Officer training models

Paper title: Emerging models of training for officership in The Salvation Army
Author/researcher: Gregory Morgan
Country of origin: Australia
Publication/completion date: December, 2006
Length: 107 pages
Keywords: Officers, training, The Salvation Army, mission, ministry, equipping
Abstract: The Salvation Army needs action-oriented officers… for it to accomplish its mission. But here comes the crunch: they need to be informed men and women of action… it is high time to discard forever the false presupposition that has dogged us as an Army that higher education and action are opposites. It is wrong to think that you choose between the two, and that you cannot have both… As a Salvation Army we need leaders who are both scholars and dynamos: informed men and women of action. (Larsson 2005: 5)

This statement from the then world leader of The Salvation Army, John Larsson, succinctly encapsulates one of the challenges The Salvation Army has faced historically and continues to face today. Scholars and dynamos are required and possible. But they are difficult to deliver in a movement that is activist to such a degree that education and deeper thinking can be viewed with suspicion. However, we must cast aside our misgivings as we consider what it is that is required in the training of officer leaders for today and into the challenging landscape of twenty-first century society.

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Tags: equipping, ministry, mission, Officers, The Salvation Army, training