Officers’ Support Endowment Fund

Picture this. You are serving God faithfully, year after year, seeing incredible blessings and fruit from your ministry. But then your kids reach school age, and you can’t afford their uniforms, so you sacrifice a few meals a week to make their education possible. Then your church’s refrigerator goes out, so you take your personal fridge from your home to put in its place so your soup kitchen ministry can continue. And then you become ill, but you can’t afford to go to the doctor, so you push through the pain and keep on serving the suffering humanity surrounding you. Because you trust God to meet all your needs, you continue to serve Him, whether or not you have money in the bank or the resources to make ends meet.

“A lot of people wouldn’t know that there are many officers around the world who do not receive either a portion of their allowance or one hundred percent,” Southern Territorial Commander Commissioner Kelly Igleheart explains. “It is a real struggle in many countries.”

This is the reality for many Salvation Army officers serving in countries around the world. Funds are scarce, so they make do with what they have, making sacrifices in their personal lives so that their corps and community ministries can continue to flourish.

The sacrificial nature of Salvation Army officership is well known, but the true extent of this sacrifice around the world can be difficult for us to see as we sit in our well-kept, air-conditioned facilities in the United States.

The international Salvation Army has been aware of the financial disparity between nations from its very beginning. Through World Services partnerships and mission support funds, Salvationists have consistently given to help meet the needs of communities far beyond their own borders, aiding our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.

But those funds mostly go toward corps or community projects, investing in the Army’s ministry in those areas, not personally toward the officers serving there, often leaving officers and their families without essential medical support or even a basic living wage.

In 2004, The Salvation Army’s International Conference of Leaders (ICL) approved the creation of the Officers’ Support Endowment Fund. Every contribution to the fund is invested, and the income from those investments goes to provide practical help for active officers in need of support around the world in perpetuity. Since then, much progress has been made, including fully funding a retired officers’ support fund, but the full fund for active officers has still not been met.

Commissioner Igleheart tells us that at this year’s ICL, it was agreed that “it’s time for us as an international Army to fulfill that pledge and to make sure that officers around the world receive one hundred percent allowance.”

This means that even though the necessary funds have not yet been collected, International Headquarters (IHQ) intends to ensure every officer around the Army world receives their full pay this year. To make up for the lack of funds, ICL agreed that the Army as a whole will make additional sacrifices when it comes to mission support projects until the Officers’ Support Endowment Fund has been fully funded. IHQ estimates that it will take another three to five years to completely fund the account.

The intent has never been for IHQ to fully pay every officer around the world, but to make up the difference for areas that cannot cover the expense themselves, so that officers remain free and empowered to continue the ministry God has called them to.

In his second letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul writes about the vibrant ministry happening outside their borders in Macedonia, their fellow Jesus-followers giving generously even when they had very little.

“In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us,” (2 Corinthians 8:2-5).

He urges the Corinthians to support the Macedonians in turn.

“At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need,” (2 Corinthians 8:14a).

The USA Southern Territory is blessed to have adequate funding. Our brothers and sisters serving on the frontlines around the world are not necessarily operating out of an abundance, but still, they soldier on in service to God and others.

I would urge you, as Paul did the Corinthians, to give generously and cheerfully. Continue to give towards our World Services partners but also consider giving beyond to support those being the hands and feet of Jesus in other communities around the world.

“This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God,” (2 Corinthians 9:12).