Subscribe to CRN blog updates
Choose the audiences you want to hear from. Select All for every audience, or select one or more individual audiences.
(c) 2026 Marsh Institute for Chaplains. Chaplain Resource Network is an initiative of the Marsh Institute for Chaplains. All rights reserved.
Learning to sit in silence is one of the hardest disciplines a new chaplain faces. The urge to fill a quiet room with words is strong, and it usually serves the chaplain's discomfort, not the person's need. Presence, not speech, carries most of the work.
Silence feels like doing nothing. In chaplai...
Chaplain crisis response begins before you say a word. When you arrive at a scene, the people there read your body, your pace, and your face for one signal: is this person safe to be near. Your first job is to become that steady presence.
A calm chaplain lowers the temperature of a room. An anxious...
Healthcare chaplain rounds begin before the first question. The doorway, the room, the pace of the staff, and the person's attention all offer information. A chaplain who notices first can enter with less disruption and more respect.
This is not silent diagnosis. The chaplain does not decide what a p...
Credibility in corrections chaplaincy rarely arrives through a single impressive conversation. It develops when people learn what your presence means. Arrive when you said you would. Respect the setting. Listen without prying. Keep the boundaries you explain. Follow through on the commitments you ca...
Good chaplain supervision does not begin with an answer. It begins with attention. A caregiver brings a visit, a hesitation, a moment of connection, or a question that still feels unfinished. The supervisor receives that account without rushing to interpret it. Together, they slow the experience dow...
A chaplain can enter a room with sound training, good intentions, and a full list of helpful resources, yet still miss the person in front of them. The problem is rarely a lack of words. More often, the chaplain has not become quiet enough to receive what the person is actually saying.
Sacred liste...
A practical field guide for chaplains who want to hear the person before trying to help.
A hospital room can tempt a chaplain to move too quickly. The monitor sounds. A family member watches the door. A nurse has only a moment to explain why spiritual care was requested. The chaplain enters carryin...
The call you will remember is not the one you were called for. It is the shift you spent riding along when nothing happened. Public safety chaplaincy is built in those ordinary hours, long before the radio goes quiet and every head turns to you. Trust is not issued with a badge or a chaplain's colla...
Formation for the chaplain's own inner life. Part of our Ministry of Presence series.
The hardest calls are the ones you cannot solve. A parent sits in a hospital hallway after the worst news of their life. A firefighter stares at the floor after a call that went wrong. A neighbor loses the person ...
A chaplain rarely carries tools. You walk into a hospital room, a squad bay, or a shelter with almost nothing but your attention and your words. That can feel thin next to a clinician's protocols. The research says otherwise. The chaplain's instrument is listening, and listening is trainable. Studie...
Community chaplains work in the ordinary places where people already live: neighborhood centers, shelters, food banks, disaster sites, small businesses, and civic gatherings. They do not wait for people to walk into a hospital or a station house. They go to the corner where life happens and stay lon...
Military chaplaincy does not happen in a single moment. It runs on a cycle. Long before the plane leaves and long after it returns, service members and their families move through a predictable arc: the buildup before deployment, the separation, the reunion, and the slow work of reintegration. A cha...
