How do I learn more about becoming a chaplain candidate? Part 2.

Additional ways to learn more about the Army chaplaincy and the chaplain candidate program:

Seek out chaplain candidates in your seminary. They can relate their own experiences firsthand. They may be able to help you with paperwork or with contacting the chaplain recruiter. They can tell you what the Chaplain Officer Basic Course (CHOBC) is like. They can tell you where a quality chaplain candidate practicum can be experienced.

Seek out chaplains and chaplain candidates in your denomination; talk to your denomination’s ecclesiastical endorser. Do you attend a diocesan, district, or national council or convention? While you’re there, ask around for military chaplains. It’s possible that chaplains may come dressed in uniform. Ask around for your denomination’s endorser; he can connect you with chaplains. Chaplains can tell you what it’s like at their current duty station or what it was like at their last one. Do you want to know how chaplains minister in Korea? One of your denomination’s chaplains can probably tell you. It’s important that you talk to your denomination’s endorser to find out the special requirements you must fulfill to be endorsed by your church for military ministry; these vary by denomination and are in addition to what the Department of Defense requires.

Visit the nearest Army installation. Call up the installation and ask to be directed to the staff chaplain’s office. When connected, ask to speak to the training chaplain; if there’s no one specifically designated as the training chaplain, ask for the deputy staff chaplain; failing all else, ask for the NCOIC (the Noncommissioned Officer In Charge, who is a chaplain assistant). Tell the chaplain or chaplain assistant that you’re interested in the Army chaplaincy and that you’d like to talk with a local chaplain about military ministry. Believe me: they will jump at the chance! The Chaplain Corps currently has a recruiting program called “Finders Keepers; under this program, any installation that successfully recruits a chaplain is able to have that chaplain assigned to that installation for his initial assignment.

Read the literature. I’ve already mentioned the chaplain recruiting website and requesting an information packet. It’s essential that you read the literature if you really want to understand what the candidate program is about. The brochure will list the exact requirements you need to serve as a chaplain candidate or as a chaplain. Yes, there are steps to complete for each of these individual requirements–and a lot of paperwork to fill out–but the brochure gives a good summary.

Some of these suggestions may seem simple–and they are. Hopefully they are helpful for the beginner who has some interest, however faint, in the Army chaplaincy. When I first began to develop an interest in military chaplaincy, I didn’t know where to seek more information. I saw a couple of chaplaincy websites (Navy and Army, if I remember correctly) but that was it. I called up the general recruiting toll free numbers for the Army and Navy and gave my address for an information packet. The packets came and my knowledge increased a bit.

I called the local Army recruiter and asked about chaplaincy; he told me that I should become a chaplain assistant. Thankfully, I had gleaned enough information from the literature to know better. I was a little intimidated by the requirements for regular Army chaplaincy; so, thinking that the National Guard might have less stringent standards, I made an appointment to talk with an Alabama Guard recruiter. The appointment went fine but the recruiter wanted me to enlist, go through AIT (Advanced Individual Training), then go through OCS (Officer Candidate School). Again, I had picked up enough from the literature and websites to know better. I later learned that National Guard requirements for chaplaincy are the same as regular Army and Army Reserve requirements (and that the same Chief of Chaplains oversees them all).

So, the moral of the story is that you should avail yourself of all the information you can lay your hands on. If you wish, you can always contact me and I’ll help as much as possible.