God's Cadets

For the greater part of 2013, an independent documentary team under the direction of  Nick Poyntz has been interacting with and filming officers and cadets, as they have engaged in the training programme and process at William Booth College. 

Our Secretary for Communications, Lieut.-Colonel Marion Drew, explains:

“We were approached by the BAFTA award-winning production company, Truevision, 12 months ago, and decided to become involved in the project after careful consideration. We felt it was an opportunity to further our mission and show that we are a vibrant, friendly and open church, passionate about God and our work. In addition, with a substantial reduction in religious programming on television in recent years, we felt this was an opportunity to talk about faith and to engage with new audiences and enhance our mission.”

God’s Cadets seeks to portray something of the broad spectrum of salvationists from various walks of life, who accept the calling to and sending out, which officership entails, as well as their motivation, their journeys of faith – roundabouts and cul-de-sacs and all – and the wider context in which their officership is, or will be, lived out. 

We are taken ‘up close and personal’ – and, perhaps with some disquiet, see from an – on occasion - uncomfortably close observation point, some of these video-portraits at quite vulnerable times in their journeying.  The result is an unpretentious portrayal of the warmth, honesty, and commitment of these salvationists who with abandoned frankness reveal to the probing camera something of their deep spirituality wrapped snugly in their disarming humanity.

With the frustrated taunt - from without and within - of irrelevance seemingly to increase in volume and vigour, this documentary will not damage the Church’s struggling image – on the contrary, it will give it a measure of normalcy through the faces of those featured. 

Well worth a watch!

PS While I have your attention, I’d like to wish you a blessed 2014 – filled with frequent moments of the awareness of his presence, consciousness of his blessings, and reassured of his guiding hand over your life and ministry.  I haven’t checked with her, but I’m pretty certain my wife joins me in these sentiments!