AETC hosts first-ever leadership summit for evolving chaplain corps Published Jan. 20, 2015 By 1st Lt. Jose R. Davis Air Education and Training Command Public Affairs JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO – RANDOLPH, TEXAS -- Air Education and Training Command hosted a first-of-its-kind leadership summit for its chaplains, Jan. 13-16, to equip them with vital leadership tools for establishing viable ministry plans that will shape AETC ministries for years to come. The leadership summit is part of a larger initiative to focus more on personally engaging and connecting with Airmen at the squadron level, shifting to more unit-based chaplain support. Among the attendees and speakers at the summit were Chaplain (Brig. Gen.) Bobby Page, Air Force deputy chief of chaplains, and Chief Master Sgt. Dale McGavran, Chaplain Assistant career field manager for the Air Force. “I want to tell you I’ve seen a lot of chapel teams, and I have seen a lot of people with talent and great ability,” Page told AETC chaplains. “The ones with the greatest impact are those that are able to tame their ego, bridle their ambition, and work together with others to serve Airmen. Our poorest service is tainted by self-promotion and careerism. “Selfless service is when we throw ourselves into the task, without looking over our shoulders to see who’s noticing, inspiring grateful hearts and people to look up to give thanks,” said Page. Apart from an emphasis on personal engagement with Airmen, the summit covered a myriad of other subjects as well, to include training for chaplain assistants and how to use the Ministry Planning Tool in the newly developed Air Force Chaplain Corps Activity Reporting System, which gathers metrics for chaplains on the amount of time spent with Airmen. Chaplain assistants are expected to complete a new, two-phased training course, which will give them a broad spectrum of tools to help them solve current challenges facing the chaplain corps. “We’re pressing with training,” McGavran told chaplains and chaplain assistants at the summit. In all the various subjects talked about at the summit, it always returned to the importance of engaging and connecting with Airmen. “That Airman is not going to care what kind of safety program, what kind of security management program you have – that Airman is not going to care that you have a great program,” McGavran said. “He’s going to care, in his moment of crisis, he knew you – the chaplain or the chaplain assistant – and he knows that in that moment of crisis he can go to you and you will walk beside him through that difficult time. It’s about relationships.” The AETC Chaplain Corps wants to shift emphasis from a weekend-based ministry to a face-to-face personal engagement with Airmen. “There is the whole other area of being engaged with Airmen,” Page said. “That’s exactly what we are challenging our chaplains and our chaplain assistants to do, is to get out of the chapel and spend more time with Airmen, be with Airmen, so that a chaplain and a chaplain assistant are not just a picture on somebody’s wall.” The leadership summit wrapped up Jan. 16. AETC chaplain leadership is hopeful that chaplains across the command reaped a wealth of knowledge from this gathering, all of which is aimed at reinforcing the need to personally engage with Airmen. “Being there with Airmen, being there for them, hanging out with them, being trusted, people attending to their concerns – those are our greatest goals,” said Col. Steven Schaick, AETC command chaplain. “A renewed focus on Airmen, doing exactly what Gen. Welsh (Air Force Chief of Staff) asked us to do, is our first priority.”