Qualifications for Christian Leadershp

I want to share this discussion board post for a chaplaincy class I am currently taking.

 According to Naomi K. Paget and Janet R. McCormack in their book The Work of the Chaplain, while both pastors and chaplains are both ministers of the gospel, a chaplain’s work is different from that of a traditional church pastor.¹ First of all, traditional religious leaders often work from a building – a church building, a synagogue, or a mosque.² A chaplain, however, will serve in non-traditional settings. For instance, the area of chaplaincy that I, personally, am most interested in is being a prison chaplain. There are also hospital chaplains, military chaplains, and even workplace or college campus chaplains. ³

A second difference between a traditional pastor and a chaplain is the fact that while traditional pastors minister predominantly to a church or to Christians, a chaplain ministers to people of all spiritual and non-spiritual beliefs.⁴ They must provide spiritual care for people who may believe very differently than they do.⁵ They minister within diversity.

I, personally, volunteer in prison ministries. I remember a story told by the chaplain who conducted my training about an inmate at the facility where he works who is a Wiccan high priest. This inmate had a family member who had died and he, thus, experienced depression. (Inmates are not allowed to attend funerals or really have closure when a relative dies). The chaplain explained how he, as a Christian pastor, handled this situation. He asked the inmate if it was okay to pray with him. The man agreed to prayer. He then asked the inmate if it was okay to share with him some ways from the chaplain’s own Christian beliefs that have helped him to cope in such situations. The man agreed to such counseling. In this way, the inmate received the help he needed without feeling that his own religious beliefs were violated.

This leads to the next point that a chaplain’s ministry is not one of proselytizing or attempting to convert others to Christianity.⁶  Paget and McCormack write, “The chaplain seeks to care for people’s souls by making unfortunate situations more bearable by providing appropriate relief."⁷ Traumatic events are definitely not a time for traditional Christian witnessing. It is my opinion that attempting to change a person’s beliefs when he or she is at a mentally or emotionally low point is nothing less than a form of emotional abuse. It is using a crisis to further an agenda.

Not only this, but as the story above from my training in prison ministries illustrates, the job of a chaplain is to minister within diversity. The chaplain can maintain and represent his or her own spiritual beliefs within such a diverse community of people.⁸ The primary ministry of the chaplain is not teaching, but of providing help and support and being present during such traumatic experiences.⁹

While any minister must live a life that is pleasing to God (as Paul outlined in I Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9), I believe we see example after example in Christianity of how drawing lines – even lines based upon the truth of Scripture – backfires. Drawing lines leads to leaders (be they pastors or chaplains) who proclaim holiness in their own lives because they follow specific commands. However, even though they achieve this outward appearance of holiness, there are multiple issues that they are hiding from public view and scrutiny. The news is full of such stories from issues of infidelity to issues of spousal and child abuse and misuse of money related to ministry.

Line drawing can easily lead to a legalistic viewpoint – “I thank you, Lord, that I am not like that tax collector over there, because I do this long list of what Paul wrote I should do.” The unfortunate fact is, it is not just celebrity ministers that fall prey to this mentality. It happens every day in local ministries. I do not believe this legalistic mentality is what Paul, who often wrote about the dangers of legalism, had in mind when he wrote these guidelines.

Secondly, I do not believe we should limit who God will or will not use to be His minister. We often like to proclaim Biblical heroes. However, we all too often hide the very human side of these heroes of the Bible. We do this to further the cause of showing how they follow our ideas of how a minister or leader should look. We fail to mention Jonah’s selfishness, Elijah’s depression to the point that he wanted to die, Jeremiah’s hurt to the point that he cursed everything about the day he was born, Peter’s consistent act of inserting his foot in his mouth (oh, how I can relate to this one), or even what I believe was Paul’s own struggle with pride and temptation toward legalism. We do not want to show the humanity of so-called Biblical heroes (even though God does in His Word) or the humanity of leaders today (even though we are to confess our sins to one another and bear one another’s burdens).

Thirdly, specifically regarding chaplaincy, a chaplain is not necessarily dealing with other Christians. A chaplain is dealing with a diversity of spiritual beliefs. From experience, non-Christians are not impressed by our outward display of holiness. They view it is fake and just another example of a holier-than-thou attitude. Non-Christians need leaders who are non-judgmental because they see their own flaws and sins. They need leaders who are human.

It is my opinion that this is what the church itself needs as well. However, to put it bluntly, I believe it is currently too far gone in its ideas of the appearance of holiness to allow such humanness and honesty. It will take a radical movement to change this mindset.

Therefore, to put it succinctly, I believe Paul’s lists are good. However, I believe they are often interpreted legalistically (as we generally do with lists). I do not believe these lists should be so interpreted for either a pastor or for a chaplain – especially for a chaplain, who deals with a diversity of people in a number of traumatic situations.

As a personal note, this idea is something about which I frequently write because of my personal story. It will even be a prominent idea in my fiction project as well as in a non-fiction project I have been working on for the past few years called The Esau Syndrome, which discusses the dangers of extreme traditionalism. I was a line-drawer for many, many years until God taught me by my experiences.

Bibliography

Paget, Naomi and McCormack, Janet R., The Work of the Chaplain. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2006.

1 Naomi K. Paget and Janet R. McCormack, The Work of the Chaplain (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2006), 14).

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid., 35, 47, 55, 61, and 86.

4 Ibid, 22.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid, 22.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid, 16.

9 Ibid, 27-29.