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NEW FRONTIER REDESIGN
Congratulations on the new look (New Frontier, October 14, 2005). It’s great.
Donald Bell, Lt. Colonel
Chief Secretary
Western USA Territory
Chief Secretary
Western USA Territory
I really like the new look of the New Frontier.
Congratulations.
Major George E. Hood
National Community Relations Secretary
National Community Relations Secretary
NEITHER UP NOR DOWN
Re: Major Terry Camsey’s article “Neither up nor down” (New Frontier, September 29, 2005)—it is very true what he is saying. Some of us here in Auckland, New Zealand, have come to the same conclusion, although we termed it being on a roller coaster ride—each new corps officer has come in with their own agenda and caused mayhem during their term.
The thing about this phenomenon is that William Booth wrote about the problem in one of his articles, “Sergeant Major Do Your Best,” around 1880. It concluded that the local corps must not wait for the right corps officer to come along. John C. Maxwell in his books on leadership came to the same conclusion. Talking with a member of his previous church, he found that within 18 months of his moving, the congregation had dropped to below 100 and was still falling. His first reaction was: get rid of the pastor, but then he stopped and realized that although he had done a great job in building up the church, he had failed to create a good leadership within.
If you examine some large corps which have many years of stability and excellence, you will find that they will have good local corps officers, and they have in process not only the present, but future plans.
What do we need to do to correct the problem? I think we need to examine what is being taught in the training college. Also, there needs to be more accountability by the divisional commanders, then the territorial commanders; we have to get off the roller coaster.Roy Stephens
Auckland Congress Hall
New Zealand
