Hey, before we jump into our next series, we wanted to share an episode from another show that we produced called the Love Serve Disciple Podcast. Now, this show is primarily an internal show, really meant to encourage and build up Salvation Army officers and members. But in this particular episode, we were joined by the principal of what's basically the Salvation Army Seminary College here in Atlanta, Major Anthony Juliana. He is a passionate, well-studied believer in the Word of God, and he came on the show to discuss the topics of holiness and discipleship, what that means in his life, in his preaching, and in his role at the college building up future Salvation Army officers. And I just know you guys will enjoy this episode. Who you'll also hear from in this are the hosts of the Love Serve Disciple Podcast, Majors Matt and Jamie Satterley, as they're joined by Dr. Anthony Juliana.
Enjoy. Hello and welcome to the Love Serve Disciple Podcast. I'm your host, Major Matt Satterley. And here with me today in the room is my cohost on this podcast, my cohost in life, my ride or die, Major Jamie Satterley. Major Jamie Satterley, how are you doing today? I am doing excellent. Super excited that you're back for this episode.
So I'm not co-hosting myself, so that's great. Super excited about our guest today, Major Anthony Juliana. I'm not going to give anything away because he's going to introduce himself and we're going to get into this great topic of leadership development.
I'm excited to dive even more in-depth on that topic today. Major Juliana, lovely to have you today. Who are you? What's your current position? What's your current role with the Salvation Army? Tell us a little bit about yourself, please.
Sure. Well, I'm a first-generation Salvationist, did not grow up in the Army. And so back in 1996, found the Salvation Army in Roanoke, California. Joined up and I told the officer there when he asked me to, you know, come alongside and I've got a job for you and that sort of thing. I said to him, well, Steve, there's two things I'll never do.
I'll never wear one of those uniforms and I'll never ring a bell. That was in September. In November, I was wearing a uniform and not only was I ringing a bell, I was in charge of the whole kettle campaign in Virginia. It wasn't just a little bit. It was all in.
It was all in for Jesus, right? And so we just started there in Roanoke. I fell in love with the mission and the ministry of the Salvation Army. And before too long, we were standing up in a youth councils saying, yes, we believe God had called us to be Salvation Army officers. And we have enjoyed core officership as well as several appointments on several divisional headquarters. And about just about two years ago now, we came on staff as the principals of the training college and absolutely love our time here. The impact that we're able to make on the future of the Salvation Army in our territory is something that we hold very, very dear and take that responsibility very, very seriously. Well, we brought you here today because not only as principal of the training school, but also you can speak to us about leadership development.
And that's what you're doing. You're building leaders, not just at the training school, but through your whole officership. Yeah. So can you share with our listeners, in case they don't know, what happens at the training school? What is that for? And then what does leadership development look like in your day-to-day context? Describe all of the training school in one question.
Yeah. Well, the elevator speech is, we train future Salvation Army officers, but the longer version of that answer is Salvation Army officership is about leadership, right? I mean, it really is this opportunity to lead people to Christ. It's to lead people into discipleship and understanding what their roles are in the body of Christ. It's to lead somebody to become a soldier. It's to lead somebody into local officership, right? It's all about that kind of how do we lead people?
And it happens in the core context. It happens in other forms of leadership opportunities, whether at an area command or a DHQ or THQ. Leadership is part of the role for an officer. To that end, what the training school has been tasked to do, what the college has been tasked to do, is twofold, actually. The Evangeline Booth College is made up of two schools, the School for Officer Training and the School for Leadership and Educational Development.
And so you have these two schools which are designed to impact the territory at different levels, right? One is to train future Salvation Army officers. The other is to take current Salvation Army officers, soldiers, adherents, employees, volunteers, and we find ways to develop their leadership to come alongside and let's inspire them to be the best leaders that they can be in their organization, in their community. And so the Evangeline Booth College is designed to do that. How that looks in my day-to-day life really is, we take a discipleship approach to leadership development at the college. It's no longer can you just stand up in front of a group of people and lecture and think that you're developing leaders. That's not how Jesus did it.
That's not how it works today. You come alongside people. And so really what you have in the staff officers that are there at the college today is this group of people who see themselves as coaches. They see themselves as disciples that come alongside of cadets and just put their arms around them and help them draw lines between dots, right?
We have classes, okay? Then we also do field training. So what's the connection between what I learned in class and what I'm experiencing here on the field?
And how that's done is very much through this idea of discipleship and developing them as leaders. And so that does happen in the classroom. It happens in the field. It happens in the dining room. It happens around the table.
It happens as you're walking across campus. It happens in every aspect of life there at the Evangeline Booth College. Can you talk a little bit about, especially now that you're a doctor of leadership, how does this tie in with discipleship? Some people might look at this or the kind of overall thing of discipleship and think, how does leadership development come into that? It becomes a dangerous thing when we start associating something like discipleship, something like leadership development.
And it's so easy to do in our army, isn't it, where we make it a program, right? Discipleship is a program. Leadership development is a program. Disciplescentric leadership development is a form of discipleship and leadership development that Jesus used, right? Leadership development is not a subset of discipleship. It is part of discipleship.
Leadership development, when you start to look and see what Jesus did with his disciples, right? It takes 12 of his closest friends, right? And what do they do? They eat with him. They walk with him. They sit down when he's speaking. He grabs them and says, come to this mountain with me. Come here, pray with me. He lives life with them, much like we do at the training college, right?
Where we all live on campus together and all of that. But he lives life with them in such a way that every opportunity he has, he says, let me tell you what the kingdom of God is like. The kingdom of God is like this farmer that goes out and starts sowing, right?
What's he doing? He's developing leaders for his church, for when he ascends to heaven and has to, they have to wait for the Holy Spirit to come, right? And the church is born. Well, now you have these men and these women that were with him, too, right? You have these men and these women who now are leading the church in its very early days. It was all interconnected, right? And that's the, that's the form that Jesus used was this idea of just come, let me walk alongside.
Let's walk alongside together. And so the model that we use at the college for leadership development, this discipleship model, is a model that can be replicated in every Salvation Army Corps in the Southern Territory and around the world, honestly, right? It's, it's a model that says, if we have the conviction that leadership development happens in the Corps, if everybody has that as a conviction, then it becomes part of who we are, becomes part of our culture as a Corps, right?
And then we build these constructs around the culture and around the conviction and the constructs of the processes and the procedures and the systems that are in place. And it doesn't become just this thing where, oh, I got to have a book on discipleship so I can do a program, right? It becomes the very integral nature of what takes place at a Corps is all about discipleship. It's all about leading people, right? And how do we lead them effectively? And we all know as Salvation Army officers, and even those of us who get to just kind of see our officer on a Sunday, we kind of go, huh, he's a, he's a good leader, right?
He knows how to take us places. But even if all we do is see them on Sunday, we sometimes forget that they're a leader on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. They're a leader in the community. They're a leader in the Corps. They're a leader in the office. They're a leader at the Rotary Club.
They're right there. They take these leadership roles with them through every aspect of life. And discipleship is the, it's the transportation, if you will. It's the, it's how you bring people into leadership is through discipleship.
And you do a disservice. You do a disservice to the Army if you separate them as subsets, right? I'm going to be disciple over here, but I'm also going to do leadership development over here.
It's the same. Well, as we begin to wrap up, I would just encourage people to consider the fact that even though they may not think of themselves as leaders, they may think of themselves as followers. But you know what? That's where leaders come from, right? Great leaders are also great followers themselves.
And so friends, just start there. Start being a great follower and just see where that followership will take you in terms of your leadership. And it doesn't, you don't have to be the Corps officer in order to be a leader, right?
You can be somebody who has two or three people that you're discipling. You're a leader when you do that, right? And so I would just encourage people to begin where you are.
I really appreciate your thoughts for us to consider. As we follow Jesus, we follow others. We appreciate having you on. That's going to do it for this episode of the Love Serve Disciple Podcast.
We will see you next time. God bless. The Salvation Army's mission, doing the most good, means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit salvationarmyusa.org to offer your support. You can subscribe to Words of Life on your favorite podcast store or visit salvationarmysoundcast.org. Join us next time for the Salvation Army's Words of Life.
