What Makes a Good Crisis Chaplain

The other day, I was on a particularly gruesome suicide. It was a long call, lasting five hours and ending in the middle of the night. That night, I got four hours of sleep before I had to get up and head into another day. That night, while I was standing in one of the blood-splattered rooms, one of the officers turned to me and said, "I don't understand how you do this. I see these every once in a while, but you chaplains see death calls often."

That was a good question that I've entertained in my mind many times and has resulted in my Ph.D. research. How does anyone deal with scenes like this? As one looks upon the gruesome result of pain and hopelessness, it would be easy to take the worldview Henri Nouwen stated in The Wounded Healer that “for nuclear man, the future has become an option.”(Nouwen 1972, 7). But what makes it different for the chaplain? Why isn’t the future not an option for the chaplain? What gives the chaplain hope for the future?

I would say that five fundamental things set a chaplain (and believers) apart when dealing with these horrible traumas and still addressing them with compassion.

  1. Knows God

  2. Has a good theology of death

    • Has a different outlook on death. An example would be David and the death of this firstborn. (2 Samuel 12:19-23)

    • Death is the result of a sinful world. Nobody escapes. Not the 90 y/o with congestive heart failure. Not the one y/o who died from unknown causes. (Romans 5:12-14; Romans 6:23)

    • For the Christian, death is not the final word. Death has no sting. (1 Corinthians 15:53-57)

    • When I’m on a scene, I hurt when there is no hope. This is probably the hardest thing to see when people experience death as the end. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

  3. Has a good theology of sin.

  4. The chaplain has experienced personal grief & loss and has come out with post-traumatic growth. (Muehlhausen 2021, 368)

    • Most chaplains I know who are worth their salt have their own stories of personal grief and loss. They don’t have to tell everyone.

    • They also have a personal redemption story where God has intervened in their life. This is an example of personal hope. This is the story of God in their life.

  5. Is willing to grow personally. Very introspective.

    • While chaplaincy is a practical ministry, chaplains can only grow in who they are if they take time to step back and reflect on their lives.

    • They reflect on how God continues to work in their lives and those around them.

I wouldn't say I'm not affected by these horrible calls. I am. Usually, I will ruminate on a bad call for a couple of days. As I ask the chaplains who work with me, “Where is God in this?” I’ve learned that I need to ask myself this question. As I have learned, sometimes it takes me a while to slow down and focus on God's perspective to see what God is doing.

The worst time for me is when I go from bad death to bad death without time to spend with God and reflect on His goodness and His worldview. There have been periods of life when I have had no time to pull back before having to engage once again. That is one of the drawbacks of being a public safety chaplain. This is the most vulnerable time for me as a chaplain.

So, what can a chaplain do when overwhelmed with bad calls?

  1. Take that long-delayed vacation or retreat. This may be hard when you don't get a vacation like most of our public safety chaplains. My challenge is asking how long it takes to get into vacation mode. If I spend my whole vacation thinking of my problems at work, have I taken a vacation?

  2. Get a physical. In this last season of stress, I learned that my A1c skyrocketed. This was due directly to the stress of work and a misplaced perspective. There are barometers in our bodies that we need to pay attention to. It’s humbling to note that we run 911 calls on people who always ignore these signs.

  3. Spend more time with God. This one is big and separates us chaplains from others. We can all take that vacation or see a doctor, but only those with a relationship with the living God can spend time with Him. Your relationship with God is the reason you are a chaplain. Go back and refuel at the fountain of your spiritual life.

  4. Spend more time with fellow believers beyond Sunday morning. Find someone with whom you can be accountable. In my research, this was the number one resource public safety chaplains used to deal with stress. There is nothing like a fellow believer praying for and encouraging you.

  5. Learn to ruminate on God’s things. Rumination is one of the biggest problems with PTSD and a lot of mental illnesses. (Eames and O'Connor 2022) When we constantly think of the bad things, we can get stuck in our thoughts and find no solutions. But I have found that when we focus on God, He brings clarity and hope.

In conclusion, it pays to have a different, Godly perspective. One where He sets the standards. One is where He defines what is good and what is bad. And ultimately, one where He shows us the definitions of grace, hope, and love. And when those bad calls come, I pray that you will quickly be able to ask, “Where is God in this?”

Eames, Catrin, and Donna O'Connor. 2022. "The Role of Repetitive Thinking and Spirituality in the Development of Posttraumatic Growth and Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder." PLoS ONE 17, no. 8: 1-18. https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272036.

Muehlhausen, Beth L. 2021. "Spirituality and Vicarious Trauma among Trauma Clinicians: A Qualitative Study." Journal of Trauma Nursing 28, no. 6: 367-377. https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/jtn.0000000000000616.

Nouwen, Henri. 1972. The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society. New York: Image Books Doubleday. Accessed 2/19/2023.