The phone call came in the middle of dinner (as they often seem to do). It was from the emergency room. “A terrible accident . . . heavy truck . . . severe injuries . . . ambulance is inbound . . . family is on the way . . . it doesn’t look good . . . We need a chaplain immediately . . .” Adventist chaplains are prepared to “be there immediately” because emergencies don’t keep schedules; they rearrange them. Chaplaincy is all about responding to people in need in settings where other clergy may not be able or willing to go.

Chaplains of the Seventh-day Adventist Church serve people where they are, in whatever situation they may be. That means congregations in the middle of a remote military training exercise or actual combat, in a prison deathrow, on a public campus, or in an emergency room. In fact, there are nearly 750 Seventh-day Adventist full-time clergy who are professional chaplains around the world.

The term chaplain comes to us from a fourth-century story of Martin of Tours. Martin was a military man who encountered a shivering naked beggar along the roadway. The man came to Martin asking for help after several others had ridden by on their horses, ignoring the man’s desperation. Martin had little himself, but after seeing and hearing the pleas of the beggar, Martin took the one valuable possession he owned—his cape—and cut it in half. He kept half as his own shelter from the cold and gave the other to the beggar. That night, as the story goes, Martin had a vision in which he came to understand that the beggar was none other than Christ Himself! When he related the story to others, the remaining half of the cape became an object of value as a reminder of the event. Later, when Martin had become a Christian himself, the cape (Latin cappa) was kept in a special container made for it. The container was called the cappella. Thus we get the term chapel—that place where the robe of Christ gets shared, not stored. The keeper of the cape was known as the cappellanus. You guessed it, “the keeper of the cape,” the cappellanus, is where we get the word chaplain, for chaplains are the ones who share the comfort of Christ with those in need wherever people are. Adventist chaplains make the story an everyday reality.

Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries is the department of the church that manages and helps develop professional chaplains throughout the denomination and beyond, into the secular settings in which chaplains are part of the institutions in which they minister. ACM became a fully recognized department at the General Conference session in 1995 after being voted as a service in 1985. The impact of the 1995 action mandated that all divisions of the church have an ACM department or contact person to help develop and manage chaplaincy in their respective divisions. Now, five years later, each division has its own ACM functions, thus developing a wider and stronger network for chaplains and chaplaincy ministry globally.

As a result of the 1995 decision to form an active department, the Adventist Church’s first-ever Global Chaplaincy Advisory was held in 1997 with representatives from eight divisions. Since then chaplains Richard Stenbakken and Martin Feldbush have visited 35 countries to assist divisions with the development of professional chaplaincies and policies for chaplaincy ministries.

Notable happenings in chaplaincy during the past quinquennium include an event organized in India by the ACM director and African students attending colleges and universities in India. The group held evangelistic meetings in remote areas among people who had not yet been reached by the Adventist Church. The results? Many baptisms and a new congregation. And that experience is being repeated in other places. Students working with chaplain coordinators are making a difference now.

All across Africa where Adventist students are enrolled on secular campuses there are organized Adventist student groups that meet regularly for fellowship and outreach. Their annual meetings can draw as many as 2,000 attendees.

Prison may be an unexpected place to find Adventist clergy, yet we have them there as well. One of our prison chaplains ministers to inmates on death row. His is the chance literally to be the last human voice someone will hear, the last opportunity to respond to the gospel before eternity grasps life from the condemned, and to hear it from a Seventh-day Adventist chaplain. A regular pastor cannot go there, but the chaplain walks down that corridor with the condemned to the appointed place of death. Chaplains are there with the robe of Christ to bring comfort.

During a battle a group of soldiers had surrounded the enemy soldiers and was about to rain down death on them. An Adventist military chaplain interceded with the commander to ask the enemy to surrender and live rather than face certain destruction. The chaplain reminded the commander of the ethical conduct of war. The commander listened to the chaplain, had a message broadcast over the battlefield, and was shocked to see a stream of enemy soldiers surrender. Lives were saved because of an Adventist chaplain. Less dramatic but just as important are the opportunities to minister to people experiencing grief and loss, at the bedside of a loved one who has just died, or with a grieving family witnessing a burial at sea.

In many cases Adventist chaplains are paid out of funds other than tithe. Many health-care chaplains are paid out of the hospital operating funds. Military chaplains are paid by the government, and correctional chaplains are paid out of state, local, or federal funds. Professional recognition of Seventh-day Adventist chaplains, for which the church has labored much, allows this funding to take place. If the church were required to fund all our chaplains from tithe, it would cost us in excess of US$20 million per year.

Like Martin of Tours, Seventh-day Adventist chaplains are there, wherever “there” is, bringing comfort, care, and ministry to those in need. ACM is privileged to be a catalyst for that ministry and to serve as a mentoring agency to chaplains and chaplain administrators around the world.

If you want more information about Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries, you may contact the department via its Web site at www.adventistchaplains.org, or phone 301-680-6780.