Part 275. Managed decline or panic stations?

In previous posts reference has been made to the abysmal levels of officer recruitment in The Salvation Army United Kingdom & Ireland Territory. It is expected that in the next two years 101 officers will retire and less than 20% of that number are anticipated to be Commisioned.

At the January 2024 Appointments Conference there were 39 officer units available for 83 Appointments.  It is my assumption a unit is a married couple or a single officer.

The position in reaching crisis stage and it is probably too late to reverse, in the short term at least, this potentially catastrophic decline. It not as though the issue of poor recruitment has appeared suddenly without warning. There has been systemic failure within the organisation to acknowledge the issue, to investigate the reasons and plan a coherent plan to overcome it.  In other words a lack of  forward planning.

The current system of corps management and leadership must be reviewed. Many corps activities do not require theologically educated leaders. The current model is broken. Conditions of service, part-time working, better utilisation of volunteers all need to be subjected to root-and-branch review.