My Philosophy of Ministry

This is my learning from the philosophy of ministry from my own experience. 

I learned that Jesus seems to be defining Spiritual care in Matt 25. He commands and gives us a mandate in practical terms by doing Ministry in Action by feeding the hungry and giving water and clothing to the needy. This is commanded by our Lord and, we as chaplains, are to do this every day. I have done this as a missionary in street work many times. 

The Lord Jesus used me to bring the Him Glory that He deserves. It’s very important to recognize when the Lord will use us to do His Work when He wants it done, and we are to do it. The Lord used me in R.A. camp HE SENT me to R.A. camp in 2002. The enemy tried to stop me from going. I got violently ill because he knew God was going to use me and God did use me.

A  young camper gave me a prayer request sheet written in Crayon that said,  “Please Pray for my Daddy so that He don’t hit me anymore”. When i read that I began to weep as the Lord gave me compassion for this young lad.  Tears flowed down my cheeks as i prayed for him on that sultry summer afternoon.

Jesus used me in His own way to minister to people’s feet by giving them free shoe and boot shines on a mission endeavor. I also sat and listened to their stories, learning from each as each individual there had a story.

I have also served as a missionary to Mexico. My primary duties were giving food, blankets, and water as God so led.  I know from experience that In order to minister to people we must have compassion in the work God has called each of us to do. 

When you have compassion it can’t be fake or syrupy sweet, it has to be real because our life is sometimes the only Bible people will see or read. So our compassion has to be led by Christ.

 A good way to show compassion is to be just there, sometimes not even speaking, but just keeping watch.  St. Martin of Tours, a compassionate fourth-century soldier, shared his cloak with a beggar and when he died the cloak was enshrined and the term was called Cappella, meaning keeper of the cloak, or cappellanus.  The term chaplain comes from the word chapel, which comes from the shepherd. The chaplain is a Guardian of the Sheep, for a chaplain is often a shepherd.