Church of God Chaplains Commission

While most of us were going day and night trying to keep up with our respective chaplaincy ministries that God has given us the opportunity to be a part of, 2010 passed by at warp speed. We have celebrated the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and few of us have made new commitments to the New Year. And, with this comes the realization that it is already February and another year is passing as we try to determine what God wants us to accomplish in our call to those institutions we serve as chaplains “Outside the Gates.”    The pace of ministry seems to expand exponentially, and the numerous hours and long days become the norm rather than the exception. We struggle each day to balance our lives between our desire to serve God and the demands of administration, reports, meetings, Bible Studies, sermons, funerals, marriages, counseling, ministry of presence, deployments, quality time with our families—or just time to rest, study and read.  

 

Yet, when we get a moment to reflect, we realize what an awesome privilege we have to be able to serve God’s people in the marketplace and outside the four walls of the church. We have been entrusted by Almighty God Himself to represent Him on this spiritual battle-front.   You, as chaplains, are the personification of Christ to these institutional and military mission fields.   You live and work in the “factories” and go where the church cannot go. Just as St. Martin of Tours’ cloak (capella) was carried into battle by the cappellanus (keeper of the cloak or chaplain) to represent the presence of God, so each of you proudly take the message of “chaplaincy” to this pluralistic and diverse world.   Only a privileged few have the calling, passion, and ability to minister as a chaplain. As full-time, institutional, active duty or Community Service, you are the Chaplain—a specialized minister who has one foot in the church and one foot in the spiritual battle of carrying the Gospel to this world and caring for His people. 

 

So, even with all the issues that we will face in 2011 in our various ministries around the world, I believe that this will be the year of the Christian, and especially the year of the Church of God Chaplain.   May God Bless and prosper each of your ministries and families.         

 

 

 

 

Jesus told his disciples that if they followed him they would live in tension with the world. Since full-time vocational chaplains minister in the context of secular institutions and organizations, we live with this tension as a matter of routine. The reality of the tension is magnified when a policy with religious implications is debated or changed. The current tumult over the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy validates the resulting tension between followers of Christ and a secular society. Church of God vocational chaplains are not tasked with eliminating the tension between the church and the state. We are called to take the hope of the gospel into the secular institutions while remaining faithful to our church and our Lord. I am confident our endorsed chaplains will continue to be effective ministers of Christ in the context of your ministry settings.

 

Congratulations to Air Force Chaplain, Captain, Chris Underwood for his successful completion of the Squadron Officer School in residence.

 

Welcome home from deployment to Air Force Chaplain, Captain, Victor (Danny) Pagan. Congratulations are also in order for Danny who has been selected to report in June for CPE at Wilford Hall in San Antonio, Texas.

 

Ministering to families, as well as single soldiers, is of primary responsibility for military chaplains. Army Chaplain (Captain) Ismael Serrano recently ministered to 27 couples in a marriage retreat and 20 troops in a single soldier retreat held in Charlotte, North Carolina.

 

Congratulations to Army Chaplain (Captain) Tom Lesh who was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for his end of tour award for service in Korea. Tom and Lora are moving to Fort Riley, Kansas.

 

Clinical Chaplain Jerald Smith was in Cleveland last week attending the CSC Trainers Seminar. He is one of several full-time chaplains who teach the CSC course for the Chaplains Commission.

 

Correctional Chaplain Joel Hammons, who serves at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, witnessed numerous confessions of faith of inmates. What a privilege to be allowed to take the hope of the gospel to those who cannot attend a local church.

 

Clinical Chaplain Rudy Burroughs recently conducted a Family Life Seminar for 60 participants. He also reports over 40 worshipers in the hospital chapel.

 

Veterans Administration Chaplain Tom Mills informed our office that the VA has an open announcement for Chaplains desiring to serve in the VA. This only happens once or twice a year.  This announcement closes 28 Feb 11. Tom has offered to talk with anyone who is interested. You can reach him at t.h.mills@comcast.net. This is the link to the position announcement:

 

http://jobview.usajobs.gov/GetJob.aspx?JobID=96235757&JobTitle=Chaplain&q=Chaplain&where=&brd=3876&vw=b&FedEmp=N&FedPub=Y&x=0&y=0&AVSDM=2011-02-01+00%3a03%3a00.

Endorser and Coordinator, Full-Time Chaplains 

 

 

Greetings from the Philippine Islands and our fantastic Chaplains Corps in this area.

 

My update will be considerably shorter this week in light of the fact that I am not in the office and will not have access to the many reports which come to us every week.

 

National CSC Coordinator, Constancio Uy, Manila, the Philippines, will host his annual Chaplains Training Course this Thursday – Saturday.   Chaplain Connie has been successfully leading the Philippine Chaplains for the past two years. They have made tremendous inroads into the metro area of Manila, and also into the very remote areas of the Islands.

 

I had a working lunch with the National Chaplains Board and they are so positive about the many hospital, municipal and benevolence outreaches that the trained CSC’s are now doing.

 

 

February 3-5, 2011, marked our Annual Trainers Qualification Seminar in Cleveland, Tennessee. Twenty-five trainers gathered from the USA, the Caribbean, and Romania to participate in this very intensive administrative event.   New qualifications were presented in order to be a trainer as well as 10 new trainers met a chaplaincy review board comprised of Chaplains Richard Pace, Jerry McNabb, Wayne Roberson and Jimmy DuPree. 

 

We sincerely look forward to the results of this board, as well as the professional participation of all of our trainers in the upcoming training year. Please keep them (us) all in your prayers.

 

Since Becky and I arrived in South East Asia, we have had several requests for International CSC seminars.   I have received just in the past two days a request for a specialized training course in Crisis Counseling as well as a basic CSC to run simultaneously in Moscow.   This morning I received a request for a CSC and a specialized course in Hospital and Clinic ministries to be conducted in Donetsk, Ukraine. Additionally three requests for stateside courses have been received just this week.

 

I look forward to reporting to you from Durban, South Africa next week, where we will be in Durban’s annual training seminar.

 

My prayers are with you.