I am concerned that there is a ticking clock in our society that is going to affect churches, pastors, and our society. I am concerned that we are going to be receiving back into our society a large number of soldiers that are going to be traumatized to varying degrees by their experience in war and are going to need support. Some of those soldiers will be pastors, and many of them will be congregants or people who wander into the church in search of help. If you were a pastor and suddenly experienced some strange behavior from a soldier recently returned from Iraq or Afghanistan, would you know how to begin to respond? If you were a congregation whose pastor was called up as part of the National Reserves and has now returned to the congregation, would you know how to support him or her? If you were a presbytery or other judicatory where either of these possibilities occurred in churches under your care, would you know where you could direct them for information? How can we prepare for this very real possibility? That is what I want to look at this week.
This doesn’t depend on your particular position on the war. These are children of God who need our ministry. Will our congregations be welcoming congregations where people who are traumatized by this or other situations will know that they can find sanctuary? Will the family of these soldiers know who to turn to if they are having trouble understanding this newly returned and hurting family member?
We will look at this more in the following week, but I would urge you to keep this website handy, www.careforthetroops.org. It is not the only place but it is a good place to begin getting some helpful information. I will draw on them extensively as I share with you on this topic.
