Introducing Rev. DOCTOR Benjamin Shear LCDR Chaplain Corps, United States Navy!
This is the commencement ceremony. We were thankful we didn't make the trip down for the ceremony after seeing the weather they were sitting through! Live-streaming in our own home was much better!
I hate how youtube makes anything shorter than 30 seconds a short now, but here's our side of the ceremony:
We had a little celebration at home, in between basketball and going to friends' and work (aka life with teens).
I am so proud of Ben. Beyond working on a dissertation in between counseling sessions, he picked a topic that needs to be addressed that few are even aware of. I'm proud of his bravery to go against the grain and stand up for what is right. I'm proud of his diligent work and I have already seen fruit from it and how it's blessed others around him. He also did this all without telling anyone (okay, he told a few people) and with MINIMAL help from his advisor (like, we were legit concerned the guy had died a few times!). That fact makes this all the more amazing: his advisor said that he was more hands off because Ben didn't need his help and his paper was the best he's read in 25 years and it will now be the example shown for future students AND he has encouraged Ben to have a version of it published!
{Here's his abstract for the dissertation}
Pastoral Counseling in Naval Chaplaincy
Answering the Demands of Pragmatism
Chaplains from Reformed and Presbyterian denominations serving in the
United States Navy face the challenge of balancing their call as ordained ministers
with meeting the institution's demands. The Navy is a pluralistic institution that uses
chaplains to provide for the free exercise of religion and increasingly expects
chaplains to care for service members through pastoral counseling as a form of
subclinical mental healthcare to keep them "spiritually fit."
This research delves into a twofold predicament. First, it investigates the
demands and constraints inherent in the ministerial role. Second, it examines the
pressures compelling chaplains to adopt a pragmatic ministry model. This study
offers a critique of pragmatism as it relates to institutional counseling ministry and
provides an analysis of the tension it creates for ministers from the Reformed and
Presbyterian tradition.
To relieve the tension between the duties of a minister and the demands of
pragmatism, three alternate biblical modes of pastoral counseling are examined:
mercy, apologetics, and evangelism. Each of these modes has four accompanying
tasks as an expression of the ministry of the Word: instructing the ignorant,
counseling the doubtful, admonishing the sinner, and comforting the afflicted. The
three modes culminate in the tri-modal pastoral counseling framework, a pastoral
counseling method where a minister meets a non-Christian's spiritual needs as a
private ministry of the Word by manifesting God's kingdom through general and
special revelation. This framework offers an alternative to pragmatism when
counseling non-Christians that is consistent with a Presbyterian and Reformed
theology of ministry and is effective at meeting immanent and transcendent spiritual
needs.
United States Navy face the challenge of balancing their call as ordained ministers
with meeting the institution's demands. The Navy is a pluralistic institution that uses
chaplains to provide for the free exercise of religion and increasingly expects
chaplains to care for service members through pastoral counseling as a form of
subclinical mental healthcare to keep them "spiritually fit."
This research delves into a twofold predicament. First, it investigates the
demands and constraints inherent in the ministerial role. Second, it examines the
pressures compelling chaplains to adopt a pragmatic ministry model. This study
offers a critique of pragmatism as it relates to institutional counseling ministry and
provides an analysis of the tension it creates for ministers from the Reformed and
Presbyterian tradition.
To relieve the tension between the duties of a minister and the demands of
pragmatism, three alternate biblical modes of pastoral counseling are examined:
mercy, apologetics, and evangelism. Each of these modes has four accompanying
tasks as an expression of the ministry of the Word: instructing the ignorant,
counseling the doubtful, admonishing the sinner, and comforting the afflicted. The
three modes culminate in the tri-modal pastoral counseling framework, a pastoral
counseling method where a minister meets a non-Christian's spiritual needs as a
private ministry of the Word by manifesting God's kingdom through general and
special revelation. This framework offers an alternative to pragmatism when
counseling non-Christians that is consistent with a Presbyterian and Reformed
theology of ministry and is effective at meeting immanent and transcendent spiritual
needs.
