CHAPLAIN DEFENSE

The Navy chaplaincy exists to permit Navy and Marine Corps personnel to exercise their religion under all situations. As a tool of national strategy, Navy and Marine Corps personnel engage in military business, including combat and war. Ministry to Navy and Marine Corps personnel in wartime tests the nature of religious professionals to the utmost. The ministry of Navy chaplains that takes place with such regularity in peacetime takes on added meaning and severity during combat and in wartime.

An important element in the RP rating criteria includes the reality that you are a combat-ready assigned enlisted person and that you have committed yourself to support and defend Navy chaplains.

SUMMARY

RPs and Navy chaplains are the center of every CRP. Together with other chapel staff and volunteers, RPs and chaplains can cause the ideal ministry to happen, whether it is a ministry of worship, pastoral care and counseling, fellowship, outreach, special events and programs, or simply general support. It is by working together with a shared team spirit, along with a clear and complete disclosure, that RPs and chaplains can influence the command, serve Navy and Marine Corps personnel and their dependents, and touch lives.

For religious program support functions to be truly practical and purposeful, you must keep in mind that they do not merely happen. Useful ministry results when RPs produce programs that are researched, analyzed, diagramed, planned, evaluated, and well-defined. You must view religious program support in terms of managerial concepts. This means you must weigh each area separately; establish policy; deal with research and development; and deal with the management of materials, marketing, finances, and human resources. You must also bring together religious program support and management information systems concepts to make programs more cost-efficient, less time-consuming and, therefore, less problematic. The information provided in this chapter should help you to become aware of and attain these goals.