Comments on: Requirements to serve as a chaplain http://armychaplaincy.com/2007/07/11/requirements-to-serve-as-a-chaplain/ Serving God and Country in the U.S. Army, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard Tue, 07 Sep 2010 06:14:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Chaplain Daniel Sparks http://armychaplaincy.com/2007/07/11/requirements-to-serve-as-a-chaplain/comment-page-1/#comment-1428 Chaplain Daniel Sparks Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:40:05 +0000 http://armychaplaincy.com/2007/07/11/requirements-to-serve-as-a-chaplain/#comment-1428 <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> 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.

]]> By: Dan http://armychaplaincy.com/2007/07/11/requirements-to-serve-as-a-chaplain/comment-page-1/#comment-1405 Dan Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:42:01 +0000 http://armychaplaincy.com/2007/07/11/requirements-to-serve-as-a-chaplain/#comment-1405 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. 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.

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