Training Missions
Cadets go on three training missions before Invitation to become Ordained as a Sea Lion. These are interspersed with their Academy time.
Cadets apply to various Sea Lions Fleets for training missions, and are accepted based on space, skills needed, class rank, and other factors. It’s only a training mission from the Cadet’s standpoint. From everyone else’s it’s an operation; training missions are live. It could be as simple as a ten month Granger assignment, feeding and teaching people to farm hydroponically in Zimbabwe. It might be a 3rd or 4th fleet medical or preaching mission, or an Archive Fleet hitch, gathering, cataloguing, and publishing information. The only Fleets which do not accept Cadets are the 9th and 10th Fleets, Extraction and Resettlement.
Admirals leading missions are provided budget from the profits from our industries allotted by the High Council. A portion of that is for the Cadets’ and leaderships’ stipends. Everyone needs some money, even when their ship meets almost all their needs. Cadets and Sea Lions may also work day jobs while on mission, provided those do not interfere with mission duties, or as part of their Admiral’s direction. Any money earned by personal work is the property of the person who earned it, unless it’s earned at the Admiral’s direction, in which case at least three fourths of the money belongs to the worker. Money earned at the direction of the Admiral and turned over to the fleet may only be spent on the mission at hand.
The reason for this is that some missions will require getting to know the locals as their servants, taking jobs such as busboy, gardener, bricklayer, etc. These don't pay much, but they do put you in direct contact, like Paul's tentmaking. If there's a mission goal that should properly be a gift from those who made it happen, like a cash gift to an orphanage or something, that would come from the 25% that the Admiral can require as part of the mission charter, and such plans must be part of the mission briefing, well before sailing. Under no circumstances will any of that 25% come back to the Sea Lions or to any members of that Fleet other than the ones who earned it; it must be used as planned or returned to those who earned it before the Squadron returns to the Council.
On completion of a training mission, the Cadet is evaluated by the mission leadership, in writing. This is an instructive evaluation, pointing up strengths and weaknesses for the Cadet’s development and to help other leadership in later missions develop the Cadet. Completing the mission is pass-fail; the Cadet’s performance is evaluated from the standpoint of accepting responsibility and carrying it out morally and in good character while exhibiting the Fruit of the Spirit. Failing consists of refusing to accept responsibility to an appropriate degree or failing to display moral character to a degree that it characterizes the Cadet.
An Automatic Fail comes only from sexual immorality, which will result in immediate removal from the operation and orders to return to the Academy for assessment and remediation. Cadets who refuse to submit to assessment and remediation are struck from the rolls. We're serious about this: if you have a spouse, you only get intimate with them; if you don't, you don't get intimate with anyone. If you can't live like that, go minister under someone else's flag.
Assessment and remediation is a process intended to bring about both repentance for the sins and healing to the wounds that led the Cadet to commit an act so destructive to himself and the other(s). No matter what help we offer, or insist that the Cadet accept, it is the Cadet’s responsibility to change their life in whatever way it may take to ensure that it will not happen again. Upon completion of assessment and remediation, we offer a second chance, and let the Cadet apply for new missions, to complete their training.
We offer a conditional second chance. We do not offer a third.
The third and last training mission is the one in which leadership most closely examines Cadets, and tests them most carefully. Leadership of the third mission may make a substantial objection to a Cadet's Invitation, but the final decision on objections lies with the High Council. A Cadet may be offered an opportunity to go on another training mission, or other remedy at the sole discretion of the High Council. Aside from an upheld objection, upon completion of three training missions and Graduation, the Sea Lions High Council will Invite the Cadet to become a Sea Lion.
Ordination
The Lions are ordained after graduation, and sit on their first Council as Sea Lions. All Sea Lions have a seat on the Lower Council. Only the Released sit on the High Council. The Lower Council runs the Sea Lions Foundation, as well as directing the conduct of any business interests owned by the Foundation. The Lower Council may delegate Cadet volunteers to positions of responsibility in those business interests, but time spent in such a position does not count as training, and does count toward the Release deadline.
Sea Lions who are not Released within twenty years of arrival at the Academy will be taken into Advanced Training, and if not Released within twenty two years, listed as Withdrawn and their file closed. They keep their ship; it's their property.
The Ordination ceremony includes Spirit-led ministry and laying on of hands. Once Ordained, a Lion is NOT a Pastor; one is a Lion or Lioness. Once Ordained and Launched, one is a Sea Lion or a She Lion. The specific offices listed in Scripture are separate from Sea Lions membership, and the Sea Lions Foundation is not a replacement for the Church in general. Once Ordained a Sea Lion, one is an ordained Lion, nothing more nor less. Some Sea Lions will be Prophets, some Pastors, some Teachers, some Evangelists...all will be Sea Lions, and that's the Ordination they'll receive on Graduation.
Female Sea Lions are She Lions, which is a subset of Sea Lions, so they may be called by either name, and have their own internal authority structure where appropriate.
Six Sea Lions Missions
Upon Ordination as a Sea Lion, one has three missions to complete as a staff member, and three in leadership. These missions are normally somewhat shorter than a year, with staggered start dates, so a Sea Lion can take some time off in between. Staff and Leadership supervise Cadets and other Staff as assigned and according to seniority.
These missions need not be in separate Fleets, like the training missions. If a Sea Lions knows they want to work in a particular fleet, they are free to undertake all their Sea Lions missions in that Fleet. The only exception to this is that the High Council may place restrictions and requirements on involvement in the Extraction Fleet and the Resettlement Fleet, and may do so on an individual basis, with no requirement of consistency from one case to another.
After Ordination, Launch, and three missions as staff and three as leadership, a Sea Lion is Released.
Release
About seventeen to twenty years after arriving at the Academy, a Sea Lion is a very different person than s/he was. They've been around the world more than once, learned foreign languages, ministered the Gospel in those languages, healed, cleansed, delivered from demons, adopted orphans, raised children, planned rescues, launched operations, organized defenses, tended the wounded, fought gallantly, and buried friends who died bravely. Specialization is for insects.
They can hold their heads up among any company in the world.
They’ve done much worth doing, and acted as members of the Body of Christ in ways that are simply not available to most Christians.
The Admiral of the Fleet in which they took their third leadership mission Presents them to the Sea Lions Council as having equipped the Saints to minister, and recommends Release.
The Council receives the Sea Lions and their service records, and deliberates with prayer and fasting. This deliberation is to seek God’s Will for those about to be Released, not to determine whether they should be Released. That’s settled upon recommendation by their last Admiral, who must recommend them or register a substantial objection. When Releasing a Sea Lion, the Council will take such action, and make such blessings, recommendations, instructions, or giftings as the Holy Spirit directs.
During Deliberations, The Sea Lions High Council and those awaiting Release fast and pray and remain celibate in expectation of God’s touch.
When the Council announces that Deliberations are complete, the Council sets the time for the Release ceremony, and the Council and those awaiting Release come together and break their fasts. When the fast is broken, the time for the Release ceremony is announced.
After the Release ceremony, any number of things may happen, though the largest number of things will probably be parties. Sea Lions live and die singing and dancing.
After Release, Sea Lions each have a seat on the High Council, and perform all the offices reserved for the Elders in the Scriptures among the Sea Lions and at the Academy.
Released are often called Free, Free Sea Lions, or Free Lions (yes, some Released women will call themselves Free She Lions, painful though it will be to hear). They may go wherever they believe God is calling them to go, and do whatever they believe He is telling them to do.
Released Sea Lions have a Seat on the High Council.
Released Sea Lions receive a set share of the income from Sea Lions industries and properties, for life.
Released Sea Lions have the right to form Squadrons to go on Sea Lions missions, and apply for Fleet positions such as Admiral. Admirals and other Fleet Officers are appointed by the High Council. Academy Directors are Fleet Officers.
Released Sea Lions agree to:
- Attend High Council three years out of five. That leaves room for missions and projects of almost five years without attending.
- Leave any area under the Ban.
- Keep our confidence as best they may. No one's expected to endure torture, this is simply about not giving away confidences.
- Not abandon their ship. We fully understand that God may tell you to go inland, totally dependent on Him for a while. The Sea Lion simply notifies the Council and sets up communications protocols so they can come pick up the ship and keep it safe for them for when and if they return.
- Act as Admirals, chartering missions, and taking Cadets and Sea Lions on training missions on at least two missions. Where they go, and what the mission is, is up to the Released Sea Lion, so long as it fulfills one of the Twelve Fleets' charters subject to that Fleet's structures and policies, does not involve areas under the Ban, and does not involve Cadets in 9th and 10th Fleet activities.
- Fill any Admiralty vacancy during a mission that occurs within a certain distance of their location. Should there be multiple Released Sea Lions in an area where a vacancy needs filled, seniority takes precedence.
The long and short of Release is that Free Lions are expected to be senior leadership, and required to lead two missions as Admiral, but are free aside from that to go where God sends them and do what He tells them, with the full backing of the Sea Lions Foundation. Only The High Council may establish emergency recall conditions requiring the service of the Released.
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