Veteran's Ministry
Reaching Out

Some Minnesota National Guard troops are coming home at last!  Churches have an important role to play as the veterans try to reintegrate successfully into their families and communities. 

Here’s what you can do:

• Express welcome:  We’re really glad you’re home!

• Express ongoing concern for their transition process: "How’s it going for you?"

• Reach out to make an ongoing connection with the family in transition

• Separate your feelings about the war (confusion, horror, anger, cheerleading) from your treatment of the warrior

Returning soldiers vary greatly in what experiences they have had and how they deal with them. Make no assumptions other than that everyone will have a transition period after being gone so long.

Tips for congregations:

• Be Persistent - express welcome and concern for their well-being

• Understand that many soldiers have made great sacrifices on the behest of our government and are viewing the war on a profoundly personal level.  Many will be sorting out their own thinking about the justness of the war for quite some time. They have just returned from a setting in which it might be dangerous to entertain any questions about what they were ordered to do. Many will be grieving on a variety of levels. Do not attempt to engage them in casual conversation about the justness of the war; for them, it will never be casual. Spare them your opinions.
• Realize that soldiers are not all alike. They differ on their opinions about the war; don’t make assumptions about what they think.  Allow them the emotional space to re-orient to the circumstances of a land that is not exploding around them. 
• Never ask “How many people did you kill?” in other than a confessional setting. Taking human life should never be the subject of casual conversation.
• Discourage others from amusing themselves at the veteran’s expense as some thoughtless and/or cruel people do. Many veterans are still tuned to responding quickly to threatening sounds, like firecrackers. Being in fear of your life is not “funny.”
• Understand the difficulties of their situation. They have returned to a public that is more aware of the foibles of celebrities than the life and death struggles of their soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.  These life and death struggles were over a mission which the majority of Americans now do not believe is worth the cost.

Tips for Pastors:

• Let them know that when they are ready, the congregation would be interested in hearing how they have grown during their deployments. Some will have a different focus on what matters in life after facing death.
• Say that the congregation will be holding in collective prayer all families in transition after war and ask permission to use their names
• Represent your church as a resource in the transition process.
• Ask them what kind of welcome reception they would like.  We recommend that every veterans event include: 
• Appreciation for the sacrifices made by the soldier and their families
• Memorial for those less fortunate in the war, especially those who died
• Gratitude for the present moment and our ability to be together without fear
• Tell them who on the church staff they can talk with regarding issues they might have.
• Explain the prophetic stance of your church in regard to the war (if you have one), being clear that the church is always in a discernment process, seeking to understand the will of God – and that that is understood of all Christians. We respectfully hold each other in love as we differ, knowing that we all grow and change in understanding. We appreciate the sacrifices made by the soldiers and their families, and walk with them in the paradox if they were asked to do things that most Americans do not support.