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JAC
Interview with Lieutenant Vanessa Coleman
Lieutenant Vanessa Coleman is a thoroughly
engaged UK officer.
Here’s a teaser: “What fires me up is seeing people who
live with that kind of passion and commitment in the twenty
first century.”
JAC: Who are you? (we’re looking for a quick bio)
Vanessa Coleman, Salvation Army officer, in
Banbury, England. I’m married to Xander, and we have a 15
month old son, Isaac, and a house-mate/ worship leader, Karyn.
When I get the opportunity, I love travelling, reading,
spending copious amounts of time with family, friends and
sunshine.
JAC: Tell us about your salvation and sanctification.
I grew up as an officer’s kid, very aware
from an early age of God’s hand on my life and his plans for
me. I don’t remember not knowing God, not loving him and
wanting to follow him with all I’ve got. I first articulated
God’s call on my life to Officership aged 3, and since then
I’ve been growing in understanding of what it means to walk
with the Lord, what it costs to disobey and the joys and
privileges of obedience. I haven’t always got it right, but in
my times where I’ve been tempted to go in different
directions, to walk away from God, I’ve found myself asking,
along with Peter, ‘where else shall I go, who else has the
words of eternal life?’ I’m compelled by this call from God to
be holy as he is. It drives me forward to keep getting to know
him more and more, to chase him into deeper waters.
JAC: What is your mission/calling?
I count it a blessing to have struck gold
early in terms of finding out where I’m supposed to be at in
life. Now I’ve reached the heady heights of Officership, it’s
a continued journey of discovery as to what that looks like in
practise. I’m passionate about prayer, about seeing people
come to know and follow Jesus, and I see him most clearly in
the eyes of those that society discounts.
JAC: How does the Army support your war fighting?
It’s such a blessing to be resourced by the
Army to not have to find a job or accommodation, so I can
invest all my time and energy into where God’s put me. I’ve
got a good network of people who get it, people who are in a
similar stage to me who I can share with, and other people
further down the track who can cheer me on and call me out
when I’m missing the mark.
JAC: How do you influence people?
Friendships, connecting with other parents.
We’re very conscious that our role as officers includes
modelling marriage and family life, healthy relationships to
people, possessions, our bodies, the planet etc. Life is so
heavy for so many people, and in the midst of that, I find
Jesus’ call to life in fullness utterly compelling. I want to
be known as someone fully alive, sharing what Jesus has given
me and holds out to others. The vast majority of our corps
folk are older than my parents, so what we have to offer
doesn’t come necessarily from wider experience, but by chasing
hard after Jesus together, living as authentically as
possible. Having a baby also gives me great opportunities to
connect and build friendships with other people in my
community, maybe in a different demographic to my corps, but
equally in need of love and hope.
JAC: Who influences you? (and how/why? We’re thinking of
books, disciplers, mentors, coaches, models, teachers,
leaders, etc.)
Growing up I voraciously chewed up all the
biographies and history books I could get my hands on, of
people chasing hard after God: Corrie ten Boom, J. Hudson
Taylor, Catherine Booth, Brother Andrew; Army history books,
stories of martyrs, Bible smugglers and translators,
evangelists and leaders. They shaped and discipled me, hidden
in my school books so my mum thought I was doing homework. I
guess they were much more useful to my life plan than maths
and science in the end anyway. I went through my teens
convinced that there was no way I was going to be able to win
the world for Jesus if I didn’t brush my teeth with salt (as
one of my heroes had done), read 5 chapters of the Bible a day
and pray for hours at a time. These days, much as I love a
good story, what fires me up is seeing people who live with
that kind of passion and commitment in the twenty first
century. I don’t think I’m alone in wondering what that looks
like in practice, but people like Robbie Dawkins give me
glimpses of bold daredevil faith. I have some great officer
friends, gifted, holy and passionate who inspire me in what
Salvation Army Officership looks in the UK today, people to
thrash out the ins and outs of who we are and who we’re called
to be. I meet monthly with a group of church leaders, youth
workers and worship leaders in our town who are all passionate
about chasing hard after Jesus and bringing Banbury to him. We
eat breakfast and pray together and figure out what it looks
like to win Banbury for him. I’m grateful for the friendship
and mentoring of Janet Munn, and so many others who have
invested in me, loved and challenged me.
JAC: What are the keys to successful warfare on your front and
the larger salvation war?
Starting in September 2014, God has called
us as a corps into a year of Sabbath. This has meant we’ve
cancelled all of our existing programme and activity to spend
a year in rest and prayer. God keeps opening up his heart in
challenge to us, calling us forward to discover what kind of
fruitfulness is possible if we stop working so hard on our own
productivity and allow him space to move. Busyness seems to
have become such an idol, we catch ourselves boasting about
how long it is since we’ve taken a day off, how hard we’re
working for the Lord. It is really counter-cultural, within
the church and in wider society to step out of the rat race
and just be. We’ve heard God saying over and over again, ‘rest
is your warfare’, it’s time to stop the glorification of the
busy. All of this is unchartered waters, no one we know has
done this before, we’re making it up as we go along, it takes
a lot of thinking outside the box, but we’re already seeing
God bless and grow our corps as we trust him to lead us. We’re
praying about what direction God is taking us in after this
year, looking into what it looks like to move back into gear,
how we put into practise what God has been teaching us this
year. This is groundbreaking in our understanding of how we
live out who God has called us to be, rest isn’t just for one
year in seven, it affects how we work, how we do activity, how
we fight.
JAC: What are your dreams for the next several years?
A couple of years ago, I turned 25, got
commissioned, got married and started Officership. It felt
like all my dreams and plans had come true within about six
weeks of each other. Obviously that’s taken a lot of
consolidating and working through and I’m loving the
opportunity to dream bigger and wider and deeper about what
God has in store for me. All there is left now is to win the
world for Jesus, starting with Banbury. It’s exciting to put
our heads together about the mission opportunities there are
in our town, pushing forward in extraordinary prayer, seeing
people get saved, seeing lives turned around. It feels like
we’re a canon ball just about to be launched and I have no
idea where that is going to take us, but I’m holding on tight
for the ride.
JAC: How do you cultivate your relationship with God?
God keeps speaking to us at the moment
about rhythms of prayer, making daily, weekly, monthly and
annual points of connection that keep injecting passion and
vitality and longevity. We have half an hour gathered prayer
together at the corps every morning, which puts in some
helpful structured intercession. I tend to pray ad hoc, off
the cuff, on the go. I’m not much of a shopping list pray-er,
so I find it really helpful to have the accountability of
praying with other people every day. I find I do my best
praying when I’m on my own though, and I do a fair bit of
prayer walking. I read through the Bible in the year. Also I’m
still breastfeeding our little one, and make it a spiritual
discipline to intentionally pray as I feed him. Living in
community is another of my disciplines that pushes me towards
Christlikeness. This past year God has been speaking to me a
lot about this vast, deep river of living water that runs
throughout Scripture (e.g. Gen 2:10, Ezekiel 47, Rev 22),
about the healing, fruitfulness, life and sustenance that come
from diving in to the deep parts. I find that imagery keeps
calling back to a place of refreshing in him, whenever I start
to feel dry and run down.
JAC: How are you and your comrades strengthening The Salvation
Army?
It’s easy to get caught up in the
negativity, criticism and complaining culture that goes around
the Army. I try to be intentional in noticing the good that
God is doing and speaking it out, and championing
encouragement.
One of the things I’m really excited about
at the moment is the Transformers discipleship programme our
division is running, that I help lead. A bunch of teens from
across the division meet for a weekend every month for three
months, with
intensive discipleship, leadership and mission training, with
a corps placement, with mentoring, study and journaling. It’s
amazing watching these young people step up and lead in their
corps, families and friendship groups. These kids are hard
core, they inspire me to be all I can be, and I’m so full of
hope for how God is using them already to build his kingdom.
On a wider scale, our teen summer camp takes a bigger group of
kids and does the same kind of things for a week in the
summer. These kids are great at prayer, the prophetic,
evangelism and mountain biking. God’s got something special in
store for these kids, he’s saving the best wine til last.
JAC: What are some of the dangers we have to face in the
coming years? (And how?)
The cycle of burnout and apathy that keeps
us small minded and self centred. The temptation to trust our
reputation rather than God’s provision. Even if it means we
lose funds and financial support, we need to at least be doing
the things God raised us into being for. Oscar Wilde said,
‘the bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the
expanding bureaucracy’, it often feels like that for the Army,
we get so easily distracted from what God has called us to.
JAC: What final exhortations have you for this audience?
Let’s not be people who merely run through
the motions, keeping busy, loosing focus, spinning our wheels
with a cloud of dust hiding the truth of our fruitlessness.
For too long we haven’t seen the results we crave. I really
believe God isn’t done with The Salvation Army yet. As we
enter into our 150th year, let’s press in to God, asking him
for the big stuff, let’s dream big, allow him to fill our
hearts and minds with what could be. And let’s allow him space
to bring it into being. Let’s find ourselves in him.
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