"If
it is important to you, you will find a way.
If not,
you will find an excuse!"
Unknown
The SSO
provision after just a decade appears so entrenched that, even with some major
flaws, the status quo is being protected and maintained rather than break free
from it? Is it too late to acknowledge its weaknesses redefine the program that
sought to remedy the significant reductions in the number of officers in many
developed countries? The SSO provision opened the door for Christian ministry
and spiritual leadership for those called by God in TSA, but whose spouse does
not share the same calling to ministry.
The
non-officer spouse represents an often un-tapped resource. And the pool of
candidates and their suitability needs to be further explored by The Salvation
Army in order to determine where the non-officer spouse might be recruited and
how they might best ‘serve’. The International Commission on Officership, in
seeking to broaden access to officership has missed at least one significant,
well-trained, experienced, and spiritually charged pool already well known to
individual SA commands and territories..
In a
survey conducted among 400+ former SA officers it was learned that almost 50%
of the hundreds who’d resigned and ‘left the work’ did so because one or both
spouses had misinterpreted/ misunderstood the ‘call’ and God’s leading in their
life. They not only represent a large number of ‘ministers’ whose effectiveness
would be immediate but who are currently being culled by other denominations
experiencing spiritual-minister losses similar to the army’s.
The SSO
program 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. However, TSA found within a short time
of the provision’s introduction that non-Salvationists too, including
non-believers had to be a part of the mix. Some pointed to the threat of
potential legal battles and others to the small number of applicants. Forcing
every facet of the non-officer spouse’s life to fit into a Salvationist
framework is untenable, and to expect that non-officer souses would adopt an
attitude of religiosity would smell of hypocrisy.
With a
newly designed, well thought out provision, taking into consideration the
negative experience of the short-lived experiment in the New Zealand
Territory., along with those of the UKT, Finland, Sweden and others, perhaps a
workable paradigm can be designed.
There are clear distinctions between God’s general will and
His distinctive will, and His particular will concerns one’s distinctive life choices,
disclosed through scripture, meditation and revelation. Some in our fellowship
were dismissed from, or asked to resign from officership. For many though
resignation resulted from a reassessment of God’s distinctive will at a
particular time and place. Recognizing that hundreds, perhaps thousands of
‘former’ officers would have chosen to remain in active service if the SSO
provision had been an option 15, 20, or 25 years ago, and witnessing to a
desire to return to officership, ought they not to be contacted and interviewed
as to interest and qualifications?
Expectations
and general concerns:
What kind
of expectations will be placed upon the non-officer spouse?
Leaders
need to address why so many non-officer spouses have not received a formal or
even ‘recommended’ job expectation/ description. Can it be all that difficult to
demonstrate to the non-officer spouse what their assumed role represents? And
that their general attitude should be seeing themselves as 'servant-helpers' -
their primary ‘calling’ being; to anticipate, meet and support the needs of
their officer spouse.
We Salvationists believe all Christians, without exception,
are called to ministry, and many of us are called by God to spend our entire lives
in SA ministry. The distinction is that all are to minister and some are chosen
to, and elect to serve in full time ministry. In a perfect setting the
officer’s God given resources are recognized by SA leaders and an appointment
will result satisfying both God’s and The Army’s will. Coupled with this
scenario to ensure the highest possible effectiveness is the addition of a
Christian partner who shares a ‘calling’ to serve.
Some,
along with me, consider ourselves ‘appointed’ to be in part- time unpaid
ministry with the officer spouse determining if and how we should be involved
in the officer spouse’s appointment.
(this subject has proved to be somewhat controversial on many levels and
requires further internal SA research) Many of the non-officer spouses are
former or retired officers or former and indeed active in ministry outside TSA.
The corps or SA unit will often assume incorrectly what the non-officer’s role
might or ought to be, especially if their qualifications, experience and past
employment history is known.
However,
in most instances it would be unrealistic to define a specific role within a
corps (or SA unit) based on models where in the past both spouses were SA
officers. There is no one size fits all or any magic SA formula. Commissioner
Phil Needham wrote on the theology of officership some time ago and concluded
that officership was best understood as a function, that any difference between
a soldier and an officer was one of role and responsibility, not status.
The
officer spouse will have had training culminating in commissioning as a
Salvation Army officer with the rank of lieutenant, which also confers the
designate as an accredited minister of religion. And the officer spouse will
have received extensive training on how to be an officer, a church leader.
However, the same cannot be said of the non-officer spouse. Instead, unless
they are themselves former officers or pastors, they may well feel totally
unprepared for the expectations associated with their ministry role.
The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of
overseer (officer), he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be
above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled,
respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle,
not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well,
with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know
how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? He must not
be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the
condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by
outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
Why is this so? Paul makes clear that this is all part of the
minister’s credibility, “for if he does not know how to manage his own
household, how will be care for God’s church?”
If these expectations are applied to TSA it means that the
officer is married to a believing spouse and believing children. This places
the expectations of the non-officer spouse within the larger context of the
officer’s qualifications.
2 Corinthians 6:14
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers – This is a military term that translates
as; keep in your own ranks; do not leave the Christian community (SA) to associate
with those who are decidedly not religious, and converted to God. Logic and common sense speak loudly to the
absurdity of two such persons pretending to walk together in a spiritual way;
smells of hypocrisy.
Why is this so? Beyond what has already been stated, the married
‘pastor’ (shepherdess) has the protection of a spouse, the status of a leader
in the home, the fulfillment of the marital relation, and thus the freedom to
relate to the corps as one who is already committed within the covenant of
marriage, and who is able to serve as a model for other spouses within the
corps (TSA) and the watching community.
Dr. Sven Ljungholm
Birkenhead Corps
UKT
Dr. Sven Ljungholm
Birkenhead Corps
UKT
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