Are you ready to look beyond the traditional role of a clergyperson? Are you willing to journey with people right where they are and demonstrate by word and deed the love of God? If so, consider being a part of the GMBSC Chaplain Ministry.

Mission:

The General Missionary Baptist State Convention of Mississippi seeks to enlist, equip, and emplace volunteer and vocational lay persons and clergy interested in advancing the Kingdom of God through service as professional chaplains.

Definition:

Chaplains are ordained/endorsed clergy and lay members called to minister in prisons, hospitals, and schools, alongside law enforcement personnel, and during national and local emergencies. The duties of professional chaplains include providing religious services, spiritual guidance, and counseling those they serve.

Why a GMBSC Chaplaincy:

• Offers opportunities for the convention to touch communities across the state

• Offers a bridge onto the NBCUSA Inc, disaster/humanitarian relief programs

• Professionalizes pulpits across the state

• Prepares members for careers in chaplaincy

• Offers opportunities for shared resources across the convention

Chaplains Needed:

• Healthcare Chaplains - Who better to reach the hopeless, hurting, and dying of society than caring well-trained chaplains? To be a healthcare chaplain generally requires a Bachelor's degree, a Master of Divinity degree or equivalent, and one year of clinical pastoral training in a healthcare context.

• Prison Chaplains - Who better to reach out to the lost, hopeless, desperate, and forgotten of society with a message of deliverance, and hope than a dedicated chaplain? There are professional and volunteer opportunities in our nation's Federal, state, and local facilities. Requirements for chaplains vary according to the correctional facility but most require at least a Bachelor's degree. Volunteer positions are plentiful and do not require degrees.

• Workplace Chaplains - Business and industrial chaplaincy is a new and growing field. Employees not distracted by marriage and family crises, alcohol, drugs, and other addictions, as well as a myriad of personal and spiritual problems are safer, more productive employees. Studies indicate that for every dollar spent on workplace chaplaincy results in a $4 to $7 saving for business due to absenteeism, accidents, medical and counseling intervention and treatment, etc. Specializations in the field of workplace chaplaincy include union, truck stop, airport, seaport, fire department, police department, race track, and college chaplaincies. Requirements for these chaplaincies vary considerably.

• School Chaplains - A quick glance of the top tragedies of the last several years makes the mandate for this new genre of pastoral care painfully clear!  Public School Chaplaincy for America™ is the only organization that equips chaplains for ministry to students, faculty, and administrators in public schools in the US. Requirements are appropriate specialized training, criminal background check, and ecclesiastical endorsement.

• Professional Counselors - While professional pastoral counseling is not chaplaincy, it is an endorsable ministry that desperately needs Spirit-filled representation. Professional counselors hold state licensure(s) and/or secular certification(s) as marriage and family therapists, alcohol and drug rehabilitation counselors, psychologists, etc. Requirements for professional counselors are generally a Bachelor's degree, a graduate degree in psychology or counseling, and a number of hours in a supervised counseling practicum. While these requisites may seem "stiff," think of the impact that pastoral counselors would have on the lives of those who has lost their way, as well as the people of faith who may need a little extra help in life!