Every Friday, Baptist Women in Ministry introduces an amazing minister, and today we are pleased to introduce Jeni Cook.
Jeni, tell us about your current ministry?
I am the National Deputy Director of Chaplains for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA has 152 medical centers and over 800 outpatient clinics, and I have worked as a chaplain for VA since 1984. It’s been an exciting and somewhat irregular journey, but I have no doubt that God directed it. Looking back, I realize that I never set a long-term goal that would lead me to this place in ministry. It has been the result of simply asking God, over and over again what to do next.
The VA has received quite a lot of negative press during the last two years. As a result, concerted efforts and considerable resources are now dedicated to identifying and correcting problems that veterans experience in the delivery of their healthcare. Some reports, especially those claiming that religious rights are disrespected in VA, are simply not true and are caused when non-chaplain employees speak or act (without knowledge or authority) about religious and spiritual care in VA. Sometimes these religious misperceptions seem to support political agendas. However, the way federal chaplains must approach religion, is precisely what makes this ministry most meaningful to me as a Baptist.
Federal chaplains serving in healthcare settings, have three primary obligations: (1) to ensure the free exercise of religion by veteran patients. We provide a broad array of religious ministries, including bedside and office-based pastoral care and counseling, regular and special event religious worship services, sacraments or ordinances, pastoral care of families and staff, and pastoral crisis intervention.
(2) to ensure that religion is not imposed on patients. If a patient does not want to talk about faith, religion, or spirituality, it is the federal chaplain’s obligation to protect them, even from the most well-intentioned proselytizer, whether that be a staff member, another patient, or a visiting community minister or volunteer; and (3) to assist patients in integrating their personal faith resources into the overall delivery of their healthcare, if they choose to do so. The first two are equally important constitutional rights. The third is the personal choice of each patient.
Healthcare has come a long way in recognizing the value of spirituality during the course of my thirty plus years in this specialized ministry. Countless research findings have supported the value of spiritual assessments and interventions for patients who want them. The VA identifies the need for holistic healthcare in policies and patient-centered care models. The definition of “holistic” always includes spirituality. In some ways, my daily work can be described simply as: consistently reminding every interdisciplinary healthcare team that I encounter and other individual healthcare providers that faith (or lack thereof) is a powerful force in the healing (or disease) process and should not be ignored or overlooked.
Currently, the people to whom I most often minister are the approximately 1,000 VA chaplains around the country. They are on the front-line and are often overworked and under-appreciated. I served as a staff chaplain and a Chief of Chaplain Service in the field for fifteen years, and I learned first-hand that there is nothing more rewarding than when a patient or staff member in crisis sincerely seeks your ministry and invites you onto their personal “holy ground.” When people are ill or in some kind of crisis, they know they are in need. They drop their defenses and seek the help of anyone who is willing to listen, understand, and provide care. In such situations, most are more open than ever to hearing the good news of the gospel. In such situations, you can literally feel healing taking place. But when healthcare management asks for documentation of the quantifiable outcome of such an intervention, it can be difficult to provide results. It’s like trying to translate braille into an aroma.
What have been some of the challenges you have faced in your ministry journey?
The most significant challenges I have faced connect to both an internal and external struggle of “belonging” and being/feeling “disregarded.” In 1979, when I decided to move from my home in Oklahoma to Louisville, Kentucky to attended The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, I knew that a woman seeking to serve as a minister in Southern Baptist life would have an uphill climb. Officials at other Baptist seminaries had already informed me that I would need to choose the Master of Religious Education degree if I ever hoped to get a job. While initially, I held that as a possibility, I chose to attend the seminary that hadn’t pre-emptively limited my future. I started in the MRE program and quickly changed to the M.Div. Many people, men and women, asked me “And what do you expect to do with that degree?” For a time, it was hard to answer because while I can preach rather well (with lots and lots of preparation), it was never something I wanted to do. I find public speaking laborious, and I couldn’t imagine choosing to do that multiple times each week. But people did seem to discuss their problems with me. Because faith was such a guiding principle in my own life, I sought the theological training that would help me in pastoral care and counseling and would identify honestly for others upfront that faith is my natural “bias.”
I was in seminary at SBTS when the fundamentalist Southern Baptist “coup” began. It was doubly frightening. Finding my way in the “good ‘ole boy” SBC was going to be tough enough. But now, the convention was passing resolutions identifying Eve as the root cause of sin and insisting that women were not fit to teach men in the church. My ministry and my credibility were often questioned among Southern Baptists. I had no idea where I was going, but I continued to ask God, “What’s next?”
At the same time the SBC was convulsing, I found my way into a Clinical Pastoral Education program. For the first time, I experienced a deep sense of meaning in the work I was doing, and the personal and professional growth was life-changing. My skills and gifts were valued by my CPE supervisors, and the patients for whom I provided care didn’t seem to notice or care about my gender. I learned that people who are in crisis are often more open to thinking and talking about the meaning of life, their personal values, and the possibility of death. The intersection of faith and health fascinated me, and I thrived in the healthcare setting. Nevertheless, I found there, a similar type of challenge to my ministry and psyche as I had found as a Southern Baptist woman in ministry.
In our society, just as the church is “home” to theological language and ministry professionals, our hospitals are “home” to quantitative language and medical professionals. For many healthcare professionals, the impact of faith upon health (and vice-versa) has never been considered. I have come to believe that demonstrating the value of pastoral care in the healthcare setting will always be required. The scientific/medical community and the hospital management professionals do not consider the work of chaplains as part of their “core business.” Chaplains must prove that they belong on the healthcare teams, and continually work against being “disregarded” as extraneous.
In 1989, I completed a Doctor of Ministry degree in Pastoral Care and Counseling, awarded by Brite Divinity School (Texas Christian University) while chasing our first-born and learning my new job as Chief of Chaplain Service at the VA North Texas Healthcare System.
After I had worked first in Dallas as a VA staff chaplain, and after I became the first woman in VA to serve as a “Chief” of a local Chaplain Service (supervising staff chaplains and overseeing an active CPE program), I was selected by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (cabinet-level position) to serve as the (first woman) National Director of Chaplain Service. This is the highest chaplain position in VA, and the equivalent position in each branch of the military is a two-star General. The appointment was for a maximum of four years, and I served from 1999 to 2003. I was the fourteenth National Director of VA Chaplain Service, and I was (and still am) the only Southern Baptist ever to fill the position. I supervised a staff of fourteen, including a Deputy Director and six Associate Directors (all chaplains) and oversaw the national clinical program, established policy, provided training for and ensured quality for about 1,000 chaplains in 152 medical centers. My national-level appointment was never recognized by the SBC. The denomination never announced it. I could only conclude that the SBC would rather never have a Southern Baptist National Director of Chaplain Service than announce that a Southern Baptist woman was leading a lot of male chaplains. About two years into my four-year term, I changed my endorsement for chaplaincy from SBC to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. I did so when the North American Mission Board decided no longer to endorse women chaplains who were ordained. I had been ordained in 1980, and thankfully, I departed before the North American Mission Board told ordained women chaplains to either “denounce” their ordination or seek endorsement elsewhere!
Finally, there is one more challenge related to my membership in local Baptist churches and among other Baptist ministers. Since my ministry is not local church-related, it is difficult for others to understand that I am truly a clergy-person. Every year I explain to laypeople in my church why I continue to decline the invitation to serve as a deacon. Local ministerial groups also often forget to include clergy who serve in specialized settings. “Belonging” has proven to be a life-long challenge for me.
What brings you the greatest joy in life and ministry?
I try my best to trust in the “I know the plans I have for you…” passage (Jeremiah 29). In New Testament language, God sent my Barnabas. The person who has believed in me most, for over thirty-five years, even when I had no self-confidence of my own, became my life partner in marriage. There is no way to explain the vast array of ways that Ray has encouraged me and promoted the ministry in which I am involved. As an ordained minister himself, he is always supportive and helpful, personally and professionally. He has been there for me when things went well. He has been there for me in my depths of despair. We have very little in common except for our faith, our love, and our children. But what else matters, really? I said one time to a friend who knows us both well, that Ray and I are as different as night and day. Our friend replied, “No…you are more like alpha and omega.” I believe that together, that makes us unbeatable.
In addition to that overwhelming joy of a God-inspired marriage, we have two adult children of whom we are extremely proud. Both of our children are in careers that make the world a better place in which to live, and they treat all of God’s creation with respect. Initially, when our daughter announced that she felt God leading her to obtain a seminary degree, my heart skipped several beats. My first reaction was one of wanting to protect her from the pain I had experienced in being “disregarded” as a minister. Yet one of the greatest joys I now have is in knowing that as a first-year student in the Baptist Studies program at Candler School of Theology at Emory and as a global missions intern at the CBF office in Atlanta, she is not experiencing anything like I did! Women represent more than 50% of the students in her class at Candler, and CBF represents God’s glorious resurrection of an institution that is no longer my home, and never was hers.
I have felt extremely blessed and joyful for decades that God has led me down this road. It hasn’t always been easy, but perhaps it is even more precious for that very reason. God’s plans were much bigger than I could have dreamed or created on my own. Sometimes people ask me how I have endured as a government employee for an entire career. I also sometimes wonder how they have survived in the local church that long. One advantage I have is that I never expect the government to act based on “Christian values.” Yet, my observations are that the government is sometimes far ahead of the church in offering equal opportunities to women and minorities. Nevertheless, it is an honor to represent the faith community to people who are hurting (or to governmental officials). Sometimes it feels like a heavy responsibility.
Another joy is related to the organization I have spearheaded for VA Women Chaplains. When I began working for VA in 1984, there were fewer than ten female chaplains, and fewer than half of them worked full-time. Today, there are over 130 VA women chaplains nation-wide. We have hosted four national training events, and I continue to lead monthly conference calls for mutual support and learning. I have developed some life-long friendships through this organization and admire these very diverse and talented chaplains.
How do you keep yourself healthy – physically, emotionally, and spiritually?
Ray and I have been aware for years of the need to exercise and eat healthy foods. We are more successful during some periods of life than others. I am particularly aware of the genetic threats that we both face, and in addition to striving for a healthy lifestyle, we take vitamin supplements that research indicates may help. Without a doubt, my emotional health is tied to my relationships . . . with God, with family and with others. Intentionally spending time daily in meditation and prayer has a positive impact on my overall health. Connecting with Ray daily and with my adult children as often as possible also provides many health benefits for me. We have a wonderfully loyal and affectionate German Shepherd, who is the definition of stress-relief and dedicated love. Much of my identity is tied up in my ministry, and I wonder sometimes what retirement will look like. Ray and I have talked about participating in some form of missions when we retire, although he may never fully retire. Finally, I teach a Sunday school class every week. My class is composed of the elder-most women saints in our church. They think I am teaching them, and they are so genuinely grateful. Little do they know, although I keep trying to convince them that they minister to and inspire me in ways that most pastors never could.