ELCA NEWS SERVICE April 28, 2009 ELCA Seminary Prepares Military Chaplaincy Program 09-099-FI COLUMBIA, S.C. (ELCA) -- Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary has a unique opportunity. It's just minutes away from Fort Jackson, soon to be the hub for training chaplains for the U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy. Fort Jackson has long been home to the U.S. Army Chaplain School. Now a larger site is under construction so chaplains from all military branches can be trained together. The Navy also trains chaplains for the Marines and the Coast Guard. The new Armed Forces Chaplaincy Center (AFCC) is to open in 2010. Southern Seminary is getting ready by developing a program for fall 2009 to help pastors and students training to be pastors discern whether God is also calling them to military chaplaincy. "Every chaplain who is being prepared for military chaplaincy will be within eight or 10 miles of this campus," said the Rev. Marcus J. Miller, president of Southern Seminary, one of eight seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Army Chaplain (Maj.) Gary Payne oversees construction of the AFCC. "When they come here, they get military-specific training so that they can learn to function in that particular culture and environment," he said. Work on the seminary program is funded by a grant from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Thrivent is a Minneapolis-based not-for-profit financial services organization serving members of the ELCA and other Lutheran church bodies. The Rev. George L. "Bud" Onstad, a retired Army Chaplain (Lt. Col.) and ELCA pastor, Conyers, Ga., coordinates development of the seminary program. He said it's taking shape on four tracks: discernment, a chaplaincy emphasis for pastoral candidates, professional development and degree programs for current chaplains. The seminary offered a military chaplaincy discernment workshop April 17-18 to help pastors, seminarians and prospective seminarians examine military chaplaincy and the possibility of serving in that ministry. Students accepted into the military chaplaincy and not yet ordained, could work toward getting a master of divinity degree at Southern Seminary. "We might be able to offer a course that will really help them focus on that part of the ministry as well as civilian ministry," Onstad said. "We might be able to offer professional development courses in preaching, ethics, pastoral care and counseling," Onstad said. "We have gifts here at the seminary that our military chaplains, active and reserve, might be interested in taking advantage of," such as workshops and seminars, he said. Some chaplains at Fort Jackson are working toward master of sacred theology degrees at Southern Seminary, Onstad said. "We might be able to expand that to other needs that the military chaplaincy might have." "Our military chaplains don't stay in a place for very long," Onstad said. A gift of the seminary may be to develop a flexible doctor of ministry degree program that chaplains could complete on campus and by distance learning, he said. Southern Seminary is in a position to provide the entire ELCA a service, said Dr. Michael Root, vice president for academic affairs and dean. Root is an ELCA associate in ministry. "For example, students from throughout the ELCA, the other seminaries, can come here for a January term course. They would go back, complete their educations at the other seminaries, but here they can have an opportunity to experience this possibility that they couldn't at the other seminaries," he said. The Rev. Carl R. Yost, Community in Christ Lutheran Church, Cornelius, N.C., serves on the seminary program's advisory committee. He is the Wing Chaplain (Lt. Col.) for the 315th Airlift Wing at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., and recently returned from deployment in Afghanistan. Yost said having all branches of the military train their chaplains together has a significance beyond the classroom. "It's the ministry that's important for us as chaplains," he said, "and with the resources we have and the Lutheran theological training we have, it's just kind of a win-win for both institutions." --- The home page of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary is at http://www.ltss.edu/ on the Web. A video report of this story is at http://tinyurl.com/ELCANewsVideo and an audio report of this story is at http://tinyurl.com/ELCANewsAudio on the ELCA Web site. For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog