The 125 old non-trenchable marriage policy was strangling us!

The steady decline in the number of active officers has adversely affected the army’s evangelistic outreach to such a degree that the 125 old non-trenchable marriage policy was abandoned in 2000; the Single Spouse Officership provision was introduced in the UKT. Was it too late?

The USA territories have not enacted the SSO provision, yet they, and the UK territory are researching the degree of effectiveness that the Single Spouse Officership provision has brought since its introduction twelve years ago. And can its adoption by other territories impact their attrition rate in the loss of active SA officers. The key concern, of course, is retaining maximum effectiveness of TSA’s soul saving mission

Single Spouse Officership (SSO) refers to an active officer of The Salvation Army who is married to a non-officer. Leaders recognized that if they wanted soldiers to come forward and offer for full time service as SA officers they needed a change in the regulations and their approach. The Army could no longer remain static, no longer defined by century old dictates, while being called to serve the present age. This while most ‘western’ territories grappled with the challenge of effectively sharing our life transforming salvation message with a diminishing numbers of soldiers, cadets and officers.

For the first time, the Canada and Bermuda Territory is faced with the reality of fewer active officers than there are retired officers. This means they 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. Other territories sharing a similar threat include Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

The Single spouse Officership provision has afforded many territories the opportunity to implement initiatives to thwart the loss of active officers (attrition) that would otherwise be denied. Equally important; it acknowledges and celebrates individual calling to ministry as officers in TSA while also seeking to quell the fundamental problem of the diminishing number of active officers in many ‘western’ country territories. This problem did not affect all territories as broadly or significantly as others. The reduction in the number of officers serving in non-pastoral roles was less affected in the USA for instance, as their resources were sufficient in hiring lay personnel to fill many roles previously held by officer personnel.

The SSO programme was designed initially to solely attract SA soldiers as the non-officer spouse, from a world wide pool of 1,122,236 (2010 Year Book) a substantial number of persons sworn to abide by SA regulations and lifestyles, and to become partners in ministry with their officer spouse. 

The SA International Commission on Officership (2000) seeking to remedy the significant reductions in the number of officers in many developed countries opened the door for Christian ministry and spiritual leadership for those called by God, but whose spouse does not share the same calling to ministry. It broadens access to officership for those who are married to non-officer spouses.

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

Throughout Salvation Army history our unique position on married officer ministry, i.e. both spouses equally called, trained, ordained and commissioned, has been a great strength. It would seem though, that for many potential candidates, a lifelong commitment is not something they are no longer prepared to make. The model of service where an officer is married to an officer will continue to be encouraged and endorsed. However, although there are great advantages in having both husband and wife in ministry team leadership, this should not impede couples where only one wishes to become an officer.

THE PROVISION CHALLENGES

Although the SSO provision was designed initially to attract and recruit only SA soldiers to partner in ministry with their officer spouse, many territories have fallen far short of their intent. They have been unable or unwilling to closely scrutinize and restrict the approval of many non-officer spouse candidates. The non-officer candidates have too often not been SA soldiers, nor did they understand the nature of officership as a spiritual covenant, rather than as a contract with TSA, such as the one the non-officer spouse was required to commit to. TSA found within a short time of the provision’s introduction that non-Salvationists too, and those committed to other denominations, and even non-believers, had become a part of the mix. Some pointed to the threat of potential legal battles and others to the small number of applicants as the motivating factor forcing the army to lessen their expectations and to compromise minimum standards.

Forcing every facet of the non-officer spouse’s life to fit into a Salvationist framework was seen as being untenable, and to expect that all non-officer spouses would adopt an attitude of religiosity would be hypocritical.

Consequently, this significant regulation change, introduced over a decade ago in several territories to combat the attrition rates, has met with only modest success at best, relative to an increase in the number of active officers; approximately 100 worldwide. And, it has and continues to suffer from what should have been easily predictable issues; the demand that the non-officer be required to reside in the SA provided quarters, vacate and move to the officer spouse’s appointment, etc. Instead SSO in the UKT have been allowed to vacate the SA provided quarters and purchase their own homes, with TSA assisting by paying towards the mortgage and other monthly payments. What happens when it comes time to take on a new appointment in a distant place and the real estate market bottoms out? Is the couple prepared to take loss when selling their home or will TSA step in, as is the case with many corporations. And will TSA insist that the house be of a standard and in a neighbourhood in keeping with what soldiers, employees and the general public perceive suitable? Would it not be more practical for TSA to improve the quality or buy new quarters to avoid the obvious battle when the ‘marching orders, are received.

  

THE NON-OFFICER SPOUSE

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 from where the non-officer spouse might be recruited, how they might be trained, keep their commitment current, and how they might best ‘serve’.

The International Commission on Officership, in seeking to broaden access to officership erred in not recruiting from among at least one significant, well-trained, experienced, and spiritually charged pool already, one well known to individual SA commands and territories; former SA officers.

FSAOF

In a survey conducted among 400+ former SA officers it was revealed that;

·      10% of those who resigned did so to marry a non-officer partner.

·      11% pointed to the ambiguity and God’s leading in their life; the ‘call’ was not recognized as authentic

·      24%  (USA) resigned because there was no SSO provision option available to them

·      11% spouse’s disillusionment with officership as a vocation

·      19% (USA) would return to officership if SSO provision was an option

If this ratio is a fair representation, or even remotely close, it suggests that thousands of officers would not have felt obliged or forced to resign if the SSO provision had been in place a decade or two earlier and an option in the USA territories.

Further, 30% (135) of the FSAOF members responded that they would have been ready to return to officership if TSA had sent a fair-minded SA officer representative to meet with them to review an eventual return. Recognizing that our membership is but a small percentage of the world-wide former officer numbers, the number of returned officers might be in the thousands.

The theological truth and concept of the priesthood of all believers have never been of any greater importance to the Salvation Army than it is today. The original shape and dynamic of our Movement is based in the priesthood of all believers, and the believers referenced then and now are SA soldiers.  The army’s loss in effectiveness will be significantly reduced, and the negative mission impact will be far less affected on officers’ resignation by training and instructing non-officer spouses to become soldiers and to fill some of the many vacant roles.

THE POSITION OF THE 450+ FSAOF MEMBERS

Many of those in the Former Salvation Army Officers Fellowship continue serving in consecrated, ordained roles as pastors, teachers and shepherds, while others live out their calling in other areas of service. Dozens serve faithfully in SA corps as soldiers, LOs, and many are SA employees. And, a steady number return to substantive rank annually, pointing to the FSAOF as the key motivator.

No matter where our vocation is lived out, and as we faithfully serve, we are also mindful of a key corporate mission as ‘former’ officers; the reformation of The SA Officer recruitment, retention and resignation process- to thwart the steady departure of well-qualified, committed officers.

Potentially the army’s shift in policy may prove to be the single most important provision in the army’s effort to stave off closing more doors in more towns and cities and reigniting and refocusing our movement’s evangelistic zeal in accordance with the General Linda Bond’s; One message – One mission proclamation.

Sven Ljungholm

TIME FOR REVIEW...

SSO ADDENDUM (PREPARED FOR THE USA EASTERN TERRITORY)

The USA and UK territories are conducting research as to the degree of effectiveness that the Single spouse Officership provision has offered, or can provide in affecting the attrition rate with respect to SA OFFICERS. The key concern is, of course, to maximize TSA’s soul saving mission

“The Single spouse Officership provision affords some of us opportunities that we would otherwise be denied. And although one partner is not an Officer the provision offers the opportunity of support, understanding, companionship, and a spiritual partner who believes in us, the mission of the army and encourages us to be the best we can be for the Kingdom and the Army.” (Major Glad Ljungholm, UKT)

“As a single-spouse officer I can say that without the SSO provision I could not be in officership. What will happen to such as myself if the provision is rescinded (as it was in NZ)? (SSO Australia)

Does the SSO provision in its present form provide the necessary and expected positive results? What is the future of the army if the expectations of the non-officer spouse are not made clear and controlled?

"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 (attrition as high as 78%)  in the number of officers in most 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 misunderstood and misinterpreted 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, and those committed to other denominations, 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 as the motivating factor forcing the army to lessen their expectations and compromise the standards. The Canada and Bermuda Territory had as a requirement that the non-officer be a SA soldier in good standing. Forcing every facet of the non-officer spouse’s life to fit into a Salvationist framework is untenable, and to expect that non-officer spouses would adopt an attitude of religiosity would be hypocritical.

With a newly designed, well thought through 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 are disclosed through scripture, meditation and revelation. Some in our former officer fellowship were dismissed 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 the first choice to be contacted and interviewed as to their interest and qualifications? A survey conducted in April 2012 revealed that the great majority of former officer returned to higher-level educational institutions with an impressive percentage earning the baccalaureate, post-graduate degree and several even their Doctoral degree.

Expectations and general concerns:

What kind of expectations will be placed upon the non-officer spouse?

Leaders need to address why 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 on so many levels? And that their general attitude should be seeing themselves as 'servant-helpers' - their primary ‘calling’ being, and their SA contract’s purpose to anticipate, meet and support the needs of their officer spouse and his/her unique God anointed assignment.

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 in 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.

Many 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 and contentious issue on many levels and requires further internal SA research; especially as it concern former officer spouses.) 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 years 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; fellowship and the priesthood of all believers.

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. The officer spouse will have received extensive training on how to be an officer: a Pastor, administrator, counselor, theologian: a church leader. However, the same cannot be said of the non-officer spouse. Instead, unless they are themselves a former officer or pastor, they may well feel totally unprepared, ill equipped and unsuited for the expectations associated with their expected ministry support 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.

The text’s concern does not end there. The pastor (officer) is to “manage his own household well,(including his/her non-pastor spouse) with all dignity keeping his children submissive.”

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 Christ 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; it 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

A Second Chance

Birthday parties for me were a thing of the past. I stopped having them when the lit candles on my cake started to look like the burning of Atlanta in Gone With The Wind. I figured it was time to quit before people began passing out from the heat. Besides, who wants to look at a cake that has candles sticking out of its sides---especially when it’s yours?

No doubt the subconscious fear of mortality had a lot to do with my negative feelings toward birthdays. But then something happened that put a new perspective on my fear.

As a nurse I was assigned to accompany a patient during his therapy sessions. I couldn’t help but notice that his limo driver was an unusually kind man.

One afternoon, while the driver was waiting in the lobby of the clinic, a disheveled woman walked through the revolving door.

“Did you know that that woman is much more important than all the things we’ve been told are supposed to be important in life?” he asked me. “Did you know that to open a door for her out of kindness is worth more in God’s sight than if the whole world applauded you for being a huge success?” My curiosity was piqued.

It turned out that a decade earlier the limo driver had died. He found himself in a world that was permanent. Compared to it, our world was a shadowy, temporal place. As he stood before God he was asked the question, “What have you done with your life?”

“It didn’t mean what did I do for a living,” he explained, “but how had I loved other people?”

The man was revived by the medics and came back a different person. He no longer feared death, turned from his self-centered wrongdoing and made Jesus the Lord of his life.

Jesus encourages us to live for things of lasting value. “Store up for yourselves treasure in Heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal” (Matthew 6: 20). So come my next birthday I am going to celebrate. I learned what really matters and I’m going to light all those candles. Even if it means having an ambulance nearby just in case someone conks out from the heat.

Daryl Lach
USA Central
The War Cry 2 January 2010 USA

Inclusivity is at the heart of God's plan and Christ's message....

This article was shared in our FSAOF's  FB space. And, knowing that our blog visitors hail from widespread and varied religious backgrounds, I thought it appropriate for posting. Perhaps some  will find Teresa's experience mirroring your own. Remember;   tinclusivity is at the heart of God's plan and Christ's message. It's the same message that you preached or are preaching and the one that will lead you home again.  Sven Ljungholm, for the FSAOF. 


_______________________

Teresa MacBain walks her dog, Gracie, at a park near her Tallahassee, Florida home. After a lifetime in the church, 


MacBain came out as an atheist at an American Atheists' convention in Bethesda, Md.

Teresa MacBain has a secret, one she's terrified to reveal.

"I'm currently an active pastor and I'm also an atheist," she says. "I live a double life. I feel pretty good on Monday, but by Thursday — when Sunday's right around the corner — I start having stomachaches, headaches, just knowing that I got to stand up and say things that I no longer believe in and portray myself in a way that's totally false."

MacBain glances nervously around the room. It's a Sunday, and normally she would be preaching at her church in Tallahassee, Fla. But here she is, sneaking away to the American Atheists' convention in Bethesda, Md.

Her secret is taking a toll, eating at her conscience as she goes about her pastoral duties week after week — two sermons every Sunday, singing hymns, praying for the sick when she doesn't believe in the God she's praying to. She has had no one to talk to, at least not in her Christian community, so her iPhone has become her confessor, where she records her private fears and frustrations.

"On my way to church again. Another Sunday. Man, this is getting worse," she tells her phone in one recording. "How did I get myself in this mess? Sometimes, I think to myself, if I could just go back a few years and not ask the questions and just be one of those sheep and blindly follow and not know the truth, it would be so much easier. I'd just keep my job. But I can't do that. I know it's a lie. I know it's false."

EnlargeCourtesy of Teresa MacBain

Teresa MacBain's husband, Ray MacBain, says he still believes in God but defends his wife's right not to.

MacBain made that recording in her car on the way to Lake Jackson United Methodist Church several weeks before the American Atheists' conference.

Finding Atheism

MacBain, 44, was raised a conservative Southern Baptist. Her dad was a pastor and she felt the call of God when she was 6. She had questions, of course, about conflicts in the Bible, for example, or the role of women. She says she sometimes felt she was serving a taskmaster of a God, whose standards she never quite met.

For years, MacBain set her concerns aside. But when she became a United Methodist pastor nine years ago, she started asking sharper questions. She thought they'd make her faith stronger.

"In reality," she says, "as I worked through them, I found that religion had so many holes in it, that I just progressed through stages where I couldn't believe it."

The questions haunted her: Is Jesus the only way to God? Would a loving God torment people for eternity? Is there any evidence of God at all? And one day, she crossed a line.

"I just kind of realized — I mean just a eureka moment, not an epiphany, a eureka moment — I'm an atheist," she says. "I don't believe. And in the moment that I uttered that word, I stumbled and choked on that word — atheist."

But it felt right.

About a year ago, MacBain found The Clergy Project, an anonymous online community of clergy who have lost their faith. Now she had allies, but no easy escape. She began applying for jobs, but when prospective employers asked why she wanted to leave the ministry, she didn't know what to say. She recorded her worries on her iPhone."So what the hell am I supposed to do?" she asks in one recording, her voice sounding desperate. "Really, the options are work at something like Starbucks or McDonald's — and even there they're going to ask those questions. I could even clean houses and not make a great amount of money — but at least nobody would be asking me questions."

Driving to church on Sunday, March 18, MacBain realized she could no longer bear her double life.

"I got to come out. I got to get out of it," she told her phone. "It used to terrify me, what people's reaction would be. But it's been so long now and I've done this for so long, I don't even care."

The sermon she gave that day was her last.

The 'Freedom' Of Coming Out

On March 26, at the American Atheists' convention in Bethesda, MacBain seems almost giddy. The day before, she decided she would go before the conference's 1,500 or so nonbelievers and announce that she is officially an atheist.

"I am nervous," she says, "but at the same time I am so excited. I slept like a baby last night because I knew I wasn't going to have to live a lie anymore. Such freedom."

Moments later, in the darkened, cavernous conference room, MacBain steps onstage.

"My name is Teresa," she begins. "I'm a pastor currently serving a Methodist church — at least up to this point" — the audience laughs — "and I am an atheist."

Hundreds of people jump to their feet. They hoot and clap for more than a minute. MacBain then apologizes to them for being, as she put it, "a hater."

"I was the one on the right track, and you were the ones that were going to burn in hell," she says. "And I'm happy to say as I stand before you right now, I'm going to burn with you."

A few minutes later, MacBain strides off the stage into a waiting crowd. One man is crying as he tells her that her speech is "one of the most moving things I've seen in years." Another woman says she, too, had been a born-again Christian. "Join the club," she says as she hugs MacBain.

"I have never felt so appreciated and cared for, you know?" MacBain says later, noting that she has left one community — Christianity — for another. "New member, just been born — that's what it feels like."

Teresa MacBain pauses while talking about her ongoing job search. She has been out of work since leaving her position as a Methodist pastor earlier this year.

The Fallout

Two days later, MacBain returned to Tallahassee — and to reality.

"I didn't know how far or how explosive her coming out would be, but, then again, nobody did," says MacBain's husband, Ray MacBain. "The next morning, we got up, I went to work and my son Alex texted me and said it went viral."

The local TV station, WCTV, ran a series ofstories about MacBain, interviewing her boss but never MacBain herself. Hundreds of people wrote comments on the site, and MacBain says they were painful to read.

"The majority of them, to begin with, were pretty hateful," she says, although some nonbelievers soon came to her defense. "For somebody who's been a good guy their whole life and been a people pleaser, it's really hard to imagine that overnight you're the bad guy."

MacBain tried to see the church's district superintendent to explain, but he canceled the meeting. She was immediately locked out and replaced, so she flew out to Seattle to meet with her colleagues at The Clergy Project. There, sitting alone in her hotel room on Palm Sunday, MacBain again turned to her iPhone.

"I don't want to go home," she muses in the recording, deflation flattening her voice. "I don't want to have to be in Publix or Wal-Mart or somewhere and worry about who's going to see me and who's going to corner me and just tell me off."

But MacBain did go home. People shunned her. Job interviews were canceled. The Humanists of Florida Association offered to pay her salary for a year, but there's no guarantee. Only two of MacBain's friends called her and took her to lunch. Meanwhile, her family was a refuge, even if they didn't all agree with her new views.

"I believe in God," says her husband, Ray. "And to be honest, I pray for her every night, I got friends praying for her."

But he says he adores his wife and defends her right to disbelieve. "That's why I spent 23 years in the Army. That's why I'm still a police officer. We have freedom of speech and freedom of thought. And God never forced anybody to believe, so who am I to step up?"

EnlargeColin Hackley for NPR

Teresa MacBain makes breakfast for her son David, 22, while he is home on leave from serving in the Army. MacBain says she is still adjusting to life outside the church.

'Life Is Just Different'

A few minutes later, Teresa MacBain goes for a drive to the church at the center of her story. She says she has butterflies — this is the first time she's seen her church since she went public. Its 11:20 a.m., nearly time for the sermon. She's glad she's not inside.

"Not because of the people or anything," she says, "but because if I were in there, I know what I'd be doing. And that would be standing up and proclaiming something that I no longer believe in. So, yeah, I'm relieved that I don't have to do that."

Back at home, MacBain doesn't hesitate when she's asked what she misses most about her old life.

"I miss the music," she says. MacBain sang in church choirs and worship bands most of her life, and even though she no longer believes the words, she still catches herself singing praise songs.

She says she also misses the relationships — she'll often pick up the phone to call someone, then realize she can't. And she misses the ritual and regularity of church life.

"It's what I know. It's what I knew. And I still struggle with it. Life is just different," she says.

When it's pointed out that she hasn't said whether or not she misses God, MacBain pauses.

"No, no," she says. "I can't say that I do.

by BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY

Time to praise Him

FORMER SALVATION ARMY OFFICERS FELLOWSHIP

THE FSAOF                       

The FSAOF was inspired and launched on August 15, 2007, an era when every facet of business had begun using one common media outlet to expand their market focus and outreach, the world wide web (internet). Both the intrinsic and extrinsic usefulness for the use of the Internet was immediately recognized and motivated many to form international alliances. It was in this same fashion that I was inspired to form the FSAOF. Initially I created a web-log page where ‘former’ officers could visit and read challenging and inspirational messages with ‘formers’ being the article contributors and our focus audience. One of the driving purposes was to slow the steady flow in the numbers of Salvation Army officers resigning and deserting the assignments they’d prayerfully and willingly accepted as being Divine appointments. 

Our primary intent was to get alongside those contemplating resignation and those who’d already made a ‘break’. We wanted to make all ‘formers’ our friends through our Spirit led fellowship; we were careful to not be seen as in any sense making them our ‘mission’. Anti-religion and negative SA leadership sentiments were running strong.  Few active officers, on the separation of faithful officers from the organization, demonstrated the spiritual kinship William Booth ascribed to us: “He received the spirit of officership, whereby he mingled amongst us, for a season, as one of us, and go where he likes, and do what he likes, the imprint of the life he lived will remain.”

Within a few weeks the interest, need and usefulness became evident with scores of blog visitors daily. And the FSAOF has to date welcomed almost 90,000 visitors from more than 100 countries, with around 50% having a SA link.

A few months subsequent to the launch of our blog, the private FACEBOOK site was created with the intent of being a “safe house” where formers from around the world sensed that they were in the presence of like minded souls, others who had trod the road of the Divinely inspired and chosen Evangelist but who for varied reason was separated from the army’s fighting forces; those with whom they had shared years of service under the SA banner. We formed a spiritually committed fellowship that is as faithful and supportive as any that can be found inside or outside the church.

Dozens come together in fellowship daily. Our fears, hurts and joys are shared. We discuss, mostly in a brotherly way, all matters of interest and concern- no subject is too foreign to be shared in our loving fellowship; hundreds of threads and thousands of responses. It is a place of healing, rest and reconciliation.

FSAOF MEMBER PROFILE

Many of those in the Former Salvation Army Officers Fellowship continue serving in consecrated, ordained roles as pastors , teachers and shepherds, while others live out their calling in other areas of service. No matter where our vocation is lived out, and as we faithfully serve, we are also mindful of a key corporate mission as ‘former’ officers; the reformation of THE SA Officer recruitment, retention and resignation process- to thwart the steady departure of well-qualified, committed officers.

We are in the process of sharing the results from more than 7 recently conducted survey with SA leadership detailing for the first time the loss of return on investment relative to the high level of attrition of officers. And also sharing, from experience several recommendation on how the losses can be reversed.

A first and key step in formulating a successful strategy is acknowledging that reform is necessary. One need only take a cursory look at the alarmingly high percentage of officers resigning from active service each year to recognize both the immediate and long-term negative implications. And our concern is shared by many, including active SA officers, and others, as evidenced by the more than 900 articles and comments shared through our blog site.

As a spiritual body of more than 450  members, the FSAOF is very concerned about the army’s future, the organization that trained us for the ministry and in the roles where many of us serve today. The spiritual body we represent was grounded and formed in response to a ‘call’ each of us heard, accepting our vocation in accordance with Paul’s description in Ephesians 4:11-12 (NIV) ‘It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up’.

We believe wholeheartedly in the soul-saving mission of the army and want to do all possible to advance that divine assignment. However, to serve the present age and to march steadily onward can best be achieved by calling on the resources represented by the FSAOF, that in part brought the advances the army, through God the Holy Spirit, has achieved. The Former Salvation Army Officers Fellowship members represent a formidable earlier resource willing to be used once again in SA service.

Your battle is our battle...

May God continue to bless the hundreds of formers in our fellowship, their families, and their Kingdom committment. And may God bless the Salvation Army. 

Dr . Sven –Erik Ljungholm

Former Salvation Army Officer

Birkenhead Corps, UKT