Chaplains

Adam Cochran

The purpose of this project was to develop a holistic strategy to enhance religious support for the 135th Expeditionary Sustainment Command of the Alabama National Guard. There is a difficulty for National Guard Chaplains to cover units based on monthly schedules, unit locations, and staff requirements. This can serve as a hindrance to religious support to subordinate units. The project director will investigate the needs of religious support down to the company level. This will provide the information needed to assess the religious support needs. The project director will identify resources necessary to enhance the religious support strategy. The project director will identify personnel that will help in the holistic religious support strategy, in accordance with the command master religious plan. The holistic religious support strategy will guide religious support in the 135th Expeditionary Sustainment Command and its subordinate unit ministry teams.

Adam Chochran

The purpose of this project was to develop a holistic strategy to enhance religious support for the 135th Expeditionary Sustainment Command of the Alabama National Guard. There is a difficulty for National Guard Chaplains to cover units based on monthly schedules, unit locations, and staff requirements. This can serve as a hindrance to religious support to subordinate units. The project director will investigate the needs of religious support down to the company level. This will provide the information needed to assess the religious support needs. The project director will identify resources necessary to enhance the religious support strategy. The project director will identify personnel that will help in the holistic religious support strategy, in accordance with the command master religious plan. The holistic religious support strategy will guide religious support in the 135th Expeditionary Sustainment Command and its subordinate unit ministry teams.

Michael C. Hoppe

It is not uncommon to find people at end-of-life who feel stuck; they are neither healthy nor progressing toward death rapidly. The literature identifies this state of “stuckness” as a condition called “persistent liminality.” This condition often involves a sense of being in a suspended state, lacking a sense of time and space, and feeling dislocated from God and the self. This researcher desires to provide understanding about existential loss due to persistent liminality at end-of-life and a strategy for assisting people to regain meaning and realize agency once again by connecting to God through lament. This study explores how pastoral counselors use lament to restore hope to people in a state of persistent liminality at end-of-life.
This study employed a qualitative design using semi-structured interviews with seven pastoral counselors who have served as hospice chaplains for three years or longer. Three research questions guided this qualitative study: 1) How do pastoral counselors understand the purpose of lament? 2) In what ways do pastoral counselors use lament to minister to people in a state of persistent liminality at end-of-life? And 3) How do pastoral counselors evaluate the effectiveness of using lament to restore hope to people in a state of persistent liminality at end-of-life?
The literature review focused on three key areas central to this study: 1) understanding persistent liminality at end-of-life, 2) examining approaches currently used to address persistent liminality at end-of-life and their effectiveness, and 3) exploring how lament addresses persistent liminality at end-of-life.
The findings of this study reveal that lament can contribute to restoring hope to those suffering from persistent liminality at end-of-life. Finally, several recommendations are offered for how believers can reclaim the practice of lament in public and private worship.

Matthew Floding

This project is designed to provide college chaplains with illustrative models and helpful discussion exploring eight core dimensions of mature faith in order to encourage planning a chapel program which will facilitate growth toward faith maturity. It benefits directly from Lilly-funded research conducted by the Search Institute of Minneapolis and published as Effective Christian Education: A National Study of Protestant Congregations. The research for this project was conducted while actively performing the ministry of chaplain at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa.

This project strongly suggests that intentionally planning to address these eight dimensions of mature faith in a collegiate chapel worship program, together with supplemental experiences, can encourage growth toward faith maturity. While measurable results isolating the impact of the chapel program are probably not possible, in an Appendix, findings of research conducted on Northwestern's campus using a Search Institute instrument are presented which tend to confirm the importance of being cognizant of a picture of mature faith when planning a chapel program.

Linda J Bos

This project is designed for use by clergy, pastoral care teams, hospice workers, or clinical pastoral education groups, who provide spiritual care for people with AIDS. Stories of real people with AIDS, who utilized hospice care at the end of life, were gathered by a hospice chaplain, and can be used for individual growth or in a group setting.

Ten stories are given in chapter format. The stories reflect the diversity within the AIDS population: injection drug users, gay men, heterosexual individuals, transsexuals, and those who care for people with AIDS.

Each chapter consists of the primary story of the person with AIDS, followed by theological reflections, concluding with a page of reflection questions.

Theological themes include, but are not limited to: the role and scope of the church; creation; death and its impact on family, children, caregivers; healing; sin; inherited brokenness; angels unaware; forgiveness; heaven; presence of God; community; rejection/acceptance; disease; eternal life; grief and loss; evangelism; rituals of inclusion; and, resurrection.

Reflection questions are based upon the author's long experience with small groups. The questions build from chapter one to ten as the group is first introduced to the subject matter of AIDS and to each other, closing with termination of the group at the conclusion of the ten sessions.

An annotated bibliography on AIDS literature is included as a resource, as are appendices on an overview of spiritual care to the person with AIDS, and small group guidelines.

The project shows that by using story, a person or a small group can learn about providing spiritual care to the person with AIDS.

Sherwin J Broersma

The purpose of this thesis is to show that the biblical sage is a dynamic and compelling paradigm for the practice of campus ministry. Some campus ministers work out of no clear conceptual model while doing ministry. Others work out of a variety of models such as the priest/preacher, the evangelist, the prophet and the counselor. Each of these models has strengths and limitations as we shall attempt to demonstrate. Beyond this, it is my conviction that the paradigm of the sage is able to enrich each model.

This project paper focuses on the three major Old Testament works of wisdom: Ecclesiastes, Job, Proverbs; indirectly on wisdom Psalms; plus on elements of wisdom in the New Testament.

Closely related to the matter of models of ministry is the issue of self-identity in ministry. Campus ministers often suffer from identity confusion. They serve in a setting of faculty, staff, and students. The campus minister bears similarity to each of these, yet is none of them. The campus minister teaches, administers programs and continually learns. Still the minister realizes that none of these functions fully describes one's professional identity. Who then really is the campus minister? I want to argue that the biblical sage offers itself as a congenial and productive identity model for campus ministers.

Cleo Vandermolen Ludwick

This project is a descriptive design of ministry to adolescents who are institutionalized for treatment of emotional and behavioral problems that illustrate how a particular kind of ministry facilitates faith development and spiritual formation.

The first section discusses the theological, biblical, and ministerial context of the project. Paul's letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4:7-13, is a challenge in this project.

Being human is a gift of God. It is good. It is rich and satisfying, not in spite of the hurt and pain of separation and difficulty, but because in those times, one experiences the awesome, holy presence of God when there is a significant other there to sustain and to guide. It is in those times that faith is born, and the process of healing begins.

The chaplain is a vehicle through whom God works the process of healing, sustaining, guiding, and reconciling. The goal: healthy, whole humanity living in community.

The second section discusses pastoral care in the Christian tradition and how that tradition helps define the role of chaplain in a 20th century institutional setting.

The three sub-divisions of the second section discuss the role of spiritual physician in counseling, Christian education arid spiritual life activities, and worship.

Section three discusses chaplaincy in the modern psychiatric hospital where the clinical model is foremost in treatment; yet, the need for pastoral availability and theological resources are recognized as important dimensions of basic physical and mental health.

The three sub-sections discuss the role of spiritual guide in working with the multidisciplinary treatment team as it designs the treatment for each adolescent, with staff in areas of relationship and spiritual growth, and with the community as it struggles to understand adolescent developmental issues.

Richard K Knowles

According to recent calculations, there are approximately 7,500 single parents in the United States Air Force alone , and nearly 27,000 within the four major military ser­vices. These are persons and families with special hurts and dreams, unique pressures, limitations, and demands, abundant abilities, and significant goals. These are persons in need of a cooperative ministry--both the receiving and the doing of ministry. Our arena is the wider community of faith as it exists in that special entity known to be our vocation, home , career, and lifestyle--the United States Air Force.

I first became interested in the subject of singles and single parents during a tour as the religious education representative on the USAF Chaplain Resource Board. After a great deal of reading , searching through curricula, perusing in book stores and writing to publishers, it became evident that while there were numerous materials being written by and about single parents , little if anything was being printed from the perspective of resourcing for ministry.

Robert Alan Renix D.Min.

This project’s purpose was to enhance clergy and the church’s ability to welcome people with serious mental illness into the body of Christ. My contexts were Saint Elizabeths Hospital and Inner Light Ministries UCC. I developed a seminar to teach Inner Light clergy about mental illness through a seminar. I explored how to merge their clerical skills as resources for welcoming people with serious mental illness into the church. A project goal was also to increase their confident competence in assisting people with serious mental illness.

Clergy are, most often, the first people sought out, by the churched and not so churched, for support and guidance when mental illness inserts itself into their lives. Clergy are called upon to help make meaning of the uncertainties surrounding mental illness disorders. Because others look to clergy for understanding, clergy have to become aware and confident with applying their skills to care for people with serious mental illness. Clergy do not need to attain a clinical level of confidence; instead, they must achieve the confident competence in their gifts as pastors, priest, chaplains, pastoral counselors, and leaders of faith.

What we can do as clergy and the church is reexamine our skills. We have been trained to care for parishioners through biblical interpretation, bible study, and the sacraments. Clergy and the church value hospitality and meals. Observing who is not at Christ’s table and inviting them back home to God’s community will ensure the feast includes people living with serious mental illness.

Brian Telzerow

Using the Success Case Method developed by Robert Brinkerhoff, the survey and interviews revealed a direct correlation between the amount of time spent in an adolescent’s environment and the quality of the conversations and interaction between ministry students and the young person. The core of this study revolves around ministry students who took the ML336 Relational Ministry course at Kuyper College and implemented the practices taught in the course. I wanted to know what correlation exists, if any, between the amount of time spent in the adolescent world and the depth of the relationship between the adolescent and the ministry student. To do that, I looked at who had experienced success in building relationships with adolescents by implementing the practices and procedures discussed in class and the impact on their respective ministries to adolescents and their families. The outcomes will be pedagogical suggestions for the course and content revisions to improve the impact of the relational ministry course for future students, as well as suggestions for parents and the church about how adults can earn the right to be heard and develop deep and meaningful relationships.