In this excerpt from Foundations of Chaplaincy: A Practical Guide, Alan Baker provides an overview of the specialized ministry of chaplains, who serve outside the church and extend compassionate care for everyone within their institution regardless of religious preferences. Chaplains are the hands and feet of Jesus to those who may not otherwise set foot in a church building. Their ministry of presence serves as an example for all disciples of Jesus as we seek to love our neighbors in a variety of contexts.
What is chaplaincy?
Welcome to the most exciting and fastest-growing segment of specialized ministry: chaplaincy. It is distinct from mainstream pastoral models because the focus is delivering a “ministry of presence” to people outside of a church. While local-church models typically reinforce a wagon-wheel approach, where the pastor remains at the center and the outside community follows the spokes inward, chaplains invert the wagon-wheel model by providing their presence where people live and work along the outer wheel rim. In our current culture, “as fewer people identify with a specific religion or attend religious services, Americans may be more likely to meet a chaplain than a local clergy person at a congregation.” Chaplaincy is ministry in motion. It is filled with quick-moving fire trucks, police cars, and military Humvees. It sails over the ocean on cruise liners and aircraft carriers. It paces hygienically clean operating rooms and grimy factory floors. It ministers to those behind bars as well as those taking the bar exam. Chaplains walk the sidelines of the football field and tread the battlefield.
No other religious vocation offers the vibrancy of chaplaincy. This model emphasizes roadside ministry over residential ministry. It is constantly evolving, immensely challenging, fast paced, and deeply fulfilling. Yet chaplaincy is not about the context of a chaplain’s geography or the rewarding variety of vocational settings. For chaplains, it is all about looking into the faces and hearts of humans like yourself. It is laboring with and loving fellow sojourners traveling alongside you as together you experience the journey of life.
Related: Six chaplains share the highs and lows of their COVID-19 experiences
More than anything else, chaplaincy is being present among those you serve: crying, laughing, worshiping, celebrating, mourning, storytelling, and comforting. Chaplaincy first sends you out to places and then draws you in toward people. Chaplain positions are filled by people who are encouragers, caregivers, helpers, advocates, and listeners. Core to the chaplain is a commission to bear the image of God, despite your own obvious imperfections and brokenness, to the faces and hearts of those who otherwise may never enter a house of worship except for a wedding or a funeral.
Chaplains are innovators in their organizations. They inspire others to become better versions of themselves. Chaplains bring meaningful change to institutions due to their commitment to people within the organization. They are chartered by their organization to stand as both bridge and buffer between the institution and its people. At times, you encourage those entrusted to you to “keep the long look” and help them not to wane either in their character or in hope. At other times you serve as a buffer between the organization and its people, ensuring that those entrusted with power will listen to what they must hear. You do this in spite of, and often in trepidation of, personal consequences to yourself. The beauty and wonder of your calling as a chaplain are that the institution expects no less from you. You are recognized as someone who cares for everyone, even when others cannot. You are entrusted with bearing the presence of God into malevolent and hostile situations. You are called upon to advocate for those who suffer. You are concerned for those who are ill or injured. You serve the dying and honor the dead.
God is the strength of chaplaincy because it takes God’s specific calling to want to serve beyond the walls of a house of worship. If you sense your feet leading you toward people where they work, play, suffer, heal, laugh, cry, and even die, then chaplaincy is worth your consideration.
Related: How Scripture guides my calling as an Army Airborne chaplain
What do chaplains do?
Here is a quick quiz. See if you can find a thread of similarity in the following statements:
- “I’ve finally made it. The promotion is guaranteed. There will soon be enough cash on hand to pay off the house. Maybe there will even be a little extra. All of this is wonderful, yet I still hate my job.”
- “My mom just got a big raise and can finally pay for my college tuition. I will graduate debt free and find a career. All of this is wonderful, but my professor caught me cheating yesterday on the final.”
- “My sister is so arrogant about her new promotion. She still thinks I’m scum. I will never experience life as she can now. All of this is wonderful, except I’ll be an old man by the time I finish this sentence and get out of the slammer.”
- “My neighbor brags about her promotion the same day a hospital bed replaces my sofa. Hospice returns tomorrow. My life would be wonderful, except my husband is dying in our living room.”
Not one of these people is connected to a faith community. Yet all of them most likely have access to a chaplain, even if they may not realize it. There are workplace, campus, prison, and hospice chaplains available to help them. Chaplains bear a unique identity as highly committed, well-trained clergy called by God to bring specialized ministry to these diverse people.
If you are exploring chaplaincy as a potential calling, please read this book while praying about where God might be leading you. I hope these pages will provide an inspiring glimpse into the pivotal role of chaplaincy. For those currently serving as chaplains, I want to thank you for your unwavering commitment to your faith that is foundational to your calling to serve in the ministry of chaplaincy. May this book encourage you to further explore your calling and discern God’s “still, small voice” upon your ministry. My goal is to provide you, as reader, the heart and soul of chaplaincy so that you may flourish in this ministry. You hold in your hands a framework for understanding and practicing chaplaincy. May you be inspired along the way.
Excerpted from Foundations of Chaplaincy: A Practical Guide by Alan T. Baker © 2021 (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.). Reprinted by permission from the publisher.
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Alan Baker
Rev. Dr. Alan T. “Blues” Baker serves as supervisor of chaplain ministries for the Reformed Church in America. His experience includes service in college, corporate, and military chaplaincy. He is the author of Foundations of Chaplaincy: A Practical Guide.
