Allie Martin OneNewsNow.com
A chaplain recruiter with the Army National Guard says pastors are serving their country and helping many servicemen and servicewomen find Christ. The military, says James Collins, is a huge mission field.
Collins is a chaplain and also a chaplain recruiter with the Army National Guard based in Oklahoma. He recruits chaplains from throughout the southwestern United States. Chaplain Collins says pastors can serve in the Army National Guard and also have an eternal impact on people’s lives.
“I know one chaplain who was in Iraq for about a year — every time the man spoke, someone made a decision for Christ,” Collins says. “And I’m talking about, not just every chapel service he had, but every time he spoke. If he went into the mess hall and had a mass prayer before the meal, people were coming up to him after that and giving their heart and their life to Christ.”
Chaplain Collins says soldiers who are about to be deployed are especially receptive to the gospel.
On the original blog (OnLine News) there was a comment that the purpose of chaplains in the military should not be the conversion of soldiers but the ministry to their own flock. The commentor goes on to say that he doesn’t think there should even be chaplains in the military. What he confuses is the purpose of every Christian (which is to share the Good News of Jesus Christ) with the institutional purpose of the chaplain (which is to serve the spiritual needs of the soldiers). The commentator has the mistaken image of the chaplain as a Conquistador going forth and converting the indians to Catholicism at gun point rather than a spiritual resource to whom the soldiers, who have been severed from most of their emotional/spiritual/psychological anchors, are going to seek comfort, encouragement and a modicum of meaning in their present circumstance. American history demonstrates the importance of our military chaplains in that the Nazis in WWII targeted the chaplains for death because the way to get to the American soldier was to eliminate his spiritual connection. The chaplancy is an incarnational ministry and the incarnation is God’s chosen way of reaching the world in love.