There's No Life Like It

Up and rising star, son of a local merchant in a small town I lived in joined the military. As a padre (chaplain).

Shock and disbelief - not only that he joined in an ecclesiastical role but that he joined the military.

Now, I'm sure there are many from my childhood days and my career years that have many disparaging comments to make about my own turn to faith and calling.

But rumour had it that the military paid better than the local church. Which sounds so much like something this person I knew years ago would say - very pragmatic. Well, I doubted that statement but have been proved quite wrong.

Upon completion of basic training a padre is given the rank of Captain and is thus an officer. Salary - starts at 62,000 a year. They may pay for housing though if they do it would be pretty low - base housing is cheap (it used to be free).

Now you work your butt off for the money - talk about fishbowl existence. Ministry in any church means your life is on display for everyone - multiply that by about 10 if you serve on a military base. I was very neurotic moving to Toronto because I was ingrained to understand that anything I did was a reflection on my father's rank and position. I was never directly told this, I just knew this. Women stayed home and cooked and cleaned and hung out in their own station in life - officer's wives hung out with officer's wives. It was fairly easy to do this as you lived in housing on base which was segregated by rank. We lived in Captain's quarters forever and when my father was promoted to Major we were excited that we were going to move to Golden Row - they have much bigger kitchens and I think a fireplace if I remember correctly. Truthfully my fascination was a boy that I had a long standing crush on lived on that street. Along with a lot of funny guys in my class.

We didn't move - wasn't worth the bother my father said and he wasn't the type to care about these things.

So, if I can lose 100 pounds, get my degree and get signed off I can apply. The beauty is that there is so much to do and you get a ton of training in suicide prevention, crisis situations, interpersonal relations...and as a Protestant you work with a team of different denominations.

Ain't gonna happen. But how interesting if it had!

I thought this was very interesting from their web site:
Being a chapel-life coordinator doesn't mean being all things to all people. And contrary to what some members of the community may want, it doesn't even mean always being present. The most significant role of the chapel-life coordinator is to empower the community of faith to do the ministry to which they were called. This means working with the community to assist them as they discern their gifts and look for ways that they can use them. This also creates a network that the chapel-life coordinator can utilize to assist in the ministry within the faith community. This means that instead of trying to function as visual artist, Sunday school superintendent, program scheduler, or any other list of functions, the chapel-life coordinator knows that there are qualified individuals who are willing to assist. This only works when it is abundantly clear that we all share in ministry; the chaplains and the community of faith. When this occurs, it is possible for everyone to be enriched and nourished within the faith community. It is possible for everyone to make the best use of his or her gifts for the ministry of God.