I guess I’ve had a bit of time now to process the ‘process’ of my five year review in London last week. I thank God, first of all, for the encouraging input of those who were ‘assessing’ us. Thanks too, to those who were involved who read this blog. I still don’t know the results, although I can’t perceive any conditions that might be put upon our continuing in officership.
You’ve no idea how much I needed the assurance coming from that few days. Sometimes you fight on and you wonder if anyone ‘gets’ what you are trying to do and be. I guess after a difficult year of internal stuff, I’m gradually getting to the place where I feel that I am becoming ready to step up to the plate more and more. It annoys me that I had to step back in the first place!
We’ve had a great breadth of experience in our 5 years of officership and another 3 in corps leadership on top of that. It has shaped our life. We have a strong sense of God preparing us, not just for the now, but for the tasks and appointments yet to come.
It was refreshing too that although the process has been designed by someone assessing officers as ‘pastors and administrators’, new leaders taking over this years process realise they must do more than that. I sense a gradual change at that ‘higher level’ of a change in mindset from officership as a ‘jack of all trades’ to officership as a route of service for leaders expressing an aspect of Ephesians 4 ministries.
Good too to hear some thinking about how officer training should look. I reflected back to the group that training college prepares officers to lead the status quo. William Booth College needs to be a place where leaders are trained. There is the difference between training effective leaders and training people to fulfil a organisational role. I look forward to the day when WBC becomes a leadership college as opposed to an academic institution. Our movement needs that positive shift.
Andrew M Clark 
AndrewI think you’ll find that 5 years have made a big difference to WBC. Of course there are still aspects about the ‘organisational role’ but my experience is of a college that is seeking to produce officers who won’t simply lead the status quo but instead will challenge it!Graeme
Yes, I’d hope that would be the case. It is important the recent recipients of Salvation Army training can feed back their experiences of their own training. It will undoubtedly help shape and infrom how things develop. I’d imagine that much of your experience of college, and some of the positive changes, may well have been shaped by feedback from other officers reflecting back on their time there.My main reason for the comment, however, was to try and emphasis the relative lack of leadership training as part of the curriculum as a subject in itself. Leadership ship training is something that one should be able to receive and then take away and apply to any given situation.We can have people who will challenge the status quo to the cows come home, but to actually lead the change is something different.Andrew