Commissioners Adams

Clive is a teacher by profession and taught at a primary school for three years before entering training college as a "Herald of Hope" (1981-1983).  Marianne worked in a care home before entering training as a member of the "Guardians of the Truth" session (1983-1985). They were married in 1990 following a courtship conducted over the expanse of two continents, with Marianne, a Norwegian, living in Northern Europe and Clive, a South African, living in Southern Africa.  (Their courtship is worth a hearing!)

Clive and Marianne have each served as corps officers in their respective home territories, and Clive also served on a mission station, and on the Training College staff before their marriage.  Together, they have served as corps officers in the UK (a “neutral” territory was chosen because they could not serve in South Africa due to Apartheid laws) and divisional youth secretaries in Norway before being appointed to IHQ as Co-ordinators for the International Youth Forum which was held in Cape Town in the mid-90s.  Southern Africa followed where they served as leaders of the Training College and then in divisional leadership. In 2005, Clive and Marianne were appointed to the Norway, Iceland & The Færoes Territory respectively as Field & Programme Secretary and Territorial Home & Families Secretary. They were subsequently appointed as Chief Secretary and Territorial Secretary for Women’s Ministries before becoming territorial leaders of that territory in December 2010. In 2013, they became the leaders of the United Kingdom Territory with the Republic of Ireland, and in January, 2018, became the leaders of the Sweden and Latvia Territory.  Their officership has taken them to live in Mozambique (Clive), the Færoe Islands (Marianne), South Africa, Norway, the United Kingdom and Sweden, and to minister in Swaziland, Lesotho, Iceland the Republic of Ireland and Latvia.

As they gather together all that God has taught them in their previous experiences and appointments, they can confirm that their understanding of leadership has been developed; the importance of faithfulness - as they have served alongside unheralded heroes of the faith in comparatively small settings doing mission - has been highlighted; their understanding of the value of team has increased, and that planning and prayer are not mutually exclusive. Clive shares:

‘I am convinced that Salvationism is typified by a free spirit rather than a template shape – it is practised rather than patterned or even patented.’ 

Clive particularly enjoys (watching!!!) sports especially cricket, rugby and football, and visiting new places. Marianne loves gardening, reading and nature. They have two strongly independent children, Robert and Kristin based in Norway, who are currently in the process of starting their careers.

Lt. Colonel Pat LaBossiere

Lt. Colonel Pat LaBossiere has been a Salvation Army officer for 33 years. She has enjoyed serving with her husband Jim as Corps Officers in Massachusetts and in Youth Ministry for 11 years. Following their appointment as Divisional Leaders of the Northern New England Division, Lt. Colonel Pat was appointed to THQ as the Territorial Secretary for Spiritual Life Development.

The LaBossieres have been married for 36 years and have two grown sons. David and his wife, Emma will be entering the CFOT this fall with their 2-year-old daughter, Edyn Joy. Daniel and Leann will be/are serving in the Japan Territory as Territorial Youth and Creative Arts Specialists.

Pat is passionate about prayer and loves the Word of God. She enjoys kayaking, hiking, quilting, the beach and spending time with family.

Dr. David Rightmire

Dr. David Rightmire teaches at Asbury University, where he has served as Professor of Bible and Theology since 1985, teaching a variety of courses in New Testament, Christian Theology, and Church History.  His academic preparation includes a B.A. in history from Bloomfield College, a M.Div. from Asbury Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in theological studies from Marquette University.

Dr. Rightmire is the author of three books, two of which have been revised and expanded in second editions: The Sacramental Journey of The Salvation Army: A Study of Holiness Foundations (Crest, 2016); Sanctified Sanity: The Life and Teaching of Samuel Logan Brengle (Francis Asbury Press, 2014); and Salvationist Samurai: Gunpei Yamamuro and the Rise of the Salvation Army in Japan (Scarecrow, 1997). He has also written numerous articles and book reviews for professional journals and denominational publications and has lectured both nationally and internationally on topics of Salvation Army history and theology.

Dr. Rightmire serves as the Faculty Advisor for the Salvation Army Student Fellowship at Asbury University.

He and his wife, Dawn (a nurse at Asbury’s Student Health Services), soldier at the Lexington (KY) Corps, where Dave also teaches the ‘College and Beyond’ Bible class. They have one daughter, Katherine, and two granddaughters, Juniper and Laurel.

"Carry Me" lyric video by Josh Wilson

About Josh Wilson

I’m wide-awake in the middle of the night, scared to death. God, would you make this stop?

A guy with chart-topping hits, an industry award for Songwriter/Artist of the Year, and critical recognition as “the future of Christian pop”—all well before age 30—should be walking around feeling lighter than air, right? A strong faith and a healthy marriage are even higher in that mix. So no one was more surprised than JOSH WILSON when he had a serious panic attack last year.

“My strange symptoms culminated in severe chest and shoulder pain, difficulty breathing, and almost passing out,” he explains. “My wife took me to the emergency room because we thought I was having a heart attack.”

After several tests a doctor confirmed what had happened, and Josh went home thinking the out-of-nowhere anxiety rush was a weird one-time event. But it wasn’t, and the melodious storyteller was soon waking up frantic in the dark, even canceling performances for fear of losing control. Reconciling these unexpected shades of emotion with his long held beliefs has come to define Wilson’s intentionally joyful, duly heart-touching new album, Carry Me.

“Philippians 4 says, ‘Do not be anxious about anything . . . the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.’ I prayed for that and each day would say, ‘God, I can’t make it without you. I literally can’t breathe without you. I need you to carry me.’ And He did carry me, and He still does. He carried me through each day even before I experienced the anxiety, but I just didn't realize it. It took these difficult moments for me to realize how much I need Jesus.”

That theme of divine support—heaven’s light seeing us through earth’s dark valleys—brightens every corner of Carry Me, from its opening universal anthem to the quiet introspective finale. And the artist’s insight first found on previous No. 1s “Savior Please” and “Before the Morning” matures in ways that early fans predicted it would.

Produced by Matt Bronleewe (Chris Tomlin), the eleven-song set stands out sonically for its heightened rhythmic contributions from drummer/programmer Jeremy Lutito (Leagues) and bassist Tony Lucido (Kelly Clarkson), coupled with the addition of strings and woodwinds to Josh’s friendly, assuring voice and often noted, acoustic-based multi-instrumentation.

Folk-flavored guitars meet punchier production right off the bat with “Pushing Back the Dark,” a beaming reminder to Christians that, no matter how stormy we may feel inside, there is a bright hope within each of us: Let your light so shine / Don’t underestimate the God you follow.

The title track is equally uplifting and empowering despite its dark night of the soul confessions. Giving a clear account of his recent burden, Wilson finds blessings in the brokenness of anxiety.

“You feel like you’re dying, like this is the end. You simply have to cry out in desperation,” he says. “I don’t like that feeling, but it can be a good thing. For any time I may have given lip service to Jesus in the past, this was very hands on—a really good wake-up call.”

To that point, the especially pop-driven and radio-ready “Faith Is Not a Feeling” has Josh admitting, We all know emotions ebb and flow / Some days I gotta trust what I already know / Even on my darkest days I’m gonna keep believing.

“We get so caught up in feelings and let them dictate our life,” Wilson says of the bouncy song that he hopes listeners will want to put on when they drive or exercise. “But on days I don’t feel faith, it doesn’t mean I don’t have faith. I look back on my life and don’t rely on the moment.”

Further in, Carry Me faithfully celebrates the gift of life itself and what a precious thing it is to receive another day, to encounter friends, and sometimes get a glimpse of God’s bigger picture.

Written after a near plane crash when a bird-strike caused fire in the engine, “Wake Me Up” is what Josh calls “the prayer for my life and this album.” Reminded by the emergency landing to live as if each day were his last, Wilson asks God to light up my heart / do whatever it takes to wake me up. Similarly, the stirring “Let There Be Light,” connects creation to now when it begs: Chase out the shadows and kick down the doors / I’ve finally decided to let the light in.

Already a crowd favorite, “I See God in You” lets in plenty of light. A James Taylor-like meditation upon the lives of Josh’s widowed 94-year-old neighbor and a special needs child he met at a concert, this gentle piece reflects on circumstances that could read as cloudy but rather shine in light of God’s grace.

“That’s a true story. The ‘Lilly Grace’ I mention lives next door, and visiting with her is so inspiring,” he says. “Her Bible is so worn—she has read through it every year since 1968. I just sit and listen, and I see God in her eyes. The second verse is about a boy with Down syndrome that I met while touring with Steven Curtis Chapman. It was my joy to sing for him that night.”

The impact of the track actually carries over to “Grace Enough for You,” another real-life report that took shape after a woman heard Wilson sing a first draft of “I See God in You” live.

Josh remembers, “She said, ‘You need to put that on your record. My grandmother just died at 94, I have a special needs child, and I don’t feel like I’m doing things right.’ I asked her if she had heard all this Jesus stuff before, and she hadn’t. I got to share the gospel right then.”

Carry Me finishes with the jubilantly philosophic “Symphony,” two diverse tributes to love (the playful “What a Mystery” and poetic, romantic “One Safe Soul”), and the beautifully written and arranged “What I See Now.”

The latter is Josh Wilson’s masterpiece thus far, a personal remembrance of being a childhood outcast, a lonely college graduate, and now a 29-year-old who still feels like a boy sometimes, needing to be carried. Singing softly over guitar, flute, marching drums, strings, and xylophones, he looks back and ahead knowing Christ is our constant and will do the heavy lifting.

Every time I have those fears I think of me in twenty years /
Telling me “You’ll be just fine / Just keep on walking toward the light.”

Household Troops Band

The Household Troops Band of The Salvation Army was formed in 1887 from a group previously known as the Life Guards. An advertisement in the Salvation Army newspaper The War Cry read: ‘If you’re young, if you’re saved, if you’re physically fit, if you can play a brass instrument … are prepared to leave home and family for six months active service for God and the Army … then be at Clapton Congress Hall on 12 March 1887.’The Band was formed of 25 brass instrumentalists, each wearing a white pith military helmet (the normal military headgear of the day), a red guernsey, blue trousers and gaiters. The bandmaster was Staff-Captain Harry Appleby and the tour lasted six months and was followed by another tour to Canada in October 1888, which saw the Band become the first Salvation Army band to cross the Atlantic.

While they were away, a second group of players was inaugurated and on 14 October 1889, in the country village of Whitchurch, Hampshire, it is reported that the Household Troops Band led a march of more than 1,000 Salvationists in a great march for liberty. The local Salvationists had suffered persecution and injury in the Whitchurch Riots – as a result of this demonstration The Salvation Army won a landmark legal case and with it the right to play and preach in the open-air.

The first Troops Band returned home to Britain in 1891 and later members of both bands amalgamated. In 1893, the band was dissolved to make way for a new band, and it was from the ashes of the Household Troops Band that the International Headquarters Staff Band (now known as the International Staff Band) was formed.

In 1985, Captain John Mott formed a new Household Troops Band with members drawn from the A-band at the National School of Music at Cobham Hall. This Band undertook a week-long tour of seaside towns in the south of England. Interest in the Band continued and in 1996 Major John Mott formed a new band to conduct annual tours. The Band has continued to be active ever since, not only conducting tours at home and abroad, but also fulfilling other engagements too. In October 2010, Major John Mott retired as bandmaster and the Band’s former principal cornet Carl Saunders from Cardiff Canton Corps was appointed bandmaster.

The Household Troops Band of today is different to other Salvation Army bands in three key areas. First, members of the Band still wear the distinctive white pith helmets, which attract so much attention. The second difference is that the band does not hold regular rehearsals. With players in the band drawn from throughout the UK, regular rehearsals are not practical. The third difference is that the band has to operate from a pool of players, as it does not have first call on its bandsmen. Quite often there can be as many as eight or nine changes of personnel from one event to another. It is a tribute to the players whose stamina, flexibility and musical skills mean the band can exist and operate to the high standards it does.

The Household Troops Band takes its mission to spread the Word of God through music very seriously and five members of the Band have gone on to become full-time officers in The Salvation Army. Also, one of the features of the band is that they are seen out on the streets. They will march to afternoon open-air venues and play an outdoor concert to the public before their evening concerts. The Band frequently sees people attend Salvation Army concerts for the first time having heard the Band in the open-air. The Band has a varied programme of music and a very relaxed approach, aimed at attracting new people to The Salvation Army. Its programme of events often sees it playing to a larger number of non-Salvationists than many other Salvation Army bands. The Household Troops Band is privileged to be invited to take part in the prestigious Lord Mayor’s Show in London each year, an event with a live audience of tens of thousands and a TV audience of millions.