The General-elect

For those who follow my blog you will know that in The Salvation Army we have been going through the election process of the election of a new General. Many people in The Salvation Army have been expecting this process to be a little bit drawn out as it was, and with the nomination of 9 candidates for the job this suspicion seemed to be justified. However today I was surprised to receive an email alert on my phone that they were preparing to make an announcement about the General-elect.

This afternoon I was out for work and could not find out myself who had been elected to replace the current General when he retires. I tried to get hold of a few people and was called a geek for phoning a friend to try and find out who had been elected to the position. After a few attempts I was finally able to track someone down who could tell me who the next General would be.

The official announcement can be found here and The Salvation Army's new General will be Linda Bond. She is the third female General we have had as an organisation and in a time where some Churches are experiencing huge fallout over female ministers I think this sends a message to other denominations and fellow Christians.

For me personally I am really pleased with the decision of the High Council, not because I am particularly overjoyed at the decision, I am pleased as she seems to be the most experienced candidate, but I see the quick and unanimous decision to be a positive sign that God was in the election. For a candidate to be selected so quickly out of so many shows that many people on the High council all agreed on the decision. A quick decision hopefully shows that the High Council was receptive to the leading hand of God and that the correct candidate was chosen.

I look forward to April when General-elect Linda Bond becomes General Linda Bond and takes control of our organisation. I look forward to seeing how The Salvation Army develops and hopefully grows under her leadership. There are many things I would love to see over the next 5 years under the leadership of Linda Bond, obviously growth and expansion but I would also love to see a revival and a return to the passion and drive of the early days. I would love to see The Salvation Army return to being the radical organisation it was, not scared to go to the dark and dangerous places, not scared to take God to the places where He is most needed and least wanted an organisation that dares to be different.

My prayer is that as Linda Bond begins her work with the retiring and takes up her new role that she remains close to God and has her eyes and ears open to what He is calling both her and The Salvation Army to do. I pray that she has the passion to make a difference and the drive to make The Salvation Army in to a spiritual fighting force once again. As I prayed at the beginning of the High Council I pray that Linda Bond may be humble enough to serve, strong enough to be weak and most of all to be a General who is a Godly and Holy person

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General-elect Linda Bond

(Photo from http://www.salvationarmy.org)