Learning How to LEAD
by Robert Mitchell
“What’s more, don’t let yourselves be squeezed into the shape dictated by the present age. Instead, be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you can work out what God’s will is, what is good, acceptable and complete.” —Romans 12:2 (NTFE)
ELLWOOD CITY, Pa. — When Kathleen Virgalla walked into a Salvation Army soup kitchen in Bristol, Conn., two years ago, she was just looking for a meal. She may have found her future as a leader.
Virgalla heard about youth programming for her children at the Bristol Corps, and today she serves in that same soup kitchen feeding the homeless. She also brought three of her children with her to the LEAD 2024 Leadership Training Conference Aug. 5–9 at Camp Allegheny in western Pennsylvania.
“I wanted to learn more about Jesus and to become a leader one day, and maybe even an officer,” Virgalla said.
She certainly was in the right place, with spectacular guest speakers and breakout sessions meant to train Salvation Army lay leaders with an emphasis on holy living.
Envoy Steve Bussey, one of the instructors at the conference, said a key finding by leaders in the USA Eastern Territory in recent years is the need for leadership development.
“The investment in an event like LEAD is really critical to the future of the USA Eastern Territory and our ministry and mission,” he said.
The focus tracks included lessons on leadership, what makes a healthy church, what it means to be a Salvationist in the 21st century, cultural apologetics, women’s and men’s ministries, holiness for today, corps councils, and three Spanish offerings.
The faithful Word preached
Bussey praised LEAD organizer Bryan Cook for putting holiness at the center of leadership development through “very strong biblical teaching” in the sessions with practical examples.
“At the center of it is recovering the heart of biblical Christianity and allowing that to knit together an army of people that have a common experience of the value of the blood of Jesus and the fire of the Holy Spirit and how we’re actually going to see our corps revitalized across the territory,” Bussey said.
Cook, director of the Corps Leadership Development Bureau in USA East, said LEAD drew 155 delegates (mostly lay leaders) from all 11 divisions in the territory, and he agreed with Bussey that holiness was at the center.
“For our territory, we want leaders who are equipped for the work, but more importantly we want holy leaders, and so this conference is about encouraging local leaders in general but also encouraging them to be holy and do their best work for the Kingdom,” Cook said. “It’s about the body of Christ and what the Holy Spirit has gifted each person for and recognizing that and giving an opportunity for service.
“The corps officers come and go, but the local leaders are there for the long haul.”
The theme for the week was TELEIOS, the Greek word for “perfect, finished, or mature.” Many of the sessions ended with delegates going to the mercy seat to pray and seek God’s direction in their lives.
“The sessions have been like revival meetings,” Bussey said. “These aren’t just mere emotional responses. This is genuine transformation that you’re seeing of people coming from strong biblical teaching.”
Hometown hero returns
It was a homecoming of sorts for western Pennsylvania native Commissioner Israel Gaither, a retired former national commander of The Salvation Army and territorial commander in USA East. He spoke in the very sanctuary where he heard God’s call to be an officer and called it “sacred ground.”
“Do you understand the Holy Spirit is here?” Gaither said. “We have the privilege of being in the presence of God.”
Gaither quoted several passages of scripture, including 2 Peter 1:3, to remind his audience that the perfect TELEIOS power was available to all believers, but he lamented that many Christians and Salvationists settle for imperfect power.
“They don’t trust the owner, nor do they believe it’s for them,” Gaither said in the hushed tabernacle. “They feel ill-equipped and unprepared, perhaps even undeserving. They believe Satan’s lie and reject not only God’s perfect plan for them, but they also doubt themselves. They deny who they are and God’s purpose for their lives.
“God’s intention is not that anyone in this room live a defeated, damaged, angry, overwhelmed, without-hope life. The antidote to that sort of thinking is His anointing … TELEIOS power.”
Gaither said TELEIOS power “works best in weakness. If you think you have it all together, you are disqualified.” He urged the delegates not to “go home with imperfect power when the perfect power was available” to all believers who yield to the Holy Spirit’s calling.
“When you go back to where you came from, be a light,” he said. “Speak the truth of what’s happened to you.”
Crossing the Jordan
Pablo Jimenez, a pastor from Puerto Rico, touched on LEAD’s theme verse from Romans 12 while preaching on TELEIOS faith. He also agreed with Gaither about the power of God to overcome.
“God can perform the miracle of changing our understanding and our way of thinking so that we may have the mind of Christ,” he said. “Don’t cave in to those voices who tell you that you are helpless.”
The delegates, many with their hands raised in worship, closed the session singing the words of the Christian song “No Longer Slaves,” including the lyrics “I’m no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God.” The altar was full of seekers, who earlier had heard Jimenez share about the Israelites crossing the Jordan River into the Promised Land.
“This is God’s surgery and God wants to perform surgery on your heart tonight,” he said. “God wants to extract all the bitterness … so that you may be free and cross the river.”
Commissioner Willis Howell, an officer from the USA Southern Territory, presented a theme of “When Good Enough Stops Being Good Enough.” He noted how the Old Testament’s animal sacrifices for the forgiveness of sin were merely “good enough” for the time being.
“It could never provide TELEIOS,” he said. “It was always a swing and a miss, a foul tip at best.”
Then came Christ as the TELEIOS, or “perfect Lamb of God,” Howell said.
“He willingly becomes the sacrifice,” he said. “He was the one-and-done. Nothing else needed to be done for our sin.”
Taking time for God
Howell pleaded with delegates not to go back home wanting to just be “good enough” when TELEIOS was available.
“Why would you want to continue with good enough? Because good enough has stopped being good enough,” he said. “I think we’ve settled for a good enough Salvation Army. The only one who can change that is the spirit of Christ in you.
“This is the day. This is the conference and you’re here. This is the time and this is the place,” he said. “Let this be the Pentecost that spreads throughout the territory and our country.”
Heather Green, the territorial sergeant major, discussed the need for delegates to take a periodic sabbath, practice solitude, and “get off the hamster wheel” of busyness to hear God’s voice.
“When we’re able to do that, we’re able to look at the perfect will of God and what He has for us,” she said.
Many of the LEAD delegates found the conference a spiritual high point and said the speakers and teaching were emotionally moving, hands-on, and even life changing.
Ryan Hindinger, the corps sergeant major in Altoona, Pa., said he enjoyed the breakout sessions and found the offering on what makes a healthy church “invaluable” to his ministry.
Following God’s plans
“I came in hopes of being equipped to be a better leader in my corps,” Hindinger said. “Any opportunity I can get to learn and to gain from other people’s experiences and wisdom is something I want to take.”
Laura Welper, the corps secretary in Nashua, N.H., since 2014 said she initially wanted to be an officer upon coming to The Salvation Army, but learned she could contribute in other ways. She credits LEAD with instilling her with a godly confidence that comes from TELEIOS.
“We all get lost and have these feelings of not being good enough,” she said, echoing Howell’s sermon. “I personally feel those … and that’s where I know I need God. I know God wants me to follow Him and when I fall, He picks me up.
“I am finding here that I don’t have to do it on my own. You don’t have to do it on your own. God’s there for you. God can handle it all. I am learning who and what God’s love is here and how I can show that to others and pass it on.”