A word to the cadets (and everyone else!) #2

Major Harold Hill(R) was asked to address the graduating cadets in New Zealand last December. 

This is the second part of his sagely advice.

P

 rime Minister Keith Holyoake used to tell first-term MP’s, “For the first three years, breathe through your nose.” Or as James put it, “Be slow to speak”.  

We need to sort out our own stuff first. Jesus said something similar about specks and planks in the eye. You’ve been fortunate in being exposed to the 12-Step process in College, and if you’ve understood it you will know that this is a life-long journey. Holiness is not just a oncer.

Get a supervisor, and be honest with him or her. If they’re not keeping you accountable, get someone else who will. For example, when you’ve got an issue with someone, they should help you look at it through that other person’s eyes rather than join you in bagging them. They need to be able to hold a mirror up to  your blind spots.

Supervision is also to help you survive and thrive in ministry. Obedience to God does not mean that everything will go well and smoothly. It won’t. When it doesn’t, we need to examine our own responsibility and resist blaming others. But don’t wear what isn’t your stuff.

A word from Lt. Colonel Lawrence Weggery: “Be nice to people on your way up; you may meet them again on your way back down.”

A word from my father : “At the end of the day, the only part of our work that may endure is what we have built into the lives of others.”

Now that may have seemed an incredibly random rag-bag of advice. I hope it all falls into the category of how what you have learned might be transferred into your ministry. If I were to offer one heading under which it might all fall, that would be “Servant Leadership”. Unfortunately the term has become a cliché; the sharp edges have worn off clichés, so they cease to cause us the delight or discomfort they should. All I can say is that it is a great privilege to wear the red on our shoulder; we need to keep it on our shoulders and don’t let it go to our heads. It doesn’t wear so well there.

One of the heroes of my youth was Commissioner A.J. Gilliard. Before coming to New Zealand he’d been Principal of the International College for Officers, in London. One day a Very Important Officer arrived for a session and rang the door bell, which was opened by a little man in a waistcoat. “Welcome to the Cedars, Major. May I show you to your room?” “Yes” - indicated very large suitcase - “My bag.” So the little man picked up the suitcase and humped it up the stairs and settled the Major in his room. That evening when the session first gathered together, the Very Important Officer met the little man again - this time wearing his Commissioner’s uniform. I guess the Major never forgot the lesson in servanthood.

And lastly, I am to encourage you to keep on studying and developing your skills in the years ahead.

For some of you that will mean the pursuit of further formal qualifications. If you take that opportunity, some of the structure and discipline required is built in to the course. Even if you don’t commit to formal courses, you still need to go on deepening your knowledge and upgrading your skills and you will need to establish your own structures and keep your own disciplines to do that. And, as in College, you will have the challenge and opportunity of combining learning with its practical application from week to week.

General Larsson used to quote a leader who said he could tell what year an officer’s mind had died by looking at his bookshelf. Let’s not go there; I suppose now we have to look at his computer…. I read of a famous long-distance runner being asked whether runners should breathe through the nose or the mouth. He replied, “Through the nose, through the mouth, through the ears if you can!” Likewise, go on studying and developing your skills, any way you can!

Put these things into practice, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. Pay close attention to yourself and your teaching; continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers.            1 Tim. 4:15-16

 Writer: Harold Hill is a happily retired Salvation Army officer in New Zealand, happily married to Pat, blessed with two grown-up, married daughters and a fairly recent grand-daughter, happily occupied with research into the relationship between the Salvation Army and the Charismatic and Pentecostal movements, irregular writing, speaking and teaching engagements, and the garden. 

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