The more we understand the history of institutional chaplaincy the better we can appreciate the extensive ministries of our ordained ministers who serve their communities in institutions beyond their local churches.
Their fields of service include hospitals, prisons, nursing homes, colleges/schools, industries, clinics, hospice, and other secular institutions.
In 1999, under the leadership of Dr. Ronald W. Carpenter, Sr., the chairman of Chaplains Ministries Board and Dr. Hugh H. Morgan, director of Chaplains Ministries, IPHC, they created a new division of chaplaincy to recognize ordained ministers serving in a myriad of institutional settings.
Over the years, many distinguished IPHC ministers have served as institutional chaplains in relative obscurity. Their efforts have been faithful and their ministries fruitful. Often their service has been rendered without appropriate recognition, honor, or remuneration.
Because of the absence of a denominational structure, funding, and the nature of their service in secular fields outside the church, there was little attention given to this viable ministry. Consequently, there was a lack of understanding about the institutional ministry that was already in operation.
Therefore, in 1999, a task force was selected to help us create a new chaplaincy division that would enable us to identify, organize, affirm, and resource our existing institutional ministers, as well as to solicit, recruit, and direct new candidates in this kind of ministry. Members of that committee were Paul Brafford, Rodney Callahan, Steve Enloe, and Michael Haynes.
We discovered that amazing new opportunities for ministry had developed in recent years. Corporate industries of every description had begun to express the need for a guide/counselor on their management teams to address spiritual needs of their employees. With the deterioration of Christian values in the general population, employers were attempting to provide remedial training in the basics of orderly relational conduct in the work place, i. e., truthfulness, honesty, integrity, ethics, cooperation, etc. It was felt that the IPHC must prepare men and women to enter into this new door of opportunity.
These men and women and their families/friends, whether in prisons, hospitals, or on the job, are in the midst of desperate crises. For many of them the prospect of attending church is impossible or at least improbable. It is into this vacuum that our institutional chaplains must rush to provide spiritual guidance in finding Christ, living for Him, and growing in spiritual maturity under adverse circumstances.
The Mission Statement
The mission of our Chaplains Ministries division for institutional chaplains is to fulfil the Great Commission of Jesus Christ by endorsing and providing pastoral support to Pentecostal Holiness institutional chaplains around the globe, equipping them for evangelism, and fostering understanding throughout our denomination that the mission of the church is being carried into unique and difficult areas in our society.
The Challenge
The institutional chaplain is a pastor to the people of America who are displaced from the normal church environment whether by circumstances or choice. He or she is given an opportunity to nurture men and women of diverse denominational backgrounds to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as they face an uncertain future.
Chaplains have a unique opportunity to be a role model of what a real Christian is all about. Their presence at the bedside, in the prison cell, or on the plant floor reminds everyone of the existence of the invisible God.
The mission of our chaplains is clear--to care for the spiritual well-being of their clients and their families, to provide for the free exercise of religion for all persons, and to offer moral, spiritual, and ethical counsel to the respective staff that serve these specific populations. Like pastors in any church, they preach, teach, lead Bible studies, celebrate the sacraments or ordinances by water baptism and serving the elements of communion, offer pastoral care and counseling, provide Christian education and discipleship, perform weddings, minister to the sick, bury the dead, and bring comfort to the bereaved.
Statistically, institutional chaplains serve in the most fertile, opportunistic settings for evangelism. Because of the nature of their work, they are often present at many moments of crisis in the lives of people. As ministers of God's purpose and hope, their presence during these crucial times increases the potential for soul-winning.
The church has received a commission to "GO" in order to evangelize the lost peoples of the world. Institutional chaplains, who are so strategically deployed by the church into various institutionz of the community, have the ability to build a bridge between the two for effective soul-winning.
The educational and ecclesiastical requirements vary with each institution. There are no "cookie cutters" requirements in this respect. Therefore, we have endeavored to respond to the requirements of each institution.
Presently, the director/endorser of Chaplains Ministries, IPHC, offers information, applications, and processes the background checks and references on each minister who applies. However, in the final analysis each institutional chaplain is amenable to his conference superintendent and council, and tithes his/her income into the conference, although ecclesiastical endorsement is granted by the Chaplains Ministries, IPHC Board, and the director/endorser grants a letter of ecclesiastical endorsement to the institution where a candidate is applying.
We who know God, love His Word believe that the future of institutional chaplaincy is always as bright as the promises of God. We confess and affirm, " . . . that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28, KJV).
Creative funding will have to be procured to continue this ministry in dimensions yet to be conceptualized and realized, as well as the need for cooperative counsel and direction from conference superintendents and their respective councils. It yet remains to be seen what God will bring about in the near future as the church endeavors to reach all segments of our society.
Could it be that God is about to do a new thing? His plan is far greater than our comprehension for the moment, and in His own timing He will work it out through the dynamic and dedicated leadership of the Spirit-Empowered men and women of the church His plan and purpose. Our task is to discern the heart of God and follow His guidance with the wisdom that He freely gives.
Posted on
Tue, October 25, 2011
by Hugh Morgan