Military chaplains fight the good fight
11/4/2009
Serving both God and country, military chaplains are on the front lines of the lives of our soldiers, marines, airmen and sailors.
With a mission to care for the nation’s warriors wherever they are, military chaplains serve everywhere – from Fort Benning to Korea to the mountains of Afghanistan.
The South Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church has appointed six chaplains into service across the country, to protect our nation and provide spiritual and moral guidance to the military.
Army Chaplain (Lieutenant Colonel) Matt Woodbery, whose home church is Cochran First United Methodist in the Americus District, serves as Deputy Joint Chief Chaplain at the Pentagon. As an agent of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chaplain Woodbery works with the Army Chief of Chaplains, the Navy Chief of Chaplains and the Air Force Chief of Chaplains, as well as the Combat and Command Chaplains, including the Chaplains of Central Command.
Serving as an active-duty chaplain for 22 years, Chaplain Woodbery combines his two callings into one role.
“Not only am I called to serve God as a response to the love of Christ in my life and the need to serve others, I also have a call to serve my country,” he said. “Being a chaplain is a perfect combination of these two things, because I get to work with these incredible young men and women who have heard the call to serve their country and their fellow citizens, but I get to serve them from a clergy and pastoral standpoint.”
Chaplain Woodbery grew up in a military family – his father, Jerry Woodbery, served as an Army chaplain for 23 years – and said he initially resisted the Army chaplaincy “tooth and nail” until his middle year in seminary. It was then that he realized that God had a claim on his life and was calling him into a unique and special ministry.
Chaplain Woodbery grew up in a military family – his father, Jerry Woodbery, served as an Army chaplain for 23 years – and said he initially resisted the Army chaplaincy “tooth and nail” until his middle year in seminary. It was then that he realized that God had a claim on his life and was calling him into a unique and special ministry.
The events of September 11, 2001 changed Army Chaplain (Captain) Wyne Hutchings’ perspective on life and ministry. Serving as a local United Methodist Church pastor in South Georgia, Chaplain Hutchings covertly spoke with Chaplain Woodbery about the possibility of serving God by serving soldiers. After a brief discussion over lunch in Macon, Chaplain Hutchings decided that Army ministry was too difficult, and that he must have heard God wrong. God was not finished with him yet, however.
A couple of years later, Chaplain Hutchings attended a small-group meeting of potential church planters. Feeling restless in his ministry, he felt certain that God was leading him in that direction. As he watched several other pastors in the group receive confirmation of church plants or church revitalization, Chaplain Hutchings heard nothing. One afternoon, however, while returning from a hospital visit in Macon, he heard a radio commentator read a story about an Army chaplain who had ministered to soldiers just after a homicide bomber had attacked a dining facility on a base in Mosul, Iraq.
“It was wrenching to hear the story of ministry in such horrific circumstances,” Chaplain Hutchings said, “but at the same time, I had an overwhelming sense that God was calling me to Army ministry. I again argued in my spirit, but could not deny the clarity of the message. My restlessness was not about a need to plant churches, but it was about another change for which God was preparing me – entering Army chaplaincy.”
Currently serving the 309th Military Intelligence Battalion at Fort Huachuca in southeastern Arizona, the husband and father of two spends the majority of his time counseling young soldiers, many who are between 18 and 23 years old and dealing with the usual stresses of maturing in the unusual circumstance of preparing to go to war.
Part of his overarching goal as a chaplain is to bring God to soldiers and soldiers to God, says Chaplain Hutchings, who helps lead an evening contemporary worship service on the base. Interestingly, that service, called ChapelNext, is the Army equivalent of a church plant, reaching out to seekers in the Army community.
Growing up a self-professed “military brat,” Army Chaplain (Colonel) Robert Thomas Davies, III had an understanding of military life prior to receiving his calling. The son of a Marine and a former Navy nurse, Chaplain Davies received his call to the ministry as he was graduating high school and heading to college. After graduating with a degree in secondary education/mathematics and science, he attended seminary at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta.
After serving in the mission fields in Kentucky with the Methodist Mountain Missions and within the bounds of the Red Bird Missionary Conference, Chaplain Davies was endorsed for the chaplaincy and left Kentucky for Fort Gordon in Augusta.
A part of the South Georgia Annual Conference since 1993, he serves the Headquarters Installation Management Command at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas through the Ellaville/Corinth Charge Conference. Chaplain Davies has responsibility for all the Reserve and National Guard chaplains and assistants serving in the Western and Northeastern United States supporting deployed units.
Air Force Chaplain (Captain) Kevin Hudson served as minister of evangelism at St. Luke United Methodist Church in Columbus before responding to his country’s call. Torn between the ministry that he loved at St. Luke and his interest in joining the military after the terrorist attacks on September 11, Chaplain Hudson entered the Air Force Reserves in January 2004.
The more he served his duty days in the Reserves, the more he felt called toward the chaplaincy, he said. In June 2005, after about a year-and-a-half of Reserve duty, Chaplain Hudson became a full-time, active-duty chaplain in the Air Force.
“I absolutely love it,” he said. “It’s an awesome job; I get paid to hang out with airmen and influence them every day.”
Stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Chaplain Hudson ministers to 18-24 year-old airmen who are fresh out of basic training and going through technical school. As director of the on-base recreation and ministry center, he helps provide a wholesome atmosphere where airmen can relax and spend time with each other.
Mid-week Bible studies are available to the airmen, as are more than 40 worship services and Christian education opportunities each Sunday. Chaplain Hudson can be found preaching at their 9 a.m. contemporary worship service on Sunday mornings.
One of the main jobs of any chaplain, he said, is to guarantee that service members have their first amendment rights upheld, and are able to worship as they see fit, which is particularly important when in a deployed situation and in foreign countries.
Counseling is also a major part in every chaplain’s day-to-day work. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, military chaplains are the only people that a military member can come to and have absolute confidentiality. No matter what a service member says, chaplains have an obligation to keep what they say strictly confidential.
An encouraging mentor and a great experience in the Air Force Reserves led Chaplain (Captain) Tommy Fussell to enter into full-time, active-duty chaplaincy with the Air Force.
“I really enjoyed being a part of the Air Force Reserves,” he said. “I felt like a missionary going into a place where a lot of people needed to know the Lord, and thought that I should do this full-time.”
A native of Richmond Hill and a graduate of Armstrong Atlantic in Savannah and Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky., Chaplain Fussell served on the Mt. Moriah/Keysville Charge and at Bainbridge First United Methodist Church before becoming a full-time chaplain in 2007.
Currently stationed at Scott Air Force base in Illinois, Chaplain Fussell spends a lot of time counseling military personnel and is responsible for the singles ministry in the dorms on base and the mission support group, which includes Scott AFB police officers, the fire department, civil engineers, and some administrative roles.
Whether leading Bible studies and worship services, counseling couples or ministering to those on the front lines, chaplains offer emotional support, moral leadership and spiritual guidance. On the battlefield and off, the chaplains of the armed forces are a crucial backbone and support to the men and women of the United States military.
--By Kara Witherow, South Georgia Advocate editor
To subscribe to the South Georgia Advocate, the official newspaper of the South Georgia Conference, mail your check, payable to "South Georgia Advocate," P.O. Box 660275 / Dallas, TX 75266-0275. Pay by credit card by calling 1.877.465.1685 or online. A one year subscription is $25 (or $23 for subscribers 65 and older). Keep up with the news of the South Georgia Conference.
--By Kara Witherow, South Georgia Advocate editor
To subscribe to the South Georgia Advocate, the official newspaper of the South Georgia Conference, mail your check, payable to "South Georgia Advocate," P.O. Box 660275 / Dallas, TX 75266-0275. Pay by credit card by calling 1.877.465.1685 or online. A one year subscription is $25 (or $23 for subscribers 65 and older). Keep up with the news of the South Georgia Conference.