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So.. You're Interested In Chaplaincy Eh?

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Hello All!

This post is for anyone looking for a multi-ethnic family and community. In this blog, I dive into what chaplains do in the military and civilian aspect, and cover the wide basis of all that there is to being a chaplain.

Chaplain’s are a specific niche group of preachers who also serve their country, and this blog is one specifically for the Army Chaplain community. There are a few things you can do to help yourself when starting along the preaching path!

You should be comfortable and practice public speaking, as you will be talking in front of others about the Torah, Bible, Qur'an, Buddhist Texts, and/or Hindu Texts.

You should be well versed in the religious texts of your faith denomination/doing research before giving your sermon to people, referencing those texts (and even outside sources too!).

For this community, there are a lot of sermons and essays written.

This includes theological discussion with others about the meaning of religious texts, as well as looking at the original languages these texts were written in (like Greek and Hebrew), as well as other original languages, for historical context, to find the meaning of what was being written/said during the times, and how we can apply that to our lives now. There are also deep studies within different religions, as the Chaplain Corp incorporates a multitude of religions.

A great example is in this video, where word origin is dissected and fully explained, as well as the explanation of the significance of the word today.

Some Writing Style as a Chaplain

When writing in the preaching community, there is importance to keep things light hearted, so throw a couple of jokes around that way whatever you preach on (let us say we are on the topic of sin as a whole) there isn’t a gloomy feeling in the air. We want to focus on building the community of your faith group, as well as everyone who wants to come, allowing people to see love through us, and allowing people to gain a rich and unique relationship with chaplains, and their specific sermons.

Confrontations as a Chaplain

There are multiple issues that professors and other students have with religions when you are in College.

Other communities are not considerate and don't care about any religious affiliations, so chaplains have to make sure to be as friendly and unbiased as possible when confronting situations like these.

The some communities think Christians, Jews, Muslims, and other religious denominations hate them, but we are to show them love. They are no different than us, and need to treat them as we would want to be treated. So, diffusing situations that are filled with hate is a constant battle that preachers and people of faith have to deal with.

When writing sermons or essays discussing your beliefs and views on a passage of scripture or religious text, a great idea is peer review to see how you should strengthen your argument, or the person points out where you might veer off your main point. You should include quotes from theologians usually, but the main source of your sermon should be from your religious background text (Bible, Torah, Qur'an, etc...), because that source is what chaplains use as the main truth for their specific sermons. As a Chaplain, you have to be unbiased in a lot of situations and not force your beliefs, but rather encourage others to come to religious services and to join the family.

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About Me

For those wondering about this post and the credentials of this mystery blogger, this will be answered shortly. My name is Tim! I am in the ROTC program at a University and plan on choosing the chaplain route as a career path. The Chaplain route is a great path for people who wish to serve others in the military. As a precursor to serving for the chaplains, I have served in youth ministry at my church when in high school, and when I moved for college, I served in the youth ministry for that church as well. I then took on a leadership position in the Christian fellowship I am currently in known as College Life, and lead bible studies for incoming freshmen to the university.

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I plan on continuing to serve the church through my responsibilities as a chaplain in the Army National Guard, preaching and counseling those who need/want it. I have been in the ROTC program for 2 years now, and while still learning, have a solid foundation on the concepts of being a leader in the Army.

Other Hobbies

As a cadet on the Chaplain route, there are things outside of church and ROTC, and sometimes people think that I don’t do anything outside of ROTC and church.

I love to run (and work out in general)

I love history (that’s my major)

I love playing video games (Yes I play Call of Duty and First Person Shooters, but I also play a variety of other genres of games like fantasy, and mess-around games).

Drinking coffee and having one-on-one conversations, and singing karaoke!

I hope you got to know me a little better!

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Writing in the Chaplain Community

Are you worried about the writing within the Chaplain Community? Then fear no more! This section defines the different types of genres chaplains write for.

There are multiple types of writings for a chaplain within the Army. There are the religious requirements, which include writings like sermons, but there are also writings such as briefings/operation orders for events/event planning writing that is indoctrinated into the entire Army. The purposes for these different writing types are to convey the different situations that Chaplains are in, whether that be in a religious setting, or in a leadership-briefing setting.

Sermon Purpose

The purpose for sermons is that for a chaplain, you are the religious obligation to soldiers, and thus on Sunday (or whenever you preach about your specific religion) you give your sermon to soldiers because you are a preacher for your religion (whether it be out of the Bible, Qur’an, Torah, or other religious texts). This idea for chaplains gives spiritual nourishment to soldiers who could be far from home, or just follow the religious rules, like taking a day for Sabbath. An example of an Army Chaplain sermon is here.

For the sermons, the audience addressed is usually everyone listening, not just the chaplains/preachers. The audience doesn’t necessarily have to know all that is going on, because the sermon incorporates teachings from religious texts and describes the story of building a community. Sermons can be used as examples so other chaplains can get a view of how another chaplain preaches, and give critiques and tips to use to better communicate the lesson. Peer editing another chaplain’s sermon is a great way to incorporate the entire audience and give/take constructive points to make the teaching more clear or flow better to the audience. Writing sermons is a unique writing style to that of chaplains and preachers. Chaplains get the unique experience of inspiring others to dive deep into the historical, rhetorical, and theological aspects of the Bible.

There are also sermons for other types of chaplains (Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, etc.), not just Christian sermons given in the example above. All the Chaplains have their own specific types of sermons based on their religious background, they just use different religious texts to convey their religious preferences.

Briefing Purpose

For briefings, this can be for people outside the community, and within the community. If the briefing is about a church service/event, then the briefing would be to everyone, not just chaplains within the community. If the briefing is on chaplain responsibilities, then the briefing will be specifically for chaplains. This brief is usually done in the format of an OPORD (Operations Order), which can be found here.

In the military, the use of acronyms is prevalent to make writing concise and save time, as well as use universal language so that concepts are understood by everyone. The purpose for briefings/OPORDs are orders/events that will be happening, so that everyone involved knows what is happening. OPORDs are used in the Army, but there are specific OPORDs that require chaplain work (whether they are church events, counseling orders, etc.).

Depending on your rank, higher ranking officers might not do as many sermon writings as lower ranking chaplains, for the higher ranking officers have more responsibilities compared to lower ranking officers. If you are a colonel and a chaplain, you are more likely to be doing brigade (2-3 companies) level counseling and event planning, as compared to a 1LT (1st Lieutenant) who does counseling for a company (about 50 people) and writing sermons for Sunday services. Writing OPORDs as a chaplain is very different from regular OPORDs. Usually OPORDs are used as offensive operations, however chaplain OPORDs are more for event planning and organizational purposes. A comparison between the two types of OPORDs can be found here:

Platoon Attack OPORD

Chaplain OPORD - Strong Bonds

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Constraints to Chaplain Writing

There are constraints when writing for both briefings and sermons. Sermons have the bias of whatever denomination background you are preaching from. This means that a first Baptist chaplain will have a difficult time talking to an audience of roman catholic background, and have clashing views/interpretations on the Bible and the use of outside sources (eg. the Apocrypha).

For those who don’t know, the Apocrypha is a group of readings that Catholics deem to be Holy scripture (meaning they say the writings are inspired by the Holy Spirit and God), whereas Protestants don’t see the Apocrypha as Holy scripture at all.

There are also not just Christian Chaplains, so there are other types of religious sermons too, and all chaplains need to be respectful of others' religious preferences

There is also the restraint of not pushing for one of the political parties when in uniform, and thus can’t incorporate that into your teaching in a sermon, or in a briefing/OPORD. These are minimal constraints however, and the chaplain isn’t there to push their own political agenda, but rather to nurture soldiers, and create a safe, spiritual environment for the soldiers around them.

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Chaplaincy During COVID-19

A Little Bit of Background

At the start of February of 2020, there was a virus named COVID-19 that started sweeping through the world. This pandemic would change the world in health regulations, such as mass mask wearing, social distancing, and producing stay-at-home orders. Many people were (and still are) dying. This is challenging to Chaplains because they want to be close to people, pray over them, and build communities, yet this doesn’t have the same feeling doing everything online, or social distancing with wearing masks. 

Chaplains Helping During the COVID-19 Pandemic 

Chaplains around the world have been aiding in the COVID-19 crisis with supporting families and institutions in physical and spiritual aid. In this brief (which is an army explanation about a specific situation) by chaplain/reverend Paul Yoon, he explains in ways chaplains have been able to help, as well as some struggles the chaplain corps has run into with COVID-19. He has been a crucial chaplain during COVID-19 by helping give guidelines and guidance to other chaplains on how to help during the pandemic. Some obstacles that Chaplains have run into during the COVID-19 pandemic are: 

Reaching out to people/families (personal interaction) /social distancing

Counseling people/marriages 

The idea of death and confusion during this time

While these are all crucial and challenging points, chaplains have been able to hurdle these obstacles as best as they can. In this article , Chaplain Mike Yonkers is interviewed and gives his experience in these trying times of confusion, pandemic, and death. He explains the “creative” manner in which he prayed over a COVID-19 patient and was able to help comfort the family of the patient. Chaplain Yonkers has helped pray over families and has been a crucial asset to the chaplain corps in reaching out to families and loved ones with COVID-19, helping out to the best of his abilities (praying with families, handing out supplies, etc.)

Supplies

Chaplains have been able to bring multiple supplies to hospitals, as well as other institutions to aid in the global crisis of the Coronavirus. From personal experience, the JTF (Joint Task Force) 115th RSG (Regional Support Group) of the National Guard (a subset of the Army) were promptly tasked in giving out multiple food supplies to local shelters stationed at a Sleep Train. The online article can be found here, where you can see the different operations the unit performed. This unit doesn’t just have chaplains, but there are chaplains working under this unit that aided with each of the food supplies missions.

Resources that Chaplains have been giving to institutions are:

Food

Medical Supplies

Religious Readings (depends on the religious background of each Chaplain)

In order to accomplish these tasks and discern what to do, there are OPORDs that have been disseminated to multiple officers of the Chaplain Corp to show how to help in these circumstances. Chaplains try to help out in any way possible. They are there for the people, yet in this time being somewhere in person can be a little troublesome as health risks are high. So, Chaplains try to do as much as they can given these circumstances, and also aid with their religious backgrounds in spiritual nourishment of multiple people.

Spiritual Nourishment

As chaplains, the job requires people to allow for being there for people, and wanting to establish relationships to help those in need spiritually. Chaplains of all religious backgrounds are offering support in the best ways they can. There are limited opportunities to reach out as before, but Chaplains are still making others a top priority for their spiritual well being. As shown in the article mentioned previously, Chaplains have had to come up with intuitive ways in order to perform their duties as spiritual guides for people during the Corona-Virus. Some Chaplains are going to hospitals and conducting services such as:

Prayer/ Prayer Requests

Meditation teachings for families to help relieve stress and have peace in mind

Notes for families/COVID-19 Patients

Chaplains are also still holding services in areas that aren’t code purple (for more information on what the codes of health concern for California are, this link. can be useful to see the code regulations). Chaplains have attempted to be as open as possible while still being concerned and respectful to the WHO (World Health Organization) and California regulations so as to limit risk of exposure from person to person.

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Confusion in the World and Chaplains’ Response

Chaplains are also receiving questions just on what the COVID-19 pandemic really means according to different religions, and have had to help families deal with deaths and confusion of the whole pandemic situation. There is a lot of confusion in the world already, let alone the virus. The point should be to remain hopeful. Families have lost loved ones to this horrible disease, yet people should remain hopeful that better days will come. With the lows of today, there are much greater highs. COVID-19 has affected the people surrounding the entire world, but chaplains have been discussing how to best help people in these times, whether it be in person helping with supplies, in person with prayers and notes of encouragement, or outside of contact with others posting on social media with encouragements of spiritual nourishment.

If you or your family need to talk with a chaplain you can find assistance here for counseling, prayer, or any other help by reaching out via email or phone. The Chaplains are here for you and welcome you with open arms (social distancing of course).

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Looking into the Chaplain Corp as a Career

If you are entering college, then you should be looking to take some specific courses in order to start along the chaplain career path. Chaplains are officers of the military, and since this is specifically for the Army, you should take an AROTC (Army Reserve Officer Training Course) program. If your school doesn’t offer AROTC, you can also join another branch of the military’s ROTC program, and still become a chaplain for that branch of the military.

Another route that is open for people who might not have an ROTC program at or near their university is to just complete their undergraduate degree, and receive their master’s in divinity, and then to apply for chaplaincy in the military. You would go to OCS (Officer Candidate School) and be trained as an officer in the army, then branch your MOS as chaplain because you have already met the education requirement.

Specific Majors

You can major in anything you want, but it would be helpful if you took/minored in religious studies. Depending on your religious background, you might want to try and take courses that are suited for your religious preference/your denomination when pursuing a chaplain career.

Schooling Post Undergrad

You are going to need to have a masters in divinity in the religious background you are affiliated with (whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and/or Hindu). It takes about 2-3 years (72 units) to receive your master’s in divinity. For schooling, there are multiple sources to help you choose your route. There are multiple seminary schools that people can apply to for their master’s in divinity according to their faith group! Here are a few:

Christian Chaplains

Muslim Chaplains

Buddhist Chaplains

Hindu Chaplains

There are many other seminary schools for each of these denominations of religions, as long as the credits equate to 72 hours and getting a masters in divinity, then the program should be fine!

Entry Level Positions

When pursuing the chaplain career path, you will start off as a 2nd LT (lieutenant) in the Army. You can apply for a chaplain candidate program, where you will be accepted in the MOS (branch/job people work in), but since you don’t have a seminary degree, you aren’t a fully fledged chaplain.

The Chaplain Career

If you are thinking that this career path is hard or difficult, just take a breath. These are the essentials to getting in as a chaplain:

Recommendations from a religious establishment of your faith

Good grades (B’s are good, but A’s are better!)

Be in multiple activities outside of school

Chaplaincy isn’t necessarily competitive since this job is very niche and not a lot of people want to pursue this career path, but you should also strive to do your best in everything you do that way you are more competitive when trying to apply for jobs.

A typical salary for military Chaplains ranges from $23,000-$110,000. If you are interested in looking at the jobs and the hiring done for chaplains, a hyper link is here for you to view the differing positions people are looking for now.

Application Process

The Application Process for chaplaincy is as follows:

You need to apply for an educational delay to obtain your master’s in divinity

You need to receive a few letters of recommendation from religious authorities, as well as professors from school (they don’t have to be religious studies teachers)

You must have verification that you applied to a school to receive a master’s, or the acceptance letter from that institution.

Educational Delay

For the educational delay, there is a whole process that can be found in this Educational Delay Packet with all of the requirements needed for the process. The educational delay is if you are in the ROTC program, and need an educational delay to get your master’s degree so that you can branch the job you want. 

Once accepted into the Chaplain candidate program, you are on your way to becoming a chaplain and will be hired once you complete schooling. Due to the educational delay process, you have already signed with the Army to serve as a chaplain, so once you are done with that, they will put you where they need you (whether in the active Army, Reserves, or National Guard).