Getting started as a Chaplain
How might I support people on their discipleship journey? Do I? Should I?
These are questions many chaplains ask as they navigate the parameters of their role.
“Just a great day today to notice God at work in my community. I met a group that live out our values of openness, serving others and seeking flourishing in creation in a completely different, secular context. It could be a really interesting partnership to encourage.”
A Methodist Way of Life can help you journey alongside people – be a ‘travelling companion’ – as they think about their worldview and how they commit to living a good life. The practices (or ‘stations’) provide a platform for people to share and explore what they and others believe and can be approached in whatever ways they like.
For example, exploring what it means to challenge injustice might open conversations about people’s own life journeys and how that influences their views about life, God, faith and each other.
Ideas to try
Every context and church community is different. The most appropriate ideas will be the ones that are authentic for the people and place you’re in. Here are a few ideas to consider – more can be found on the pages for each commitment, and on the MWOL resources page (including a series of service outlines).
- Identify your home stations: Ask people to choose which commitments they find attractive and talk about why. Are there some they find uncomfortable? How do these correlate with their worldview, faith or beliefs?
- Reflect on the journey: In chaplaincy spaces where people are more transient, ask people to reflect on where they are in that moment. Use the floor mat to help them visualise their journeys. Could they take time to reflect both backwards and forwards before taking one commitment forward on their journey?
- Practice together: Where can people with different outlooks journey together in these practices? Try giving people a blank train map and asking them what stations/practices they would put on their journey. Are there any you can do (and reflect on) together, even if you have different spiritual perspectives?
- Celebrate examples: Explore which commitments are lived out well within the community and which might be shaped Promote examples of where people are practising the commitments while living in and for community.
- Examine your plans: Based upon how people respond to the commitments, explore whether there are some that might become central to your chaplaincy or chaplaincy work. And as appropriate in your context, explore how the practices relate to belief and, in a broader sense, what an invitation to explore discipleship might look like.
The Evangelism and Growth team of the Methodist Church run events and webinars throughout the year for individuals and church leaders to explore what A Methodist Way of Life means for your community, including ‘Rural and Rooted’, a series for rural churches.