Specialized Spiritual Care offers visitation course

(LCMS/Erik M. Lunsford)

Applications are now being accepted for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) Specialized Spiritual Care Ministry’s first-ever cohort of Lutheran Visitation Education. The course, which will be offered completely online, runs from Jan. 6, 2025, through June 23, 2025.

Lutheran Visitation Education will be taught by LCMS chaplains who are board-certified through the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC). The course has been recognized by the APC as a Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE)-equivalent course. It is open to all rostered LCMS church workers as well as students in the Master of Divinity or Deaconess programs at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, or Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne.

Students who complete the course will gain:

400 total hours of education and practical ministry, including 100 hours (about 4–5 hours per week) of instruction and 300 hours (about 12 hours per week) of practical experience in your current vocational setting.

Integrated learning that pairs Lutheran theology and spiritual care with hands-on experience and the opportunity for reflection and practical application.

Tuition for the course is $500.

The Rev. Dr. Brian Heller, manager of Specialized Spiritual Care Ministry, said, “Lutheran Visitation Education offers a unique opportunity to learn and grow in your current ministry context. We’re taking those great concepts that you learn from CPE and integrating them with Lutheran theology.”

Heller added, “Students who complete the course will earn one of four CPE units required for APC board certification and will be eligible for ecclesiastical endorsement by LCMS Spiritual Care Ministry.”

In September, Specialized Spiritual Care hosted a training session for Lutheran Visitation Education educators at the LCMS International Center in St. Louis. The purpose of the training was to equip educators to administer modules of Lutheran Visitation Education.

One of those who completed the training was the Rev. Chaplain (Col.) Robert Carter Jr. (Ret.). Carter is a combat veteran who currently serves as a Lutheran chaplain at West Point Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., and as director of pastoral care at Montefiore Nyack Hospital in Nyack, N.Y.

Carter said there is a great need for CPE training from a Lutheran perspective. Some CPE instructors won’t take Lutherans because of their world view. There is also great benefit to students being able to discuss the challenges of chaplaincy work in a way that keeps Christ at the center.

Both Carter and Heller add that the course is not only of value for those seeking CPE credit, or who want to become board-certified chaplains, but also for LCMS church workers who want to become better equipped to offer spiritual care in their local context.

“They might never work in an institutional setting,” Carter said, “but if they are involved in spiritual care, this is an incredible learning opportunity.” He said that the training offered in the course not only makes the student a better chaplain or church worker, but “a better pastor, mother, father, son, daughter — whatever your vocation is.”

For more information about Lutheran Visitation Education, or to register, visit thelc.ms/lutheran-visitation.

For questions, send an email to specializedcare@lcms.org.

Posted Dec. 9, 2024