Territorial Appointments Conference 2025: Praying for discernment

Lieut-Colonel David Shakespeare calls us all to pray together for the 2025 Territorial Appointments Conference.

This week – from Sunday 12 to Thursday 16 January – senior members of the Mission Service and Personnel Service will join with divisional leaders and William Booth College leaders to continue the process of discernment and consultation surrounding the deployment of officers and territorial envoys in the United Kingdom and Ireland Territory.

The Territorial Appointments Conference is an important part of a wider process. Conversations with local leaders and teams have taken place, and there has been prayerful consideration of territorial mission and personnel opportunities by the territorial leaders and others at THQ.

Over this period, several strategic priorities have been identified and this overview of the territory’s needs will help shape the conference’s focus. In some places, experienced leaders will be appointed to strengthen the mission focus. In other situations, leaders will be appointed intentionally to develop their breadth of experience.

Recently the heads of the Mission Service and the Personnel Service met with divisional leaders and other service heads to talk about each officer and territorial envoy to understand more fully what is happening at each appointment and in the life of each leader and their family.

In these conversations – and from reading the personal profiles of each officer and territorial envoy who has had a consultation conversation – we have become aware of some of the personal challenges some leaders face, as they support family members who have physical or emotional problems. We appreciate that some serve sacrificially while balancing their own health conditions with the demands of ministry.

Divisional leaders have been asked to look where appointed leadership will make the most impact, and I discern a greater sense of collaboration where corps and centres are in geographical proximity and are building on each other’s strengths in a shared understanding of mission. Sometimes this is in a cluster and at other times within a local authority borough, so that the Army can speak into local issues with greater clarity and share resources. In some places, a corps leader has also been appointed as chaplain to an Army centre, which leads to greater integrated mission.

It has been interesting to hear of changes since the Covid-19 pandemic. Some expressions have taken a different form, and a number of places indicate that new people have been attracted by new initiatives and are now part of worshipping communities.

Recent changes have resulted in more people starting to think of how they can serve as employed spiritual leaders, pioneer leaders continue to break new ground, and some territorial envoys have expressed an interest in starting the journey to commissioned officership. In other places, local leaders have stepped up and discovered they are gifted in ways they didn’t know and are finding fulfilment in new areas of leadership and service.

During the conference, each division and THQ service team is going to take designated time slots to pray for discernment, wisdom and a sense of God’s leading, as we seek to be obedient to the call of God. Please join us together in prayer this week.

Reflect and respond

• Commit to 15 minutes – or more if you can – of focused prayer between 6am and 10pm each day from 10 to 16 January.