Reassigned
Military Lessons for Ministry Leadership
Bart L. Denny, Ph.D.
When Bart Denny began doctoral research on pastors who had led struggling small churches toward renewed health, he wasn’t studying military veterans. Not intentionally, anyway. Yet seven of the eleven pastors he interviewed had served in the armed forces.
That discovery raised the question behind Reassigned: what if military service forms people for Christian ministry in ways veterans, and their churches, often fail to recognize? Military experience is no substitute for Christian character, theological preparation, or the discernment of the church. But the years a veteran spent learning to accept responsibility, work on a team, endure hard assignments, train others and make decisions under pressure shouldn’t be dismissed, either.
Reassigned helps veterans look back at their service with new eyes: what those years formed in them, which strengths can now be placed in Christ’s service, and which habits need to be adapted for ministry.
