Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal has an interesting article from US Army Chaplain (Capt) Tim Crawley, probably one of the few chaplains to attend and complete a few Special Forces courses:

After my chaplaincy training, I was given the opportunity to attend the Army’s Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS). Upon successfully completing selection, I was invited to attend the Special Forces Qualification Course, the arduous “Q Course,” approximately 18 months of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion.

Chaplain Crawley writes how the education on Unconventional Warfare had an “uncanny application to ministry leadership.”

His 7-phase application is an interesting perspective on spiritual leadership and ministry, including one story about “equipping” a peer who would be able to go places he never could:

The preacher equips the people to do the work of ministry…

A good friend of mine and I were just trying to keep cool and find some shade when he began asking me spiritual questions. Beautiful story cut short, he came to Christ right then and there in the woods. The next few weeks were marked by hour after hour of Q & A’s. He wanted to know everything he could about his new Savior and his Word.

I had connected him with the Right Person, but it was time to begin resourcing and building him up for his own assignment from God. Before long, he would be a team leader serving in hidden places around the globe.

He would soon have the opportunity to change culture where I could not go. My job was to equip him as best I could.

The Special Forces are sometimes attributed with certain reputations. How about this one:

As I write this, I sit in Afghanistan. There are 22 separate Bible studies that are conducted weekly in my small compound. Do you know how many are chaplain led? Zero. Praise God!

Your Christian witness will have an impact on those around you, for better or worse, whether you like it or intend it or not.

How are you influencing those around you for Christ?

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