CADETS

Dear Fellow Salvationists,

I offer warmest Christian greetings to you all from London.

In this eighth Pastoral Letter it has been laid upon my heart to speak to you about cadets.

There are about 1,130 Salvation Army cadets today across the world undergoing training to become officers of the Army. Their ages range from 19 up to the mid-50s. Their backgrounds are as varied as you can imagine. Some become cadets with a modest educational experience, while others have university degrees including postgraduate degrees. Most of the cadets are in residence in a training college, with others being trained in off-campus settings. However, the one thing all cadets have in common is that all have been called by God to leave their secular walk in life to devote themselves full time to the ministry of an officer of The Salvation Army. It is a privileged calling.

Unless that divine calling has been experienced no person should offer to be trained as an officer. The life of an officer, whilst immensely rewarding, is also demanding and often stressful. At certain times of challenge and difficulty your abiding, settled sense of a sacred calling is all that will hold you secure and keep you pressing forward in your officer service.

That is why much emphasis is placed upon the testing of callings. Each candidate applying to become a cadet in training is invited to submit, in appropriate humility, to the process of having his or her claim to a divine calling gently but clearly tested through the screening process for candidates. It is a wonderful privilege to encounter candidates in this way and to learn from their accounts of God whispering into their hearts and minds. He speaks so graciously, so gently, but also so clearly until that first fleeting thought of officership grows and grows to become an abiding, settled conviction that you simply must obey if you are to have peace of spirit deep within.

I want to share with you lots of good news from around the Army world about candidates and cadets. In July 200 7 we were in Hershey in the USA Eastern Territory and when we called for those offering for future service as officers to come to the platform 140 people came forward. It was breathtaking. The THQ is now processing 95 formal application cases. Praise God! In Sri Lanka, where the Army is far from great in number, 33 came forward in a similar manner. It was thrilling. In the USA Central Territory recently 40 stepped forward for officership. Wonderful! In the Australia Southern Territory it began to seem as though the next intake of cadets would be numerically tiny, but suddenly there were 20 to make up the next training session. God still calls, still speaks into the lives of those he has chosen in this way.

In the India Northern Territory there are 40 ready to enter training, but the capacity of the college cannot hold them all. In the USA Western Territory the territorial commander tells me that there are 300 candidates ready for application and possible acceptance in the next few years. The United Kingdom Territory has received 44 cadets into the latest session, a huge rise on recent years. The USA Southern Territory has received no fewer than 59 cadets in late 2007. Spain has five cadets, the first for some years. Marvelous! Japan anticipated having no first-year cadets at all this year, but suddenly three fine young people have stepped forward for acceptance. God is good!

I have a dream that the total number of cadets in the world will increase from 1,130 to 1,500 in the next few years. Leaders are needed. Is God calling you?

Please make time to offer up a sincere prayer for the cadets of future training college sessions, whose members are as yet unknown except to God. In 2008 the sessional name is 'Prayer Warriors'; in 2009 it will be 'Ambassadors of Holiness'; in 2010 'Friends of Christ'; in 2011 'Proclaimers of the Resurrection'; and in 2012 'Disciples of the Cross'. I have faith to believe some reading this Pastoral Letter will be part of these sessions in obedience to Christ's call.

God bless the cadets! God bless the candidates! God bless those involved in screening and training them!

God bless you all!

I commend you once again to the perfect love of Christ.

Shaw Clifton
General

 

I love The Salvation Army uniform. I don't care if people presume that I'm an airline pilot when walking through an airport, or if I'm mistaken for a bellhop at a hotel. Plain and simply, the uniform is an outward sign to society that I'm SAVED by the blood of Jesus Christ and I'm available to whomever is in need physically, emotionally or spiritually. Along the same line of thought, wearing the uniform in a privilege. Not a privilege similar to "club" membership or preferential treatment, but a privilege to be used by God to minister to all of humanity.

When I wear my uniform, I'm making a statement that carries with it simultaneous messages of integrity, commitment and accessibility. If any of those areas are lacking, then the uniform simply becomes a costume of sorts. The wearer is playing "dress-up" and is not standing beside the message conveyed by the garment. 2 Timothy is clear in 2:3-5: "Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs; rather, they try to please their commanding officer. Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor's crown except by competing according to the rules." The Salvation Army has for its own good and the good of others certain rules and expectations for those wearing the uniform. If those rules aren't lived and followed, then it's simple - take the uniform off.

A friend of mine once said, "If I worked at Wendy's I wouldn't sell you Taco Bell!" The same is true as soldiers of The Salvation Army. If you call yourself a Salvationist and you wear the uniform, don't try to sell me anything else! Any other doctrine or theology or any other belief or standard. If the soldier wearing the uniform isn't following the rules of not only The Salvation Army, but of what the Bible clearly sets out as godly living, then step aside until you're ready to do so!

Now there will be those who will say that rules are to be lived by, yes, but grace ought to reign supreme. I agree, but not to the detriment of the Christian witness and integrity of Biblical standards. Just before that passage above from 2 Timothy 2, we read that we are to "be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 2:1). Grace is free-flowing, but it also has it's expectations doesn't it? This is covered in Romans 6:1-2 - "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" Grace doesn't give us license to live lives peppered with sin, but it provides the means to overcome sin and live lives of holiness and integrity.

This is what the uniform represents. It is not just another Sunday suit. It is not a "costume" by which we dress-up when necessary to feed the poor. It is a cloak of holiness and a means by which we can communicate to this dying world that there is hope in Christ. Wear it well!