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Called to Service Officers in the Norwegian Salvation Army

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Called to Service Officers in the Norwegian Salvation Army Called to Service Officers in the Norwegian Salvation Army Jens Inge Flataas Master’s Thesis in Comparative Religion Spring 2014 Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion Faculty of Humanities University of Bergen II Called to Service The Norwegian Salvation Army Officer © Jens Inge Flataas. Masters Thesis, University of Bergen, 2014 III Table of Contents Norwegian Summary/Norsk sammendrag V Acknowledgements VI Part I: Background 1 Chapter 1 - The Salvation Army 1 A Brief History of the Salvation Army 1 A Brief Organizational Profile 7 Previous Research 14 Chapter 2 - Leadership and Religion 16 Personal Motivation 16 Strategy 18 Human Resources 21 Spiritual Leadership & Workplace Spirituality 24 Further Perspectives on Religion and Leadership 28 Chapter 3 – Method 34 The Interviewees 34 The Interview Guide 35 Group Interview 37 The Post – Interview Process 40 NSD 41 Part II: Analysis Chapter 4 - Approaching Officership 42 Motivation 42 The Calling 50 Challenging Aspects of Officership 58 Handling Stress 65 Chapter 5 – Strategy 72 Visions 72 Guiding Orders 80 Challenges 83 Individual Strategies 86 Chapter 6 - Human Resources 91 Motivation 91 Work Tasks 97 Use of Resources 100 Guidelines for Human Resource Management 102 Part III: Synthesis 104 Chapter 7 – The Norwegian Salvation Army Officer 104 Suggestions for Further Research 106 Bibliography Appendices IV Norwegian Summary – Norsk sammendrag Denne oppgaven tar for seg frelsesarmeen i Norge. Offiserene i frelsesarmeen fyller en rekke ulike funksjoner i frelsesarmeen, men offisersutdanningen forbereder offiserene til å fungere primært som religiøse- og administrative ledere. Prosjektet baserer seg på en presentasjon av data samlet gjennom intervjuer med tolv individuelle offiserer i tillegg til et gruppeintervju med fire deltakere. Dette prosjektet bidrar med en beskrivelse av offiserene gjennom et forsøk på å forklare deres motivasjonen for tjenesten i tillegg til opplevelsen av å være kallet til tjeneste. I tillegg fokuserer dette prosjektet på to områder av ledelse, nemlig strategier og menneskelige ressurser. Kallet beskrives som en essensiell faktor for å bli offiser og for å fortsette i tjenesten, men muligheter for innflytelse i tillegg til menneskelig samhandling nevnes som sentrale faktorer for hvorfor offiserene fortsetter arbeidet som offiserer. Materialet indikerer at kallet oppleves som viktigere tidligere i karrieren, spesielt ved situasjoner offiserene identifiserer som utfordrende og/eller stressende. Dette inkluderer aspekter ved frelsesarmeen som beordringssystemet. I forhold til strategiutvikling viser materialet at strategiene i frelsesarmeen utvikles på ulike trinn innad i organisasjonen. Offiserene beskriver arbeidet som autonomt, med lite innvirkning fra egne ledere, både i utformingen av strategi og ved avgjørelser relatert til bruk av arbeidskraft. Dette prosjektet er relevant for religionsstudier av to primære årsaker. Først og fremst tar dette prosjektet utgangspunkt i frelsesarmeen, en organisasjon det er gjort lite forskning på, og spesielt i en rent norsk kontekst. For det andre benytter oppgaven prinsipper fra ledelsesstudier, et studiefelt som sjelden har vært benyttet til å belyse problemstillinger man vanligvis forbinder med religionsstudier. V Acknowledgements I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the participants in this project, and particularly to those who expressed initial skepticism, but nevertheless chose to partake. You know who you are, and I hope that I have produced a paper in which you find value. I have received financial support from the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Bergen in order to gather the data for this project, and for that I am grateful. Thanks to my fellow master students for your opinions on this project, particularly to Alise Kjerpeseth and Aina Holmefjord for providing a thorough commentary. Thanks to Håkan Rydving, Richard Natvig, Marie von der Lippe, Lisbeth Mikaelsson and Jane Skjoldli for their ideas and opinions regarding this project. A special thanks to Michael Stausberg, without whom this would not have been much of a project at all. Thanks for endless reviews past scheduled hand-ins, thanks for putting an end to sub-par ideas, but most of all, thanks for expanding my ambitions for this project. Supervision comes in many shapes and forms, but know that I have enjoyed yours a great deal, and for that I am grateful. Thanks to my family for much needed cheer and thoughtfulness throughout the conduct of this project. When the outlook was grim, you provided the enthusiasm and positive thoughts, and for that I am thankful. Your enthusiasm for education and academical achievements were fundamental in making this project a reality. Finally, I would like to thank my lovely wife and muse, Andreea Dolnicianu, for providing thorough teasing and mockery of my project, spurring the much needed attitude to see this project through. Thanks for providing a thorough read through of the project in its final stages, correcting the language and content where needed. VI Part I: Background Chapter 1 - The Salvation Army In this chapter, a brief history of the Salvation Army as well as a brief description of the organizational structure will be provided. Since its inception in London, the Salvation Army has become a worldwide organization with several defining characteristics, including a pseudo-military organizational structure developed in Victorian Britain. While maintaining a strong presence in Norway, the Salvation Army remains largely under-researched, particularly under the framework of this project. A Brief History of the Salvation Army The story of the formative period of the Salvation Army is commonly narrated as the story of Catherine Booth (1829 – 1890) and her husband, the Methodist preacher William (1829 – 1912).1 In 1865, they began the precursor to the Salvation Army - the independent humanitarian and preaching mission named the East London Christian Mission - among the poor and destitute of east London (Elstad 2008: 245). The organization expanded rapidly, and when it surpassed the bounds of east London, the organization was renamed the Christian Mission (Eason 2003: 44). The Christian Mission was part of a broad evangelical missionary effort to reach the urban working class, and its theology drew on Methodism, American revivalism and the holiness movement (Walker 2001: 42). The Christian Mission differed from other home missions in the authority it granted women, its emphasis on holiness theology and revivalist methods, its growing independence, and its strict 1 See Agger 1997; Enstad 2012; Gariepy 2009; Hill 2006; Norum 2000. 1 hierarchical structure – features distinguishing it from contemporary competitors (Walker 2001: 42). The movement grew rapidly: in 1865, it was a local, East London organization that rented out rooms for Sunday services – but already by 1879, the renamed Salvation Army had 72 stations in London, the Midlands, the North, and the Northeast, numbers that grew to 172 stations and 363 officers a year later (Walker 2001: 42). As the organization grew, William Booth determined that the democratic system borrowed from the Methodists for the first fourteen years had to be abandoned in favor of an autocratic and hierarchal structure (Walker 2001: 42). The mission was later reorganized in a quasi-military structure and took the name the Salvation Army in 1878 (Elstad 2008: 245). By December 1886, the renamed Salvation Army had 1749 corps and 4192 officers in the Great Britain, and 743 corps and 1932 officers abroad (Walker 2001: 42). The move towards an organizational structure inspired by the military happened for several reasons. First and foremost, the New Testament supported the commonplace use of warfare rhetoric during the formative period of the Salvation Army (Gariepy 2009: 15). Militarism and jingoism were in the air, with Britain fighting small colonial wars, the Volunteers a contemporary phenomenon, and the church employing the fashionable language of war, in phrases such as ‘onwards Christian soldiers’ (Hill 2006: 80). As a result, pseudomilitary terms for religious practices where developed in accordance - prayer times became ‘knee drills’, and giving of tithes in envelopes was referred to as ‘firing cartridges’ (Gariepy 2009: 17). Similarly, buildings were called ‘citadels’, local congregations were named ‘corps’, members became ‘soldiers’, and lay leader were described a ‘sergeants’, commonly organized under a ‘sergeant-major’ (Gariepy 2009: 17). Inspired by Sir Wolseley’s Soldier’s pocket book, a instructional book for soldiers in the regular army, a number of copies of Orders and Regulations emerged as editions both for soldiers and officers in the Salvation Army after 1878, a book that described a ‘military etiquette’ for members of the Salvation Army, stipulating conditions for membership, soldierly conduct, and advice on personal hygiene and health (Gariepy 2009: 17). Soon after, a system of rank inspired by the military emerged, with full-time leaders designated officers with a hierarchy of ranks from lieutenant to 2 commissioner (Gariepy 2009: 17). With the organization of the Army into Divisions under Divisional officers in 1880, a quasi-episcopal structure came into being (Hill 2006: 80). International expansion in the 1880s brought about the three levels of command that still exist – territorial, divisional, and corps (Hill 2006: 80). In 1882, the enrollment was formalized and all new soldiers were required to sign a document
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