Reading 9.1: Pursue Next Steps in Chaplaincy
Reading 9.1: Pursue Next Steps in Chaplaincy
Completing a course is an important milestone, but it is also a beginning. Once you finish an introductory chaplaincy course, the next question is often: What comes next?
The answer depends on your calling, your level of readiness, and the kind of chaplaincy service you hope to pursue. Some students are still discerning whether online correspondence study fits their lives well. Others are ready to pursue volunteer or part-time chaplaincy. Still others sense a call toward full-time or professional chaplaincy service.
This reading will help you think through those next steps clearly and prayerfully.
1. Continue Taking Courses as You Discern
One good next step is simply to continue learning.
For many students, a self-paced online correspondence model is a new experience. Before making long-term decisions, it is wise to take a few more courses and discern whether this style of study matches your season of life, responsibilities, and ministry calling.
A recommended next course is the Wedding Officiant Skills Course. This is valuable for future chaplains because chaplaincy often places ministers near important life transitions. Weddings, funerals, blessings, crisis moments, and family milestones all require pastoral skill, presence, and confidence.
Another wise course to consider is the Chaplain Foundations Course. This course helps build the biblical, pastoral, and practical groundwork for chaplain ministry. It strengthens your understanding of chaplain identity, service posture, ministry boundaries, and care in a variety of settings.
Taking these courses can help you grow while also giving you more clarity about your future direction.
2. Pursue Volunteer or Part-Time Chaplaincy
Many students feel called to chaplaincy in a volunteer or part-time capacity. This is a meaningful and important ministry pathway. Churches, nursing homes, hospitals, correctional settings, schools, community ministries, sports settings, and other environments often need spiritually grounded people who are trained and publicly recognized for chaplain service.
If you are moving in this direction, Christian Leaders Institute recommends pursuing the Licensed Chaplain ordination credential through the Christian Leaders Alliance.
This ordination pathway has two broad parts: foundational ordination preparation and specialization development.
Part One: Foundational Training and Ordination
The first part is completing the foundational courses that prepare you for Licensed Chaplain recognition.
After finishing this course, the next recommended courses are:
- Wedding Officiant Skills Course
- Funeral Officiant Skills Course
- Chaplain Foundations Course
Together, these courses help build a strong base for chaplain ministry and move you toward the Licensed Chaplain ordination pathway.
But ordination is not only about finishing courses. At Christian Leaders Alliance, ordination includes both study-based preparation and public ministry recognition. As part of the process, you will need to:
- submit a reference recommendation
- update your student profile
- participate in a local public laying on of hands
This public recognition matters. It connects your training with local ministry affirmation. It demonstrates that your ordination is not merely private or digital, but publicly recognized in a Christian ministry context.
When these steps are completed, you may be recognized as an ordained Licensed Chaplain with the Christian Leaders Alliance. You may also be listed in the clergy directory.
Those who wish to do so may also purchase public credential materials that support visible recognition in ministry. These may include:
- an ID card
- an ordination certificate
- a letter of good standing as a Licensed Chaplain
- a chaplain shirt
These items do not create the calling, but they can support public recognition and ministry credibility.
Part Two: Specialization Training and Credential Upgrading
The second part of the pathway is specialization.
Chaplaincy is broad. Some chaplains are called to hospitals. Others serve in hospice, law enforcement, athletics, schools, correctional settings, or mobile ministry environments. Because of this, Christian Leaders Institute offers a growing number of chaplain specialization pathways.
These include areas such as:
- Hospital Chaplaincy
- Hospice Chaplaincy
- Sports Chaplaincy
- Fire/EMS Chaplaincy
- Police Chaplaincy
- Corrections Chaplaincy
- Veterans Chaplaincy
- Nursing Home Chaplaincy
- Truck Stop Chaplaincy
- Public School Chaplaincy
When you complete a specialization, you may be able to upgrade your credential so that you are recognized not only as a Licensed Chaplain, but as a Licensed Chaplain with a specialty.
For example, you may become a:
- Licensed Sports Chaplain
- Licensed Corrections Chaplain
- Licensed Hospice Chaplain
- Licensed Hospital Chaplain
This kind of specialization can help clarify your ministry identity and equip you for more focused service.
3. Explore Full-Time or Professional Chaplaincy
Some students discover that they are not only interested in volunteer or part-time chaplaincy, but may be called to full-time or professional service.
If that is your direction, you may want to explore the Bachelor Degree program through the Leadership Excellence School.
There, you may pursue a low-cost degree in areas such as:
- Chaplaincy
- Divinity
- Christian Leadership
A bachelor-level degree can become an important stepping stone for future ministry opportunities. In some cases, it may also prepare you for graduate theological education.
Students interested in professional chaplaincy may eventually consider pursuing a Master of Divinity at an accredited seminary. They should also explore Clinical Pastoral Education, often called CPE, because CPE is commonly required in many professional chaplaincy settings, especially in hospitals and healthcare institutions.
This path requires greater investment and discernment, but for some students it is the right long-term direction.
A Wise Way Forward
You do not need to decide your entire future immediately.
Often, the next faithful step is enough.
Take another course. Clarify your calling. Build your foundation. Pursue ordination if you are called to active service. Add a specialization if God is leading you into a specific field. Explore degree options if you sense a call to professional chaplaincy.
Chaplaincy grows through preparation, public recognition, and faithful service over time.
Christian Leaders Institute and the Christian Leaders Alliance exist to help you move forward one step at a time.
Reflection Questions
- Which of the three next-step pathways feels most relevant to your life right now: continued discernment, volunteer or part-time chaplaincy, or full-time professional chaplaincy?
- Why might the Wedding Officiant Skills Course and Chaplain Foundations Course be wise next steps for many students?
- What is the difference between completing courses and pursuing ordination?
- Why does local public laying on of hands matter in the ordination process?
- Which chaplain specialty interests you most at this point, and why?
- Do you sense that your calling is leading more toward volunteer ministry, specialized chaplaincy, or professional chaplaincy?
- What is one next step you can take in the next 30 days?