AN OVERVIEW
Why did we feel led to create AZ Chaplain Fellowship Ministries? Great question! It all started with Dave Jungbluth. After a lot of prayer and advice he was led by the Lord to create the Az Coalition of Men’s Ministries, (AzCMM) in 2007. This organization was formed solely to minister to men using fellowship, training and education. Dave was on track when the Lord brought him a training need that birthed the Aaron & Hur Chaplain Ministry Institute as a chaplain-training group under AzCMM.
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From 2012 - 2014 Aaron & Hur trained three groups of men in chaplaincy. The class lasted 15 weeks with about 50 – 55 hours of class time. The class has a strong emphasis on Systematic Theology with the remainder being classes in Biblical Chaplaincy. Ron Snodgrass & Jesse Esquivel attended, and successfully completed the third session of Aaron & Hur in 2014. After completing this class Dave approached Ron and asked if there was any way AzCMM could use Aaron & Hur to expand the program to certify, ordain and license chaplains.
In the meantime Dave, Jesse and Ron took another Chaplaincy class put on by a well know Police Chaplaincy Organization. This class included about 18 hours of training on 12 different subjects. That training combined with other CEU training equaling 5CEU's (50 hours), could, after intensive staff review, result in a Basic membership in this organization. Tragically, they advised any previous CEU training that was submitted and had any Biblical emphasis or foundation was rejected by this organization as unacceptable CEU training. But they would accept “firearms training” for credited CEU’s. Many of those in the class found this rejection to be incredibly disappointing and very sad.
This disappointment made Dave, Jesse and Ron realize that we really needed to do something to help current and future chaplains in Arizona with quality training, education, fellowship and legitimate certification & ordination if needed.
After much prayer and research Ron approached Don Gibson who is the President & Founder of Chaplain Fellowship Ministries International, LLC, operating out of Texas. Ron was already a certified Chaplain with this group. He advised Don what we were looking to do in Az. Don already knew Ron’s heart and advised he would offer Az a charter 501c3 under his CFMI in Texas. He was excited we were going in the direction of conducting a classroom-training program in conjunction with his home study training classes for further advanced training. Ron brought back the CFMI offer to the AzCMM board. They liked the idea of partnering with CFMI rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. Ron founded Az Chaplain Fellowship Ministries, (AZCFM), under CFMI in July 2015 and in August 2015 there was a joint meeting of the boards of AzCFM and AzCMM that moved the Aaron & Hur Chaplain Ministry institute under AzCFM. A trade name was granted by the State of Arizona to the Aaron & Hur Chaplain Ministry Institute under AzCFM as our training group.
In December 2015 we completed the forth, 15 week session of Aaron & Hur and graduated six more chaplain candidates.
These are exciting times we are living in and we are proud to be serving our Lord and Master as we reach out to those in need and spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.
