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."
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      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
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