{"id":12332,"date":"2022-10-01T11:34:14","date_gmt":"2022-10-01T01:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/?p=12332"},"modified":"2022-10-01T12:09:07","modified_gmt":"2022-10-01T02:09:07","slug":"school-chaplains-and-the-strategy-of-saving-souls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/01\/school-chaplains-and-the-strategy-of-saving-souls\/","title":{"rendered":"School chaplains and the strategy of \u2018saving souls\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many parents at public schools will have little clue that their kids are being targeted as \u201csouls to be saved\u201d by churches and missionaries privileged enough to have access to our schools on the taxpayer\u2019s dime.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Evidence is mounting that chaplains employed by religious labour-hire firms and appointed to schools under the National School Chaplaincy Program have an agenda of connecting children to out-of-school church activities. This is despite the Project Agreement between the federal government and states\/territories <\/span>expressly stating that chaplains must not proselytise.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

When former chaplain Caragh Larsen attended a meeting of chaplains at Schools Ministry Group (SMG) \u2013 South Australia\u2019s largest provider of chaplains under the National School Chaplaincy Program \u2013 she was shocked when her colleagues <\/span>\u201cpraised and congratulated\u201d<\/span><\/a> a male colleague for having taken children from his school to a youth group where he was youth pastor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey were so excited \u2026 the reaction was just excitement and they were so happy for him to have done that,\u201d she told <\/span>The Secular Agenda<\/span><\/i><\/a> podcast, published by the Rationalist Society of Australia (publisher of <\/span>Rationale<\/span><\/i>).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt really floored me because, as far as I was concerned, that was just an absolute no-no. Actually, it did feel like they had an agenda.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This case of a chaplain connecting school children to out-of-school activities appears to be far from an isolated one.<\/span><\/p>\n

One former employee who worked in the evangelical and Pentecostal church networks has informed <\/span>Rationale<\/span><\/i> that chaplaincy providers deliberately target schools to grow local youth ministries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The informant worked for a youth ministries organisation which was \u201ccontrolled by Hillsong\u201d and closely followed Hillsong\u2019s methods and agenda. The organisation, the informant claimed, was aligned closely with Your Dream, a school outreach program that was transformed to focus on providing chaplains for public schools under the National School Chaplaincy Program. <\/span>On its website<\/span><\/a>, Your Dream says its school chaplaincy program has grown from \u201chumble beginnings\u201d of four schools in country New South Wales to now operate in more than 200 schools in five states.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can say from my experience that some smaller churches with less resources might co-employ someone as both a youth pastor at a church and also as a school chaplain, meaning they are accessing government funding, sometimes co-partnering with other local churches to employ this person alongside one or two days employed at a church,\u201d the informant said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe model replicates in a smaller way, albeit the principles and most methods are the same (as the Hillsong model): get kids to a Friday night service where they make a \u2018decision\u2019, call them days later and make sure they join a small group, then the church.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Over a coffee catch-up recently, the informant outlined for this author the strategy adopted by churches like Hillsong and the Australian Christian Churches network in targeting schools to grow their youth ministries. The usage of marketing concepts such as ‘segmenting’, ‘achieving scale’, ‘customer funnel’ and ‘metrics’ left little doubt about the slickness of the operation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The usage of marketing concepts such as ‘segmenting’, ‘achieving scale’, ‘customer funnel’ and ‘metrics’ left little doubt about the slickness of the operation.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Youth pastors employed by churches lead a team of volunteers in conducting outreach activities \u2013 not just chaplaincy \u2013 in \u201cgeo-targeted\u201d schools, with the aim of funneling children into out-of-school church activities and converting them to Christianity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is highly organised, mission-led and meticulously reported back in terms of metrics. The key metric is \u2018decisions\u2019 \u2013 or \u2018souls saved\u2019. That means that a student makes a conscious decision to become a Christian,\u201d the informant said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis mostly happens at a youth ministry service, such as a Friday night youth gathering held at church, where the music, atmosphere, lighting and impassioned preaching sets an optimal scene.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Children who make \u2018decisions\u2019 are asked to complete a form in which they provide their phone number and other personal details. The form is then handed to an assigned group leader \u2013 again, geographically organised \u2013 for follow-up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe young person is called over and over to be invited back to gatherings and events. Over time, the young person obviously becomes part of the church community and contributes by leading their own small group.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The informant said that parents were neither consulted nor asked for permission to have children attend such out-of-school activities, but acknowledged that the practice may have changed in recent years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

More evidence has surfaced online as to the clear missionary agenda of some school chaplaincy providers. In Queensland, chaplains are a conduit for recruiting children to participate in Scripture Union camps. Promotional material posted to the Facebook page of Coorparoo Secondary College on 26 August 2021 promised children \u201cthe time of your life\u201d at a spring camp and urged them to contact the chaplain for more information.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This author has viewed promotional material from Kedron State High School in which the chaplain was the contact point for a 2015 Scripture Union camp aimed at years 10-12 students with the theme of \u2018Metamorphis\u2019. In small font at the bottom of a list of exciting activities, the tagline said: \u201cMetamorphis is all about CHANGE. Let GOD change your LIFE from the inside out.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Facebook on 19 May this year, the Ripley Valley State Secondary College, in Queensland\u2019s south-east, promoted a Youth Alive event at a local church. The post read: \u201cToday the Youth Alive team visited RVSSC to engage with the students over some games and pancakes. Youth Alive have an alcohol and drug free event happening tomorrow night at Cityhope Church. If you want more information about this please contact our school chaplain \u2026 \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In New South Wales, <\/span>a manager from Generate Ministries<\/span><\/a> last year spoke about the important role of a new regional manager in “looking after and supporting Christian school workers\u201d \u2013 chaplains and scripture teachers \u2013 at public schools across the state. These workers, he said, were \u201cengaging with whole school communities and seeking to connect them to local church and to ministry opportunities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the director of <\/span>Youth Alive in Victoria boasted<\/span><\/a> that about a thousand teens had given \u201ctheir life to Christ\u201d at an annual rally that immediately followed a week in which 42 Youth Alive teams visited high schools for lunchtime performances and motivational workshops. Although, the role of chaplains is not clear in this case.<\/span><\/p>\n

Christian labour-hire firms may not talk about the missionary opportunity so openly these days, but they were not so shy in the early years of the school chaplaincy program. In 2007, Tim Mander, chief executive of Scripture Union in Queensland (and now state Liberal-National MP), wrote in the foreword of <\/span>The Chaplaincy Phenomena<\/span><\/i>, a book by Joelle Kabamba, that the school chaplaincy program was \u201cthe church\u2019s opportunity to make a connection with the one place through which every young person must pass \u2013 our schools\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Duncan Brown, also a former CEO from Scripture Union, wrote on the back cover of the same book that the program was a \u201cfeeder ministry\u201d, targeting \u201cpotential Christians and bringing them to God and into the church environment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So if taxpayer-funded chaplaincy providers have an active agenda of connecting children to church groups, why are Australia\u2019s education ministers letting this blatant missionary work take place in our public schools?<\/span><\/p>\n

There is currently a window of opportunity to change the school chaplaincy program. The federal Department of Education is completing a review of the program, ahead of an expected new Project Agreement between the federal government and the states\/territories in regard to funding.<\/span><\/p>\n

While federal education minister Jason Clare has pledged that a new-look school chaplaincy program would allow schools the option of a non-religious chaplaincy provider, schools would likely have little choice given the dominance of religious \u2013 overwhelmingly Christian \u2013 labour-hire firms in the marketplace.<\/span><\/p>\n

If millions of taxpayer dollars continue to flow to third-party labour-hire firms that appoint only Christians to these chaplaincy roles, then our public schools will remain well and truly in the sights of missionaries. And then the answer to my question will, sadly, be clear: Australian governments continue to put the wellbeing of Christian missionaries ahead of the wellbeing of children in public schools.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you wish to republish this original article, please attribute to\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Rationale<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0Click here<\/a>\u00a0to find out more about republishing under Creative Commons.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Photo by <\/i><\/b>Hannah Busing<\/i><\/b><\/a> on Unsplash.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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