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Healthcare Chaplaincy Cohort

Application Deadline: July 27, 2024

Overview

Chaplaincy Hospital

Description

The church needs chaplains who are equipped to respond to the complex challenges of modern medical culture with gospel centered faithfulness. The urgency of the need coalesces in two main areas. First, the demand for spiritual care is increasing even as religious belief among hospitalized patients is decreasing. Second, carrying out ministry within the culture of modern medicine that often denies the spiritual aspect of patients, requires thoughtful discernment and imagination to engage medical culture for God’s mission. To address these, this cohort presents a new paradigm for hospital ministry moving from a “ministry of presence,” to a biblical mindset that is actively engaged in missional dialogue with the ministry context. Students will be equipped to dynamically engage medical culture for God’s heart for the suffering in the diverse world of hospital ministry. This cohort will equip students to think theologically and act prophetically to transform medical culture to care for the sick congruent with the healing ministry of Jesus.

Schedule

Year One

Theology and History: God's Heart for the Suffering
(16 units)

Fall 2024 Reading/Online Seminar: Sep 23 – Dec 6, 2024, Online (6 units)
Winter 2025 Doctoral Project Research: Jan 6 – Mar 21, 2025, Online (4 units)
Spring 2025 Writing Course: Mar 31 – Jun 12, 2025, Online (6 units)

The first year focuses on the biblical and historical roots of caring for the sick. Students will engage a wide range of biblical texts to develop solid theological underpinning for care for the suffering and how this relates to hospital chaplaincy. Year one will also focus on the rise of modern medicine and the theological implications when care for the sick was reduced to cure over healing.

Year Two

Prophetic Dialogue: Engaging Medical Culture for God's Mission
(16 units)

Fall 2025 Reading/Online Seminar: Sep 29 – Dec 12, 2025, Online (6 units)
Winter 2026 Doctoral Project Course: Jan 5 – Mar 17, 2026, Online (4 units)
Spring 2026 Writing Course: Mar 30 – Jun 12, 2026, Online (6 units)

In year two, students will examine a variety of models of contextual theology to shape a way to faithfully engage medical culture redemptively. Students will identify how the gospel forms their ministry and how it informs their function in a pluralistic setting. Using the exilic literature, students will develop a pastoral model to prophetically engage medical culture within their unique ministry setting. This will include patient care, staff care and organizational care.

Year Three

The Work of the Chaplain: How Theology Informs Function in Community
(16 units)

Fall 2026 Reading/Online Seminar: Sep 28 – Dec 11, 2026, Online (6 units)
Winter 2027 Doctoral Project Writing: Jan 5 – Mar 19, 2027, Online (6 units)
Spring 2027 Doctoral Project Writing: Mar 29 – Jun 11, 2027, Online (4 units)

Year three focuses on deepening pastoral skills to care for the sick and suffering. Students will receive coaching as they continue their practice as professional chaplains. Students will be equipped with a variety of skills to spiritually assess and address common situations chaplains face, such as:

  • End of life, palliative care
  • Interfaith dialogue
  • Trauma/first responders
  • Integrative (holistic) health
  • Self-care
  • Moral Injury

Instructor

Annette Gildemann

Dr. Annette Gildemann is passionate about restoring holistic healing in medical settings that can be dehumanizing. In her course, Innovations in Healthcare Chaplaincy, she invites chaplains to explore how they might promote holistic healing in their ministry context so that patients would be seen, not only as a disease to be cured, but in their human fullness, with the compassionate gaze of God. She currently serves as Director of Spiritual Care of a healthcare system in WA state.

Learn More and Connect with an Admissions Counselor










If you are interested in pursuing this program in Korean, please visit this page to learn more.



Joel Short

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Office Hours

Monday – Friday
8 am – 5 pm (Pacific Time)

To view in-person welcome center hours for Pasadena, Arizona and Houston, click here.