Beyond the Altar

 

Beyond the Altar

 

Professional chaplaincy practice and service delivery has gone beyond the altar, or pastoral care and religious services; it has actually become evidence clinical professional practice and service delivery which has incorporated into the practice the followings:-

 

1.   Psychological care and services.

2.   Mental health care and services.

3.   Spiritual care and services.

4.   Psychosocial care and services.

5.   Psycospiritual care and services.

6.   Nature care and services.

7.   Animal care and services.

8.   Environmental care and services.

 

All these cares are incorporated in chaplaincy practice to ensure that wholistic care is made available for the total person.

 

Professional chaplaincy practice has gone beyond a particular congregation, denomination or any particular religious sect; it has become an interfaith, interreligious and multireligious practice and service delivery in a pularistic setting.

 

Professional chaplaincy practice and service delivery has become what has to be taken to all sectors of the economy and all facets of life to ensure adequate care and services are provided for the public.

 

Chap. Prof. David Mike

Certified Chaplaincy Educator

6^th Oct, AD2020

Lack of Professional Mentality

 

Lack of Professional Mentality

 

1.   Lack of professional mentality has been traced to the state in which chaplaincy find itself in Nigeria and continent of Africa.

2.   Lack of professional chaplaincy training and education has also resulted in the unhealthy development and growth of chaplaincy in Africa.

3.   Lack of professional orientation has helped in stagnating chaplaincy practice in Africa.

 

Beloved chaplains,

 

1.   What is your opinion is professional mentality?

2.   How has it affected the development of chaplains in Nigeria and continent of Africa?

3.   What is the way out?

4.   How best can professional mentality be inculcated into chaplains in this part of the world?

5.   What responsibilities do we owe the generation yet unborn?

 

NB: Any other suggestions or recommendations?

 

What we Stand for

 

We stand for robust professional mentality , robust professional chaplaincy practice, effective service delivery at all times.

 

We stand for chaplaincy scholarship, robust chaplaincy education, evidence based clinical practice and best chaplaincy practices in all situations.

 

We stand for high moral standards, high integrity, sincerity of purpose, honesty in dealing with all humans in the discharge of our professional duties.

 

We stand for high level of competence, highest form of skills and tact on the part of professional chaplains in the discharge of their professional duties.

Chap. Prof. David Mike

Certified Chaplaincy Educator

11^th Oct, AD2020

Professional Mentality

 Professional Mentality

 

What has been missing in chaplaincy profession in Nigeria and continent of Africa by extension is what I called and classify as “professional mentality.”

 

Professional mentality has been conspicuously absent and lacking in chaplaincy trainings and orientations. Chaplains were made to believe for years that this was so because they were designed to offer humanitarian services to the public.

 

This claim is not only false, but also misleading and mischievous as such claims demonstrate the level of ignorance on the part of chaplaincy leadership in the past years.

 

Lack of professional mentality has actually been discovered to be the bane of profitable development of chaplaincy in this part of the world. Of a truth, chaplaincy profession is contended amongst professionals that are classified as service industry professions or help professions such as legal profession, medical profession, radiographic professionals, accountancy profession etc.

 

For example

 

1.   Medical doctors usually refer to radiographic centers or departments for diagnostic examinations which will help confirm the diagnosis made by medical doctors. The radiographic practioners offer their professional services in support of medical professionals’ services. The professional mentality of radiographers makes this assessment possible.

 

2.   Medical doctors also do make referrals to medical science laboratory professionals, patients who require laboratory diagnosis to assist medical practioners in confirming medical diagnosis for treatment and care of their patients.This is also professional mentality because of the mentality inculcated in medical laboratory services.

 

Chaplains must of necessity shun wrong orientations, embrace and develop professional mentality to enable them take their rightful places in the scheme of things. God bless you all!

 

Chap. Prof. David Mike-Jacobs

Certified Chaplaincy Educator

3^rd Oct, AD2020

Baselessness is not a Virtue in Life

 

Baselessness is not a Virtue in Life 

 

Baselessness is not a virtue in life and therefore not desirable. In normal life, people are usually traced to their families and roots. In political circles, people are expected to have home base and politicians are usually traced to their state of origin, local government area, constituency and wards.

 

In other known professions such as law legal, luminaries operate from their professional practice base as they. Professional engineers operate from engineering workshop or offices as their practice base.

 

The accountants are also known to operate from accountancy offices or firms. Teachers are known to always operate from schools, tutorial centers, even when they offer home tutor services.

 

Chaplains are no exemptions, especially practicing professional chaplains, for they are expected to always operate from practice base such as chaplaincy centers, clinics, offices, therapeutic centers or clinic, counseling centers or clinics etc, or institutions they work for as their practice base.

 

Every chaplain should learn to struggle to have a practice base, where he/she can be known by the public to receive services and care.

Chap. Prof. Mike-Jacobs

Certified Chaplaincy Educator

4^th Sept. 2020

Product Development

 

Product Development

 

In any product development assignment, there are a host of things that must be considered which include the followings:-

 

1.   Product design.

2.   What the product or service is out to bless the society with.

3.   Are there other products and competitors in the society?

4.   What marketing or service share is the product and service intended to enjoy?

5.   What marketing strategy or service delivery should be employed?

6.   Intended expectations.

7.   Finally, what assessment and measurement methods should be employed in ensuring the success or failure of such product and service.

With the understanding we have that chaplaincy profession and practice is in the service industry; chaplains must also come to an understanding that the services we are to offer the public and people are the products we have on our professional shoulders to offer the people.

 

The right marketing strategy must be employed to reach out to people and the general public with what services we have to offer as practicing professional chaplains. God bless you all.

Chap. Prof. David Mike

Certified Chaplaincy Educator

4^th Sept. 2020

Corporate Chaplaincy

 

Corporate Chaplaincy

 

Building and growing corporate chaplains, who will take chaplaincy and chaplaincy practice on mission to corporate entities, this is another window of opportunity for chaplains to serve offering chaplaincy services without having to rely on government or asking for government support.

 

In the US alone there are 5,000 corporate chaplains serving or working in corporate entities. We must come to the understanding of the fact that people go to work, not leaving their problems behind at home.

 

Problems such as worries, pressures of life, anxieties, societal demands etc follow people to workplaces, distracting them and their attentions from performing optimally at work.

 

Practicing professional chaplains are therefore needed to help people solve these problems even at workplace so as to allow people perform optimally at work which will automatically lead to improve productivity and better economy.

 

Think of becoming a corporate chaplain today, get training for the needed preparation. God bless you all.  

 

Chap. Prof. David Mike

Certified Chaplaincy Educator

4^th Sept. 2020

APCIN’s Status and Positions

APCIN’s Status and Positions

 

Various contributions of member chaplains any time there is an opportunity to air their views, makes it obligatory for me to want to explain APCIN’s status, position and stand for the benefit of us all.

 

Right from the inception, when APCIN was in the embryo and the drawing board yet unborn; APCIN was designed to be purely a professional chaplaincy association body, bringing together chaplains from various chaplaincy organization and institutions for the purpose of practicing chaplaincy professionally in both public and private domain in Nigeria and by extension to the continent of Africa.

 

As a purely professional body and an association, APCIN is designed to be saddled with certification of member chaplains for professional practice. APCIN is however not designed to be a training body or institution, as there are already numerous chaplaincy organizations training their member chaplains.

 

To forestall unwarranted conflict, APCIN is designed to be like the following professional associations and societies, who recruit members from various universities and schools:-

 

1.    Nigeria Bar Association.

2.    Nigeria Medical and Dental Association.

3.    Nigeria Society of Pharmacists.

4.    Nigeria Society of Engineers.

5.    Nigeria Institute of Surveyors.

6.    Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria.

 

APCIN’s disposition and posture is to give member associate organizations to continue with training and education of chaplains but will be required to register with APCIN for the needed recognition.

 

APCIN is also designed to take responsibility for continue education and training of member chaplains, which is called in contemporary time as continuous professional development, which makes it mandatory for APCIN to organize seminars, symposia and conferences for members and even for non-members from time to time.

 

I hope with this explanation, we will not anyone make APCIN to do what it was not designed to do, so as not to run into trouble or conflict.

 

Chap. Prof. Mike-Jacobs

Certified Chaplaincy Educator

13^th Sept. 2020