Chaplaincy Being Gods Presence In Closed Communities

This book takes us beyond the usual writings about religious ministry. Itinvites us iinto closed communities, some more closed than others, and allows us to observe the day-to-day crisis ministries in whichthe chaplains areengaged. We visit battlefields, prisons, hospitals, hospice settings, college campuses, veterans' centers, and retirement facilities. The writer draws some interesting conclusions about the uniqueness of the chaplaincy and what the greater church can learn from this growing model.

This book takes us beyond the usual writings about religious ministry. It invites us iinto closed communities, some more closed than others, and allows us to observe the day-to-day crisis ministries in which the chaplains are engaged. We visit battlefields, prisons, hospitals, hospice settings, college campuses, veterans' centers, and retirement facilities. The writer draws some interesting conclusions about the uniqueness of the chaplaincy and what the greater church can learn from this growing model.

E. Dean Cook is a retired Navy chaplain who also taught at Roberts Wesleyan College, Rochester, New York, and was its first campus chaplain. For ten years, he was senior pastor of the Wilmore Free Methodist Church near Lexington, Kentucky, where he also taught, mentored, and supervised ministerial students at Asbury Theological Seminary and Asbury University. During his long and varied career as a clergyman, he served as senior chaplain at the Naval Base Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California; serving also on the aircraft carrier USS America and several other naval ships and installations. He was appointed Director of his denomination's chaplains. He holds a bachelor's degree in Biblical Literature from Seattle Pacific University, master's and doctoral degrees from Asbury Theological Seminary, and an honorary doctor's degree from Roberts Wesleyan College. He holds the rank of Captain in the Navy Chaplain Corps and was made an Honorary Admiral by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He has been married to his wife, Ruth, for 55 years. They have four sons and six grandchildren. Cook is the author of two other books: Salt of the Sea (an account of his chaplain career) and Being God's Presence in Closed Communities, a history of his denomination's chaplaincy ministries. His interest in and study of the book of Jonah was ignited by the wide variety of interpretations given the book. The writer believes that Jonah has a clear and powerful message for this generation and the Church, who are prone to follow the god they want rather than the God that is.

This book presents findings of further research into the concept I started in my previous book: the importance of dying to self and its implications for outreach to unchurched children in isolated communities. It was centered on our Lord Jesuss call for all to deny themselves in order to follow him. If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me (Luke 9:23). Gods ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8). We have to lose in order to gain (Philippians 3:78), we have to lose ourselves in order to find ourselves (Matthew 10:39), we have to die in order to live (John 12:24), and if you want victory, you have to first surrender (watch the War Room movie). This book delves deeper into the practical aspects of reaching a specific demographic of unchurched children in Jane-Finch.

This comprehensive introduction to the ministry of chaplaincy brings together three authors who oversee three of the leading chaplaincy programs in the United States. Written from an evangelical perspective, the book covers the foundations of chaplaincy and surveys specific types of chaplaincy work. In the first half of the book, the authors delve into the history of chaplaincy work as well as its biblical, theological, and philosophical foundations. They introduce students to important topics such as endorsement, placement, and the constitutional and legal parameters of such work. They also consider the person of the chaplain and the understanding of chaplaincy as Christian ministry. In the second half of the book, the authors bring together expert contributors to survey ten specific contexts for chaplaincy work, such as education, healthcare, the military, corporations, prisons, public safety, and sports, and they explore the future of chaplaincy. This book will be an invaluable resource for students of chaplaincy.

The great task before Christian workers, chaplains in particular, is to find a way to work within the systems of this world in order to redeem and sanctify those systems in the authority of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who sends them. Chaplains are present in some of the darkest, most impoverished, oppressed, and immoral places on this earth. Their mission is very clear: to be present with the brokenhearted and needy, while working with and within the systems that affect the lives of those they seek to help.

To understand the purpose, the mission, and the relevance of this research titled The Presence of a Chaplain, I believe sharing my life story will give the reader in-depth insight and demonstrate the importance of including chaplains on multi-interdisciplinary teams. This writer believes that if chaplaincy is considered to be included in diverse systems, the student, parent/guardian, would benefit holistically, and the chaplains presence along would make a difference in the public and private schools, particularly but not limited to, when our children are challenged with depression, bullying, suicidal, and low self-esteem. When a chaplain is present to provide the listening ear, our children would have an outlet to share their concerns, thoughts, and problems to a credentialed, qualified, and trained chaplain. Chaplains are trained to remain available and journey wherever the child or individual maybe, reaching them with the holistic plan of care; mind, body, and soul. Being ever so mindful, to recognize when it is time to transition and pass the baton by making referrals when the matter is out of your scope of practice.

At the heart of the role of chaplaincy is PRESENCE. This manual, designed for new chaplains, explores four dimensions of presence: (1) As the chaplain is present to him/herself with compassion and awareness, and (2) is present to The Presence with sensitivity and authenticity, he/she then (3) moves outward to others with simple, skillful means to help lighten their loads in life, and (4) helps others to connect more deeply to The Presence in ways that serve their highest good. This is part training manual, part memoir, part prayer book, and part self-care handbook. The author provides practical suggestions for pastoral support, and prayer with others, offers bits of wisdom to apply in one's ministry, and uses stories from his pastoral work in detention and hospital ministries to provide concrete examples of ways to apply these ideas. Additionally, this book is meant to help the chaplain nurture his/her own soul through self-care and prayer.

When thousands of young men in the North and South marched off to fight in the Civil War, another army of men accompanied them to care for these soldiers’ spiritual needs. In God’s Presence explores how these two cohorts of men, Northern and Southern and mostly Christian, navigated the challenges of the Civil War on battlefields and in military camps, hospitals, and prisons. In wartime, military clergy—chaplains and missionaries—initially attempted to replicate the idyllic world of the antebellum church. Instead they found themselves constructing a new religious world—one in which static spaces customarily invested with religious meaning, such as houses and churches, gave way to dynamic sacred spaces defined by clergy to suit changing wartime circumstances. At the same time, the religious beliefs that soldiers brought from home differed from the religious practices that allowed them to endure during wartime. With reference to Civil War soldiers’ diaries, letters, and memoirs, this book asks how clergy shaped these practices; how they might have differed from camp to battlefield, hospital, or prison; and how this experience affected postbellum religious belief and practice. Religion and war have always been at the center of the human condition, with warfare often leading to heightened religiosity. The Civil War cannot be fully explained without understanding religion’s role in the conflict. In God’s Presence advances this understanding by offering critical insight into the course and consequences of America’s epochal fratricidal war.

Is it appropriate, or even legal, for government to provide spiritual care for its citizens? Winnifred Fallers Sullivan shows that courts and administrative agencies have, for better or for worse, already decided this question. Religious freedom in American today means government affirmatively providing opportunities for Americans to encounter their religious selves and realize their religious commitments. How did this happen? The answer, Sullivan shows, is an emerging religious practice--the ministry offered by chaplains in secular settings, generally called a ministry of presence. In this eye-opening book, Sullivan details the legal recognition and regulation of the spiritual care delivered by governmental and quasi-governmental chaplaincies, as well as by chaplaincies within ostensibly private but regulated industries, such as hospitals and colleges. Across America today, there are chaplains in airports, fire departments, prisons, hospitals, the military, unions, and even businesses and workplaces. Chaplains operate at the intersection of the sacred and the secular, brokers responsible for ministering to the wandering souls of a globalized economy while sacralizing institutions we generally consider unmarked by any religious identity. A book with profound implications for how we understand the relationship between religion and law in contemporary America, "A Ministry of Presence" will interest readers in legal studies, religious studies, sociology, and public policy. "