How to Become a Chaplain in a Weekend

Last week I was at an InterVarsity writers workshop. One of my fellow participants is writing about her experience as a chaplain, trying to encourage others to get chaplain training.

I had no idea about chaplaincy, but there’s the professional route that requires a graduate degree and a whole bunch of other things.

But there’s also the laity version: go through the International Fellowship of Chaplains.

This requires a 40-hour online class, and then a final call (which I think was four hours). You have to do the 40 hours within a month. She said, “I did it over the course of a weekend.”

This not only gives her additional opportunity to practice listening and presence with those in pain, but in her context, working in local universities with InterVarsity, she fielded a call from the baseball team at one point, when a student had a difficult situation.

They wouldn’t have called her as part of InterVarsity, but they called her as a chaplain.

For 40 hours, we can gain a new level of legitimacy around blessing and ministering to people.

Thank you, Jenny, for your awareness of where the Lord might be moving, offering early evangelistic opportunities, and bringing the love of Jesus.

Lord, thank you for creative opportunities to bring your love to the wider world.

For any you are calling to chaplaincy … thank you for options that can fit fairly easily into our lives.

May we walk with you, in whatever direction you call us. Amen.

The Lord has given me this authority, not to pull down but to build up,

Amy Joy

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