Worship Weblog
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Ministering to returning soldiers: an urgent but underappreciated need
At staff meeting last week, we met with Herman Keizer, director of Chaplaincy Ministries for the Christian Reformed Chuch, about how churches can better enfold returning soldiers from overseas duty. Too often, churches fail to minister to returning veterans who may have profound psychological and spiritual needs, including PTSD. Some of the many needs, challenges, and other considerations we discussed:
- the need for churches to understand and minister to the psychological effects of military service
- the need for churches to understand and minister to the abrupt adjustments to civilian and family life that returning from service brings (and the continual abrupt adjustments of multiple tours of service)
- the need for churches to avoid idolatrous nationalism on the one extreme, and silent detachment on the other
- the need to minister to people, regardless of politics
- the need to identify, in prayer, song, and in other ways, with Christian communities in areas of military combat—to see believers of other nations as “us,” not “them”
- the need to lament and pray for the suffering of innocent victims in all areas touched by war and combat
... and many more. We plan to develop resources around this theme; here are some initial links:
-Resources from Chaplaincy Ministries for Soldiers and Families
-National Center for PTSD from Veteran Affairs
-’Beyond the Yellow Ribbon: How Churches Can Help Soldiers and Their Families Readjust After Combat’ from Speaking of Faith
-’Clergy learn together how to help vets’ from the Boston Globe
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