IT'S NOW OR NEVER; Revitalise the SSO Proviso -2-

We need Officers ...

General-Elect Linda Bond interviewed by Lieut-Colonel Laurie Robertson, February 7, 2011 following her election by The High Council, Sunbury Court, UK.

Please describe spiritual leadership in a Salvation Army context.



I have very deep convictions about spiritual leadership, and for many years I taught classes on spiritual authority. To me the first point of spiritual authority is that power belongs to God. The power that he delegates to us has to be a power of love, the power to die to self, the power to live for others, the power for people and not over people. 



Please outline the Army’s mission and explain how it is relevant and valid around the world today.



…Salvationists seem to know instinctively that the Army was raised up by God to connect people to Jesus. They also know that we believe that people can be holy now, that they can be Christ-like. It’s in our DNA to served do not just talk about it…

Linda Bond (22 June 1946) is a Canadian and she has held leadership positions in the Canada and Bermuda Territory, United Kingdom Territory with the Republic of Ireland, USA Western Territory, Australia Eastern Territory and since April 20, 2011 serves as General, International Headquarters, London, England. During her tenure in these territories the army made many advances in its mission effectiveness, and expansion of social services. Linda Bond inherited and witnessed some of the headway made and spearheading what the army would become. No doubt her visionary qualities were among the chief qualities that led to her becoming the Salvation Army’s international leader.

Yet, not all the entities, programs and campaigns were true products and proud representations of the SA history she’d have wanted to leave as her legacy.

C. S. Lewis wrote in his Screwtape Letters; “The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather for the devil.” And there were concession to the life-cycle of the army as there are in all organizations as they grow and settle down.

Major Harold Hill wrote in Four Anchors from the Stern, JAC Issue 64, December 2009 – January 2010;  “They (organizations) tend to plateau and enter a period of decline, from which they may or may not recover. Commonly, with the onset of decline, some schismatic or renewal movement strikes out upon a new trajectory of growth before eventually repeating the pattern.”  A key reason for the army’s periodic deployment of its troops and officers is precisely to combat apathy and stagnation; to thwart the tendency to transit from being an aggressive fighting force to a quiet worship center on a suburban street corner.

General John Larsson, addressing a 2001 International Theology and Ethics Symposium in Winnipeg, Canada, stated “A key question for us is how we make the transition from a movement to a church in such a way that we do not lose the original dynamic that brought the Army into being. Or if we have lost something of that dynamic, how do we regain it?”

The interview continues; 

How is The Salvation Army distinctive from other Christian denominations, missions and movements?



…We are (also) an ‘Army’, which reflects mobility, flexibility, discipline, active service. That’s distinctive.



Is it important for people who worship at the Army to commit to junior soldiership, soldiership and local officership/leadership? 



I am absolutely convinced we have to be asking people to step up and sign up. I often use that phrase. Jesus called people to radical discipleship and in The Salvation Army that is soldiership and officership. We need to be asking people not just to be members (Adherents?) of the Army… We need a fighting force, and soldiership and officership are that for me.



Why are more officers needed?



"They are not better than anybody else ... Officership by its nature is about availability and mobility. In a worldwide Salvation Army we need people who are prepared to serve anywhere and be of service to the cause of Christ, with all their gifts. We need people who are available. So the more officers the better! We need officers who see this not as a profession in a secular sense but as sacrificial service. Officership needs to underscore sacrifice." - General Linda Bond

General Linda Bond better than perhaps anyone just how desperate and urgent the need for soldiers and officers is.

In the territories in which she has served some Training Colleges have closed their doors, while other were moved and consolidated into significantly smaller

Educational institutions. In Canada the colleges in Toronto, St. Johns and the satellite school (French language) were all closed and Canadian Cadets are now trained in the College in Winnipeg, where a school had functioned for several decades. Canada commissioned scores of officers just a few decades ago. The 2010, eleven Cadets were commissioned. And Canada has now reached the unenviable position where there are more retired officers than those in active service. There is no immediate expectation of a reversal.

Major Ian Swan, Associate Dean for extended learning at William and Catherine Booth College, Winnipeg, Canada wrote in the Salvationist.ca, “the reality of (there being) fewer active officers than there are retired officers… means we may soon have more ministry units than officer personnel to serve them. Unless there is an increase in cadets entering the training college, the gap between the number of available officers and the number of ministry units requiring leadership will only grow. It would seem that for many potential candidates, a lifelong commitment is not something they are prepared to make.”

Several of the territories with which the General has an insider’s knowledge are currently struggling with “availability and mobility”. And what’s most troubling is that this acute struggle has been ongoing for half a century without any apparent success at seeking a solution until just a few years ago.

Is there value and virtue in seeking to protect the status quo or is God calling us to break free from it?

Rev. John H. W. Stott shared in a conference I attended, “Vision is the result of a deep dissatisfaction with the status quo”. Stott went on to say that, “our dissatisfaction with the status quo, if of sufficient consequence, ought to move us to action formulating in our minds a new vision...“

In reading the General’s response to the questions I hear an urgent plea to action. But I also know that the General was instrumental in initiating a visionary plan albeit on a territorial level, and with some changes to make the proviso more effective would do well to initiate it on a much larger scale.

 HOW DO WE ACHIEVE IT

Does Single Spouse Officership in its present form represent a possible solution in seeking a turn-around?

The SSO provision was designed initially to attract SA soldiers who were prepared to abide by SA regulations and lifestyles and to become partners in ministry with their officer spouse.  The provision was introduced in 2005 and was received enthusiastically in some territories and rejected as unnecessary in others. The UK, Canada & Bermuda, Finland, Sweden and the two Australian territories instituted the SSO provision immediately on its approval and today more than 100 SS0 couples are actively serving in those territories, 60 in the UKT alone.

Sven Ljungholm, Liverpool Birkenhead Corps