THE VISION
We long to see our society, children and young people equipped to follow and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe all Christian Chaplains and teachers play a vital role in disciplining young people, and that God is calling some Christians to the special role of Chaplains is varied contexts. Our vision is to train and deploy Chaplains who will transform the schools they work in, society they live in, the military, the police, the hospital through the power of the gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
VISION FULFILLMENT
The Chaplaincy training in FTC context provides an experiential, immersive interfaith educational curriculum that best prepares students to be holistic spiritual leaders and care providers through a wide range of innovative vocational pathways most often in diverse, multi-cultural community environments––palliative care and hospice, hospitals, prisons, military, business, government, environment, industry, education, and crisis situations––not attached to a specific religious institutional place or congregation.
The realization of this Diploma in Chaplaincy curriculum is a concerted effort of the academic committee in consultation with various stakeholders. So far Friends Theological College has successfully trained and empowered over 80 School Chaplains and it continues to enroll more for training. We look forward to training more chaplains until our schools are well resourced with trained Chaplains. Our doors are wide open to receive more students with every passing year. Following a request from the Churches and schools, the faculty at Friends Theological College has prepared this document, proposing away forward for training chaplains for ministry in high schools, military and hospitals in Kenya. The following points provide an executive summary of the main areas covered in this document:
1. In the strategic plan, the vision is to train existing school and chaplains and teachers, who after training will be commissioned / ordained as chaplains.
2. Selection of candidates for training would take place through existing Church and institutional structures. We suggest that specific age limits might be put in place so that applicants for selection would be under the age of 40 years.
3. Candidates are to be trained with a specific job description for school chaplains in mind, a job description that focuses the role of the chaplain towards discipleship, mentoring, and mission.
4. Training is to take place through a programme of distance learning combined with intensive holiday school teaching. It will take two years for students to complete the course.
5. Training is to focus on three areas: Biblical studies, Mission studies and Pastoral studies.
6. On completion of the course students will enter into chaplaincy ministry. Students will be awarded a Diploma in Chaplaincy.
7. Students are to be responsible for paying their fees, although the sponsor church or school should both be encouraged to make contributions.
