Texas Baptist-endorsed chaplains now number greater than 600

The Baptist General Convention of Texas has endorsed more than 600 chaplains, as of the most recent meeting of the endorsement council, said Bobby Smith, chaplaincy relations specialist.

“We are at present endorsing an average of 75 people per year. We are in our eighth year and have endorsed 610 people,” Smith said.

Texas Baptist-endorsed chaplains serve in eight areas—health care, military, restorative justice, business and industry, pastoral counsel, public safety, crisis response and biker ministry. Chaplains in these areas fill ministry needs a church pastor normally cannot, Smith said.

A hospital chaplain, for example, is trained in hospital protocol, etiquette and terminology. He or she knows and is known by the hospital staff and has access to areas of the hospital normally unavailable to non-hospital employees.  

“The chaplain has a better understanding of procedure and can get information for a patient’s family that the pastor wouldn’t be privileged to,” Smith said.

An organization’s chaplain develops relationships and builds trust that would be impossible or impractical for a church pastor to cultivate. Having that trust is necessary before “efficient and effective” pastoral ministry can happen, Smith said.

Naturally, specialized training is required for such an environment-specific ministry. Becoming a vocational chaplain requires years of education and experience, with board certification as the end goal, he explained.

The first step in becoming a certified chaplain is theological education—typically a master of divinity degree.

The next level of training is clinical pastoral education. The would-be chaplain spends one year—for a total of 1,600 hours—learning by doing in the field.

The third step towards certification is endorsement.

“Endorsement is important for a chaplain because it says, ‘This person’s not a lone ranger,’” Smith said. “It shows that they have a theological base for their ministry and do ministry from their faith group’s perspective.”

The final step is certification by a national certification board. A chaplain seeks certification from the board under which his or her ministry falls.

“Certification validates chaplains’ training and shows they are qualified for the job,” Smith said.

“The primary mission of my office is to help people discover their calling for chaplaincy and their responsibility to be pastoral caregivers. Secondly, we support these Christian caregivers in their calling and ministry. And number three is to help them develop those caregiving skills in continuing education settings.”