Is The Church Paying Attention?

I want to be very careful with this blog because I don't want to sound negative. Yet to express my thoughts negativity will be evident: so is disappointment. For years the Church (I use this term because it applies to most Evangelical Christian churches) has looked for ways to be salt and light in the world we live in. As many of us complain about Christianity becoming more and more marginalized in North America I wonder if we miss opportunities when they are presented to us.

I was recently approached my an organization that in almost all aspects is a secular group. They have little or no Christian influence in their leadership and membership. Their primary objective is to help police officers who are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). For those not familiar with this issue, let me explain.

PTSD is usually a result of traumatic incidents in the life of a cop or any first responder or soldier. It is not limited to these professions but it is most common among these men and women. The symptoms range from the inability to sleep all the way to suicide. If you follow the news you may have heard of cops committing suicide in bunches over the past year in Southern Ontario alone. This organization has volunteer counsellors in place but is still a work in process. Psychologists, psychiatrists, Equine Therapy, yoga and meditation are all represented and available to cops who need the services of someone that can help them battle through PTSD. In many cases the clients have suicidal thoughts because they feel they can not go on with life. Often medications are used as a tool for coping.

The stigma attached to PTSD is enormous and as a result many cops live with it in silence. Often they fear loss of jobs and even ridicule from fellow cops although this is becoming less of an issue with more education and exposure in the media. In the province of Ontario, legislation is in place to make it easier to receive Workmen's Compensation if someone is suffering from PTSD as a result of their profession. This organization was standing on stage as the announcement was made earlier this year.

That is the background and this is where my disappointment enters in. The organization who approached me after seeing a blog I had written about chaplains working with cops, wants Christian Chaplains/Counsellors to become part of their team. Let me repeat that: a secular organization has asked Christians to help them serve men and women who are desperate. In fact one of the leaders of this organization spent some time describing her journey with PTSD and how faith in God helped her get back on her feet. Pretty exciting...right?!

Not so much based on the response from 3 separate Christian organizations. Two denominations that I am associated with and a Chaplain organization have either said they are not interested or have given me and the above mentioned organization no answer. They are not even returning emails.

What is wrong with this picture? I could be on this team already but the desire of the organization is to have Christian Chaplains/Counsellors in place across Canada and they feel the best way to do that is through a denomination. Makes sense.

In case anyone is already thinking there is a catch, let me assure you there is not. It was clearly stated to me that they don't need psychiatrists or psychologists or yoga instructors: they already have that in place. They want the "faith" element which may be desired by some cops. The idea being that every person is different and they are drawn to what is most comfortable for them. As a Christian I know that the Lord is more than able to help someone who is desperate. God is in the business of helping broken people and He has been doing it for centuries.

So I am putting this blog out there hoping some Christian organization wakes up in time to not miss this opportunity. That may sound a bit harsh but I feel it is an accurate way of portraying the response to date. I keep telling myself it is God's timing and not mine and yet I feel compelled to put this request out there today. I pray that the Holy Spirit would open both eyes and hearts because the need is great and very real. Thank you for listening.

Get Serious!

I am not a police officer. I have never suffered from Post Traumatic Stress (Disorder). I am a chaplain. I was a pastor for 16 years. I was a chaplain for the Toronto Police Service. Over the past year I have been suggesting that First Responders and those responsible for helping them in the area of PTS need to start looking at the spiritual side of the human.

There are organizations, and you know who you are, that have politely acknowledged my emails and then never followed up. There are EFAP's that claim to be doing everything they can. Really?

I am angry because another 2 cops appear to have committed suicide in the Toronto area this week. I believe 4 First Responders in total have taken their own lives in the past week in Southern Ontario. The finger pointing and accusations always follow these events and yet those doing the finger pointing and those who care for our First Responders the most, refuse to look at all options. Maybe a better word would be exhaust all options.

I wrote a blog on this subject in January 2015. My suggestion was and is, that Christian chaplains (I know that is politically incorrect) could be a huge resource in battling the issue of confidentiality and the fear associated with "coming out". Rather than the first contact point for our men and women being the EAP or even a fellow first responder, make it a chaplain that doesn't have to report the name of anyone that comes to them. Let the chaplain use their training to help the individual. Let them be the ones who make the call to get professional help if it is deemed appropriate.

This would mean fully trained chaplains and not just pastors that want to go on the occasional ride-along. Hire chaplains to be out on the roads on a regular basis building relationships with first responders. Chaplains that will go out after work for a coffee or even a beer. Chaplains that will take the time to listen to what is on the hearts of these men and women.

Let me make something perfectly clear: I know most EAP's don't want anything to do with a spiritual solution to any problem, let alone PTS. If you are not a psychologist or a psychiatrist you simply don't have the credentials in their opinion. My question to each of you is this: who says? Who says that someone like me, who has probably dealt with just as many serious situations as many in an EAP have, will not have a better opportunity to bring healing to a broken person? The Christian church is made up of millions upon millions of broken people that today live full and productive lives. Is it possible that some of the solutions that First Responders and their EAP's are looking for are right under their noses?

Someone has said that anecdotes are not scientific proof that the Christian faith works. That is what those who don't understand faith use as their argument. As they do this, they close the door on possible solutions for those suffering from PTS and the reason usually goes no further than their own bias views on matters of faith. The term "holistic" is used when referring to getting every possible form of help for a person but in reality it only refers to the mind and body. This is not the forum to try and convince anyone of the spiritual makeup of people and yet to ignore it is not helpful and betrays their claims of doing "whatever necessary" to assist those suffering.

How many more suicides do we need to see before everyone starts to take this seriously? As I write this, I am totally aware that not every First Responder who is suffering, will accept spiritual counsel. However, isn't it our responsibility to offer as many options as possible? A friend of mine is using yoga for those suffering from PTS. I am not a huge fan of yoga but if it helps even one person, I think it is great. If only those on the front lines of helping PTS suffers can look at the spiritual side of things the same way.

Chaplains in the Workplace: Not what you may think they are

One of the world's largest processors and marketers of chicken, beef and pork is a company called Tyson Foods. They are the second-largest food production company in the Fortune 500 and a member of the S&P 500. They also happen to have 120 chaplains working for them and their roughly 115,000 employees. Hope I got your attention!

Workplace Chaplains play a role that no other department can or even wishes, to tackle. Caring for employees and their families in times of crisis is something most businesses seldom if ever think about. For example, the best most can come up with when a death occurs, is send flowers and a nice card. Nothing wrong with that but...

I was the chaplain for a window manufacturing company for a few years. During that time I had situations arise that Human Resources and the Employee Assistance Program had no answers for. Here are just two small examples of how I was able to help as a chaplain:

A young man woke up one morning and started preparing for work but realized his mother who was usually up before him, was still in her room. He knocked on her door but when she didn't answer he opened it and found her lying in her bed. She was dead at a fairly young age and her son was devastated. As the chaplain I was informed by an employee who had been helping this young man with another issue. He had already been under a lot of stress and this was almost too much for him to bear. It took many weeks of listening and encouragement to help him through those days but as the chaplain, I was paid to do just that.

A second scenario involved an older male employee that I had built a good relationship with. One day he advised me that his 20 year-old son had been murdered during a home invasion 10 years earlier. He had been shot in front of the boy's mother, the wife of this employee. The wife had taken it very hard and started taking drugs to ease the pain and by now was addicted to them. The perpetrator had never been arrested and therefore it had become a cold case with the police. I received permission from the employee to phone my contacts at Toronto Police and as a result, the head of Homicide phoned me. He agreed to phone these parents who had not heard back from the police for several years. The head of Homicide (our present Chief of Police) personally phoned them a few days later. This made a huge difference for the employee's wife. Can you imagine HR or an EAP doing any of this?

Add to these, hospital visits, funerals, weddings, referrals for addiction counselling, listening to and helping resolve employee issues within the workplace and even passing along the mood of employees to management. All these are done confidentially and no employee name is ever divulged unless permission is given by the employee.

Some might look at all this and correctly point out that this is not at all what they thought a chaplain would be involved in. Remember also, that these accounts are involving employees that seldom if ever attend church and they involve employees who are often from faith communities other than Christian. For example, as an airport chaplain, one of my friends that I speak to regularly is a devout Muslim. He knows I prayed for him when EMS took him to the hospital one day after he collapsed at the airport. So much is based on building relationships with employees and with that, trust.

I will continue in this series of blogs in a few weeks. Hopefully I can unpack the essence of Workplace Chaplains to the point where some will at least investigate. Next time I will talk about the ROI for a business that uses chaplains.