My Ministry Career Story Came Alive When I Was Told How To Become A Chaplain

My ministry career story: Greetings, Chaplain Paul Slater here. When a hospital chaplain shared how to become a chaplain, a series of events unfolded, eventually launching this Christian website focusing on pastor appreciation day.

Pastor Appreciation Day? Don't You Mean Pastor Appreciation Month?

The reason for saying pastor appreciation day rather than pastor appreciation month is that people, in their online search strategy, enter keywords searching for pastor appreciation information, most often using the keyword pastor appreciation day.

But I'm getting ahead of myself so back to my ministry career story, the focus of this personal career information page.

My Ministry Career Story: Being Told How To Become A Chaplain Caused Me To Re-think Ministry Career Concepts

Personal career information: Greetings from San Diego! My name is Chaplain Paul L. Slater. I am a healthcare chaplain, endorsed by the Church of the Nazarene, and a Board Certified Chaplain.

While my ministry career is professional chaplain, presently serving as a hospice chaplain, I need to say in my ministry career story that the internet has expanded my ministry far beyond what ever I dreamed possible. How so?

• Personal awareness that 1500 pastors are reportedly leaving ministry each month prompted me to begin an internet based ministry called Change Career With Purpose. This faith-based website is located at www.change-career-with-purpose.com
and uses the keyword careers to focus attention on career change options for pastors experiencing pastor burnout.
• This present pastor appreciation website, also a ministry focused website, began with a desire to encourage pastors as well as a way to fund online ministries. Pastor-appreciation.net home page, based on the pastor appreciation theme, features positive steps a church can take to make Pastor Appreciation Day an every day emphasis.

Discovery Of Ministry Funding Resources To Provide Financial Support for Ministry:

As I share my ministry career story you will see that I believe strongly in fulfilling the Great Commission of Christ through internet evangelism.

You will find that I also see the internet as a tool to encourage the body of Christ. Additionally I discovered that the internet provides ministry funding resources that provide financial support for my internet ministry.

My Ministry Career Story Includes The Challenge Of How To Become A Chaplain

In telling my personal ministry career story I include my experience of pastoral burnout. To me pastor burnout is when a pastor feels stuck in ministry, feeling useless because of a lack of ministry results.

It was when a Nazarene hospital chaplain told me how to become a chaplain that I rediscovered the joy of pastoral ministry through a chaplaincy career.

My career change journey reveals that the best career change for pastors is in exploring ministry career options beyond a local church pastorate.

The result of that challenge to change career focus is described as follows:

• I presently minister in the healthcare field as a Board Certified Chaplain, working as a hospice chaplain in San Diego, CA for LightBridge Hospice, where I am Director of Spiritual Care.
• Before choosing a chaplain career, I served as a parish pastor for 30 years for the Church of the Nazarene.
• My "change career journey" included serving local churches as senior pastor and also as an associate pastor. My chaplain training was in both a hospital setting and in a residential center for abused children, where I completed Clinical Pastoral Education requirements for chaplain certification.
• One of the most fulfilling ministry assignments I had was serving as a Faith Coordinator for the County of San Diego, where I was a liaison between the faith community and government.

In telling this ministry career story and by sharing how to become a chaplain, my goal is to help churches make pastor appreciation day celebrations more than a calendar event.

By sharing pastor appreciation ideas, my desire is to help your church to be a healthy church, one for whom pastor appreciation day is an every day experience.