One of the ELCA buzzwords of the moment is "Missional", meaning to attend to the people of God outside the walls of the church and intentionality in word and deed with attention to one's context and culture.
About a year ago I wrote an approval essay using an ELCA prompt that discussed six characteristics that are identified in missional leaders.
These characteristics are:
1. Rooted in the presence and activity of the Triune God
2. Engage the way of the cross
3. Relate theology with culture and context
4. Evangelize
5. Cultivate Christian community and discipleship
6. Equip and send disciples into the world
The ELCA, on their Specialized Pastoral Care page , states that these ministries are missional by nature, in that they, "embody the church's initiative to minister to people who are ill, imprisoned, elderly, troubled, conflicted, and afflicted." We hear this call all over in scripture. I am going to dig a bit deeper into my own work as a chaplain to explore how I am a missional leader.
1. Rooted in the presence and activity of the Triune God
I depend intimately on the power of God to do the work that I am called to do each day. I pray for guidance each morning, I pray a quick silent prayer each time prior to praying with a patient, saying, "God, let my words be what you would have them be" and I pray at night that God would hold the prayers and concerns of each of my patients, and also hold me as I rest in God's arms for the rejuvenation that I need to do my work again the next day.
I also get the privilege of eavesdropping on God's work in the world. I see mysterious works of healing every day, but I also see situations where healing is not possible and people surrender themselves to God. My job as a chaplain is to encourage the beautiful and broken people of God to testify to where they see God at work in their lives. I can proclaim this work also.
2. Engage the way of the cross
If we confess that the way of the cross is that God is most clearly seen in suffering, and knows what it means to suffer, and bears with humanity in its suffering also, I cannot think of a more hopeful thing to proclaim in chaplaincy ministry in a hospital. My own ministry of accompaniment in suffering, because I cannot heal illness or injury, is representative of Christ's ministry of accompaniment. Many of my patient's hope fervently for healing and cures that never come from God. And the only hope that I can offer is that they are not alone in their suffering.
Another aspect of the way of the cross that I frequently encounter in my work are patients and their loved ones who are crossing the threshold from life to death. I am in a unique position to have the ability to proclaim (if this is meaningful for this particular patient and family) that death does not have the final word. It feels like the end of the world, and in many ways it is, as a family walks out of a hospital without the loved one that they entered with, but death is not the end. Recently, I sat with a woman whose husband was declared brain dead. She found comfort in the idea that her goodbye was not a goodbye, but rather a "see you later."
3. Relate theology with culture and context
This is something that I do frequently. The hospital is a highly specific context. It is not a church, but it is still a place for proclamation and confession. My work is highly sensitive, and involves gently seeking how patients view God and prayer and faith in their own culture and context. Then I meet them where they are. This is one of the things that chaplains do best, because to act like a bull in a china shop with your own theology, bowling over people in their own time of need to confess your own convictions is entirely inappropriate in a hospital setting.
4. Evangelize
This is one that is a little more difficult in a hospital setting, probably because of the normative understanding that evangelizing means to share your faith with people in the world with the intent of encouraging them to convert to your faith or join your church. But if you look at evangelization in its original Greek, euangelion, which means simply "good news", I participate in plenty of this in the hospital. I rejoice with patients who have received good news about their diagnosis or surgery. I pray and mourn with people who watch their loved ones die, yet as these families rejoice that their loved ones are in heaven, I too give thanks for the work of Christ in this way. I also share aspects of my own theology and faith when asked.
5. Cultivate Christian community and discipleship
Part of my work as a chaplain is to assist patients in meeting their spiritual and emotional needs in the hospital. Sometimes this means calling a pastor from their specific denomination or church to visit. Sometimes it means facilitating a specific religious rite, sometimes it means providing a Bible or prayer shawl, or rosary or menorah. A huge part of my work as a chaplain is to encourage patients to name, claim, and enact religious and spiritual practices that provide comfort to them. This is a way of cultivating discipleship.
6. Equip and send disciples into the world
As explored above, much of my work involves accompanying the patient as they dig deeply into their own beliefs and spiritual practices. I am present for some of the most heart-rending and raw moments that this world can offer. Part of my work is to help the people of God to walk forward into a "new normal." Recently I spent several hours with a patient who was driving the car in an accident that caused her sister's death. She asked, "What does God want me to do now?" And I didn't have any answer except, to put one foot in front of the other and keep on living life the best way that she knew how. I also spent a number of hours with a patient who was diagnosed with cancer after she thought she had appendicitis. I was able to help her engage prayer practices and other forms of discipleship to her prepare her to face many months of treatment ahead.
In some circles of ELCA clergy, chaplaincy is seen as having "soft" theology or not as good as parish ministry. For me, it is the ultimate expression of missional leadership of Church in the World and a wonderful example of the Ministry of Word and Sacrament. It is proclamation of both the word and the Word, the sacraments are engaged on an even more visceral level than in parish settings, and it requires knowledge of all aspects of ministry, in particular, a highly attuned sense of pastoral care and the ability to educate and equip disciples at a very critical point on their journey. Hospitalizations, whether for serious injury or illness, are a critical turning point for many people of faith. And the intersection of death with life is one place where the promises that we proclaim from the pulpit are moved from an abstraction to a reality.
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