Army, and, by God’s grace, to prove myself a worthy officer’ is a solemn covenant that resignation does not negate. One may prove a worthy officer, as were Sidney Cox and Eric Ball, for example, even if one later feels God’s leading elsewhere,

We may find it necessary, therefore, though we may disagree with or mourn the officer’s decision (and after all attempts at preventing resignation have failed), to trust the judgment of the officer and the wisdom of God. The Founder himself, having resigned from the New Connexion, wrote: ‘Knowing that the future will most convincingly and emphatically either vindicate or condemn my present action, I am content to await its verdict.’ (part two)

Bob Hostetler; THE OFFICER 1991