Endorsement

SBC Endorsement Requirements

Chaplaincy occurs in a wide variety of specialized settings. Presently, the Chaplains Commission of the North American Mission Board endorses chaplains to the following categories: community services, corporate, disaster relief, healthcare, institutional, military, pastoral counselors and public safety.

When employing vocational or volunteer chaplains, each institutional agency and organization sets specific requirements for their hiring criteria. In addition, the Southern Baptist Convention has its own denominational requirements for endorsing chaplains.

Requirements by Chaplaincy Category

Each Chaplaincy category has specific qualifications required, which can be found on the Chaplain Category page. See Chaplain Categories

Endorsement Updates

Periodically, the using agency will ask that the chaplain receive an updated endorsement. It is the responsibility of the chaplain to initiate the process for updating an endorsement. A chaplain should contact the Chaplaincy Team to request an endorsement update when their status or ministry location changes. Also, endorsement update requests can be made through the chaplain’s portal (mynamb.net). Chaplains are allowed to have more than one endorsement.

Chaplains can request an update by contacting the Chaplaincy Team or through their chaplain portal at mynamb.net. Once initiated, the chaplain will need to complete an Endorsement Update Application and submit appropriate supporting documents. When a chaplain requests an update to a vocational endorsement from a volunteer endorsement, the basic requirements/guidelines for that chaplaincy category and status applies. At least four weeks should be allowed for the update endorsement process to be completed.