A Conversation about Salvation Army Officership
 
General Paul Rader and Commissioner Kay Rader in Conversation on Officership.  
Excerpt from the forthcoming book, CHARGE!
 
What follows is a conversation between General Paul A. Rader and Commissioner Kay F. Rader reflecting on their calling and experience as officers of The Salvation Army.

PAR: A life-time of service certainly gives us a unique perspective on officership over the long haul.
 
KFR: Long, but never boring.  How often have we said, we may die of something, but it won’t be of boredom!
 
PAR: Is there any calling that is more diverse, colorful, fascinating, challenging and rewarding than officership?  Not a walk in the park -- sometimes intense and demanding, but always deeply rewarding.
 
KFR: What do you think has kept us at it all these years? 
 
PAR: Bottom line: a sense of calling.  The confidence that this is God’s will for our lives.  We have to admit that how that call is experienced is not the same for everyone. 
 
KFR: Isaiah 30:21 tells us, “Your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it.”  I wish it could be that certain for everyone. 
 
PAR: Psalm 32:8 has always been reassuring for me: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.”  God has a way of opening a door and nudging us toward it by his Spirit. 
 
KFR: Yes! Those who have ears to hear and hearts to obey want to respond as Isaiah did when he was touched with fire, “Here am I, send me!”  However it comes, a settled sense that we are on the path of God’s purpose as officers has taken us through the difficult points in the journey. 
 
PAR: And there have been some testing times.
 
KFR: For one thing, we never knew where our response to God’s call was going to take us.  I love the plaque in our kitchen that pictures a little tent topped with an Army flag and says, “Home is where the Army sends me!”  Along with all the positive and the Divine Yes that resonates in our hearts, we accept the disciplines of an Army – an Army of Salvation, an Army of peace, but nevertheless: an Army.  And that means being where ever we are needed in the line of battle.
 
PAR: Officership is not about contract.  It is about covenant.  It begins with our commitment to Jesus Christ and the reality of our relationship to him.  It is grounded in our experience of his saving life.  Our relationship to him is covenantal.  And when we have responded to his call, our relationship to the Army is really not unlike the marriage covenant.  Officers enter into a covenant relationship of trust and loyal commitment: each to the other, and both to God.  The Army commits to provide for its officers as long as they are faithful to their calling.  The Army depends on us and we depend on the Army.  But there is no binding legal contract.  It is all a matter of calling and covenant, mutual trust and commitment. 
 
KFR: One of the great joys of officership for married couples is the privilege of working so closely together in a common calling.  We have been able to work off of each other’s strengths, supporting and encouraging one another. You remember that at our wedding, Dad Rader quoted this verse: “One shall chase a thousand and two shall put ten thousand to flight!”  As married officers we signed individual covenants, committing us to “live to win souls . . . as the first great purpose of [our lives] . . . to be true to The Salvation Army, and the principles represented by its Flag.”  But the Army, after all, is about teamwork, an egalitarian partnership that crosses gender lines gently. 
 
PAR: The covenant is not intended to be joint.  It is a transaction that must occur between the individual and God.  It is, however, signed and sealed with a common purpose that is shared by all officers, whether one’s spouse or a colleague officer with whom we may be teamed – all of this, as an accepted part of God’s plan for our lives as  officers in The Salvation Army.
 
KFR: Our covenant committed us to the holy mission of the Army.  It has been expressed in many ways.  The International Mission Statement is this:
 
The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church.  Its message is based on the Bible.  Its ministries are motivated by love for god.  Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and  meet human need in his name without discrimination.
 
Our calling and covenant commit us to the mission.  Officership requires allegiance to the mission, under the lordship of Jesus Christ, believing in its principles and goals and methods and being fully comfortable with its ethos. 
 
PAR: That is why full immersion in the training experience is so critical.
 
KFR: One of the most exciting dimensions of officership is the wide open door it provides for creativity and innovation in our service.  There is such a rich diversity of ministry opportunities.  And always fresh ways to address the needs of those we serve and with whom we share the Gospel. 
 
PAR: For one thing, officership makes us part of a global missionary movement.  It can provide a platform for service anywhere in the world.  It puts us totally at God’s disposal to send us where he will and use us as pleases him most.
 
KFR: Officership does not give us a blank sheet of paper and a packet of crayons and say draw whatever you want.  But within the expectations and guidelines the Army affords – and the Army itself is part of a divinely creative process – there is unlimited scope for a lifetime of ministry as colorful and inventive as God by his Spirit can help us to make it.
 
PAR: We need to say something about officership being long-term.  It is not a sprint.  It’s a marathon.  O.K., that is a hard sell these days.  Maybe, more than ever before.  People tend to be into short term commitments with all options open and unhampered control of one’s life choices.  Let’s be honest.  When God laid his hand hot upon us and claimed us by his grace for this ministry, it meant signing on for the duration. 
 
KFR: Actually, the Soldier’s Covenant (what we used to call, ‘The Articles of War’) signed by every soldier, commits us to a lifetime covenant of service within the Army.  It is part of the uniqueness of our movement that we expect that level of commitment from all our members.  Officer covenants go deeper by extending this promise to exclude other employment outside the bounds of the Army until retirement, and an expectation that even after retirement, officers will give willing service as opportunities arise.  This is long term.
 
In the early days of overseas missionary service, the candidate understood his/her covenant to be life long.  British born, Amy Carmichael, famous missionary to India, committed her life to the people of India for a lifetime, never returning home for furlough, living out her life, dying and being buried among the people of the Dohnavuhr Fellowship which she founded.  Elisabeth Elliott, entitles her biography of this great saint, A Chance to Die                     
 
PAR: Officership provides its own ‘chance to die’ and ‘chance to live’ for heaven’s highest purpose: sharing the Gospel in its transforming power and living out the love of Christ for our lost and broken world.  For “he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:14 TNIV).  But let’s be up front about the cost, because Jesus was.  “Whoever wants to be my disciple,” Jesus said, “must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it” (Luke 9:23, 24 TNIV).
 
KFR: Officership is long-term service: service to God and the Army for a life time.  Officership is not working for the Army.  Officership is being the Army.  Officership is belonging to an elite ‘company of the committed’.  The fellowship among the officers with whom we may be privileged to serve, is beautiful. 
 
PAR: What a privilege to wear the same uniform they wear.  We have met them all over the world – many serving in hostile environments, in difficult and dangerous circumstances.  The uniforms may differ but they are all identifiable as Army.  When we meet these heroes and heroines, we know we share a common covenant and are engaged in the same great mission.  The uniform itself is sacramental.  Putting it on may be difficult, but as one Korean officer observed, “taking it off is more difficult.”
 
KFR:  Whatever the challenges, the rewards of this life are great beyond telling.  And best of all is knowing that to follow Christ into officership in answer to His call, is to bring joy to the heart of God.  In the end, that is all that matters.
 
General Paul A. Rader (Ret.)
Commissioner Kay F. Rader
Lexington, Kentucky
July 2010

Greetings in Jesus' name, friends.