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Interview: General Paul Rader & Commissioner Kay Rader
Original Publication - JAC #69, October - November 2010
A conversation between General Paul A.
Rader and Commissioner Kay F. Rader reflecting on their
calling and experience as officers of The Salvation Army.
Excerpt from the forthcoming book, CHARGE!
PAR: A life-time of service certainly gives us a unique
perspective on officership over the long haul.
KFR: Long, but never boring.
How often have we said, we may die of something, but it
won’t be of boredom!
PAR: Is there any calling that is more diverse, colorful,
fascinating, challenging and rewarding than officership?
Not a walk in the park -- sometimes intense and
demanding, but always deeply rewarding.
KFR: What do you think has kept us at it all these years?
PAR: Bottom line: a sense of calling.
The confidence that this is God’s will for our lives.
We have to admit that how that call is experienced is
not the same for everyone.
KFR: Isaiah 30:21 tells us, “Your ears will hear a word behind
you, ‘This is the way, walk in it.”
I wish it could be that certain for everyone.
PAR: Psalm 32:8 has always been reassuring for me: “I will
instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will
counsel you with my loving eye on you.”
God has a way of opening a door and nudging us toward
it by his Spirit.
KFR: Yes! Those who have ears to hear and hearts to obey want
to respond as Isaiah did when he was touched with fire, “Here
am I, send me!”
However it comes, a settled sense that we are on the path of
God’s purpose as officers has taken us through the difficult
points in the journey.
PAR: And there have been some testing times.
KFR: For one thing, we never knew where our response to God’s
call was going to take us.
I love the plaque in our kitchen that pictures a little
tent topped with an Army flag and says, “Home is where the
Army sends me!” Along
with all the positive and the Divine Yes that resonates in our
hearts, we accept the disciplines of an Army – an Army of
Salvation, an Army of peace, but nevertheless: an Army.
And that means being where ever we are needed in the
line of battle.
PAR: Officership is not about contract.
It is about covenant.
It begins with our commitment to Jesus Christ and the
reality of our relationship to him.
It is grounded in our experience of his saving life.
Our relationship to him is covenantal.
And when we have responded to his call, our
relationship to the Army is really not unlike the marriage
covenant.
Officers enter into a covenant relationship of trust and loyal
commitment: each to the other, and both to God.
The Army commits to provide for its officers as long as
they are faithful to their calling.
The Army depends on us and we depend on the Army.
But there is no binding legal contract.
It is all a matter of calling and covenant, mutual
trust and commitment.
KFR: One of the great joys of officership for married couples
is the privilege of working so closely together in a common
calling. We have
been able to work off of each other’s strengths, supporting
and encouraging one another. You remember that at our wedding,
Dad Rader quoted this verse: “One shall chase a thousand and
two shall put ten thousand to flight!”
As married officers we signed individual covenants,
committing us to “live to win souls . . . as the first great
purpose of [our lives] . . . to be true to The Salvation Army,
and the principles represented by its Flag.”
But the Army, after all, is about teamwork, an
egalitarian partnership that crosses gender lines gently.
PAR: The covenant is not intended to be joint.
It is a transaction that must occur between the
individual and God.
It is, however, signed and sealed with a common purpose
that is shared by all officers, whether one’s spouse or a
colleague officer with whom we may be teamed – all of this, as
an accepted part of God’s plan for our lives as
officers in The Salvation Army.
KFR: Our covenant committed us to the holy mission of the
Army. It has been
expressed in many ways.
The International Mission Statement is this:
The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an
evangelical part of the universal Christian Church.
Its message is based on the Bible.
Its ministries are motivated by love for god.
Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and
meet human need in his name without discrimination.
Our calling and covenant commit us to the mission.
Officership requires allegiance to the mission, under
the lordship of Jesus Christ, believing in its principles and
goals and methods and being fully comfortable with its ethos.
PAR: That is why full immersion in the training experience is
so critical.
KFR: One of the most exciting dimensions of officership is the
wide open door it provides for creativity and innovation in
our service.
There is such a rich diversity of ministry opportunities.
And always fresh ways to address the needs of those we
serve and with whom we share the Gospel.
PAR: For one thing, officership makes us part of a global
missionary movement.
It can provide a platform for service anywhere in the
world. It puts us
totally at God’s disposal to send us where he will and use us
as pleases him most.
KFR: Officership does not give us a blank sheet of paper and a
packet of crayons and say draw whatever you want.
But within the expectations and guidelines the Army
affords – and the Army itself is part of a divinely creative
process – there is unlimited scope for a lifetime of ministry
as colorful and inventive as God by his Spirit can help us to
make it.
PAR: We need to say something about officership being
long-term. It is
not a sprint.
It’s a marathon.
O.K., that is a hard sell these days.
Maybe, more than ever before.
People tend to be into short term commitments with all
options open and unhampered control of one’s life choices.
Let’s be honest.
When God laid his hand hot upon us and claimed us by
his grace for this ministry, it meant signing on for the
duration.
KFR: Actually, the Soldier’s Covenant (what we used to call,
‘The Articles of War’) signed by every soldier, commits us to
a lifetime covenant of service within the Army.
It is part of the uniqueness of our movement that we
expect that level of commitment from all our members.
Officer covenants go deeper by extending this promise
to exclude other employment outside the bounds of the Army
until retirement, and an expectation that even after
retirement, officers will give willing service as
opportunities arise.
This is long term.
In the early days of overseas missionary service, the
candidate understood his/her covenant to be life long.
British born, Amy Carmichael, famous missionary to
India, committed her life to
the people of India for a lifetime, never
returning home for furlough, living out her life, dying and
being buried among the people of the Dohnavuhr Fellowship
which she founded.
Elisabeth Elliott, entitles her biography of this great
saint, A Chance to Die
PAR: Officership provides its own ‘chance to die’ and ‘chance
to live’ for heaven’s highest purpose: sharing the Gospel in
its transforming power and living out the love of Christ for
our lost and broken world.
For “he died for all, that those who live should no
longer live for themselves, but for him who died and was
raised again” (2 Corinthians
5:14
TNIV). But let’s
be up front about the cost, because Jesus was.
“Whoever wants to be my disciple,” Jesus said, “must
deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but
whoever loses their life for me will save it” (Luke
9:23, 24 TNIV).
KFR: Officership is long-term service: service to God and the
Army for a life time.
Officership is not working for the Army.
Officership is
being the Army.
Officership is
belonging to an elite ‘company of the committed’.
The fellowship among the officers with whom we may be
privileged to serve, is
beautiful.
PAR: What a privilege to wear the same uniform they wear.
We have met them all over the world – many serving in
hostile environments, in difficult and dangerous
circumstances.
The uniforms may differ but they are all identifiable as Army.
When we meet these heroes and heroines, we know we
share a common covenant and are engaged in the same great
mission. The
uniform itself is sacramental.
Putting it on may be difficult, but as one Korean
officer observed, “taking it off is more difficult.”
KFR: Whatever the
challenges, the rewards of this life are great beyond telling.
And best of all is knowing that to follow Christ into
officership in answer to His call, is to bring joy to the
heart of God. In
the end, that is all that matters.
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