Major Mark Hager

Pastors, especially Salvation Army officers, must wear many hats. One of those jobs is to show how to bring people into the church. In one of our appointments, there were only 16 people in the congregation, including us. The people at that corps knew what they needed to do to get people in; they just didn’t know how to do it. We taught them how to do that, and the next thing we knew, we had a full chapel. By the time we left for our next appointment, the corps had about 90 people on Sundays. Now, we serve in Berlin, which is a smaller corps, and if one of us can’t do a job that is needed, it’s not going to get done.

On 9/11, I had a firefighter come up to me in the middle of all the day’s hustle and bustle. You could tell that he was very affected by what he’d seen that day. I had not been present at ground zero like he had, so I didn’t know what he’d seen that had affected him. I spent a few moments with him, not sure what to say. God said to me, “Tell him your story.” I had served in similar events in the past, and we spent 20 minutes talking about the work we were both doing. I saw him the next day, and he thanked me for spending that time with him. A pastor’s ministry of presence can make a big difference in someone’s life, even when you’re not sure of the words to say.

Major Robin Hager

We have an adult Vacation Bible School that meets once a week, all year round. During one lesson, we talked about the life of the Apostle Paul. I mentioned that we knew him as Saul, but he became Paul through ministry. One of the ladies in the class jumped up and asked, “They’re the same guy?” I said yes, and we took some time to talk about Paul’s transformation. Sometimes we come across topics that they might have heard about in another church, and just now they understand what God is saying. For example, some students in the class thought that the line in the Lord’s Prayer “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” was about the crime of trespassing on property, not sin itself. It’s fun to see someone’s mind click when they learn and understand how Christ is speaking directly to them.

My favorite verses are Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God,” and Romans 5:8, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Those two verses are reminders of who He is, and who I am as well. Pastors are not perfect. We are people saved by God’s grace, just like everyone else.