Video Transcript: Types of Officiating Chaplains

Henry - Henry and Tom back, and, you know, I reflect on the last session. And  boy, we got deep right away. So, and that's okay, so I think we should back off a  little bit and just sort of talk about some of the roles that someone would do so  first of all, last time we talked about ministry is expanding beyond the pulpit.  Briefly, what are we talking about?  

Tom - There? Well, many people, when they think of ministry, they think of the  pastor or priest up in front of the congregation on a Sunday morning. And  chaplaincy allows us to have an impact on people's lives, in their social life, their professional life, their relational life, their neighborhoods. We have a chance to  bring the sacred to every aspect of their life, including where they work, where  they volunteer, places that they go, and it's we in the military, we talk about force multipliers a lot. You know, the fact that you can meet people, not just on a  Sunday morning, but at any ask, any point of their life, gives us, you know, a  myriad of opportunities to have an impact on their lives.  

Henry - So in this video, we are going to talk about those serving in public  places with sacred moments, and we're going to explore the diverse Chaplain  ministry settings. And again, this is still a tip of the iceberg, because there's  probably more than even we're going to get into. So before we get into that,  there's that, if you're a volunteer part time this is in a sense class works on  basically the seed this class is, like foundational for even being a career  Chaplain someday. This would be a class that's foundational to really  understand it. So in a lot of ways, this is becoming an age of the volunteer  chaplain. I want you to chat a little bit about the military auxiliary in a moment,  the unpaid relational starting point part time could be bi vocational combined  ministry with another role. It could be specializing focused assignments like  disaster or civic ministry. Talk a little bit about your work as a career chaplain,  working with auxiliary chaplains.  

Tom - So when I was chaplain of the Coast Guard, I had about 50 chaplains  who worked for me, and we covered anywhere there were Coast Guard  members. We were responsible to take care of them. The problem is, there's a  lot of Coast Guard people spread over vast areas. If you know your Midwest  geography, I was stationed in Milwaukee for a while, and I covered from Sault  Ste Marie, Michigan to Duluth, Minnesota and both sides of Lake Michigan, lots  and lots of territory. So when there was a crisis or a need or even an opportunity to provide prayers at official functions, I often had to say no, because I couldn't  get there right right. So we started a volunteer program, and we went through  different iterations of it. About it's probably been six, seven years ago now, we  started the auxiliary Chaplain support chaplaincy program, which I'm now a  volunteer. 

Henry - So it's like you actually started now you're volunteering Exactly.  

Tom - My kids say, didn't you used to get paid to do this. And I said, Yes, and  now I do  

Henry - The shepherd who becomes a sheep. Lot of times we talk about like,  you start, okay,  

Tom - that works. But So now, because we have such huge areas of the country where we don't have full time chaplains, we now have over 100 volunteer  chaplains who can help out in a time of crisis. Somebody needs to go visit,  someone at the hospital. We can make a call and the nearest ACS Chaplain can go visit. We also, right now, we have auxiliary Chaplain volunteers who are  underway on coast guard ships for a couple weeks at a time. It's not for  everybody, but some people can do that, and they love to do it. And we are there to support the active duty people in their work. And as a matter of fact, three of  our auxiliary volunteer chaplains have now, because of that experience, decided they wanted more, and they become Navy chaplains.  

Henry - See, in so many ways, I just love doing this class with you, because  you have done in the military what Christian leaders, Institute and alliance is  doing in a lot of these other areas. Like, really, it's the age of the that called  leader that volunteer the first two, 300 years of the church. Predominantly the  leaders were volunteers,  

Tom - and this entire auxiliary Chaplain program was driven by needs and  opportunities. We needed help. We realized that in the Coast Guard Auxiliary  there were a lot of people who were already clergy. They were already pastors,  and they were willing to use those skills that they have in their professional life  to support the coast. Guard. So we have people now who are retired, like me.  We have other people who are pastors, hospital chaplains, prison chaplains,  and they want to do this now, when they can fit it in with their day job, and then  when their day job is done, they can devote more hours to volunteering as a  chaplain. So that's just one of the volunteer opportunities. Obviously, you know,  there's volunteer opportunities with all sorts of different groups, like the  American Legion, the VFW.  

Henry - Well, let's talk about like, different types of chaplains. So again, some  people taking this class Tom don't know too much about chaplaincy at all. So in  a lot of ways, we're introducing a concept like they might think a chaplain's a  hospital chaplain, which would probably probably one of the most common right 

Tom - hospital hospice chaplaincy. Many of us are familiar with that from when  we've had a loved one who, or we ourselves, have needed that kind of support.  But there are also places where it's not a Professional Hospital or hospice  chaplain, but it's a volunteer who works in those organizations, especially in  smaller hospitals that can't afford paid support, or a hospice that that needs  volunteers to help with the work. So hospital chaplaincy is a huge field right now  and again.  

Henry - You probably have, in your sense, you'd have like a career Chaplain  that's there who needs  

Tom - help, who needs help, and who will then supervise the volunteers who  come alongside of them  

Henry - and support them. Now your son is in the hospice chaplaincy.  

Tom - My son is a hospice chaplain, and my wife was a volunteer hospice  chaplain. So we have a lot of hospice This is like your family ministry.  Sometimes it feels that  

Henry - I like that, that's really you live this  

Tom - corrections, jail ministry. I have friends who, once a week, will go to the  local county jail, and they will lead Bible studies. They'll lead prayer services.  They mentor and support people. They help with devotions. That's all in a  volunteer capacity. And then there are also full time or part time corrections in  prison ministry chaplains as well. But again, the full time or part time staff usually a lot of their time is supporting the volunteers who come there and who help  them out, and anybody who I've ever talked to who wanted to be a volunteer in  any capacity, but especially chaplaincy, has said I would just like to be able to  learn what's expected of me and what I'll be doing, and I want to know what it's  about so that I can do the best job I can do, you know?  

Henry - And I've noticed that at Christian leaders Institute, we have a large  amount of corrections on jail ministry, Chaplain volunteers. And one of the things that I know that jails appreciate is the training, and they want to know that this  chaplain, because a lot of people will have sort of like, Oh, I just want to serve  ex offenders or offenders returning citizens. But the reality is, is training is  needed. There too 

Tom - training is needed, and the institution, whatever it is, needs to have  confidence that this person who were mean when they when they let you come  into the prison, or when they let you come into the hospital. They're giving you  access to people right which somebody might abuse that access. So they want  to know that the people who are coming in here asking to volunteer, they have  some credentialing and some background that they know what they're doing.  We're not just opening the doors to just anybody, because then the institution  could be held liable if something wrong.  

Henry - And there is that truth that the hospitals and military and institutions,  this becomes even more important, even to the point where to be a career  chaplain in the military, you need a master's degree. And there is, you know, in  that, but to in the in a motorcycle club, the standard might not be as good or not  good is a bad. Word. It not be as high a difference a different standard. That's  right. But the point I'm making is, is that we're trying to at your training here at  Christian leaders Institute, is give you as much credibility. So whatever your  volunteer setting is you also bring a little bit of that residue of, I'm a trained  volunteer.  

Tom - You bring credibility. And you also come, we often talk in chaplaincy about your toolbox, what's in your toolbox that so I have, I have some training in  counseling. I have some training in in offering public prayers. I have some  training in hospital visitation so that you know what to do. You don't have to  stand outside the door and say, I have no idea what I'm going to do when I get  inside. You have at least a starting point.  

Henry - There's this. So what's the disaster response and trauma? Type of  Chaplain explain that a little bit well.  

Tom - I. I liked seeing this one. I actually did my doctoral work at Fuller on  disaster response ministry. Oh, wow. Because of experiences I had had  responding to various disasters in a time of disaster, a lot of people want to help, but again, you need people who have some training, some background, who will do more good than harm, and it doesn't always work that way. So in a time of  disaster, a hurricane, a tornado, a terrorist attack, the foundations of people's  lives have really been shaken, and the things that they thought were true, they  now discover are not as true as they thought they were, and so they're they're  traumatized. They're terrified on a variety of ways. So part of it is just being there to support them, to help them, and part of them is to help people over time, to  make sense of what's happened in their life and their world, and to help them  kind of reintegrate and figure out, okay, this terrible thing happened, but this  doesn't have to define who I am. Let's move forward and find a way to make that

a part of of who I am, but to make me stronger instead of more damaged  because of that. So I responded to the World Trade Center. I responded to the  tsunami in Indonesia, terrible, terrible disasters. But people are looking for a  symbol of the sacred in the midst of those kind of disasters well, and we're  

Henry - going to talk about that this ministry in this class and in future classes.  So awesome, redemption, recovery and rehabilitation.  

Tom - Interesting. It's very interesting. And especially, look at some of the words you have there about ministry to brokenness, healing, celebrating redemption.  There are people who have gone through very, very difficult things in their life,  and they're still going through those things, and there is a spiritual dimension to  all of that. And so when we can bring a spiritual, sometimes religious,  sometimes more overtly religious, than other times, but to help them on their  road to redemption, we're walking alongside of them and helping them as they  go along that journey.  

Henry - Love that serve an addiction program, celebrate milestones and  reunions, minister to brokenness and healing, serve in needed spaces. You  know, I can envision. You know, I met Tom last fall again, after 30 some years,  and in really talking to him last fall. So we're in doing this class in April. So this  would have been last September, or whatever I was like having this thought,  like, really, we need a host, an army of chaplains, and the opportunity for this  army of Chaplains is incredible right now, and it's different than, let's say, you  know, when we you and I were in seminary, we felt even America, there was the  church, and the church was strongly embedded everywhere, and it was even  more embedded in the World War II generation. We're the baby boom  generation, and now it's almost like the age of the chaplaincy is upon us,  

Tom - and so many people now do not go to church every week to get their  spiritual strengthening, and we need to go to them, right? We it's back to  

Henry - the original parish idea soldier. We will come to your spot and bring  church to you even if you're not going to church.  

Tom - And it's not that people are not looking for answers. They are, but those  answers need to be relevant to where they are, and that's why all these different organizations that we've been looking at when I'm when I'm looking when I'm by  my mother's bedside, as I was a few weeks ago when my mother was dying  under hospice care, I needed a different kind of spiritual care than when I went  to the tsunami and responded to that, or when I if I have a family member who's  incarcerated for some reason that the different kinds of situations will require a 

different kind of care. It's all under chaplaincy, but each is very unique in their in  their own way.  

Henry - Now, I said, you bring the church to them, but really it's it's not the  traditional, institutionalized church. I'm talking church as in the body of Christ,  yep. So, you know, I want to be clear about that. We're not, you know, we're not  flipping a script where we're churchifying a you know, organization, so to speak.  But we sort of are yet to so again, that's where. Training all comes in and what's  appropriate in those types of situations.  

Tom - Because you certainly don't want people to think that the only reason I'm  showing care is because I'm trying to get them to come into my church.  

Henry - Exactly yes, in a sense, you're planting seeds. You're ministering in  these situations. Here's the other one, workplace, business, chaplaincy. What's  all that about?  

Tom - Well, this is something that's really developed over the past couple of  decades. You know, big surprise here, when people at work have better  relationships at home and better relationships in the workplace, and get along  together better, the company will do better. That does make so when you take  care of your people, you may be doing it for a financial or business motive, but  taking care of your people will pay off for your individual people in their lives, and it will pay off for the workplace. So many companies now have hired full or part  time or even volunteer workplace business chaplains to be there to help people  in those times of crisis, to encourage them to be that listening ear, to have that  cup of coffee with them and to support them. And you find that those workplaces are better, healthier places, and when the workplace is a better, healthier place,  it's better for everybody involved, including the company's bottom line.  

Henry - Well, it's really interesting. Our program, our ordination program, with  the training based program, when we grant that clergy credential, we also, and  we're going to talk about this in this class, about confidentiality and all that stuff  

that you know you are a chaplain. You're expected to the ethics of a chaplain,  confidentiality and all that. And there is just recently in Florida when in our  Florida office there was a business leader there who I go golfing with, and he  was saying, I'm doing a chaplaincy program. This is a couple years ago. Oh,  that'll be interesting. I want to hear so just a month ago, I was golfing with him,  and I say, Oh, by the way, how is that program going? And he said, Excellent.  He said, You know, there's conflicts, there's all these things. And the chaplain  comes in there, and he hears their lives, and he they understand. And the in this case, these were volunteer chaplains that so he, he invited an organization that 

has chaplains. Hey, if you have any volunteers in this area, come on in and  minister and but he says it was a game changer. Yeah, civic, school, community  ministry. Now, what's that?  

Tom - Well, one of them is, like the first bullet point there. A lot of organizations  will start their meetings with the time of prayer. That's an excellent opportunity  for a chaplain to make a difference in their community. I've been asked over the  years to speak at school events, public events, Memorial Day, Fourth of July,  Veterans Day, and again, you're bringing a bit of the spiritual dimension to a  civic event. So it's not a religious service, it's not a worship service, but you're  reminding people, just by your presence and by the few words that you bring,  that there is something beyond just what we're doing here, or it helps them to  focus that what we're doing here has an impact beyond what the taxes we're  going to pay are. It has to do with what do we want this, this community, to be  like in terms of of how we how we treat each other and how we treat ourselves?  

Henry - Wow. Here's some ministry sciences, insights. One calling is contextual and personal. In other words, you you might have an interest in a civic  organization or a certain place or certain type of chaplaincy, so you have that  personal but then how does that calling become contextual. Explain that a little  bit. I think some people would like, what does that mean?  

Tom - Well, one of the things it means is when you are called to be a chaplain,  it's often you're not just a generic chaplain, because one size does not fit all.  That's powerful. You may you may be in a small town that has a volunteer fire  department, there's been some things that have happened, as often happens in  the fire service where they have there's been a need for some extra spiritual,  emotional support, and so you feel that you're called to serve that fire  department. So what you do is, in that context, you're dealing with first  responders there that's a specific kind of person with specific needs. Because  many of us, if we face a tragedy in our life, of we have a tragedy. It's gone, we  have plenty of time to work through it, hopefully and recover from it. If you're a  firefighter, you may have a difficult call, and you might get another difficult call  the next day, or the next day or the next day, so the context of your ministry will  determine the kind of things that you focus on in that ministry, in the with our  volunteers with the Coast Guard Auxiliary chaplaincy, a lot of the people who  joined this were former members of the military, wow, because they understand  the military, they understand the context, and they want to serve that context. If  you're in the VFW or the American Legion, you're a veteran yourself, and you  understand the needs of the people in that community, because you've lived that community, and so that's that's a big part of the context where am I serving, and  it becomes personal because of my past experience and the gifts and skills that 

I have now. We mentioned, I think, last time about if you're very introverted, you  might not want to be a chaplain. Well, if you're introverted, you don't want to be  a chaplain over 4000 people, right? You might be a perfect chaplain for a small  

town police department where you get to know everybody by name. You might  be a great chaplain at a senior citizens Center, where you can get to know  people over time. So match your personal abilities and talents and desires with  a context where chaplaincy is needed, and you will find it like, well, a point two  says as a grace filled opportunity.  

Henry - So you are officiating sacred meaning wherever you go. So here's just  a closing reflection. So maybe one question would be, where are you already  serving. Let's talk about that.  

Tom - If you're already serving some place, you probably have a passion for  that organization or the kind of work that organization does, and that doesn't  mean that's the only place you could serve, but it might be God's way of nudging you to say, I would like you to get more involved in continuing the service you've  already started, but in an additional role, or a different role than you've been  filling in the past.  

Henry - Why does has someone asked you to speak or pray mean anything?  

Tom - It means a lot to me because someone else has recognized that perhaps  I have something that would be a benefit to the organization. I might think, Boy, I would like to give a speech, and it may be because I have an inflated view of my own abilities as a speaker, but when other people say, you know, Tom would be  

a good person to speak at our Memorial Day ceremony, or we would like to have somebody do a prayer at this high school event. And we would like to ask Tom  to pray they recognize something in us that they think could be a benefit to the  community as a whole.  

Henry - So as you reflect on this class now, you're I hope you're starting to get  this sense like there is the possibility for the raising up an army of chaplains,  volunteer part time. Maybe career is like you mentioned, some who were in  auxiliary actually now are career chaplains in the United States, Coast Guard or  the military. So you know, in some ways, so much of calling is discernment.  Starts as a seed. Discern your way up to the next step. Then next thing you  know, this builds into this. You don't even know. If I look back at when the first  time we met to everything that has happened in my life, if you look back at the  first time we met to everything that's happened in our lives, we go like, Lord be  glorified, 

Tom - because we know it certainly wasn't us.  

Henry - No, you got that right. So until next time, start praying and discerning,  What is God doing in your life, or how what's your next step in your journey?