By Father Garrett Braun
From Fields Afar
The military is like baseball. It counts everything. In a meritocracy where everything is reviewable and everyone is rankable, numbers are the name of the game. If you can’t count or numerically measure the effectiveness of a program, event or operation; it’s almost as if it didn’t happen! This is particularly true for quarterly award submissions and year-end performance reviews. Measurable categories used to “rack and stack” the effectiveness of one program or service member over another range in everything from pushups and sit-ups to numbers of man-hours, or in dollars raised, spent or saved.
The AF Chaplain Corps also relies on numbers to showcase its effectiveness and measure the merit of its members. This is on my mind as I recently completed my monthly AFCCARs Report. The Air Force Chaplain Corps Activity Reporting System (not the longest acronym I’ve seen in the military … that would be TOOTLIFEST) is a tool that tracks the number of and attendance at religious services and fellowship events, counseling sessions and even how many people a Chaplain might encounter in workplace visitations over the course of a month.
While it is easy to point to and even poke a little fun at the military’s numerical obsession, isn’t it something we all do? For example, we’re all pretty good at counting digital “likes,” “hearts” and “friend requests.” Conversations between priests usually start with “How was Mass?” and then quickly follow up with, “How was the crowd?” Similarly, youth ministers regularly trade notes on what events attracted the greatest numbers to their program. Much of this counting is good; however, and I might add quite useful, to gauge our efforts. I, for one, along with the Air Force and along with baseball fans, will keep tallying many things in my ministry.
At the same time, a word of caution to myself and to all. I’m reminded of Mr. Helgoth, my campus minister at the Air Force Academy, who once reminded me, “Jesus told Peter to feed his sheep; He didn’t tell Peter to count them.” I’m also reminded of a Good Shepherd who is willing to leave behind the 99 sheep to go after the one. At the end of the day, our prayer, ministry and witness simply cannot always be measured. The value of one conversion or one heart won for the Gospel of Jesus Christ has inestimable worth, and there will be much rejoicing in heaven!
Father Garrett Braun is currently on a temporary release to the Archdiocese for the Military Services to fulfill his five-year minimum commitment as an active duty chaplain in the United States Air Force. He will share monthly reflections through this column. He can be reached at gbraun@evdio.org.