Full Time
You will serve in the active Army, with an initial duty of three years.
Part Time
Serving in the Army Reserve means you’ll still have a civilian job, but you’ll train each month close to home and complete a two-week training exercise once a year. This way you will be trained and ready if called. And, of course, you’ll be able to bring invaluable experience back to your civilian ministry.
Chaplain Requirements
- You must obtain an ecclesiastical endorsement from your faith group. This endorsement should certify that you are:
- A clergy person in your denomination or faith group.
- Qualified spiritually, morally, intellectually and emotionally to serve as a Chaplain in the Army.
- Sensitive to religious pluralism and able to provide for the free exercise of religion by all military personnel, their family members and civilians who work for the Army.
- Educationally, you must:
- Possess a baccalaureate degree of not less than 120 semester hours.
- Possess a master’s degree in divinity or a graduate degree in theological studies, which includes at least 72 semester hours.
- Applicants for active duty or the National Guard MUST be U.S. citizens. Permanent residents can ONLY apply for the Army Reserve.
- Be able to receive a favorable National Agency Security Clearance.
- Pass a physical exam at one of our Military Entrance Processing Stations (MEPS).
- A minimum of two years of full-time professional experience, validated by the applicant’s endorsing agency (This requirement is not applicable to Army Reserve applicants).
- Must be at least 21 years of age and not older than 42 years of age at time of appointment. Age waivers are available, based on prior military service, and are considered for applicants from faith groups that are critically short of supply in the Army.
[Taken from GoArmy.com.]
Good and Great Day in Jesus Christ, the reason for ALL seasons.
I read over these requirements and all and also noticed the posting about the military is in need of Chaplains. Seems to me that if there was a waiver for part of the education requirement, i.e. if a service members has X number of years then instead of 72 hours the service member must have at least 36 hours and then before being eligible for Captain or Major the service member must have at least the 72 hr M.Div.
Just a thought. God bless and continue to Preach the Word of God, Troops need to know that regardless of what man says, God knows, God forgives, and God said it-man cannot change it.
Blessings.
Dan, in the Army, battalion chaplains are staff officers in the rank of captain. (While some enter service as a 1LT, they are soon promoted.) To waiver half of the educational requirement would not be feasible, in my assessment. To do so would mean that chaplains entering active duty as 1LTs would have approximately 6 months to complete their degrees. Even if the educational requirement was waived until the rank of MAJ, most full-time chaplains would be hard pressed to find enough time to complete 36 hours of graduate school.
With that said, one also has to consider the intent of the education. Previously, the M.Div. was the standard. The M.Div. is a minimum of 90 credit hours (I believe ATS is considering increasing this minimum to 104 hours or has already done so.) DOD has already decreased the minimum educational requirement fro an M.Div. of 90 hours to any graduate religious studies degree of 72 hours–and only half of this has to be in religious studies. I believe that, if we continue to decrease the educational requirements for theological/ministry training, we will soon have ignorant chaplains who are not qualified to teach, preach, or perform administrative staff functions. Frankly, I believe we are already suffering from this problem because the standards have been lowered so much.