One of the requirements for becoming a chaplain in the military is to have an accredited Master's degree with at least 72 hours. Does anyone know if this includes any accrediting agency recognized by CHEA or does it have to recognized by the ATS?
I think I found my answer.... According to Army Regulation 165-1 (from 2004, I guess it would still be good): 7–4. Educational and ecclesiastical requirements Educational qualifications for appointment as an Army chaplain candidate are a baccalaureate degree of not less than 120 semester hours from a college that is listed in the U.S. Department of Educations, Directory of Postsecondary Institutions, or from a school whose credits are accepted for transfer by a college listed therein, and either: a. Enrollment as a full-time student in theology or related subjects for the next entering class of a graduate school listed as accredited in the U.S. Department of Educations, Directory of Postsecondary Institutions, or of an accredited member school of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada or: b. Graduation from an above accredited school and engaged in fulfilling ecclesiastical experience requirements. c. For either option, ecclesiastical approval from a recognized ecclesiastical endorsing agent is required. I am assuming that regionally/nationally accredited schools would apply. Does anyone know for sure?
I am an Army National Gaurd chaplain. Yes, the seminary needs to have some type of accreditation, but from my experience, it seems to be flexible. The best scenario is to find a seminary that is regionally and ATS accredited. However, some seminaries, like Liberty, are only regionally accredited and not ATS accredited. Several chaplains go through Liberty for their schooling and have had no problem. On the other hand, several smaller denominational seminaries who are in no way accredited have been accepted. For example, Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary is not accredited, but is the officially seminary of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. A friend of mine had to go through a process of having them recognized by the DOD as a seminary of equal status with Reformed Theological Seminary or other accredited seminaries. He did and has had no problem since then. If you can throw out some scenarios of what seminaries you are looking at, I might can provide some more information of what you might need to do. Hope this helps. Pb
First of all, thank you for your service to the men & women in uniform. I actually have a couple of schools in mind. There is a local seminary (BMA Theological Seminary in Jacksonville, Tx) about an hour from me that is regionally accredited and is applying for ATS accreditation. I have taken some classes with them in the evenings after work, but many of the basic courses that I need are only offered during the day when I'm at work. I attend an Assemblies of God church and was looking at Southwestern A/G University in Waxahachie, Tx. They offer an MDIV w/ 72 hours that can be earned in attendance or through distance ed. There's also Global University which is entirely distance ed and is accredited by the DETC and also a candidate for regional accreditation. Would either of those options work? My only hindrance is costs. Global is twice as much as the BMA Seminary and Southwestern is three times the cost or more. If you are commissioned as a chaplain, do you receive assistance such as student loan repayment? Anyway thanks for any advice you could give.
"I actually have a couple of schools in mind. There is a local seminary (BMA Theological Seminary in Jacksonville, Tx) about an hour from me that is regionally accredited and is applying for ATS accreditation. I have taken some classes with them in the evenings after work, but many of the basic courses that I need are only offered during the day when I'm at work. I attend an Assemblies of God church and was looking at Southwestern A/G University in Waxahachie, Tx. They offer an MDIV w/ 72 hours that can be earned in attendance or through distance ed. There's also Global University which is entirely distance ed and is accredited by the DETC and also a candidate for regional accreditation. Would either of those options work? My only hindrance is costs. Global is twice as much as the BMA Seminary and Southwestern is three times the cost or more. If you are commissioned as a chaplain, do you receive assistance such as student loan repayment?" Ewillmon: I believe either Southwestern or Global would work. My first hunch would be that Southwestern is your best option. 72 hours is exactly what you need to be commissioned as a chaplain, so it sounds like they might already have a chaplain program in mind. If you denomination can prove that the degree from whatever seminary is the "standard" degree that a minister in your denomination gets for entering the ministry, then you should not have a problem enrolling. The army does provide for both tuition assistance and loan repayment. Those are special incentives that you can sign up for with your chaplain recruiter. The tuition assistance is something like $4600/year is paid directly to the school. I believe tuition assistance can apply for both distance and residential learning. I believe for this to happen that the school has to be regionally accredited, but double check on that. For the loan repayment program, the army will only repay federal loans and does not apply to private loans. Sometimes seminaries do not accept federal loans, so be careful before you enter that program. I would suggest you call your local chaplain recruiter. You can find their info on the web. You do not want to talk to a regular recruiter...they know NOTHING about chaplain recruiting. So, if you are going active duty, call the active duty recruiter. If you are wanting to serve in the state guard, call the guard state officer and ask to speak to whoever is handling chaplain recruiting. Whatever you do, be sure to: 1) Get all the details of all the different programs you are entering (chaplain candidate program, loan repayment program, etc.) 2) Keep copies of all paperwork! 3) Talk to the right people who have the right answers and keep pushing till you get those answer! The chaplaincy is a great ministry! I would not give it up for the world, even with possible future deployments. God's blessings as you pursue it! Page
Page, Do you know Lt. Col. Thomas Vail, Ph.D.? He was deployed in Kuwait and has done other tours. He is one of the few Ph.D. chaplains in the US Army and also holds a Marriage and Family License. He currently is boss of over 90 chaplaincy personnel at the Army Hospital in San Antonio, TX. He was my main doctoral mentor while I worked on my Ph.D. at Capella.
