“I always knew from a young age that I was meant to be a pastor,” says Lieutenant Kaitlyn Young. “My grandparents will tell you that from the age of five, I was running around with curly hair and freckles, telling everybody that one day I was going be a pastor.

“I just didn’t know what that meant then, but The Salvation Army is where God has led me.”

Radio Silence

Though Lieutenant Kaitlyn’s grandparents were officers, she was not born into the Army. 

When her parents moved to Cobourg, Ont., to start their married life, they checked out both the Pentecostal and Salvation Army churches there and decided that the former was the one that best suited their needs.

Lieutenant Kaitlyn’s early dream of becoming a pastor did not abate as she grew up. She was actively involved in her church, teaching Sunday school and eventually taking on the junior classrooms when she became a teenager. By the time she reached high school, she was still determined to be a pastor one day.

“The Grade 9 version of me thought that you graduated, went on to Pentecostal seminary, became a pastor, and things would be rainbows and sunshine for the rest of your life,” she laughs. “That’s how it was meant to be because I was obeying what I felt God was calling me to do.

“But the Grade 12 version of me realized that, at the time, there were only 10 single women in the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada serving as senior pastors. Lots of women in women’s ministry, lots of women in children’s ministry, but few senior leaders of the church, which was what I felt called to.”

Lieutenant Kaitlyn didn’t like those odds, so she pursued an undergraduate degree in teaching as a backup plan. All the while, she prayed for guidance.

“I had radio silence from God on the issue of where he wanted me to minister,” Lieutenant Kaitlyn says. “It was like the conversation had gone dead, like the phone was hung up or something.”

The Journey Begins

Meanwhile, some friends of her grandparents asked if Lieutenant Kaitlyn had considered training in a different denomination. What about The Salvation Army? 

“I was like, ‘No! They’re so weird,’ ” she smiles now. “They wear uniforms and they play brass instruments. I don’t know how to play anything and I’ve never been to camp. Would I even be allowed?”

But the suggestion left her something to think about. 

“And I did,” Lieutenant Kaitlyn says. 

She decided to interview all the women in Cobourg who were serving in ministry. 

“The one I felt most reflected the calling I had on my life was the Salvation Army officer, Lt-Colonel Myra Pritchett.”

Encouraged, Lieutenant Kaitlyn attended an information night at divisional headquarters in Toronto.

“It was a fact-finding mission,” she says. “What is this training college like? What does The Salvation Army expect of their pastors? And what would this mean for me?” 

That evening, she felt that The Salvation Army was where God wanted her.

Lieutenant Kaitlyn drove home from Toronto that day and told her family, who were happy and supportive of her, as was her senior pastor.

“So, I said goodbye to the congregation that had raised me, and I started the journey to soldiership, candidacy and the College for Officer Training, from which I was commissioned in 2018 as part of the Messengers of the Gospel Session.”

In Step

After stints in Medicine Hat, Alta., Toronto and Hamilton, Ont., Lieutenant Kaitlyn is now the corps officer in Fenelon Falls, Ont.

“I didn’t necessarily choose officership or The Salvation Army because I felt it was the best option for me,” Lieutenant Kaitlyn explains. “Put simply, The Salvation Army was and is the best place for me because that’s where God told me to go. It’s the centre of his will for my life. And that’s where I surrendered myself to be.

“As a Christian woman first, then a soldier of The Salvation Army and an officer of The Salvation Army, my first ‘yes’ was always to the will of the Holy Spirit and walking in step with the Holy Spirit. That was the easiest ‘yes.’ Everything else has just been a wonderful bonus on the journey that God has designed for my life.”

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