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.
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