Looking Back and Reaching Forward

Lieutenant General Bruce L. Fister, U.S. Air Force, Retired and Melissa M. Fister, contributing editor

In the August 1997 edition of COMMAND magazine, Melissa and I published two articles that outlined our faith and our Air Force lives up to the time of our retirement. Since our retirement, the Lord has moved in our lives in many ways leading up to our call to serve in Officers' Christian Fellowship as Executive Director. The purpose of this article is to retrace our Air Force life and the subsequent three years in retirement to show how God has prepared and led us to join God's work in OCF.

First, being called to join the Lord's work, as OCF's Executive Director is an honor, a privilege, and a humbling assignment. We in no way felt qualified for, nor desirous of, this position. Melissa and I have always held the previous Executive Director couples we have known in great esteem. Those include Paul and Lorraine Pettijohn, Art and Misti Athens and currently, Don and Karen Martin. I have never felt that I had the spiritual qualifications of those leaders. But, we know that He is able, and our job is to listen for His voice and to trust and obey. It is with the knowledge that God has his hand on our lives and on OCF that we look forward to this new assignment with great enthusiasm and excitement.

On September 6, 1996 Melissa and I retired after 32 years of service in our Air Force. During our career, God put us through a continuing journey along His road toward spiritual maturity (which we have not completed). A look at some points along that journey may help illustrate how God has led us to join His work in OCF. The first two points concern how God used OCF in my spiritual development and in forming the principles I tried to apply as a Christian military leader. The last point is how I think God has used our three years in retirement to prepare us for this new assignment.

How did God influence us during a military career?

First and foremost, it was through an OCF friend and a local Bible study (led by a British officer) that I came to know Jesus Christ. I still remember the first Bible study my friend invited me to attend. The guest speaker that night was Mr. Tok and he spoke on spiritual warfare, a concept totally foreign to me. His words had an impact that opened the door so I could enter into the Kingdom and take by grace my place as a child of the King. That was in 1972. Since then OCF has been an important part of our family life. It has served as a fellowship of believers and channel of spiritual strength through our 24 moves.

Visits to OCF conference centers have been highlights in our lives. We enjoyed several family "vacations with a purpose," at both Spring Canyon and White Sulphur Springs. Our first Spring Canyon vacation was spectacular. I clearly remember our discussions on Malachi, and we were introduced to spiritual giants like Dot and George Meaders, Tom Hemingway, Clay Buckingham, and Paul Pettijohn. All continued to be spiritual mentors over the years. Our family will never forget the day we left Spring Canyon following that first visit. The reality of going from a spiritual mountaintop back down to the valley where the Lord does His work through us was a lasting impression.

One particular later visit to Spring Canyon came at just the right time for our family-just before we were about to take our first command. Not only did we get spiritual guidance and prayer support, but it was also no coincidence that the 1980 fall edition of COMMAND magazine was published during that vacation. That edition dealt exclusively with the subject of Christian commanders. Major General Clay Buckingham, Colonel Harry Ota, Colonel Dick Kail, and Colonel John Grinalds were a few of the key authors in that edition of COMMAND. There were three key principles from that edition that were critical to me during my Air Force career.

First, "you lead to serve and you serve to lead." In Luke 22:25-27(NIV), Jesus said, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves?" This is servant leadership. Your job as leader is motivating people, making them responsible for the work, and getting the mission accomplished. However, your leadership strategy becomes centered on serving God and your people and making them successful. This still means tough training, fair and consistent discipline, enforcing high quality standards, and leading from the front when the going gets tough.

Second, as a unit commander, your calling is to produce the best battalion, squadron, wing, brigade, ship, etc. in the military. In other words, as the unit leader, professional excellence and high quality results are what you are about. However, you are a Christian in the military placed in command by God. Your mission is to defend the United States. How you accomplish that mission as a Christian leader will impact the lives of your troops and determine your effectiveness as a witness for Jesus Christ. The use of biblical principles and hard work are important; however, always remember that God is responsible for the results.

Third, our success as Christian leaders and witnesses is determined by how we act in a crisis. During a crisis those who serve over you and under you will sense whether or not you are a "Proverbs 3:5-6 leader." Your trust in the Lord and your acknowledgment of the Lord are clearly displayed during pressure situations.

To this day, these principles from COMMAND have had an impact upon how I exercise leadership. It is but one more way that the Lord, through OCF, has prepared me for leadership positions, to include our latest with OCF.

I simply don't know how effective I was for God in applying biblical leadership principles in my career. I did always make it clear that I was a Christian and that serving God was my top priority, followed by caring for my family, and then my Air Force work. Of course I faltered and many times became discouraged and asked myself if, within my life as an Air Force officer, I really was serving the Lord. On occasion the Lord let me see results. Those results took the form of mission success, changes in the character of organizations, and changes in the behavior of individuals, all of which allowed me to credit God. Some of our greatest successes came through Melissa, simply because people knew she was accessible, would listen, love them, and would pray for them. But when all was said and done, we tried to remember that the results were in God's hands and that our call was to obedience.

As I review our Air Force lives, the last point concerns confidence in where God has placed you and where God will place you. In the military this is a consistent concern for all of us because we all will be reassigned. This not only means disruption for the family, but professionally it means taking on new and greater responsibilities. The question in my mind always was "Am I equipped to handle this new responsibility and will this new position create even more tension in my life with respect to serving God and my family?" I always tried to remember 2 Corinthians 3:5, "Not that we are competent in ourselves to proclaim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God."

Where did God place the Fisters following our Air Force retirement and how did this lead us back to OCF?

When Melissa and I ended our active life with the Air Force we took a leisurely drive from California to our home in Northwest Florida. This was an important time, because it allowed us the opportunity to reflect upon where we had been and where God was taking us. We thought God wanted us to establish our own consulting business, but beyond that I was convicted of only one other thing-that I would be obedient when God called.

Through our consulting business, Fister-Gregor, Inc., God did two important things for us. First, we began to learn how the business world operates. Specifically, I had one long-term contract as executive director of the Florida Aviation Aerospace Alliance where I gained experience running a not-for-profit business association. Second, our business provided us the resources to respond to God's calling in other areas. One highlight was short-term mission work. Just following the completion of an "Evangelism Explosion" course in our church, Don Snow, an OCF member, invited me to participate in two mission trips to Mongolia and China. Through these mission trips I met some international spiritual giants from our country and Asia, and I began a new relationship of total dependency upon God. I saw spiritual leadership at its best in Don Snow and General Lee from Korea, and we witnessed miracles in Mongolia.

In the spring of 1999 Melissa and I were convicted to reduce our business in order to make more time for other work we thought God would provide. At the same time Melissa introduced us to the study, "Experiencing God" by Henry Blackaby and Claude King. That study took us further down the road of joining God in His work and developing a true love relationship with God. In June 1999 we ended our executive director contract with the Florida Aviation Aerospace Alliance. Ten days later Don Martin called to ask if Melissa and I would consider and pray about our availability to become candidates for OCF Executive Director.

Our initial response to Don Martin's request was surprise. We're too old, we're not qualified, we are undeserving, we never wanted to move again, etc. A question on the applications for the OCF Executive Director position was "Why do you feel called by God to serve in this position?" My answer was, "I don't; however, I would consider consensus from the OCF Council as God's calling."

During the OCF selection process, the close association with the OCF President, MG Robert L. VanAntwerp Jr., the selection committee, and the OCF Council was an experience for which Melissa and I praise God. Whether we had been called to OCF or not, that selection process created for us a closer relationship with God through association with our OCF brothers and sisters and through a closer examination of our relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. OCF should take great joy in knowing that God has placed His people on the OCF Council, throughout the staff, and throughout the membership. Melissa and I are excited about joining God in His work in our military through OCF and serving with all the people God has placed in our Fellowships around the world. A summary of how God has worked in our lives up to this point.

I began this article to retrace our Air Force life and the subsequent three years in retirement in order to show how God has prepared and led us to join God's work in OCF. One of the lessons in "Experiencing God" asked that we review our lives to see how God has prepared us for our next assignment. To summarize: God gave Melissa and me some unique leadership experiences in the military; He granted us special experiences in OCF; He provided the opportunity to relate to military people on spiritual matters; He allowed us to serve in business and in a not-for-profit executive director position; He took us through an "Evangelism Explosion" course and helped us develop a greater dependency upon Him through short-term mission work; He led us to reduce our consulting business and to study "Experiencing God"; and He asked us to apply for consideration as Executive Director of OCF.

Melissa and I do not know what God has in store for us in OCF. Our time in this assignment may be long or short; that is His determination. However, in "Looking Back" it seems that God has taken 35 years to prepare us for this next, most important, and most exciting of His assignments. As we "Reach Forward" we give God and His Son the praise, the honor, and the glory for one more opportunity to join Him in His work. Pray that He will be exalted and that we will be totally submissive to our Lord as we join Him and you in His work in our military through OCF.