Reading: 7-2 Thoughts to Ponder

In this lecture, I want to discuss some of the general guidelines I have found on different websites provided by fire department chaplains. These are not exhaustive, but only suggest the extent to which chaplains can and should be able to function in the midst of the stressful situation.

The first item to keep in mind is that a chaplain does not interfere with an individual's personal religious leader's work. The chaplain functions alongside, not in place of, the person to whom the firefighter or the victim of a fire would turn in a crisis.

What that means is that the chaplain is serving as an invited guest in the situation. The fire department has done its due diligence and has selected this person to work with them in the role of chaplain. That, however, does not mean that the chaplain then is the pastor of a little flock called the fire department. Rather, the chaplain is an adjunct to the normal functioning of a person's faith life. If the chaplain has done his/her work well, the chaplain will be known by the members of the fire department and by the area clergy. The chaplain is the one who is given a place that is not immediately open to any particular clergy. What I mean by that is, the chaplain is given a place in the midst of the firefighters as they work. A typical clergyman would not be given that access. They, like the general public, need to stay out of harm's way. The chaplain, as a person who has participated with the department in drills and tactical training will know how to stay out of the way of the key people in the work of fighting a fire. This access provides the chaplain with significant opportunity to be present with the fire fighters who are dealing with a very stressful situation. The chaplain, then, can help the commander and others in the chain of command to sense when a fire fighter is being overwhelmed with the responsibilities confronting him or her, can assist in calming the victims, can speak for the fire department to the family whose home is burning, and so on.

The chaplain will also function as the liaison to the clergy person who is the pastor for the victim. The chaplain, whose work is not to be on the fire line, can take a moment to call clergy for the family, to contact other family members, and to provide a way for contact to be made with agencies which provide help to fire victims such as the Red Cross.

One of the biggest challenges for the chaplain is to allow the person with whom the chaplain is interacting to express their own faith. My own personal commitments to my faith can come spilling out when chatting with someone who does not share those same commitments. So as a chaplain, I need to be able to be supportive to people no matter where they are at in their walk with God. The important thing to remember and put into practice is that we are there as Immanuel, God with Us. We are not first of all a particular denomination, nor, perhaps, a particular faith. But we know where we stand and we are willing to allow others to be themselves. We, as chaplains, will answer any and all questions from our point of view, with the proviso that the person with whom we are speaking needs to discuss this with their personal spiritual leader in order to clarify what their faith group teaches on a certain topic.

A second major area of concern, and one which we have not dealt with up to this point, is the issue of confidentiality. The fastest way to destroy one's chaplaincy is to become known as a gossiper of personal information entrusted to the chaplain by someone. Your role as chaplain, just as in many areas of ministry, is built on the assumption of complete trust between two people. The second you demonstrate that this is not your way of handling private information is the moment your chaplaincy becomes hollow. It will have very little of substance left to it.

Confidentiality is paramount in helping a person deal with the trauma of being a firefighter. The firefighter may struggle with the "if only ...” issues that arise when a serious injury or even death happens when that person makes (or even just perceives that he/she has made) a mistake. The chaplain is not to go to others and try to get them to reassure the person that no mistake was made. The communication with the chaplain must always be confidential.  Even when we as chaplains believe that we could do so much for that person if we would just go and speak to the watch commander on their behalf, we will not do so when it involves a breach of confidentiality.

This issue becomes very problematic, however, when the chaplain is faced with a firefighter's confession of something which is against the law. For example, here in the United States a chaplain could get into serious trouble with the authorities for failing to report that a person has confessed to sexually abusing others. A pastor friend of mine just barely escaped prison for failing to report a parishioner who was abusing children after that person had confessed it to the pastor. It is no less challenging for a chaplain. One must become very aware of the laws of one's own land and then carefully consider whether reporting certain activities on the part of the client of the chaplain warrant reporting to those authorities. There are countries where to simply profess Jesus as Savior is tantamount to disobeying the national laws preventing conversions. If the chaplain is supposed to report such a person, or face prison him/herself, the chaplain needs to know the consequences for the chaplain's personal behavior. This calls for wisdom on the part of the chaplain. You do well to find ways to discover the laws and discern what your appropriate actions might be, all the while acknowledging the consequences for your actions.

While one might presume that much of the work of the chaplain at a fire department would be among the public whose property has been burned, it might be surprising that a significant amount of the work of the chaplain will take place within the bounds of the fire department's own personnel. The men and women who make up the fire department will, from time to time, call on the chaplain to officiate a wedding or a funeral. They will invite them to a celebration taking place in their families.  And so forth. The importance of these opportunities cannot be overstated. These are the places where the trustworthiness and the sense of the presence of the sacred (as seen in the very person of the chaplain) come to bear in unique ways.

An important consideration in the life of the chaplain is determining what constitutes a model of Christian ethical and moral behavior. In my experience, there has often been an association of the consumption of alcoholic beverages by members of the fire department when they are enjoying some time off from the stress of their work. At times it has been perceived that the members of the fire department were as much drinking buddies as anything else. How does the chaplain fit in with these behaviors? And do so without intimating that "I am certainly holier than you guys!” It is a tenuous position and it has caused a good many interested people from becoming chaplains. These people simply could not find themselves in a bar, drinking the evening away with the guys from the department.

There are those who have navigated these waters with a significant commitment to a model of behavior and ethics which furthered their cause rather than hindering it. The position taken by these models of behavior was that of the recovering alcoholic. They would be present, but would not be consuming the alcohol. Or it was that of a drinker committed to no more than one drink in an evening. The goal is not to be an obvious wet blanket on the outing, but rather to again, present in oneself, the sense of the sacred to those around them. The model you choose must fit in with who you are as a follower of Jesus, while remembering that you are there, not simply as a person, but as a chaplain.