Chaplaincy 101.

BY PASTOR JON BENSON

Recently, a ministry-oriented email that I receive on a regular basis included a link to military chaplaincy. Clicking on the link, I was taken to the recruitment website for Army Chaplains, where I was informed, “As an Army Chaplain, you’ll be a commissioned officer who gives emotional guidance to soldiers and their families as a spiritual counselor. Army chaplains adopt innovative approaches to care by recognizing the physical, mental, and spiritual challenges soldiers face every day.”

If you remove the words “army,” “commissioned officer,” and “soldier” from that statement, what you have is a pretty accurate description of chaplain ministry in general.

The AFLC Department of Chaplaincy focuses on three avenues for pastors to be involved in ministering beyond the realm of the parish: institutional, military, and police/fire/emergency services.

In all three of these avenues of ministry, chaplains find themselves being called upon to give emotional and spiritual guidance to individuals and their families. Chaplains, regardless of the area of ministry they are involved in, adopt innovative approaches to care by recognizing the physical, mental, and spiritual challenges that the individuals they meet are dealing with every day.

As much as it is true for military chaplains, as stated in the U.S. Army’s recruitment material, it is also true for the institutional chaplain who is serving patients and staff in a hospital, nursing home, or hospice setting. Likewise, it is true for the emergency services chaplain who is called upon to assist the men and women of the department he serves as they interact with families in crisis situations.

To effectively serve as a chaplain, specialized training is helpful and often required.

Military chaplains are required to have religious or spiritual training and meet the military’s standards for commissioning as officers.

Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) is a program of education, beyond seminary training, for spiritual care. Most hospitals, nursing homes, and hospice programs expect chaplains—especially if they are working as paid staff chaplains—to have completed CPE training. This training involves hands-on learning, clinical supervision, and academic study.

Police and fire departments vary in their training requirements for chaplains. My personal experience is that police and fire departments that are staffed with professional, paid firefighters often require their chaplains to be members of and trained by a chaplaincy agency, such as the International Conference of Police Chaplains, or the Federation of Fire Chaplains.

Rural and small town fire departments are often open to having a local pastor serve as a chaplain for their department, whether or not they have formal training from an agency like the Federation of Fire Chaplains. These departments are primarily looking for someone who has a heart for the community and a willingness to give emotional and spiritual guidance to members of the department and the individuals in crisis they encounter when they respond to calls for service in the community.

One of the things that the AFLC Department of Chaplaincy has offered in the past to help equip chaplains to effectively serve in their respective roles is a seminar on Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM). CISM training equips a chaplain to be able to support, in group and one-to-one settings, people who have experienced traumatic events in their lives. Our department is looking at offering CISM again in the future.

Benson, who serves Newark Lutheran, Newark, Ill., is the director of the AFLC’s Police and Fire Chaplaincy.