Lesson 1

I'm Don Kinnier.
Currently I serve as the chaplain for a funeral home in South Central Pennsylvania and on the music and worship staff
of a United Methodist Church, in the same area.
I have worked at the funeral home as both organist and a general assistant for about ten years.
Several years ago the funeral directors were finding it difficult to locate ministers to work with families who had no church affiliations.
(There was a tendency of a number of ministers to proselytize rather than eulogize and it left the mourners shaking their heads and wondering
what had just happened.)
I mentioned to the funeral director, during a trip back from an interment, that I was ordained.
Based on my ordination and a fairly well honed skill set for working with people experiencing upset and grief,
they asked me to serve as their company chaplain. I have been working with grieving families to, compose obituaries, help plan meaningful services and to assist in
getting them thru, what for most folks can be, a very difficult time.

I am taking this course, and others, to fill in the areas where I know I need additional work and to discover what I 'don't know that I don't know.'

From a spiritual point of view I associate most closely with the teachings of Jesus though not with the religion of Christianity.
I see that there is truth in all religious practices and that no religious practice has all of the truth.
Even though I serve in a Methodist Church, my views are more liberal and closer to those of the United Church of Christ.

Both the Methodist Church and The UCC have very active programs of chaplain's ministries,
with representation in the military, law enforcement, medical and business sectors. That said, in order to
be a Chaplain within either denomination you must first be a university and seminary graduate and be ordained in the denomination.

The work of non-denominational and inter-faith chaplains is extremely important in our society. With a decline in church membership
and a shift in beliefs away from the supernatural aspects of many religions, the availability of chaplains capable of ministering to people regardless of where they
are spiritually or emotionally helps to fill a very real void. As a funeral chaplain, I have no mandate to bring people to God. In fact my mandate is just the opposite,
and that is to bring God (regardless of name) to people and help them to connect with something larger than themselves.