Video Transcript: Officiating Ceremonies Outside Church Walls: Baptisms, Baby Dedications, House Blessings, and New Beginnings

Henry - So today we're going to talk about officiating baby dedications, baby  baptisms, or baptisms, believer baptisms, house blessings and new beginnings.  And in some ways, if you think about this, I didn't think of this as something that  would not happen in churches, like I thought about when I left, when we left our  seminary, I kind of had this all set up, and it happened in churches, but  chaplains bring this outside  

Tom - church walls. Yeah, absolutely. Sometimes there isn't a church, so you  you have to make do. And some people come from traditions where it's not  necessarily a part of the worship service, right? Obviously, you're it's hard to do  a house dedication or blessing inside church. So again, like most of chaplaincy,  you start with the person that you're serving. And what is it that their expectation  

Henry - it's really bringing to where Jesus where two or two or three are  gathered. Yeah, there I am. So it's finding the ecclesia, often in very fragmented  or diverse areas,  

Tom - and for some people that you have to figure out, well, what, what  expectations do I have, or my church have, and how I'm going to do this. But at  the you know, the bigger thing is, how am I going to support the people who've  come to me and asked for this, this ministry service.  

Henry - Now, one of the things that people ask for in a class like this is very  specific. Bring me through the actual process, the liturgy, the litany. How do I  actually do this? So today, what we're going to do is just get real practical, a  

session in the weeds about some of the thoughts that we as experienced  ministers and chaplains have on actually doing a baptism dedication, something  you know, not in a church, but very much like at another setting. So let's first of  all, start with the beginning. So the beginning, here we go. I mean, this is very  practical, but let's get into that practical. So first of all, let's not focus on  specifically the event. Let's focus now as if these events were a service that  we're doing decentralized or not in a church.  

Tom - Yeah, I had a service that happened to be in a church a couple weeks  ago, a baptism, and it was not quiet or peaceful. The children had no interest in  this happening, and the little girl tried to crawl out of her mom's arms when she  saw me coming at her with my hand with the water in it. I've done baptisms at  county parks. I've done them on ships, which is a big tradition in the Navy and  the Coast Guard. I've done services in people's homes, in their backyards. And  you know that that is not according to my strict interpretation of my religious  tradition, yeah, but it does fit with the religious tradition of the people who are  asking me to perform that service, right? And so I have I do as much as I 

possibly can to accommodate them, because it's their service. It's for them. But I also go back to the like the formulary, the things that I say all fit within my  tradition as well, as much as possible, but you do have to be like if you're doing  this in a public park. I'm not sure what mashed bananas and barking dogs  mean, but I could certainly get the idea that you don't have as much control over what happens around you when you're doing a public when you're doing what is often a private ceremony in a very  

Henry - public place. So my wife and I have just researched it was quite a lot,  big class on humor and ministry and but one of the core concepts of humor is  not even saying a joke. It's sort of seeing things in a non critical eye, where  there's a smile, there's, you know, in some ways, coming to a situation where  you're not having a predetermined view, you're seeing maybe God sense of  humor. It's sort of like coming there with that lightness of heart. And again, we're  not going to talk a lot about appropriate humor, but. Again, a humor that doesn't  knock people down. Self effacing humor is way better stay away from anything  that has like ethnic joking or, you know, and stuff like that. It's just really what is  appropriate humor? That's what we are working on this class on, and that's  going to be an important thing in chaplaincy, right? Let's talk about humor real  briefly. In chaplaincy, how do you see humor?  

Tom - Well, like you alluded to, humor can be a great way to make connections  that some people, especially if they're not familiar. We talked in an earlier  session about the holy man was there? Yeah, if they're not used to being around a pastor, a priest, a chaplain, they may have expectations that were very  somber or very prim or very proper, whatever those words even mean. And we  have no sense of humor, right? Some chaplains will try to overcompensate for  that. I've seen that by being too much one of the guys, yeah, and sometimes  that's appropriately gotten them in trouble because they're trying to be too much  one of the people, and they forget that they are a chaplain, they are  representative of the sacred, and you can have fun, you can have humor. You  should have fun. You should have humor. But many of these ceremonies we're  engaging in are sacred spaces. Doesn't mean that they're somber or joyless, but they are sacred, and we want to give them the reverence that they deserve.  

Henry - So it's interesting that humor study for this class that we're developing  on humor in ministry, there was a it was based upon a book of a graduate level  class on Stanford University for CEOs. So it was very good. And then you mix it  

in with the kind of a ministry sciences perspective, what's biblical? What have  we learned? But one of the things this book said that the most important thing  about humor is not even whether the jokes work. It's whether it's appropriate,  like appropriate humor, when even if something doesn't come off right, is always

amazing. Inappropriate humor, like, for instance, overcompensating, like not  knowing your audience and trying to be one of the guys. There's an example  where whatever that humor question is is to see that appropriate, but also to not  run away from it, that you're never going to try it either. Part of the book was  talking about that in a lot of ways, humor is like something that develops over  time. You learn how to have humor as a chaplain in a way that is appropriate,  yeah.  

Tom - And part of the thing that develops over time is you understand the  context we've talked about that a bit, that the context of that ministry, and you  also get to know the people. So I'm not thinking of anything in specific, but a  story or something that you might tell to a group of firemen might be different  than you would tell to the CEO board at a, you know, the CEO's board at a big  corporation, right? They all should be. The standard I always use with people is,  would I be embarrassed if my mom heard me say, Yeah, that's a that's a pretty  easy one, because if I'd be embarrassed that my mom heard it, no matter how  funny it is, I shouldn't say it. And when I'm doing a ceremony, and when I do  weddings, for example, outdoors, like at the beach or at a public park, I tell  people something is going to go badly wrong.  

Henry - So even setting expectations, yeah,  

Tom - and, and, you know, are you okay with that? Are you okay with if this  doesn't if you want to have a perfect ceremony where everything just falls  perfectly into place, you probably don't want it in a public space. No, you want it  to be in a very controlled environment, which we don't often have that luxury.  Sometimes when I've done baptisms, I've baptized six, eight kids in a row.  Somebody is going to have a meltdown, and you don't want to embarrass the  parents during the meltdown, so you have to find a way to handle that meltdown with grace and a little humor. That's not at anybody's expense.  

Henry - There you go. It's that, again, it said seeing the context and again,  blessing, if you're part of if you have that baby that it cries the whole time, and  the minister has an attitude, or chaplain has the attitude, make that baby be  quiet, yeah, that turns a blessing into a condemnation,  

Tom - and you don't want the memory of that event to be your belittling them in  any way, shape or form you want the memory to be the act that took place and  how it was a joyful family celebration, right?  

Henry - So when you come into this, it's just seeing that appropriate. The next  thing is to really bring in the power of blessing and and let's reflect on that a 

moment so the power of new beginnings, the moment of birth, recovery, are  moving spiritually charged people long to mark these transitions with meaning.  Blessing is your tool to guide anger at these moments. Why do new beginnings  have such a want of blessing?  

Tom - One of the things that I am thinking as I am reading this is that, especially in the military, and not only in the military, but especially you move so often and  your life is so fragmented, and every time you go to a new place, it's a it's a  challenge, because you have to do all that stuff you do all over again when you  move to a new place. But it's also like a fresh sheet of paper, or however you  want to put that, it's it's an opportunity for something maybe, maybe my children  were having a hard time in school when we lived over there. Well, now we're  here, and this can be a fresh start for all of us. Maybe our marriage had some  struggles in the past, but now that we're here, we're beginning over again. Let's  try to do better than we did before, right? So there are plenty of transitions, and  when you can celebrate the transitions, it gives them a different meaning. It's not just oh, now we had to move again, and we had to find a house again, and we  have to start a new school, but let's make this a celebration that we're in a new  place, and these are new opportunities. And I've had parents ask me to come  and pray with their kids before they went to a new school for the first time, right  where they didn't know what kind of reception they would receive. I've been part  of recovery events where we prayed when someone you know had a milestone  in their recovery, just to celebrate it and acknowledge it, and thank God for  God's presence as part of  

Henry - that so in a service itself, so we're we're what we're doing here is we're  looking at the practical doing a service, but also elements in the service. One  element is to see the context be appropriate, and how we come off in that  context. But one thing is to see the significance of that context, that this moment of birth, and I like what you just said there, I thought that was really fascinating,  that basically, if you live in a high transitionary type of lifestyle, these these  settled anchor transition. This would give an excuse, maybe, for parents to fly in  to the base if you were in the military. Or this would be, there's a lot of occasions where, all sudden, it shifts into it. You flip a script by actually marking these  transitions.  

Tom - And you know, if you don't have family who can come, because you're so  far away, you can also take advantage of the event to build the new community  that you're a part of, right? We're part of this new community. We want to get to  

know our neighbors. We're going to have a celebration of some sort. We're  going to have a dedication of our home, or we're going to have a you know,  thank you, Lord for bringing us safely through what we've been through in the 

past, child dedications or baptisms. You're probably not going to have grandpa  and grandma and great grandpa and great grandma and all your brothers and  sisters and aunts and uncles there, but you can join. You can bring your new  community together and have them be a part of that celebration. Wow, that's  really, really good.  

Henry - So people want to mark these transitions with meaning. Blessing is  your tool to guide and anchor these moments. So why is blessing that like that?  That weaving together. Now we talked about blessing, but what applied to these  types of things?  

Tom - Well, I think again, and we've had this as a pretty common theme, is the  idea that whatever is going on in your life at this moment, God is a part of it.  That's it. God has. God sees us. God is is there, and this may be a whole new  adventure for us. Maybe the you know, the first this is your first child. Maybe this was the first time you've been 1000 miles away from your extended family. God  is here, too. He was there then. And he's here now, and he's going to be with us  on the next steps of the journey. And that blessing is a reminder that God sees  us, and he's a part of all these things that maybe nobody else in our family has  ever had to go through this, but we have to, and it's okay, because God and  God's people are here with us at the same time. That's really powerful.  

Henry - So then you sort of look at the context you've got, you sort of, you  know, a lot of ways, when we talked before about that humor, it really is like how to see the situation the way it is. So now you're coming to the actual dedication  or baptism. And here's some of the key elements that someone can because  lots of times chaplains will say, what are the elements? So here basically, are  essential types of elements. And maybe you can go through them and see how  would you look at this? Maybe add one. Take, you know, change one a little bit.  

Tom - Yeah, for baby dedications and baptisms. Of course, what language you  use and what exactly you say will depend a little bit on how you view what is  taking place. So I always start with what is my faith tradition expect me to do as  the one who's officiating that service? Okay? And then what are the  expectations of the family that I'm serving and that that takes precedence, but I  usually fit my normal liturgy into what they would like me to.  

Henry - That's really helpful. That is extremely helpful. So what you were talking about here is like, so I do that with like, weddings, I know what I was taught, but  I also meet with a couple and find out what they want. 

Tom - Yes, and I, and I try to let what they want guide me, as long as it doesn't  conflict with my beliefs about whatever it is that we're doing that's really good.  And so the welcome and purpose, I always assume that there are people there  who have never been to whatever that is, and I want them to know what we're  here  

Henry - for, so they're not like eavesdroppers. They're welcome to guests.  

Tom - Yeah, it could be, let's use the baby dedication and baptism. It could be  somebody from a tradition that it baptizes their infant. But some of their guests  are not from that tradition, and so they come thinking, somehow, what is going  on? And some have no tradition. You have three audiences, but yeah, and what  

are we doing here? Why are we here? What is our purpose? And this may be a  little different than the way you did it in your tradition, but this honors the the  desires of the family, and we're thrilled that you are here to be a part of this  right? Bathe it in Scripture that fits with what you are doing. And you know,  there's lots of Scripture that work with dedication or baptismal ceremonies. I  there's always in my when I do a service, there's always questions that I ask the  parents about their faith and about their whether it's a dedication or a baptism,  their commitment to raise up the child as as they feel that God would want them  to raise that child,  

Henry - and we do that in churches where we'll have a series of questions, do  you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Do you believe that He died for your  sins? Do you believe that he is in this family, in this child's life? I mean, there are many questions you can find out on the internet, but also at Christian leaders  Institute. So the thing is, you're saying is, you know, there isn't a sense liturgy, or a liturgical piece here where there's engagement,  

Tom - and I include the guests there too, that okay, you are, you are friends and neighbors, maybe family, but usually in the military, friends and neighbors of this  family. Do you promise that you will support these parents, that you will support  

this child now they're not going to be around this child when she's 15 and 20  years old, right? But for the next three years, you are part of this child's family,  and do you promise to support this this family to the best of your ability,  

Henry - one of the things that we do in the wedding officianty class is we talk  about when you meet with the couple, it also means you can have a little pre  marriage counseling, so you can then include that. And a lot of couples and I,  one of my churches was right next to a wedding banquet center, so we had a  program where, if you want to get married, use our church, but you have to meet 

three times with the minister, okay? And we ended up getting a lot new faith. 

Families. But the key issue was always, well, if we do this, let's talk about the  event. The same thing can happen in chaplaincy, where you have like, sort of,  you're here guide. We gave you like, a guide. And there's a lot of ways you could do this, but then you have a talk with them, like, Would you like some basic  parenting counseling? So now the and many of them will say yes,  

Tom - and then in certain contexts, the military is one of them. Most people in  the military have their first child and they have no extended family living nearby.  So you know, when my daughter here had her first child. She was surrounded  by sisters, sister in laws, mother, mother in law, lots of people who could help  her physically, but also give her emotional support. Could give her guidance,  could give her suggestions. When you're in the military and you are stationed in  wherever, especially overseas, you don't have that community. So you don't  have people built in who you can feel like, I can go and ask them questions,  right? So it's, it's really nice when you can connect these people to other people  in the chapel community who will say, Listen, I know what it's like to have a baby on the other side of the world from its grandparents. Let me help you. Show let  me know what I can do to give you some guidance about all the million things  new parents have no clue about until they experience it. But there are people  there who have experienced it, who have had children far away from home. Let  bring those people in, not, you know, not to take the place of grandpa and  grandma, but to be a support system that that family can rely on.  

Henry - And I always find an amazing time too, like I go back to reflected on  wedding officiant, which we're this class is not going to take, because we have  another one they can take for that. And we have a funeral officiant. So we're  going to leave those as separate classes that can pair with this one nicely. But  back to the wedding officiant thing. I was always surprised. At some point in my  little like pre marriage counseling, I would say, now, are both of you Christians?  And would you, if not? Would you like to hear what it means to be a Christian.  And I was surprised how many people said, Well, I'm a Christian. But then the  other would say, Well, I'm not, and I'd like to hear so last year, another example I just did the whole thing was last September, where I'm like, my parish is the  country club. And sure enough, the guy said, I have never heard anything about  it. And right there amongst at the country club seating, I led this man to the Lord  because He was curious on what it meant to be a Christian. And the same thing  can occur. If someone wants to do a baby dedication, you're a chaplain. You  offer it. This is great. And then, you know, so you're a chaplain at the motorcycle  club, and somebody has a baby, and then do you say, Yeah, you know, you love  a lot. So then, as it comes down, if would you like, know how to parent, you  know, just have a basic, I can do a basic parenting. Little thing for you. We have  a parenting class here at Christian leaders institute that Reverend Steve Elzinga

put together people just love. It. Very popular. Well, you could become this  chaplain. And if you are going to do a lot of baby dedications, take that class so  you can just offer some basic and people do say yes, they want to know  because they have no idea.  

Tom - And we assume that people know things when there really is no right to  assume that they know things, especially when they have children. And I've had  lots of people over the years, okay, we'd like to have our baby dedicated or  baptized. Why? Well, that's because that's what you do, right? Well, why do you  do that? Well, I was baptized, right? Okay, so what did that mean to you? Let's  talk about that. So let's, let's talk about what we're doing and why we're doing it,  and what this means to you, what this means to your child, what it means to  God, and make sure that we're all on the same page as to what's taking place  here, and then put that clearly when you have the ceremony of you know, a  much shorter version, but to say those same things, so that the other guests  who are there can can hear that message too, and it's a great  

Henry - opportunity, in some ways, as I'm thinking, listening to you talk and me,  and we're thinking about this, in some ways, it's like chaplains get to create little  mini church programs if you ask for permission and people want it. And my  experience is that many times they want it, they  

Tom - do and with things like doing a baptism or a dedication or a wedding or a  funeral, there's no obligation for a chaplain to do that if they aren't comfortable  doing of course, it has to fit within their belief structure and. Somebody comes to me and says, I'd like you to baptize our baby. That I've never had anybody say,  but please don't talk about what baptism means or what God is doing in this the  fact that they want to have that in a way, gives me permission to talk to them  about it, and I will ask for permission, and they will give it because they came to  me  

Henry - Well, and that's what's so cool. And then you could go another question, would you like to meet sometime for one hour and talk about parenting? Sure,  and they and that's what I find with wedding and saying the way an officiant we  teach them how to do little pre marriage counseling, all that stuff, but in some  ways away, an officiant could just do the ceremony leave, and that's what many  wedding officiants do. But a Christian one will say, Well, we minister on the topic of marriage, and if we're going to do a wedding, we want to make sure the topic  of marriage is covered too. Yeah. And the same thing can happen here in this it's just fascinating, 

Tom - and to maintain that relationship down the line. One thing I like to do is,  when I do a baptism, especially when I was in the military, I would keep records  of that, of course, and then, like on the year anniversary, call the family, or  contact the family, and you know, how are things going? I was remembering that ceremony. I hope everything's good. Is there anything, any way we can support  you? And people are very receptive to that.  

Henry - Yeah, here's a few tips. So we talked a little bit about the dedications,  keep it short and personal adapt to families. Needs an environment that you  mentioned that earlier, kind of looking at an area you got to see, if you're  outside, noisy kids, bananas, all that you got to really kind of address that in with joy, photo, celebration, shared, prayer, any thoughts about some of these things  or anything to add to these tips,  

Tom - one of the things that I like to do, if it's if we can, if there's other extended  Family there, I bring them into the ceremony, have them read scripture or do a  prayer. I like to have. Obviously, any siblings are right there at the time of the of  the dedication or baptism, but if grandpa and grandma are there, have them up  there standing together as a family unit. I encourage people. I know some  people like things to be a little more solemn, but I encourage photos and videos  of the ceremony so that they have something that they can remember. Keeping  it short and personal is important with especially little kids. Parents have a hard  time getting them looking perfect for five minutes, let alone  

Henry - it's really a photo op with a blessing. Yeah? So deep meaning, it's so  many things all connect together and be prepared for  

Tom - when things don't go well, right, when the child runs, runs away, when  you're when you're trying to bless them, but be very aware of the family needs.  And I will ask, is there anything I should know about your family? Is there  anything I should know about your other kids? Because some kids would like to  be picked up and some kids wouldn't. Some parents want me to hold the baby  that I baptize. Some parents insist that the dad do it. Some mom do it. You don't  want to be having a tug of war while you're up there in front of the cameras. You  want to make sure that that everybody knows what's going to happen so there  aren't any any avoidable surprises.  

Henry - That's powerful. Okay, house blessings, let's move over there. So  here's a basic litany, or a order of blessing. Gather, welcome and gather opening words, you know, in Joshua, those opening words are some of the famous, you  know words about you know what now, said I had it now. I gotta remember it.  Remember this one? 

Tom - I wish I could bail you out easily,  

Henry - but I just added a moment. Okay, as for you, me and my house, oh, we  will serve the Lord, yeah, gotcha. Okay? Optional, room. Optional, room by  room, prayer, final blessing, peace, love and the presence of God again. You  know, in a lot of ways, where the welcoming and gathering, there's a little humor  could be put in that introduction. Again, those opening words, which could come  from various places in the Bible. Again, I look at this as the same way I would do a wedding, is meet with them before the blessing, and then find out their story.  And they might even have a verse on the wall. That's a that their mother gave  them at their wedding.  

. 

Tom - And and I've given people at a ceremony like this, I've given them the  Joshua 24 verse. A very common one. I've had a few times when I again, this  was this kind of thing. Was not part of the tradition I grew up in, mostly because  the community I grew up in people didn't move very often, right? So it wasn't a  common thing. But when I started working with the Marines and Navy chaplains, can serve the Marines, the Navy and the Coast Guard, I found that it was very  difficult on families when mom or dad was going to go on a long deployment,  right? And sometimes little children would get very frightened at home if mom or  dad was gone, right? So they would ask me to come and and do a blessing of  the house. And so the room by room, prayer was important. Like we went to  each of the kids rooms. Prayed at each of those rooms. We prayed around the  kitchen table, kind of the traditional place of at hearth and home. Prayed for the  presence of God to be there and for peace, especially for the family, as mom or  dad was going to be gone for a long period of time, and it was, it became, for  some of them, kind of a normal thing that they did before they went on a long  deployment, they had something like that at home to prepare the kids for that.  

Henry - Yeah, I'm even amazed too at the occasion, a blessing can do for  another meeting. And as a embedded chaplain in a community, this occasion  could bring up a lot of stuff that, okay, so you've got a, in a sense, like, I go back  to that guy, the holy man's comment. You know, in a sense, how often do you  actually get a clergy person in your house in general? So if somebody asks for a blessing, especially if they're not going to church, it could. You could really come up with a very like, again, sensitive, contextual. You could say, Okay, so is there  anything specifically you'd like to talk about your house, your home, you could  even your family, that I could maybe, you know, research for you. You don't have to have the answers at that moment. But the idea is, you're making a  connection, where not only did you come once, but you might be coming again  to give contextualized blessing in form of like, you know what we really, you 

know, we are really bad at finance. That's our big concern, our prayer concern.  Okay, cool. Do you know that? Would you, would you like me to share a book  that worked for our family? You know, it's stuff like that to who knows where that  could go.  

Tom - And even if you do something like this for a family and it's meaningful to  them when their neighbors are struggling with something, one of the things that  they will say is, well, we were having issues, and the chaplain came, and he was very helpful, and you will have a ever widening circle of people who are open to  your assistance.  

Henry - Yeah, again, it's the sojourn. That's the early church. These early  Christians went out and they just opened up their lives, and then the Holy Spirit  opened up hearts everywhere. Very powerful. Wow, I want to be a chaplain.  

Tom- There's lots of opportunities take the course.  

Henry - Okay, we will. Oh, we're in that course. Okay, tips for house, blessing  again, things you mentioned, use scripture and blessing, practical blessings.  Invite family to participation, be spiritually present, not mystical, you know. And I  think you brought that point up before that the that just because you bless a  room doesn't mean you've put in some hopes or but on the other hand, it is  spiritual,  

Tom - so there's not magic, but it's powerful, right?  

Henry - And the Holy Spirit does. There's a great book that that Lee Strobel just  wrote. I just read it on the scene the divine, and they're talking, he's talking  about ministry. I would call the word ministry, sciences, evaluations, of miracles,  of healings, of, you know, angels showing up beings. You know, that's not a  word, but you know, it's that idea here where, you know, it's like things do  happen, because God does show up, and that chaplains can be those agents of bringing that presence, but also surprising things can happen. Yeah, blessing  other new beginnings. So you've done stuff like this,  

Tom - yeah, in the and I keep saying in the military, but I'll keep saying that for  in the military, when a group of pilots are given their wings, or a group of nurses  finish their training, or people graduate from Officer Candidate School, or for  boot camp, and almost all of those milestones there will be a prayer, maybe a  specific ceremony revolving around the prayer, like there'll be a blessing of the  wings and that sort of thing. And certainly, graduation ceremonies, and they  don't have to be long. In fact, shorter is better, but you're marking a significant 

achievement, accomplishment, a significant change in those people's life, and  you're adding you're adding a sense of the sacred to something that they  already are feeling is an important event, and you're adding another dimension  to it,  

Henry - you know. And I love the concept that I would take time out of my day  for 60 seconds of blessing. You know how difficult it is to actually go anywhere,  but I will go and drive 45 minutes there, 45 minutes back. If someone wants a  blessing, I am going to pay attention and try to schedule it.  

Tom - And when you're doing it for like a career thing or a recovery milestone,  there's usually, once you get to know the organization, there's kind of a pattern  to how the ceremony goes. So ask other people like, what do we do and what  would be a good way to to celebrate this recovery milestone. What would be a  good way to have a blessing of the wings for these new pilots and get as many  people involved in it, besides yourself as you can, right?  

Henry - Right? So we're going to end with a few biblical and ministry, sciences,  insights, biblical leaders bless at thresholds. And we saw that Isaac, that several in that story, Moses, Jesus, the blessing anchors and prepare souls for  transition. I'm going to talk about that in a minute. And chaplains bless Chaplain  blessings create sacred space everywhere, which talked about in previous  times, but blessings anchor and prepare souls for transition.  

Tom - Whoa, now that one can mean a lot of different things. Okay, so what  does it mean to you? Well, my first thought, and I think I mentioned in an earlier  class, my mom just died, and at 96 years old, so it was, it was a it was a very  positive experience for everyone. But when we knew she was dying, we prayed  for her and we prayed with her. When she was about to die, we prayed for her  and with her, even though she, as far as we know, didn't hear anymore, and  after she died, we prayed a prayer of gratitude as she transitioned to eternal life. So that's one last back, yes, another is like again in the military, if somebody's  moving to a different command there will usually be the base that they're  leaving. If they attend the chapel there, there will be a time at the last worship  service that they're at where we'll acknowledge them, thank them for their  participation in the community. We'll pray for them that they have a smooth  transition, that their move is smooth, and then let the chapel that where they're  going to know Hey, by the way, the Smith family is going to be showing up. Keep an eye out for them and give them a strong welcome, sort of a warm handoff, so that they can slide right into another community. And it's great that we do that in  the military, but with the civilian world, the normal life so transient, it would be  nice if we did more of that with everybody. Right? 

Henry - In some ways, it's calling attention to major life changes and bringing  God at these points of change, whether it's a baptism, whether it's a new job, all  of these things, there's an opportunity for ministry.  

Tom - I was just last year, I got a call from a fire department, and they never did  anything when people were promoted within the fire department, and they said  we would like to have something that we could do to mark those moments,  those career milestones. And so a group of people worked on when you  promoted from this job to this job. Here's a little five minute ceremony that the  firehouse could do together when you promoted from this job to this job. Here's  one that would involve inviting families, and so they key. They tied them into the  appropriateness based on the level of promotion. But even at the lower levels,  they wanted it to be marked that this is a significant moment in this person's life,  and we want to join together to celebrate that. And they just instinctively said, if  we're going. Celebrate this. A Chaplain should be a part of it, too.  

Henry - Oh, I love this. Okay, until next time