Church of God Chaplain Reaches Out to Military Youth Culture
By Chaplain (Capt) Thomas R. Baize, USAF
Sheppard AFB, TX –Seven years ago God placed me in initial entry training for the United States Army. My goal of being a chaplain was complete. Little did I know that I would work in the richest harvest fields in the military; first for the Army and now for the Air Force. I came to active duty in August 2002 and was assigned as a basic training chaplain. I quickly learned that Drill Sergeants and live ammo radically increased a young man’s willingness to pray! My Battalion had been without a chaplain and the chapel service was running only about 30. With a regularly assigned chaplain presence in the barracks the chapel service quickly grew to a capacity of 270 people in attendance. Many people saw Sunday morning chapel as the only weekly escape from the Drill Sergeants, so the majority of the people in my service were not individuals that attended church on a regular basis. I correctly joked that the most common “religious preference” in my service was “backslidden”.
I was free to preach the gospel in my chapel service and altar calls became a regular part of the service. About every 2-3 weeks we would get new trainees. This always resulted in our largest crowds. They were scared, tired and ready to listen. Many understood the faith and reached back to childhood and made things right with God. Many came to the Lord for the first time and had no understanding of who Jesus Christ was. I remember two people in particular that were hearing the Gospel for the first time. They came to the altar for salvation 3 weeks in a row and were looking forward to next week! I finished the year with about 300 saved and lead about 1500 to the Lord in my three year assignment.
I transferred from the Army to the Air Force in 2005 and was again assigned to minister to young men and women just beginning military service. They had completed basic training and were not as anxious or scared as when they first entered the military. The chapel services did not have the captive audience I enjoyed in the past and getting people to church was a challenge. I was given a Saturday afternoon service because my Command believed the troops needed something to do on the weekends. I remember starting a service with only one person in attendance. We finished the service with a total of 10 congregates. Our ministry chapel team started a coffee house style ministry. We built our attendance by providing internet access, gaming, movies and sports. We grew quickly from about 4000 visits per month (all voluntary) to over 20,000. It is a “values-based entertainment” facility and uniquely integrates fun and frequent interaction with chaplains. Our Saturday worship service could not compete with this new ministry, so we moved it to Sunday evening. We now have approximately 100 attendees in our X-Treme Chapel Service and most have already made a profession of faith. My primary ministry approach has shifted from evangelism to discipleship. We combine a loud live band with lots of video, comedy and a hard hitting message. We deal head on with today’s cultural issues. It is not an enclosed sanctuary, so many people watch and participate from the surrounding area of the building while they are surfing the internet, playing games or just sitting with friends. I know for sure they were participants when they requested that the offering plate also be passed in the café’ seating area, which is not even part of the main worship seating area!
God has continued to open doors of ministry. He has challenged me to the X-Treme in my understanding of this youth culture and to go into the world with the Gospel in ways I would not have done in the past. I have had to learn this young generation’s culture and try, through God’s help, to make my message of the Christ relevant to each of them. I have also learned that waiting for them to come to my culture was simply not going to work. Reaching young people today means adhering to the words of Paul, carefully and aggressively, when he said “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” (1 Cor 9:22)
To learn more about the Church of God Chaplains Commission chaplaincy programs, visit the Chaplains Commission website at: www.cogchaplains.com.
