The Institutional Chaplaincy

The Need

According to the Bureau of Prisons, there are 94 Federal Prisons in the USA with an inmate population of 132,538. This figure does not include statistics from state prisons. This population within itself represents a tremendous harvest field. But when you consider the related family/friends network, this area of ministry becomes much too large to be ignored.

The health care industry of this nation represents another fertile territory for the ministry of institutional chaplains. There are 6,295 hospitals, 17,208 nursing homes, 3,100 hospices networks and a large number of extended care/assisted facilities across America.

A completely new opportunity has presented itself in the past ten years. Corporate industries of every description have begun to endorse the need of a guide/counselor on the management teams to address the spiritual needs of their employees. With the deterioration of Christian values in the general population, employers are attempting to provide remedial training in the basics of orderly relational conduct, i.e. truthfulness, honesty, cooperation, etc. The IPHC must prepare men and women to enter into this new door of opportunity.

These men and women and their families/friends are in the midst of desperate crises whether in prisons, hospitals or on the job. For many of them the prospect of attending church is impossible or at least improbable. It is into this vacuum that our institutional chaplains must rush to provide spiritual guidance in finding Christ, living for Him and growing in spiritual maturity under adverse circumstances.