You’ve decided you’re interested in the challenges and opportunities of ministry as an Army chaplain. How do you learn more about it?

The first thing I recommend you do when considering the Army chaplaincy is to read a little about the requirements for appointment as a chaplain and about the ministry of the chaplaincy. You can read this on the Army recruiting website, in the chaplain recruiting area. From this section, you can request a packet of information to be mailed to you, locate the nearest chaplain recruiter, or chat with an Army recruiter (who will probably not be able to answer questions specifically related to the Chaplain Corps).

Go ahead and request an information packet. When you receive this, included will probably be a business card for your nearest chaplain recruiter. The country is divided into six recruiting brigades, with chaplain recruiters in Maryland, Georgia, Illinois, Texas, Nevada, and Kentucky. If you didn’t receive contact information for your regional chaplain recruiter, call 866-684-1571 and follow the prompts to be connected.

Chaplain recruiters are chaplains. They have all been through the accessions process and probably even served as chaplain candidates. They are familiar with the special requirements for military ministry. I don’t recommend contacting a local Army recruiter (i.e., one who is not a chaplain recruiter) for information on the chaplaincy. If you do speak to a general recruiter, do NOT take his advice if he suggests that you become a chaplain assistant to “get your foot in the door”. If you meet the requirements for chaplaincy (now or in the future), you will already have your foot in the door; if you do not meet the requirements for chaplaincy, you will never be a chaplain, no matter what else you have been. Chaplain assistants are enlisted personnel; chaplains are officers. I’ll write more about chaplain assistants later.

Chaplain recruiters are different from general recruiters in other ways, too. For example, they probably won’t come to your home for a recruiting presentation or call you every other day for six months. If you’re in seminary, a chaplain recruiter may visit your school once or twice a year to meet students, set up a display, or visit with chaplain candidates. If you speak to a chaplain recruiter at one of these visits, he will not pressure you to join but he will provide helpful information and may schedule individual time to talk with you, if you request. He may give you a brochure or recommend that you speak with a fellow student who is already in the chaplain candidate program.

In my experience, dealing with three chaplain recruiters myself and hearing the experiences of others, chaplain recruiters will not hound you to do anything. In fact, if you are interested in becoming a chaplain candidate, they will expect you to take the initiative and get things done (such as completing paperwork). They will provide you with the information and forms you need–and will even give you guidance in filling out forms–but they will not call you every day just to make sure you haven’t changed your mind. Nor will they check up on you every week to make sure you are staying on track toward fulfilling the requirements for acceptance into the chaplain candidate program or for accessions.

I’ll continue this subject in Part 2.

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If you have an interest in serving God and our country as an Army chaplain, here are some pointers for beginning your journey to soldier ministry. These suggestions are based on my own experience and knowledge and do not necessarily reflect official Army doctrine or policy.

Chaplaincy qualifications

To serve as a chaplain, you must fulfill these basic requirements:

1. Be ordained.
2. Receive an ecclesiastical endorsement for chaplaincy from your denomination or endorsing organization.
3. Have a bachelor degree of at least 120 semester hours from an accredited school.
4. Have a Master of Divinity from an accredited school (or a graduate degree in theological studies, with at least 72 semester hours).
5. Be able to pass a military entrance physical exam.
6. Be able to receive a Secret security clearance.
7. Have ministry experience.

Chaplain candidate qualifications

If you do not yet meet all the requirements for appointment as a chaplain, you can work on completing them while you train for military ministry by serving in the Army chaplain candidate program.

To serve as a chaplain candidate, you must fulfill these basic requirements:

1. Receive an ecclesiastical approval for the chaplain candidate program from your denomination or organization.
2. Have a bachelor degree of at least 120 semester hours from an accredited school, or be in your last semester of undergraduate studies.
3. Be enrolled in graduate theological studies at an accredited school, or have been accepted for admission to such a program in the next enrollment period of the school, or have completed such a program and be actively engaged in a process leading toward ordination.
4. Be able to pass a military entrance physical exam.

From this point forward, I will focus on information for chaplain candidates, beginning with inquiring about the program to accessioning to active duty. Some of this information may be useful for persons who already have completed seminary and are ordained and, thus, are seeking to be directly accessioned to the Chaplain Corps. Some of it may also be useful for chaplains and chaplain candidates in the Air Force and Navy. However, I am specifically targeting Army chaplain candidates.

Please note that this is an ongoing series of short articles. In order to see the list of articles available to date, you must view this article in its archived format by clicking the title of the article. At the bottom of each article in the series is a list of available articles. You may leave comments or ask questions by filling in the comment box at the bottom of any article or you may contact me directly.

I hope you will find this series helpful.

My time as an Army chaplain candidate has been very enjoyable but, at times, also very frustrating. Unfortunately, there is little guidance for candidates and the frequent turnover in chaplain recruiting and management doesn’t help.

So, to help those who come behind me, I will offer a series of posts with advice for chaplain candidates and potential chaplain candidates. My advice will be based on my own experiences and knowledge and does not necessarily represent official Army doctrine. While the information in this series is specific to the Army chaplain candidate program, Air Force and Navy candidates may also find the information helpful.

If you’re a chaplain, chaplain candidate, or potential candidate, I encourage you to ask questions or make suggestions by filling in the comment box below (if you don’t see it, click the title of this post) or the contact form.