Continuity of Spiritual Care: Military Chapels "Many Parts, Many Hats"
CONTINUITY OF SPIRITUAL CARE: MILITARY CHAPELS
The Six Part Series
Part 5: Many Parts, Many Hats
Part 6: Bid Farewell, Not Goodbye
CONCLUSION: Don’t Let the Sun Set
A message for widespread awareness of service member and military family needs from Military Chapels called:
“Continuity of Spiritual Care”
Welcome back my friends! If you missed any part of this series so far or want to re-read for fun click on the titles above and check em on out :) Peace be with you!
Many Parts, Many Hats
If you are reading this, chances are your Chapel environment has its fair share of messiness. I believe the answer to this is to organize our mess J Scripture says that we are “One body with many parts”.
When I was a newbie MilSPO (military spouse) I had one of the BEST mentors EVER. She explained that volunteering, working, being a spouse, a mom, a friend and doing so all in this awesome military life meant I would need to go to art/fashion school.
The art of hat wearing, to be exact. It takes time, I would not always get a good grade and rarely would I ever be teacher’s pet (unless in this analogy God is the teacher). This art would require me to use whatever medium (resources) available to me, know where to acquire them, if they were not provided (as would most often be the case) I would need to be able to fashion them like MacGyver from rubber bands, bubble gum, and changing endless ARs. (Army Regulations).
I would need to be able to wear my Spouse hat first, but that one would be most effective if I made sure to wear it at home and take the others off, when I am needed to listen and support my Soldier. Most of the time though it would likely be worn under all the other hats…because it is never to be taken off…(this makes sense because this is my first vocation, therefore God said this is special and important and HE is the one that adorned my head with this precious hat). Then, whenever in public it would be the MilSPO, Volunteer hat…I must be on my best behavior leading, authentic but aware, I would have a friend hat but that hat would require special accessories depending on how I knew that person…I would have to learn to trust but also recognize that some friends were for seasons, some for reasons, and some for lifetime. Only time would tell. Some “friends” would use me for what they perceived to be some kind of gain. Some people would refuse to be my friend because of some perceived inequality or judgement based on one of the other hats.
The best part about my hats is that what makes me, ME is all over my hats…Bedazzled with coolness that only I bring to the table. God is the one who placed the sparkles (my unique talents) and I can shine them or cover them if I choose. My suggestion...shine those bad boys.
The reason I share this is because we must bring different energy to different things sometimes and let us acknowledge that most of us are wearing a LOT of hats.
We tend to see the person that is walking in with a bazillion hats and see how pretty they are and how nice it would be to have that person rocking all that hataliciousness in our Chapel ministries, and we fail to see that those hats are seriously causing some strain on the wearer’s neck…they need a chiropractor stat! Not another invitation to sign up and help in your ‘desperate need for Chapel volunteers’. Hats are cool, wearing them is required. St. Paul says that wearing said hats is pretty awesome. He talked about becoming like a Jew with the Jews and Gentile with the Gentiles.. (1 Cor 9:20) Okay so he wasn’t talking about literal hats but he was talking about having a place, a sense of belonging and making others know and feel that belonging. To bring the good news to all people.
The first two words that come to mind are diversity and authenticity. God is so cool to have created us. I mean, the fact that we all are so different, no one else in the world has my finger prints, the hairs on my head (and the hues they are becoming every year) have been counted and purposefully placed by a God that wanted me, for no other reason than to love. I am a big fan of the song on the radio right now by Tenth Avenue North, “God you don’t need me, but somehow you want me.”
I am a MESS, and if you are reading this you might feel like you are too. Indeed, we are in good company. It is as true, we are designed, and loved by the same creator. You may think that is a little woo woo and mushy but my friend, that doesn’t make it any less true. Okay, so God made us each as individual as individual can be…what does that have to do with Continuity of Spiritual Care?
God asks us to use the unique gifts and talents and treasure (hats) He has seen fit to bestow on us for Him. That is the ultimate mission. I am Cass but not just because He wanted me to look at myself and be like, Yassss Rock it! I am Cass because He wanted to say YAASSSS, look at how my daughter loves! See how she does this? Look at her grow! See this talent? She gets that from me J See this! That’s from her mom’s side (Mary) God wants me and you to come at this Chapel thing, military or not, with a love for Him. It isn’t and shouldn’t ever be about a program but a person.
The Hats we wear should be appreciated and only burdensome to the point that we are drawn back to the cross. We should never allow the weight of these hats to crush us or others.
So in simple terms, I urge Chapel leadership to invest in training. Ministry leaders must learn to see the need in their congregants and fellow volunteers and learn to respond.
Chapel leadership must invest in the kind of training that helps people to identify their Charisms and apply them (also known as talent management) and professional development of those skills. Leaders must know how best to use their authority, to lead from places of confidence and abundance and not from fear. (Fear of disappointing others or hurt feelings, fear of lack, fear of not knowing the regs…ahem….there are always people there to help us understand the regs…use them)
Work from the abundance of prayer, discernment and willingness to act from those prompts. NEVER compromising integrity, NEVER accepting mediocrity, NEVER assuming….(you know what they say about assuming). I understand that there is a distinct line between a green/blue/gray/white suiter requirements and that of a parish community but that can NOT be an excuse to ignore the needs of the people in that community. We must leverage our HUMAN RESOURCES to ensure the kind of experience we need in our Chapel Community. The Necessary parts of a healthy and functional Chapel Community are vast as we have covered in parts 1-4 and this one.
All while many are wearing beautifully adorned hats full of vibrancy, talent, and treasure but we are overlooking them because we haven’t take the time to notice them or hold the mirror up to them so they can see how beautiful their hat and bedazzle (role and talent/skill) is. People will gladly put on a hat they love to wear, especially if it fits. They will strut their stuff and give thanks to the God who is the best hat maker of all and no one will be left trying to see around the heavy hats and instead delight in the beauty around them. If all this metaphor is confusing, let me clear it up.
Chapel Leadership, you MUST recognize these things:
Your community is made up of Service Members, Spouses, Singles, Teens, Children and Retirees. We need training in leadership, discernment, problem solving, chapel regulations and how to’s instead of sorry no’s or that’s how we have always done it.
We need to be welcomed with a smile. The first conversation with someone new to the community should always be “How can I serve you?” NOT “GREAT! I need you to….” Chapel staff need to know what programs are available to all the hat wearers above AND who the point of contact is.
Leaders, it is your responsibility to make sure that there IS a program available to all the hat wearers above but you are not expected to be the end all be all for said program. You ARE expected to help source those programs (talent management, training, delegation) with some wicked talent that are assuredly present in the pews & support those who bravely agree to support you and fellow hat wearers in that way.
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| Image from https://www.tte.coach/en/blog/i-can-do-that-too-why-staff-delegation-is-important/ |
Here is where authenticity comes in….we ALL must recognize we are not the ultimate expert. We may have experience, but the Creator is creating…and every bit of who we are is a work in progress.
I, for example, am so much better being the mouth. I love praying out loud, I love giving (hopefully) inspiring presentations. I do NOT like to organize, deal with drama (other than the stage, obvi.) or trigonometry… Sometimes God calls me to these things anyway…I am humble enough to say I am not great at this, but I am happy to learn.
Those who are responsible for the overall health of programs would do well to hear me and meet me half way. If we haven’t found the sweat equity in a person that can bring those espoused virtues to the table…yet…then offer training, do whatever it takes for that poor hat wearer to at least learn how to tighten the little chin-strap-whats-it so they can hold it on until someone who has been window shopping for just that hat can don it.
It is important to note that there are people who genuinely don't know what their strengths are so we need to be able to help them identify their strengths and properly utilize them without assuming that because someone is "good or not good" at something that they won't need training.
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| photo from gettyimages.com |
We are in this thing together. I've got my cool hats, You have yours…let’s all thank the hat maker with our smiles, our service, and our prayer. Doing these things effectively will obviously lead to Continuity of Spiritual Care but it will also lead to empowerment of Ministers and lay people in the Chapel Setting, which in turn frees our overworked priests to focus on primary objectives and necessary care.
So seriously, let’s get to work…lots to be done to co-create this Continuity of Spiritual Care for hat wearers everywhere.
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