Chaplain training available through SCLEAP

October 14, 2024

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Assistance Program has partnered with Lenoir Rhyne University and Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary to provide Public Safety Chaplaincy training.

The training begins in January 2025 and the program is built around classroom sessions from 10 a.m. on Friday mornings until 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoons once per month. This format is intended to reduce chaplain’s time away from family and work and reduce the costs of on-campus meals and housing. 

Public Safety Chaplaincy training is designed for a person serving or aspires to serve as a full-time, part-time. or volunteer chaplain in a public safety agency. This includes (but is not limited to) local clergy/spiritual care providers, students, retirees and persons identified by their command staff as an authorized agency chaplain.

If a candidate is a resident of South Carolina, there is no course fee for the training; however, should the candidate not commute, there will be one night of lodging per month at a local hotel ($121.00/night – includes breakfast), approximately $200 in book expenses and transportation. Individuals who are not residents of South Carolina must pay a course fee of $1,350. 

This 18 month training program will be offered in a virtual/synchronous format, allowing students who cannot be present in the classroom to still receive credit for taking the class. This will also allow chaplains all across the nation to have access to this program. The online version of the course is free for South Carolina Public Safety Chaplaincy Candidates and is $1,350 for out of state residents.

Applications are due November 15 but program fees are not due until a candidate has been accepted into the program and made a commitment to enroll in this training program.