08381
May 15, 2008

Ministry on the home front

Milwaukee Presbytery explores outreach to soldiers, veterans and their families

by Tom Williams
Milwaukee Presbytery
Special to Presbyterian News Service

MEQUON, WI — For many Presbyterians as well as others in our society, the idea of war can only be responded to with the lyrics from the Edwin Starr hit “War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!” 

But for many others, to embrace only that response is to ignore the difficulties and challenges war creates for those who serve — veterans and their families and friends. 

In 2005, the Presbytery of Milwaukee’s Mission Partnerships Team (MPT) began discussing at what a faithful response to those challenges might be.   

Two years later, a group of people from one congregation — including two MPT members: the associate pastor and a disabled Vietnam veteran — began meeting to plan a conference around congregation-based ministries with and for veterans and their families. 

On April 19, at Crossroads Presbyterian Church here, the presbytery hosted a half-day workshop entitled “Homefront Ministry.” More than 60 people from at least 10 congregations and at least three denominations attended. 

From the opening keynote address by a Veterans Administration (VA) chaplain and continuing through the four workshops, participants focused, not on the question of the validity or sinfulness of present or past wars, but on how congregations might respond to the needs of veterans and their families. 

Workshops were led by members of the planning team, a local therapist who works with families and children in crisis, and staff from the VA’s Vet Center who specialize in working with men and women suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  

In each grouping, leaders sought to encourage conversation about what local congregations have done, might do, and/or would like to do if they knew how.  

In one workshop, on The Church as Family, emphasis was placed on making sure participants knew of the services provided for active duty personnel and veterans by various branches of the military as well as the VA.   

Examples of congregation-based ministries were also shared, leading to discussions about how other congregations might also respond. 

A workshop titled “Children and War” focused on the impact of parental absence and the ambiguous messages the church “gives out” regarding participation in war. Leaders spoke of the stress on soldiers’ children of hearing how “wrong” war is and how important it is to talk about the morality of war in ways that does not confuse children or demean their parents.

Participants in the workshop on “How to Talk About War in the Church” conversed about how to discuss war theologically and morally without allowing the dialogue to turn into a political tug of war or, worse, a shouting match. 

The church has a unique role in enabling such discussion, leaders insisted, because it is one of the few places in a polarized society where people of different political “stripes” sit next to each other on a regular basis.

A workshop on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was perhaps the most intense.  Participants learned PTSD’s symptoms and the resources available for veterans suffering from it.

Affecting an unknown number of veterans, PTSD is probably the most difficult issue for the church since the myths surrounding its effects and how sufferers “act out” are almost as insidious as the disorder.

Conference participants committed to continue the conversation through the development of materials and information shared through e-mail and the Presbytery of Milwaukee Web site. 

For more information, contact Tom Williams by email.