Why is this organization needed? Too many institutions work in their own ‘stovepipes’ with limited resources and insufficient capacity to meet the growing demand for highly skilled chaplains. They keep reinventing the same wheel and fail to learn from one another. Military, health care, and prison chaplaincies have professional agencies that set standards and monitor career development. However, these systems do not dialog with each other. Denominational endorsing agents give similar supervision and provide opportunities for chaplains from different agencies to dialog with each other. But, these forums are informal, occasional, and usually confined to single faith groups. Few of these professional or denominational agencies are directly linked to the academic institutions responsible for the initial academic training of ministers preparing for chaplaincy. This leads to a dichotomy between academics and praxis. Seminaries get insufficient feedback from the field to update classes and ensure they are practically relevant; field agencies employing chaplains become more pragmatic but less scholarly.

Additionally, anecdotal evidence indicates a growing demand for more competent, better-trained chaplains. This demand is substantial enough that more seminaries are responding. However, most lack the breadth and depth of resources to do more than offer an introductory course. Furthermore, chaplains in many countries outside the U.S. and the United Kingdom have limited access to adequate resources. While organizations work independently to meet this need, few collaborative efforts across denominational or organizational lines meet this need synergistically.

We can do more by working together than apart.