Meet the Officer – Major Ben Johnson

1. What is your current appointment and what do you find most satisfying about it?

My current role is Corps Officer - Team Leader in Cairns (Qld), where I have lived with my wife, Major Emma, and daughters, Tahlia and Phoebe, for the last eight years. I am also operating as an Area Coordinator for Far North Queensland as of this year. Being a regional corps, we operate over an area bigger than Victoria and with Cairns and Atherton Tablelands Corps together, we have seven Family Stores, three Community Services Offices, and five separate congregations. We partner with organisations throughout the Cape (York Peninsula), including our little store on Mornington Island; a 20-minute flight off the western coast of Queensland.

I love the diversity of my role, both in corps ministry and particularly our community development focus. This holistic integrated mission brings both fulfilment in ministry, while also generating income streams to support our reach into the community. Every day brings a new challenge and adventure, and I am learning a lot.

2. Away from the appointment – if that’s possible! – what do you do to relax or unwind?

After 25 years, everything I love in life has become part of ministry and vice versa. My family brings me great joy, all of us involved in the ministry of the corps and more broadly in The Salvation Army. I have always loved music ... playing my acoustic guitar with a set of crisp new strings and singing is still one of my favourite things. Singing, with my family (they are pretty amazing, just quietly) or playing any brass instrument or a keyboard and making beautiful harmonies really makes my heart soar. Sport and being healthy are also very important to me. I am quite competitive despite being an ordinary sportsperson! I play basketball and cricket still. I love the team dynamic and helping each member find their role and skill that they bring to the team.

3. What’s a favourite Christian song and why do you like it?

I think I must be getting old because I love the old hymns. I enjoy the new worship genres as well, but the hymns tend to express the deeper groanings of my soul. They have also been a touchpoint for the Intercultural ministry we are involved in. Hymns like ‘How Great Thou Art’ and ‘Leaning on the Everlasting Arms’ have been sung in multiple languages in our corps. At times, when language and cultural nuances are misinterpreted or not understood, these melodies have been a constant, bringing connection through that shared experience of God's comfort, grace and mercy. My favourite, I would say, is ‘At the Moment of My Weakness’, authored by General John Gowans (also one of my heroes).

4. If you could have a good talk with a biblical character apart from Jesus, who would it be and what would you talk about?

I think Joseph’s journey in Genesis through privilege, betrayal, hardship and prosperity is one of marked resilience. To be sold out by his own brothers, suffer the humiliation of being falsely accused, proven wise and righteous and able to demonstrate forgiveness and mercy when he had every right to bring vengeance. He continued through his life to rise to the next challenge while shaking off the resentment that could have shaped his behaviours and responses. I feel like the sort of privilege I have enjoyed demands that kind of determination, and I hope to one day demonstrate this brand of faithfulness.

5. If you were talking to a group of Salvationists and they asked if you recommended officership or not, what would you say?

I would say being called to officership is essential, but also that your calling is not about you. It is a calling to sacrifice, and to the lost, the last and the least. Officers’ conditions in Australia are amazing compared to those who have served the decades before us, and still better than what most in other countries endure. My commitment has been to resist as much as possible, placing any parameters on where I would serve or what I would do. This involves an utter dependence on God and a trust in His plan, which I am convinced is part of the great adventure. I have had opportunity to travel into the unknown, study to develop myself, to learn from the example of incredible people and given opportunity to minister in the most intimate, desperate and privileged of spaces. I could never have chosen a path so full of mystery, miracles and blessing. It has been tough too, but God has always shown up when I haven’t felt I was ‘enough’.

More information on Salvation Army officership can be found here.