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HOW DID THE MAKING OF A CHAPLAIN BECOME A REALITY?

In 2004 Pastors Don & Sharon sponsored a CFCCM conference (Christian Fellowship Care Center Ministries) that was held at Dream City Church Phoenix.

At this conference there was much discussion on the use of Chaplains in Care Centers. The president of CFCCM is a Chaplain and some of the members are Chaplains. One of the members operates a Chaplain network called “Nursing Home Ministries, Inc.” in Portland, Oregon. It was at this conference the Lord put in their hearts a desire to develop a Biblically-based teaching program to train Chaplains. The curriculum must be Christ-centered and Holy Spirit empowered. Too many Chaplains were being trained with a mixture of the Bible and New Age teachings. This curriculum had to be 100% Biblically based.

They became very discouraged when they found the answers to questions No. 4 & 5. Most accredited programs required a Master of Divinity degree from a recognized school of theology, ordination as a clergyman from a recognized faith group / denomination, Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) four units/1600 hours, accredited by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. Most of these Accredited programs did not have a Biblically based teaching program available. It would take too many years for the average adult to go thru these programs. So, after much research they decided to put the Chaplain program on the shelf.

In June of 2005 they put together a Senior Adult Conference on “Life and Death Issues”. The Conference was held in the Children’s Pavilion at Phoenix First Assembly. This conference came from the many questions people were asking about the Terri Schiavo battle to remove her feeding tubes or leave them. They put together a team of speakers that would speak about Life & Death issues in their professions.

They invited people from the following professions: Christian Consular, Funeral Director, ER Doctor, Wills & Trusts Lawyer, Financial Planner, Hospice Director, and Pastors, Don and Sharon. They spoke on what the Bible says about Terri Schiavo’s problem with life and death issues. The Conference was a great success. Many persons came from Phoenix valley churches and interacted with the speakers. The booklets, which Don designed and published for this conference, have since found their way into many local churches as well as churches from around the country through our annual pastor’s school. The Bible does have the answers for every human condition.

They attended another CFCCM conference (Christian Fellowship Care Center Ministries) in Portland Oregon August of 2008. This was the sixth annual conference they had attended. These conferences provided them with information on how other Care Center Ministries were recruiting and training their volunteers, how they were doing one on one discipleship to Care Center residents, and how to improve relationships in this fellowship.

       Chaplain at Work

This conference had many Chaplains in attendance as its main focus was on the use of Chaplains in Care Centers. One of the Chaplains who spoke was in his 80’s. He talked about his experiences during his 40 years as a Chaplain. They had no doubt that God sent him to this conference to resurrect His calling to develop a curriculum to teach and train Chaplains. They also knew that the Chaplains would have to operate out of a church and that the church would be their spiritual covering and base of operations.

The next month they took a week off and stayed at a friend’s condo in Palm Springs Calif. During that week they put together a detailed outline of a biblical curriculum designed to train Chaplains. They read and re-read all of the research documents they had gathered over the past 4 years. The Holy Spirit took over after they gave up struggling for two days trying put something together. The outline then came together very quickly with His help and guidance.

Over the next 3 months they put together and published the first of four textbooks. They held their first class called “The Making of a Chaplain” in January of 2009. They were surprised that 30 people were interested in taking the class.

The first class started with 27 students and out of that class 18 graduated. Dream City Church Phoenix held a graduation ceremony during a Sunday evening service. Fourteen of the graduation entered the Chaplain Internship Program. The second class started in January 2010 with 35 students. At mid term they still had 30 students. There was a long waiting list of persons wanting to take the next class of “The Making of a Chaplain” which started in January of 2011 with 35 students.

God has opened many new doors for “The Making of a Chaplain.” They are getting churches around the country to teach this Chaplain Curriculum. A new class started in Flagstaff Arizona in June 2011 with 22 students from a local church. In 2020, classes became available over the Internet, and the vision of having a Chaplain in every zip code (there are 42,000 zip codes) became a REAL possiblity.

People seem to be more open to listen to chaplains than to attend a church. Chaplains have a very good reputation with the public. This is partly because the media is very open to them and partly because there has been very few public scandals with Chaplains. We believe these new Chaplains, that God is raising up will help bring about a new revival in our country, and it will begin with our church. Even God’s people are excited about becoming Chaplains and touching a dying world with the Word of God.

When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. John 15:8 NLT