My Philosophy of Ministry

By Amy Blevins

My vision of ministry as a woman starts first and foremost at my home and with my family. I am a mother to three children: my oldest is Elijah, which will be 13 this year. My other son JJ is 10 years old, and has ADD; and my youngest child, Jordan is 7 years old. Taking care of three kids is a task in and of itself,  and teaching them to be responsible and leading them to be men and women of good character takes daily effort and selflessness that few people possess. After caring for my own family and doing well there, then I can stretch my influence to the people that I work with, my friends, and my clients and students that I teach, evaluate or have group with, and then I can extend my influence even further by having meaningful intentional conversations and making connections with everyone that I have the opportunity to meet and the people that God brings into my life.  

       My experiences in doing chaplaincy work comes from my field of work and my education, and from my experiences as a believer and my family history. I am a Certified Addictions Counselor, both on the state and national level, and I got my degree in Psychology primarily because I wanted to help people. My work as a counselor includes teaching students about the effects of alcohol and drugs, helping them to identify their own addiction(s), and helping them find coping skills and grow relationships to begin and maintain their recovery. In the past, I have also worked in other areas such as in corrections, but I was not ready for the spiritual warfare that came with that needed ministry at that time in my life.

       My experiences as a Christian have also qualified me to give comfort to others. I was saved in 2002 and baptized a year later, and then I had Hydogkin’s Lymphoma in 2005. I underwent chemotherapy that year and lost large chunks of my hair, but the comfort of God was with me,  and death was never so real as it was at that moment, but God’s peace was with me and for me during that time like never before in my life. In 2009, I went through a nasty divorce, I was rejected, abused mentally and physically by my husband while being pregnant with my child, JJ. And God was there for me as well.  Even now, as my life is continuing to unfold,  God has taken every bad thing that ever happened to me, every pain that I ever experienced, and He made it into something good. He is daily making me stronger, wiser, more compassionate and more filled with His love and wisdom.

       My family history has also helped pave the way for ministry. My grandmother, my dad’s mother, which we all called “Nanny” was a major influence and role model on my life as a believer, and as a Christian.  My Nanny regularly reading her Bible, she took me to church often and picked me up from school. And her prayers I know helped her children and her grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren. Every Timothy has a Lois and perhaps a Eunice behind the scenes, praying and working for their families’ good and this is why prayer and modeling for our families are so important. It is why God stressed that the Children of Israel teach their children carefully and have festivals, and ceremonies and monuments to serve as teaching tools for the future generations so that they would not forget God’s blessings upon them.

       What I learned from the chaplaincy book is primarily this concept of presence. In an age where we are connected so much through social media, through text, through email, through phone calls; but none of these include a physical presence. As Christmas rolled around this concept of Presence didn’t escape my mind. I often thought about how we needed His “presence” and not just “presents.” This concept was not lost on me as I came to the conclusion even in my work field that we needed more “presence” not just anything the world wanted us to fill ourselves with: Not alcohol, nor drugs, nor money, or power, or fame, or popularity, or a person, or a thing, or anything that has ever been created will ever fill that God-shaped hole that was designed for “His Presence” and our connection with Him.

     One of the concepts that I heard from videos online was that as a chaplain, we are a “bridge to the church.” I actually disagree with this statement. You see, the church is not a building. We are the church as believers, and meeting places in the New Testament were originally in someone’s home. So we as believers in many denominations have strayed from the original design that was put into place. Worship is daily, not weekly, and the church is wherever we meet together in groups, not just a specific place.  I am not knocking having a church building, or a Children Ministry building or even a gym and there’s nothing wrong with any of that. But I am saying that our expectations to get “people to come to church” should be radically different, because church can be anywhere, our home, a shopping mall, a baseball field, on the side of the road, in a hospital, wherever believers gather, that’s where church is.   

     So what’s the biblical basis for chaplaincy? This is an often asked question since there is no official title of chaplain in the bible. There are plenty of other titles: apostles, prophets, missionaries, pastors, teachers and deacons, but  no “chaplain.” If we look at one of Jesus’ parables of the seed we see that we have three basic categories of Biblical work: planting, watering, and reaping. First Corinthians 3:6-9 basically states that it doesn’t matter the title or even the person who did the work but God “that giveth the increase…and we are laborers together with God.” We could look at the story of the Samaritan, for what did he do but love the Jewish man he met who was beaten and bruised. The Samaritan provided practical needs for man he met, shelter, food and a safe place to stay while other Jews passed him by. But he had no title, he was just a Samaritan, an outcast, a foreigner; but he did what was right to love his neighbor.

     Maybe we should just look at the first great example: Jesus. What did he do to save people? He walked with them, ate with tax collectors and sinners, he fished with them, he walked among them doing his teaching and ministry. Did He teach in the synagogue? Yes; but he also taught, and spoke and healed everywhere he went. He spoke with a Samaritan woman, he touched lepers, he healed the sick and blind, all of the dregs of so-called society he hung out with. And why? Mark 2:17 “They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

     The last examples I want to delve into is to mention that not only do men have a call to ministry, but women specifically as well. In fact, women were a very important part of Jesus’ ministry. Who did Jesus appear to first? Mary Magdalene is first to see the Risen Savior in the garden in John 20. Women were seen as inferior in Jewish culture, but women helped to provide practical needs of the discipleship group: cooking, financial, teaching and recruiting and evangelism (is this not but a basic description of a chaplain?).  Dorcas also known as Tabitha is also a mentioned disciple that was “full of good works and almsdeeds”, and Phoebe is mentioned as a “deaconess” in Romans 16:1.  

     In summary, our ministry should first be to our own homes, our own families and then our influence can extend outward from that. We start with our Jerusalem, then our Samaria and then, ultimately to the ends of the earth.  Prayer and specifically asking for discernment can help us also see our own unique opportunities that each of us has on a day to day basis. It all boils down to the one thing: Love one God and love your neighbor as your self.