During my (almost) three years as the Minister to Military Families here at FBC Belton, I have had many people ask me for advice on starting a Military Ministry. For me, it was a long process of searching for other churches to use as a model and a lot of trial and error. Hopefully, this post will help you bypass that frustration and save you a lot of time. By no means is our way the only way, but at least I can share with you some of the things we have tried and found to be successful, and share our approach to ministering to military families. Like any ministry, your church’s military ministry needs to identify the unique needs or your specific military community. For a summary of FBCB Military Ministry, please click here.

For those churches who have no military ministry in place, but are interested in starting one up, I suggest you approach it two different ways. First, look at this ministry as a ministry. I know thats not the earth shattering advice your looking for, but I think it is important to not overlook the basics. What I am trying to say is that you will need to start off by narrowing your focus. Military ministry includes a very broad spectrum of focus areas from deployment support to PTSD recovery, spouse support groups to adopt-a-unit partnerships, and even chaplain relations to military bible studies. Starting out, I would suggest wrapping your arms around a specific aspect of military ministry and developing that specific ministry before branching out to other areas. The second approach to military ministry is to look at it as a mission field. Think about it. If you have ever lived in a military community, you know that it is a sub-culture within the surrounding “normal” culture. You can even look at our military as a specific “people group” to use a missionary term. They have their own land, their own language (usually based on acronyms), their own code of conduct and way of doing things, and even their own “tribal dress.” Once people start to look at our military as a people group, it will become obvious that they need missionaries from the local church to strategically reach out to them….just as we would for an unreached population in Brazil.

Another suggestion that I believe is a necessity for anyone beginning a military ministry, is to link up with an organization called Military Missions Network. I was fortunate enough to link up with Gary Sanders, the founder and president of this vital organization, through a divine appointment shortly after I started working on the FBCB Military Ministry. Gary has been a mentor to me as I have wrestled with what a military ministry is supposed to look like. The idea of Military Missions Network is to link up like minded churches, both military friendly and military focused, to help each other with ideas, feedback, and partnership. The network also strives to connect local churches, para-church organizations, and chaplains together to become more effective and efficient in ministering to our military communities.

Again, this is not the be all/end all of military ministry. Many will have to do their own trial and error to see what works for them. However, I do hope my experience at FBCB can be a useful tool and resource as more and more churches see God moving throughout our military and want to get in on what He is doing. Blessings as you start out on this wonderful journey as your minister to some of the most amazing people our country has to offer.