first responder chaplains

In rural towns through the world, volunteer fire and disaster first responders provide an essential service to their community.  Christians leaders can also provide a necessary service as first responder chaplains for their community.

First Responder Chaplains can fill the following roles:

• Counsel law enforcement officers, emergency medical and firefighter personnel

• Visit the sick or injured

• Give death notifications

• Teach personnel in the area of stress management

• Perform funerals, memorials, and weddings

• Answer spiritual questions

• Provide assistance to victims and their families in communities to deal with emergencies.  Such as fire, suicide, auto or plane accident, earthquake, or times of illness, injury, death or significant trauma.

• Ministers to the imprisoned

Click here to find out more.

First Responder Chaplains

Christan Leaders Institute (CLI) is training first responder chaplains like Rich Kauffman from the United States. CLI offers a broad range of advanced classes for people training to be First Responder Chaplains.

Kauffman lives in the US with his wife and three daughters. Kauffman had experiences in his life that led him to want to be part of the first responder chaplains’ team. “After moving to a new town, I was busy with a new job. My wife was fighting a battle that kept her in and out of the hospital for over four years. I did lose touch with my local church. But my family and I stayed in our faith in our home by celebrating the Lord’s life and talking about his teachings. I have been in public safety since high school and have seen many things throughout my career. These led to a lot of trials in my life. A lot of struggling with how much bad can happen to us all and why it is happening. I fought to understand and cope with these issues.”

Kauffman shared his dependence on God.  “I started volunteering with a disaster services group and underwent a lot of training with critical incident stress. Through this, I realized that so many people wanted to use their faith as part of the coping mechanisms they have.” Kauffman sees that people going through tough situation need First Responder Chaplains to encourage them to lean on God in hard times.

Kauffman believes volunteer First Responder Chaplains are necessary especially in rural areas. “Living now in a rural, small town USA, I am looking to become ordained to be available to assist our first responders and the people we help in their times of needs. I hope to help lower the amount of stress induced problems that are way too common in our field.” Kauffman sees CLI as a way to become more qualified to assist on the First Responders Chaplains team. “I am looking to further my training through CLI as a means to offer support to those in my community.”

CLI makes First Responder Chaplains training available free of charge. Click Here to find out more details on how you can become ordained locally.

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