The life of a military serviceman or woman is a transient one — with many assignments lasting only six months while others could be up to three years. But moving around a lot is only one aspect of what makes military communities different from most others. For instance, military language is its own dialect of sorts, which can often sound foreign to civilians who don’t understand the acronyms and terminology. And many servicemen and women are impacted by the aftereffects of combat, with some personnel struggling with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression.
With about 1 million active duty personnel (4 million people including their families) and about 23 million people including the veteran population, the military community is a subculture that needs ministering to, said Endel Lee, North American Mission Board (NAMB) national catalyst for church planting in military communities.
A recent NAMB initiative is focused on planting churches near each of the 275 military installations in the United States.
Military subculture
A church plant of this kind has a “different kind of DNA and will focus on the specific needs of military personnel,” said Lee, a Navy Reserve chaplain who has seen 33 years of military service.
The goal of this type of church plant is to “come alongside and connect with the chaplains and local leadership and … find a way to help serve that chaplain and to partner with them to help meet the spiritual needs of that particular population,” he said.
That could mean providing a church that meets near the base for believers, helping the chaplain’s office share the gospel or helping disciple new believers, among other things.
Relevant Church, Mobile, launched about a year ago and meets five miles from the U.S. Coast Guard Aviation Training Center, which has about 550 servicemen. It focuses on serving men and women in the military and Pastor Torrey Garrison has started the process of becoming a NAMB church planter to the military community.
Garrison works with Lee, who in his role as catalyst helps “connect the dots.”
Lee said, “I reach out to folks who express an interest … and help connect them to military communities … making sure they are trained and have an understanding of what it takes to plant a church in that environment,” Lee said. “I also look for churches or pastors who would like to be a supporting or sending church.”
Watch-care program
Garrison will go through an assessment process with NAMB, which will work with the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions to officially make Relevant Church a church plant for the military community in Mobile. Relevant Church also applied March 25 to be a part of Mobile Baptist Association’s watch-care program.
Garrison, who served in the Coast Guard for five years and is now an Air Force reserve chaplain, also leads a Bible study on base while working closesly with the chaplain’s office.
For others interested in planting a church in a military community, Lee said one of the obstacles is a “perception that (the servicemen and women) have everything they need (on base).” But 70 to 75 percent of personnel live off base, Lee said.
Another obstacle in reaching the military community is how often men and women are transferred to a different location.
“Because of the transiency of military personnel, it is challenging for them to find community and get plugged in quickly, to build trust and familiarity. A church plant to a military community would seek to provide continuity for them and provide a setting where it is more conducive for them to settle in quickly,” Lee said.
Garrison agreed and said Relevant Church wants to be a church that is “secure and solid” where military personnel can feel comfortable. He even focuses his sermons on military stories and uses military lingo.
And, he said, Relevant Church will continue to try to “strengthen our relationship between the base and our church and … forge a friendship between each other to help them out and reach the military personnel and their families for Christ.”
For more information about church planting in military communities, visit www.namb.net/military-church-planting/.
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