Do you feel a vocation to serve others as a chaplain? Chaplains often offer spiritual guidance to people, dealing with events that challenge them. For example, hospitals, prisons and military barracks usually have a chaplain available for those who need religious support. If this admirable profession seems to fit your personality perfectly, you will need to obtain certifications from a nationally recognized chaplaincy council. Read the instructions to learn how to serve as a chaplain.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Prepare for your Chaplain Career
Step 1. Understand what this profession entails
A chaplain is ordained or hired by a religious organization or group to administer the needs of people in different settings. Chaplains commonly work in hospitals, retirement homes, military barracks, and prisons. As a chaplain, your role will be to connect with people who need guidance and provide advice and comfort to those who are sick, homebound or far from their hometown. Depending on where you will work, your duties may include:
- Visit people affiliated with your congregation or organization at home or in the hospital, or work at times when people can visit you.
- Listen and pray with people who need spiritual support.
- Lead religious services or prayer audiences.
- Provide advice for pain relief.
- Lead the funeral ceremonies.
Step 2. Be open-minded and full of empathy towards others
A chaplain must be capable of deep empathy and open to establishing relationships with a variety of people from all types of backgrounds. As a chaplain, your duty will be to help people at their most vulnerable, perhaps terminally ill or far from their home and family. The ability to connect with people of all kinds is the most important prerequisite for becoming a chaplain.
- Chaplains who work in hospitals and prisons or in barracks interact with people from many different religious cultures. Some of these seek spiritual guidance even if they are not religious at all. To be an effective chaplain, it is important to be open and accept all kinds of religious beliefs, even if different from your own.
- Even if you are affiliated with a particular religious congregation, you will need to be able to work with people from different walks of life. You may be called to assist someone who has made choices that go against the principles of your religion, for example. The ability to overshadow your opinions for the good of the person, in the most helpful and empathetic way possible, is especially important, whoever the person you work with is.
Step 3. Be adept at meeting the spiritual needs of strangers
Wherever you work as a chaplain, you will meet new people on a regular basis. There is a possibility that you will only have to meet someone once, at most two. You will therefore need to be adept at helping, inspiring and motivating people you have just become familiar with. Your goal will be to forge bonds that support people in the most difficult times. Only a special person will be able to establish this type of relationship quickly.
Step 4. Be trustworthy and able to maintain confidentiality
One of the primary duties of a chaplain is to provide assistance to people affected by distress. When people turn to you for help, they will share sensitive details of their life with you, expecting that information to stay between you and them. Just like a lawyer or a psychiatrist does, so you will need to maintain confidentiality. A chaplain who cannot be trusted quickly loses his strength and effectiveness.
Step 5. Be available to help at any time
People can go through a spiritual crisis during the day or even in the middle of the night. Depending on where you work, as an on-call doctor would, you may need to stop what you were doing or wake up at particular times to help someone in need. Being selfless in this way is not something for everyone; it can be a very hard thing that comes with a personal price to pay. It is this particular generosity of spirit that makes the figure of the chaplain special.
However, it is important to build boundaries to protect your personal life. You can choose to give or not to give your personal contacts, for example. Depending on where you work there may be other restrictions on this
Step 6. Always have great fortitude
When you have to offer support to people for a whole day, it can happen that you feel a loss of energy. As a chaplain, you must be skilled in helping yourself not to lose heart. Maintaining constant spiritual strength and being able to manage the stress that comes from helping others is part of the path to becoming a chaplain that makes a difference.
Part 2 of 3: Meet the educational requirements
Step 1. Get a Bachelor's Degree
Many institutions and organizations will not consider you suitable for the role of chaplain until you have obtained at least a Bachelor's Degree. To try to become chaplain, the most useful and relevant didactic areas are Theology and Psychotherapy.
- Some schools, universities and seminaries may offer a specialized course to become a chaplain. However, obtaining a Bachelor's Degree in Religion or related disciplines may suffice.
- If you aspire to be a chaplain in a particular institution, such as a hospital or prison, add a volunteer experience to your education. This will be considered a plus when your application is evaluated.
Step 2. Consider getting a Master's Degree
Many institutions require chaplains to have at least a specialist education level (some prefer PhD candidates). This is especially necessary if you are seeking to become a military or hospital chaplain. Try to get a Master's Degree in Theology or related disciplines, and consider continuing with the Doctorate if the job you want requires it.
- Some Degrees are available in seminaries or in accredited universities.
- Focusing on counseling on sacred texts or pastoral care will give you the right tools to become a chaplain.
Step 3. Choose whether to receive Clinical Pastoral Instruction
This preparation is often required of hospital chaplains, providing experience in the field as a supplement to academic activities. You will have the opportunity to work with people in need in health facilities or prisons. This type of education brings together chaplains of all faiths and provides them with invaluable real-world experience that can later be applied to actual work. It is a prerequisite for many certification programs.
- Choose in the centers dedicated to this particular education, the type of facility in which you would like to work, so you will gain experience working with that particular type of people.
- Clinical Pastoral Education is divided into units. One unit usually completes in 3 months. Some certification programs require 4 units to be completed.
Step 4. Have you ordained by your religious organization
Since the role of chaplain is rooted in the religious sphere, theoretical and practical religious experience is a necessity. In some cases you may be required to be ordained and supported by your religious organization before being hired as a chaplain. In the US military, for example, it is required that you belong to the clergy of your religious organization in order for you to apply for work. Many religious groups or organizations have their own standards and certifications that you will need to abide by before you are officially considered a qualified chaplain. Choose which ones to do to join the clergy of your congregation.
- In many cases, a master's degree obtained in a seminary will be required to join the clergy.
- In addition to ordination, your religious group must give you official support, certifying that you have the appropriate qualifications to represent the group and be a competent chaplain.
Part 3 of 3: Get a job as a chaplain
Step 1. Obtain a certification from the chaplaincy office
Depending on where you will work, you may be required to obtain a certification from an organization recognized by the Chaplains' Associations. There are many national organizations, each with different certification standards for becoming a chaplain. Choose the one that best matches your beliefs and your work ambitions. In general, you will need to pass a written test in addition to meeting the following requirements to become certified:
- Ordination as a minister (or equivalent office in your religious order)
- Support from your religious order
- A Master's Degree in Theology (or a related discipline)
- Four complete units of Clinical Pastoral Education
Step 2. Check if you need to complete an internship
Some hospitals and other facilities require the chaplain to complete an internship before being permanently hired. Internships are completed under the supervision of a senior chaplain and can last one or two years. Once the internship has been completed to the satisfaction of the organization, the candidate can become chaplain.
Resident chaplains work with families and hospital staff and attend lectures and seminars as part of the course
Step 3. Become a member of a professional organization of chaplains
Many organizations accept members from different religions. Each organization has its own requirements to be met in order to join it. Becoming a member of one of these organizations is a great way to network with other chaplains and gain access to job opportunities as they arise.
