What do chaplains actually do? This introduction to outcome-oriented chaplaincy walks through its three components—assessment, interventions, and outcomes—and the lively debate between process- and outcome-oriented spiritual care.

A hospital ward and a container ship could hardly be more different, yet both draw upon the same foundation of chaplaincy competence, and both ask for something specific on top of it. Naming competencies is not a way of reducing chaplaincy to a checklist. Rather, it is a way of taking seriously both what all chaplains share and what a particular context demands. It is a way of making excellence teachable rather than accidental.

How a Chaplain Becomes a Researcher For years I told people that chaplaincy needed more research. Then one day I realized I had never really done any myself. I had spent a decade supervising students, leading chaplaincy programs, and advocating for evidence-informed spiritual care. I knew there was a will in the profession. I wasn't sure there was a way. If someone had asked me to design a study, analyze data, or conduct rigorous research, I wouldn't have known where to begin. That...