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Feature
Becoming… a disciple
In the weeks before Candidates Sunday (8 May), Salvationist asks people what the theme Becoming means to them
IN 1981 my wife, Nicola, and I commenced training to become Salvation Army officers. However, our training to become disciples of Jesus started many years before that. We were both the children of very committed, loving Christians and surrounded by family and friends who encouraged us to live the Jesus way.
As we entered the training college at Denmark Hill, we were full of enthusiasm and eager to become as effective as we could possibly be. After we were commissioned we were blessed in that we really loved every appointment we were given, although leadership in any sphere of life always has its challenges. We had many years of amazing Kingdom adventures together for which I am deeply grateful.
Becoming Salvation Army officers was, for us, the richest possible life we could have imagined. Our enthusiasm and passion to live for the King and his Kingdom never waned through our years of being pastors and teachers.
Nicola had always been healthy, so it was a terrible shock when she was diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer in October 2006.
We were corps officers at Raynes Park at that time. On the Sunday after Nicola’s diagnosis we did not lead the meeting but sat with our wonderful children. We were surrounded by a loving and deeply caring congregation and at one point the worship leader began singing ‘Blessed Be Your Name’, which includes the verse: ‘Blessed be your name,/ On the road marked with suffering,/ Though there’s pain in the offering,/ Blessed be your name.’ At that point Nicola leant over and whispered in my ear, ‘I am so grateful that we can still sing this.’
From that time until Nicola died in March 2008 our journey of becoming ever more deeply committed disciples of Jesus took on a new dimension. Nicola was often very poorly and spent many months in hospital. Our family, friends and congregation were so thoughtful and kind and supported us and our children in ways far beyond what we could have expected.
Nicola was always brave, always trusting in the Lord and often prayed with her fellow patients in the cancer ward of Charing Cross Hospital, where she spent so much time.
Many people prayed for her healing and we were very grateful for those prayers. We did not see the miracle we longed for but, during those painful and often intensely difficult days, we were becoming aware of a deeper reality, spoken of in 2 Corinthians 12:9. Paul prayed for healing, but the Lord simply said to him: ‘My grace is enough.’ That is exactly what we experienced in remarkable ways.
Many of you will have gone through similar, deeply challenging times in your lives and know that becoming a disciple of Jesus is not a passport to an easy, pain-free, comfortable life – but, even when we don’t always get what we want, his grace will always be enough!
I remember reading the story of the widow’s mites (small coins) a few weeks after Nicola died. I was overwhelmed by the fact that, despite the crowds around Jesus, he noticed a poor widow giving evering she had. In the depths of my grief, despite feeling completely useless, I offered my all – my ‘mites’ – just as Nicola and I had done all those years before.
Many years of our officership were spent teaching at William Booth College and I was appointed there again in 2010. In my New Testament class there was a cadet called Annette Wicks, who asked perceptive and often difficult questions. We became friends as we discussed theology and, in May 2012, we became husband and wife.
Annette is my corps officer at Wimbledon and is always encouraging us to understand that every member of the congregation can be engaged in frontline ministry every day, and so the Kingdom adventure continues.
Whatever stage of life or vocation you are going through, I want to suggest that becoming a completely intentional disciple of Jesus – fully immersed in the empowering grace of the King and his Kingdom – is the most wonderful and useful way to live life on Earth.
