Today in Canada The
Salvation Army has 877active officers (clergy), more than 18,000 soldiers
(church members) and close to 44,000 adherents; that is, people who claim the
Army as their church home, but who are not formal members. There are 311 corps
(churches) and more
than 330
social-service institutions of various kinds. As well
as the many thousands
of volunteers, more than 10,000 people
are employed by The
Salvation Army in the Canada and
Bermuda Territory.
Fifty-five Canadian officers and lay staff
also serve overseas in
countries from Papua New Guinea to South Africa.
____
A comrade salvationist
is trying to shake us awake from the sleep in one territory that SHOULD be in
crisis mode but which, according to argument, seems to be snoozing away while
the titanic is sinking…
Immediate actions?
Address the
precipitous officer decline (his suggestions):
Re-activate retireds
- write
to the DCs (whether retired now or not) with a list of all of the retireds (those
who have retired in the last five years) who served in their commands, asking
for confirmation that there is no reason not to reactivate them;
- reactivate
all of those retireds (who want to be reactivated)
. accelerate older
training
- implement by September a three-month training system for candidates
over 45;
. keep current
officers
- write all officers
- ask who's
considering leaving and what would get them to stay
Our take:
retireds –
sure, let’s try to get a bunch of them reactivated. Canada and Bermuda
Territory deployed a bunch of them in last week’s appointments.
But let’s
adjust the system. Let’s bump up the retirement age. 68 or 70 is a
good start… (the general population lives a lot longer than it did when
65 was made retirement age; officers in UKI live a decade longer than the
general population – clean living!; we USED to have retirement age of 70 (and
then 68) for generals (who have a tough workload); and in the west most
officers have to work anyway to afford to live in retiredment)
Accelerate
older training – sure. We’d lower the minium age proposed from 45 to 18.
Again, let’s adjust the system. Let’s set an entry profile for
commissioned officership and then bring cadets to match that profile. For
some it might take a couple of days; for others it might be a couple of years.
Not
only that, but we train using an incarnational apprenticeship method so that
the training period is more effective and efficient and more productive in the
salvation war.
Keep current officers –
great call. His suggestion included flexibility to match the officers’ ‘what
could get me to stay’ proposals… That’d be interesting to observe.
Regardless, let’s care for people.
______________________
The whole great
commission imperative is to GO and PREACH. We are to go and preach that the
kingdom of God is at hand. We are to go and make disciples of all nations. We
are to go and preach the gospel to all creatures. We are to go and turn them
from darkness to light, from the power of satan to God, SO THAT they may
receive the forgiveness of sins AND A PLACE AMONG THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN
SANCTIFIED BY FAITH IN ME. By all means, save some.
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