pg. 22 — lightandlifemagazine.com
urfm You are the church
phone, and he said, ‘Larry, how are you? ... You need to
know we are praying for you.’”
The families’ attitudes blessed and encouraged the
chaplains.
“I would say, looking back, part of my resiliency comes
in moments of blessing,” Lyons said. “I intentionally
hold those moments of blessing that helped me with my
recovery and resiliency.”
Connection and Care
Lyons is an alumnus of Central Christian College of
Kansas, Greenville University and Asbury Theological
Seminary. He served as a pastor for 16 years in the
Southern Michigan Conference — four at the Albion
Free Methodist Church (now known as Reclamation
Church) and 12 at the Chelsea Free Methodist Church.
Ten years ago, he began his clinical pastoral education
process with seven units of clinical pastoral education
during a two-year residency at Mercy Health – St.
Vincent Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio, and then he
became the manager of spiritual care at the hospital
in Monroe, Michigan. He started working at St. Mary
Mercy Livonia in 2016.
During the last decade, he has found support and
encouragement through the gatherings of Free Methodist
chaplains. He credited the denomination’s former and
current directors of chaplain ministries for helping him
stay connected.
“Stepping out of the church proper and into chaplaincy,
it is not easy. You lose a lot of connection, but thank the
Lord there are people like Rex and Louise Carpenter
and now Tim and Patricia Porter who are there as our
primary support persons and connection,” said Lyons,
who has also led some Free Methodist chaplain training
sessions “to give back and do some teaching.”
Lyons also works across denominational lines. St.
Mary Mercy Livonia’s seven full-time chaplains include
two Catholic priests and five Protestant ministers from
various denominations, and the hospital serves as a
placement site for Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE)
residents and interns.
“At our hospital, we’re blessed. We make proactive
visits. We can see up to 600 to 800 people a week. We
attempt to see every patient to find some meaningful
connection,” Lyons said. “Being part of a faith-based
hospital is beautiful. We don’t sit back and wait.”
Lyons said the chaplains “find a very warm reception”
among patients “from all different faiths, even people
that are atheists.” Regardless of their backgrounds and
beliefs, the patients all share the basic human needs to be
heard and loved.
“When’s the last time somebody listened to you just
because they wanted to, and they didn’t want to tell
their own story, but they were fully present?” Lyons
said. “People want that and need that, and that’s where
chaplains start, which gives us an inroad to do that
spiritual assessment.”
One patient in his 80s initially declined Lyons’ offer of
prayer because the man said, “I don’t think that prayer
would do any good.” Lyons asked why, and the man
revealed he had been a Korean War fighter pilot. Lyons
recalled, “He went on to tell me his story – possibly
telling it for the first time – and, at the end of quite a long
visit, he looked at me with a smile and said, ‘I think I’ll
take that prayer now.’”
Grieving With Others
One patient with ALS appeared terrified when Lyons
entered his room. The man was an atheist, but he tearfully
opened up to Lyons about his life story and his grief.
“I believe every one of us has something to grieve,”
Lyons said. “That’s another basic human need, and
chaplains come in listening, a non-anxious presence to
provide that support. It’s amazing where people will go
when you want to listen.”
Despite the instructions of Romans 12:15, some
pastors and other Christians are uncomfortable being
around people who are grieving.
“From a chaplain’s perspective, one of the things the
church doesn’t do very well is mourn with those who
mourn and weep with those who weep,” Lyons said.
“We don’t allow people much time in the Garden of
Gethsemane. We sort of force them into Easter Day, and
it’s not easy being with people in the midst of grief.”+
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