The Emergency Medical Services Chaplain
Rev. Chris Credle EMT-Paramedic, BCBT, LBT, PhD
Founder of SoulMedic Ministries
What a Rush!
According to the majority of men & women who are involved in the prehospital field of EMS, the real " Rush " in this life is not found fighting a huge house fire, nor is it in a police car on a high speed pursuit. The greatest Rush in the entire world is fighting the fight, and betting the Grim Reaper at his on game. Bring someone back from his grasp of death, and seeing that person make a full recovery and then leave the hospital returning to a normal life. Now that is a rush!
Then for those of us that really enjoy fighting fire “Gota have it” types. The greatest “Rush” is not being in an ambulance at three o’clock in the morning fighting with the Grim Reaper or starting IV’s and all the other things that EMS does while in a moving vehicle going to the hospital. No to them it is hearing the tones go off for the big one. You know those three and four alarm fire, the ones you can see the smoke and red glow from miles away. To the fireman the greatest rush in the entire world is fighting fires - protecting lives and property.
What is happening in our world of Emergency Services?
If you are in management, you face the problem every week and the challenge does not seem to go away: How do I address the personal needs of my staff and help them become better Emergency Services professionals?
If you are a Firefighter, Medical Responder, EMT, EMT-I, EMT-Paramedic, then you may be asking:
“Man that was a bad call is there anyone that I can talk with that understands my job, and what I see or deal with on some of my calls?”
"Whom can I talk to when I feel my life is coming apart at the seams?”
“Who really knows the answers for what I am feeling and thinking?”
“Is there someone who can give me some help with my family?"
What Does It Take?
"Pep talks" don't last too long. Strong exhortation is too risky and offering bribes is out of the question. Sometimes a counselor may help, but what you really need is a professional resource that is especially oriented to the unique needs, demands, stresses and spiritual issues faced by Fire/EMS personnel. You and your department will profit from the assistance given by an Emergency Services Chaplain.
The Emergency Services Chaplain will be dealing with many men and women whose attitude is just like the following statement: “Fire/EMS is not just a job to me . . . it is my life! Being an Firefighter, EMT, EMT-I, or EMT-Paramedic is my identity; it is who I am." The effectiveness of the Emergency Services Chaplain must be fleshed out and made real through his/her life in relationship with all those involved in Fire/EMS, their families and people out in their community.
What will it take? How are you answering this question? Let me offer an encouraging alternative: Have you considered using an Emergency Services Chaplain to personally assist your personnel in doing their jobs better and meeting the needs of community victims and their families?
Who is an Emergency Services Chaplain?
Let me offer a brief working definition of whom a Christian Emergency Services Chaplain is and what he/she does:
A Christian Emergency Services Chaplain is a minister of Jesus Christ who seeks to meet the life needs of all Fire/EMS personnel and their families, who honors all faiths, and who is also available to care for community victims impacted by any emergency situation that effects them or assisted by Fire/EMS personnel and/or the local department.
The Emergency Services Chaplaincy is the intentional process (actions, behaviors and attitudes) involved in serving and meeting the life needs of Fire/EMS personal & their families in the name of Jesus Christ, as an ambassador of the Lord and His Church, with the ultimate purpose of making disciples in obedience to the great commission.
Helping a Shivering Beggar
We need to understand the answer to this question: "When and where did the terms chaplain and chapel originate?" This question leads us to consider the story of St. Martin of Tours, a compassionate fourth century soldier who encountered a shivering beggar on a cold winter night. Having no money in his purse, he took off his cloak and slashed it with his sword to give half to the beggar.
Later that night he had a vision in which he saw Christ wearing the half-cloak. As a result of this experience he was baptized as a Christian. Ultimately he left the army to devote his life to the church. In time he became the patron saint of the French kings of the Middle Ages. St. Martin's cloak (cappella) was carried into battle by the kings as an ignifying the presence of God. But since the cappella was a sacred relic of the church, a priest went along as custodian.
This keeper of the cloak, or cappellanus, also tended the king's religious needs, and from his office was derived that of "chaplain." The depository for the cloak became the "chapel," the place of worship.
The story is more than a quaint bit of etymology explaining the origin of the terms "chaplain" and "chapel." It is also a clue, which points to the essential nature of the chaplaincy. The cappellanus was a member of one institution - a priest of the church - serving in another institution - the king's army.
The Emergency Service Chaplain's Dual Identity
Definitions of the chaplaincy seldom take sufficient account of this fact of institutional duality. Chaplains are unique in that their primary identification is with a non-departmental institution.
But they are also unique in the church, as the only large group of the clergy whose vocational identification is with a non-church social institution. An Emergency Services Chaplain has "one foot in heaven" and the other out in the field doing patient care and fighting fires. (Talking with the patient and his/her family members, taking vital signs, blood sugar readings, placing patients on oxygen or the cardiac monitor, starting IV’s, controlling bleeding, administering medications used to save the patients life, and all the many other thing that are done while running EMS call. Then maybe he/she will be catching a hydrant, pulling hose, manning the nozzle or climbing latter’s, performing search and rescue inside of a burning building.)
(Adapted from The Churches and the Chaplaincy by Richard G. Hutcheson, Jr.; p. 17. John Knox Press, 1975)
Summary: Who is an Emergency Service Chaplain?
When we finally boil down our answer to the question - "Who is a Emergency Service Chaplain?" - we encounter the truth that can also be applied to all those that work in the field of Fire/EMS: who the person is, is dynamically defined by what he/she does.
The work of the Emergency Service chaplain flows out of and, to a significant degree, defines the individual. Similarly, the Firefighter, Medical Responder, EMT, EMT-I, EMT-Paramedic, in large measure is defined by the work he/she engages in and is committed to doing.
WHAT DOES AN Emergency Service CHAPLAIN DO?
C Called & Commissioned
H Helper & Healer
A Ambassador & Affirmer
P Proclaimer / Priest & Pastor
L Leader / Liaison & Listener
A Available & Assistant
I Instructor & Initiator
N Nurturer & Nourisher
Serving the Needs of Fire/EMS Personnel
The Emergency Service chaplain is first called of God to ministry and then commissioned to work in a context outside of the local church. The Emergency Service chaplain engages in a ministry of helps and is also on the lookout for opportunities to offer a listening ear and heart or to give a healing word of counsel or encouragement.
The Emergency Service chaplain is first an ambassador of the Lord and His church. The Emergency Service chaplain is not there to sell anyone his/her religion or particular church group, but to give comfort, counsel and affirmation, which lead to wholeness and in some cases restoration.
Yes, the Emergency Service chaplain is a proclaimer of hope, a spiritual priest, and in a real sense the Fire/EMS worker's "pastor-on-the-job." The Emergency Service chaplain is a leader, liaison & listener. The chaplain is especially attuned to departmental morale and motivational issues as well as personal integrity and growth.
Thus the Emergency Service chaplain assists the employee to become a better professional by helping the individual become a better person, both inside & outside. This process takes time, a supportive relationship, and consistent instruction. The Emergency Service chaplain needs to keep on initiating goodwill and being available as a personal confidential resource.
The Emergency Service Chaplain's CARE & SHARE Ministry
Every Emergency Service chaplain engages in many activities in carrying out this unique, specialized ministry to Fire/EMS personnel. If I were to sum up the Emergency Service chaplain's key areas of duty it would certainly be characterized by the term CAREgiver. (What we do ever day in the back of our unit while doing patient care enroute to the hospital)
The Emergency Service chaplain's role is truly basic and fundamental - nurturing and nourishing men and women toward personal maturity, integrity and spiritual wholeness.
CAREing Before SHAREing
Here is the essence of what a Christian Emergency Service chaplain does. The aspects of this type of ministry may be summarized with the words CARE & SHARE.
Helping Fire/EMS Personnel Outside the Church
Basically, a Emergency Service chaplain is an ambassador of the Lord who is usually sent out by the local church to minister to people in a non-church context and who is readily available to serve others and meet needs. Every Christian minister is under mandate to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
The Emergency Service chaplain is not a pastor or a minister in a traditional sense. The Emergency Service chaplain ministers or serves Fire/EMS personnel outside of the traditional boundaries of the local church and addresses human needs in specialized contexts - in the department, out in the community or even at the scene of a medical call or traumatic event (motor vehicle crash, fire, etc.) The chaplain is available to come where Fire/EMS people live, work and even play.
What is the "bottom line?" An Emergency Service chaplain is called by God and sent out by a local church to serve the personal & professional needs of Fire/EMS service people and their families and to share the word of hope - the good news of Christ's love and forgiveness.
Serving in Two Arenas
The Emergency Service chaplain often must serve the needs of people in two different arenas. First, he/she has a primary duty to help Fire/EMS personnel - to attend to needs, problems, morale issues, family and marital concerns as well as spiritual questions. Thus, the Emergency Service chaplain keeps his/her focus in-house, within the ranks of Fire/EMS worker’s and their families.
Second, the chaplain widens the scope of service to another arena of people - the community at large - those families and individuals who are served and protected by the Fire/EMS professionals. The Emergency Service chaplain may often be called out to handle painful situations, crises and emergencies - at any time, day or night - for a family or individual in the community.
Whatever the arena of personal concern, one of the essential qualities that an Emergency Service chaplain must possess is the ability to readily adapt to various stressful situations and the fluctuating moods of different people.
The Emergency Service chaplain May provide any or more than the Following Services:
Provides 24-hour emergency services and intervention when called upon; chaplain is always "on call" for the needs of Fire/EMS personnel
Provides short term, confidential counseling for departmental personnel and family members & their children
Conducts weddings & funerals for Fire/EMS personnel and family members
Prays at department meetings and ceremonies
Visits stations and crews
Coordinates employee assistance programs
Coordinates community assistance programs (i.e. Red Cross, Salvation Army, community food bank, community church programs)
Assists department bereaved
Visits the sick and/or injured
Coordinates pastoral care of fire and EMS victims
Refers department personnel and victims to appropriate church or religious location
Conducts Bible study group for seekers and/or discipleship training for Christian Fire/EMS workers
Participates and/or leads in department Traumatic Incident Team
Participates in state association of Fire and Emergency Chaplains
Engages in continuing self-education, training and upgrading of skills and knowledge
Assists and/or teaches Fire/EMS personnel with training in crisis intervention and stress management.
15 EXCELLENT REASONS FOR THE POSITION OF CHAPLAIN
(I am not certain of the original source of this list.)
(1) Counsel with men/women on job to retain active job proficiency.
(2) Chaplain does lend itself to a special type of dignity at public and social meetings.
(3) Chaplain attending staff and organizational meetings acts as a stabilizing force in reminding those present of the brotherhood of men/women and the need for a cooperative spirit.
(4) Assists Fire/EMS workers and their families in times of crisis.
(5) Assists employees in using their abilities to carry out their duties.
(6) Assists employees in dealing with situations that could distract them from their work.
(7) Assists in death and injury in which somebody in the official capacity for the city/county should perform.
(8) Aids employee by informing him/her of the type of care that is entitled.
(9) Assists the city in carrying out the responsibility it has to the employee and assures the employee that the responsibility is being carried out.
(10) Sees to it that the employee carries his responsibility out to the city and uses every resource available to see the employee realizes this.
(11) Assists with those emotional problems that are expressed in conflicts in the family or marriage that are related to the profession.
(12) As Chaplain, he/she has some advantages that insure his acceptance others serving in the same capacity would not have. Much of the work is confidential and it is an accepted fact that legal, medical and pastoral counseling have the right of privileged information, more so ministerial than any other. This is extremely important to many types of counseling or referrals.
(13) The point should be made that the primary duty of the Chaplain is to personally seek to meet the emotional, spiritual and morale needs of EMS workers and their families - this is most certainly expected.
(14) Confidence in both sides, whether it is in a marriage, business relationship, work problem, internal action, or other with neither side being betrayed is of utmost importance. This certainly is a factor in the work of the chaplaincy that he/she alone can handle.
(15) The main advantage of the Department Chaplain is availability. Somebody must do these things for the betterment of all personnel in the department who are serving the community and providing critical public safety customer service.
I Do Not Choose to Be a "Common" Emergency Service Chaplain
Adapted From Chuck Austin's Life Statement
As an Emergency Service Chaplain, I cannot separate my faith in Jesus of Nazareth from my everyday life, conduct, and speech.
As an Emergency Service Chaplain, I cannot justify loving only those who love me, aiding only my friends, and praying only for fellow Christians.
As an Emergency Service Chaplain, I have no desire to carry the name of the Son of God to the level of my own base intentions.
As an Emergency Service Chaplain, I aspire to be like Him, to live on unseen resources by faith, to tap the unlimited supply of His love through the life of His indwelling Holy Spirit, to emerge from my moral conflicts "more than a conqueror" through His power, and to rise above all earthly standards to the completeness of His perfection.
As an Emergency Service Chaplain, I acknowledge that this is an impossible quest, but accept the challenge of its impossibility in the knowledge that its pursuit will force me to rest on Him.
As an Emergency Service Chaplain, I desire no little challenges, expect no unrippled seas, and abandon all personal "rights" for the ultimate goal of ministering to EMS personnel and their families - to the best of my abilities.
As an Emergency Service Chaplain, I consider it a curse to have a quality of life that is indistinguishable from unbelieving men and common Christians.
As an Emergency Service Chaplain, my present failure to fulfill these intentions merely proves that God isn't finished reshaping my raw materials.
Founder of SoulMedic Ministries
What a Rush!
According to the majority of men & women who are involved in the prehospital field of EMS, the real " Rush " in this life is not found fighting a huge house fire, nor is it in a police car on a high speed pursuit. The greatest Rush in the entire world is fighting the fight, and betting the Grim Reaper at his on game. Bring someone back from his grasp of death, and seeing that person make a full recovery and then leave the hospital returning to a normal life. Now that is a rush!
Then for those of us that really enjoy fighting fire “Gota have it” types. The greatest “Rush” is not being in an ambulance at three o’clock in the morning fighting with the Grim Reaper or starting IV’s and all the other things that EMS does while in a moving vehicle going to the hospital. No to them it is hearing the tones go off for the big one. You know those three and four alarm fire, the ones you can see the smoke and red glow from miles away. To the fireman the greatest rush in the entire world is fighting fires - protecting lives and property.
What is happening in our world of Emergency Services?
If you are in management, you face the problem every week and the challenge does not seem to go away: How do I address the personal needs of my staff and help them become better Emergency Services professionals?
If you are a Firefighter, Medical Responder, EMT, EMT-I, EMT-Paramedic, then you may be asking:
“Man that was a bad call is there anyone that I can talk with that understands my job, and what I see or deal with on some of my calls?”
"Whom can I talk to when I feel my life is coming apart at the seams?”
“Who really knows the answers for what I am feeling and thinking?”
“Is there someone who can give me some help with my family?"
What Does It Take?
"Pep talks" don't last too long. Strong exhortation is too risky and offering bribes is out of the question. Sometimes a counselor may help, but what you really need is a professional resource that is especially oriented to the unique needs, demands, stresses and spiritual issues faced by Fire/EMS personnel. You and your department will profit from the assistance given by an Emergency Services Chaplain.
The Emergency Services Chaplain will be dealing with many men and women whose attitude is just like the following statement: “Fire/EMS is not just a job to me . . . it is my life! Being an Firefighter, EMT, EMT-I, or EMT-Paramedic is my identity; it is who I am." The effectiveness of the Emergency Services Chaplain must be fleshed out and made real through his/her life in relationship with all those involved in Fire/EMS, their families and people out in their community.
What will it take? How are you answering this question? Let me offer an encouraging alternative: Have you considered using an Emergency Services Chaplain to personally assist your personnel in doing their jobs better and meeting the needs of community victims and their families?
Who is an Emergency Services Chaplain?
Let me offer a brief working definition of whom a Christian Emergency Services Chaplain is and what he/she does:
A Christian Emergency Services Chaplain is a minister of Jesus Christ who seeks to meet the life needs of all Fire/EMS personnel and their families, who honors all faiths, and who is also available to care for community victims impacted by any emergency situation that effects them or assisted by Fire/EMS personnel and/or the local department.
The Emergency Services Chaplaincy is the intentional process (actions, behaviors and attitudes) involved in serving and meeting the life needs of Fire/EMS personal & their families in the name of Jesus Christ, as an ambassador of the Lord and His Church, with the ultimate purpose of making disciples in obedience to the great commission.
Helping a Shivering Beggar
We need to understand the answer to this question: "When and where did the terms chaplain and chapel originate?" This question leads us to consider the story of St. Martin of Tours, a compassionate fourth century soldier who encountered a shivering beggar on a cold winter night. Having no money in his purse, he took off his cloak and slashed it with his sword to give half to the beggar.
Later that night he had a vision in which he saw Christ wearing the half-cloak. As a result of this experience he was baptized as a Christian. Ultimately he left the army to devote his life to the church. In time he became the patron saint of the French kings of the Middle Ages. St. Martin's cloak (cappella) was carried into battle by the kings as an ignifying the presence of God. But since the cappella was a sacred relic of the church, a priest went along as custodian.
This keeper of the cloak, or cappellanus, also tended the king's religious needs, and from his office was derived that of "chaplain." The depository for the cloak became the "chapel," the place of worship.
The story is more than a quaint bit of etymology explaining the origin of the terms "chaplain" and "chapel." It is also a clue, which points to the essential nature of the chaplaincy. The cappellanus was a member of one institution - a priest of the church - serving in another institution - the king's army.
The Emergency Service Chaplain's Dual Identity
Definitions of the chaplaincy seldom take sufficient account of this fact of institutional duality. Chaplains are unique in that their primary identification is with a non-departmental institution.
But they are also unique in the church, as the only large group of the clergy whose vocational identification is with a non-church social institution. An Emergency Services Chaplain has "one foot in heaven" and the other out in the field doing patient care and fighting fires. (Talking with the patient and his/her family members, taking vital signs, blood sugar readings, placing patients on oxygen or the cardiac monitor, starting IV’s, controlling bleeding, administering medications used to save the patients life, and all the many other thing that are done while running EMS call. Then maybe he/she will be catching a hydrant, pulling hose, manning the nozzle or climbing latter’s, performing search and rescue inside of a burning building.)
(Adapted from The Churches and the Chaplaincy by Richard G. Hutcheson, Jr.; p. 17. John Knox Press, 1975)
Summary: Who is an Emergency Service Chaplain?
When we finally boil down our answer to the question - "Who is a Emergency Service Chaplain?" - we encounter the truth that can also be applied to all those that work in the field of Fire/EMS: who the person is, is dynamically defined by what he/she does.
The work of the Emergency Service chaplain flows out of and, to a significant degree, defines the individual. Similarly, the Firefighter, Medical Responder, EMT, EMT-I, EMT-Paramedic, in large measure is defined by the work he/she engages in and is committed to doing.
WHAT DOES AN Emergency Service CHAPLAIN DO?
C Called & Commissioned
H Helper & Healer
A Ambassador & Affirmer
P Proclaimer / Priest & Pastor
L Leader / Liaison & Listener
A Available & Assistant
I Instructor & Initiator
N Nurturer & Nourisher
Serving the Needs of Fire/EMS Personnel
The Emergency Service chaplain is first called of God to ministry and then commissioned to work in a context outside of the local church. The Emergency Service chaplain engages in a ministry of helps and is also on the lookout for opportunities to offer a listening ear and heart or to give a healing word of counsel or encouragement.
The Emergency Service chaplain is first an ambassador of the Lord and His church. The Emergency Service chaplain is not there to sell anyone his/her religion or particular church group, but to give comfort, counsel and affirmation, which lead to wholeness and in some cases restoration.
Yes, the Emergency Service chaplain is a proclaimer of hope, a spiritual priest, and in a real sense the Fire/EMS worker's "pastor-on-the-job." The Emergency Service chaplain is a leader, liaison & listener. The chaplain is especially attuned to departmental morale and motivational issues as well as personal integrity and growth.
Thus the Emergency Service chaplain assists the employee to become a better professional by helping the individual become a better person, both inside & outside. This process takes time, a supportive relationship, and consistent instruction. The Emergency Service chaplain needs to keep on initiating goodwill and being available as a personal confidential resource.
The Emergency Service Chaplain's CARE & SHARE Ministry
Every Emergency Service chaplain engages in many activities in carrying out this unique, specialized ministry to Fire/EMS personnel. If I were to sum up the Emergency Service chaplain's key areas of duty it would certainly be characterized by the term CAREgiver. (What we do ever day in the back of our unit while doing patient care enroute to the hospital)
The Emergency Service chaplain's role is truly basic and fundamental - nurturing and nourishing men and women toward personal maturity, integrity and spiritual wholeness.
CAREing Before SHAREing
Here is the essence of what a Christian Emergency Service chaplain does. The aspects of this type of ministry may be summarized with the words CARE & SHARE.
Helping Fire/EMS Personnel Outside the Church
Basically, a Emergency Service chaplain is an ambassador of the Lord who is usually sent out by the local church to minister to people in a non-church context and who is readily available to serve others and meet needs. Every Christian minister is under mandate to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
The Emergency Service chaplain is not a pastor or a minister in a traditional sense. The Emergency Service chaplain ministers or serves Fire/EMS personnel outside of the traditional boundaries of the local church and addresses human needs in specialized contexts - in the department, out in the community or even at the scene of a medical call or traumatic event (motor vehicle crash, fire, etc.) The chaplain is available to come where Fire/EMS people live, work and even play.
What is the "bottom line?" An Emergency Service chaplain is called by God and sent out by a local church to serve the personal & professional needs of Fire/EMS service people and their families and to share the word of hope - the good news of Christ's love and forgiveness.
Serving in Two Arenas
The Emergency Service chaplain often must serve the needs of people in two different arenas. First, he/she has a primary duty to help Fire/EMS personnel - to attend to needs, problems, morale issues, family and marital concerns as well as spiritual questions. Thus, the Emergency Service chaplain keeps his/her focus in-house, within the ranks of Fire/EMS worker’s and their families.
Second, the chaplain widens the scope of service to another arena of people - the community at large - those families and individuals who are served and protected by the Fire/EMS professionals. The Emergency Service chaplain may often be called out to handle painful situations, crises and emergencies - at any time, day or night - for a family or individual in the community.
Whatever the arena of personal concern, one of the essential qualities that an Emergency Service chaplain must possess is the ability to readily adapt to various stressful situations and the fluctuating moods of different people.
The Emergency Service chaplain May provide any or more than the Following Services:
Provides 24-hour emergency services and intervention when called upon; chaplain is always "on call" for the needs of Fire/EMS personnel
Provides short term, confidential counseling for departmental personnel and family members & their children
Conducts weddings & funerals for Fire/EMS personnel and family members
Prays at department meetings and ceremonies
Visits stations and crews
Coordinates employee assistance programs
Coordinates community assistance programs (i.e. Red Cross, Salvation Army, community food bank, community church programs)
Assists department bereaved
Visits the sick and/or injured
Coordinates pastoral care of fire and EMS victims
Refers department personnel and victims to appropriate church or religious location
Conducts Bible study group for seekers and/or discipleship training for Christian Fire/EMS workers
Participates and/or leads in department Traumatic Incident Team
Participates in state association of Fire and Emergency Chaplains
Engages in continuing self-education, training and upgrading of skills and knowledge
Assists and/or teaches Fire/EMS personnel with training in crisis intervention and stress management.
15 EXCELLENT REASONS FOR THE POSITION OF CHAPLAIN
(I am not certain of the original source of this list.)
(1) Counsel with men/women on job to retain active job proficiency.
(2) Chaplain does lend itself to a special type of dignity at public and social meetings.
(3) Chaplain attending staff and organizational meetings acts as a stabilizing force in reminding those present of the brotherhood of men/women and the need for a cooperative spirit.
(4) Assists Fire/EMS workers and their families in times of crisis.
(5) Assists employees in using their abilities to carry out their duties.
(6) Assists employees in dealing with situations that could distract them from their work.
(7) Assists in death and injury in which somebody in the official capacity for the city/county should perform.
(8) Aids employee by informing him/her of the type of care that is entitled.
(9) Assists the city in carrying out the responsibility it has to the employee and assures the employee that the responsibility is being carried out.
(10) Sees to it that the employee carries his responsibility out to the city and uses every resource available to see the employee realizes this.
(11) Assists with those emotional problems that are expressed in conflicts in the family or marriage that are related to the profession.
(12) As Chaplain, he/she has some advantages that insure his acceptance others serving in the same capacity would not have. Much of the work is confidential and it is an accepted fact that legal, medical and pastoral counseling have the right of privileged information, more so ministerial than any other. This is extremely important to many types of counseling or referrals.
(13) The point should be made that the primary duty of the Chaplain is to personally seek to meet the emotional, spiritual and morale needs of EMS workers and their families - this is most certainly expected.
(14) Confidence in both sides, whether it is in a marriage, business relationship, work problem, internal action, or other with neither side being betrayed is of utmost importance. This certainly is a factor in the work of the chaplaincy that he/she alone can handle.
(15) The main advantage of the Department Chaplain is availability. Somebody must do these things for the betterment of all personnel in the department who are serving the community and providing critical public safety customer service.
I Do Not Choose to Be a "Common" Emergency Service Chaplain
Adapted From Chuck Austin's Life Statement
As an Emergency Service Chaplain, I cannot separate my faith in Jesus of Nazareth from my everyday life, conduct, and speech.
As an Emergency Service Chaplain, I cannot justify loving only those who love me, aiding only my friends, and praying only for fellow Christians.
As an Emergency Service Chaplain, I have no desire to carry the name of the Son of God to the level of my own base intentions.
As an Emergency Service Chaplain, I aspire to be like Him, to live on unseen resources by faith, to tap the unlimited supply of His love through the life of His indwelling Holy Spirit, to emerge from my moral conflicts "more than a conqueror" through His power, and to rise above all earthly standards to the completeness of His perfection.
As an Emergency Service Chaplain, I acknowledge that this is an impossible quest, but accept the challenge of its impossibility in the knowledge that its pursuit will force me to rest on Him.
As an Emergency Service Chaplain, I desire no little challenges, expect no unrippled seas, and abandon all personal "rights" for the ultimate goal of ministering to EMS personnel and their families - to the best of my abilities.
As an Emergency Service Chaplain, I consider it a curse to have a quality of life that is indistinguishable from unbelieving men and common Christians.
As an Emergency Service Chaplain, my present failure to fulfill these intentions merely proves that God isn't finished reshaping my raw materials.