For Chaplain Craig Muehler, the path to becoming a pastor had always been the plan, but serving his country while leading others to Christ came as an unexpected turn in the road.
“I was led to be a chaplain when I was in the pre-semiary program at CUC (Concordia University-Chicago) and met a recruiter who shared about this exciting ministry among the military personnel and their families,” he said. “The bottom line for me was it was a wonderful mission opportunity.”
After finishing his post-graduate work, he was commissioned as an ensign into the U.S. Navy theological student program in 1986. After his ordination two years later, he became part of the Navy Chaplain Corps, serving as a chaplain in the reserve while also leading St. John’s Lutheran Church in McClusky, N.D., as its pastor. In 1991, he was called for active duty as the staff chaplain on the Destroyer Squadron 31, where he completed two deployments in the Western Pacific.
Over the next few years, he would serve all over the world as a chaplain for sailors, marines, soldiers, airmen, and National Security Agency civilians, including being deployed overseas in support of “Operation Iraqi Freedom.”
“Most of those I worked with as a chaplain were between 18 to 26 years old. Many of them would never darken the door of a church, but they will come to speak to their chaplain,” he said. “It also allowed me to bring Word and Sacrament ministry to our LCMS folks who are deployed and serving in austere and dangerous conditions away from their families and congregations.”
Now a retired U.S. Navy captain, Muehler serves as the director of the LCMS Ministry to the Armed Forces. He began serving in that position in August 2014 after retiring as deputy chaplain of the U.S. Marine Corps in July 2014.
As director of the LCMS Ministry to the Armed Forces, he is the chief liaison to the Department of Defense for 125 LCMS chaplains serving in all branches of the military—active and reserve—and the Civil Air Patrol. His responsibilities include recruitment of chaplain candidates, endorsement for military duty, denominational training, education for ministry within the armed forces, maintaining updated records on all pastoral acts performed by Lutheran chaplains, and ministry support for the families of LCMS chaplains within the military and the communities in which they live.
He joins us this month for our Ash Wednesday program and will return next month to lead our Good Friday program.
“My prayer is that (the viewers) will be ready for the battlefield of life as they face their sicknesses, temptations, addictions, guilt, broken relationships, pet sins, loneliness, or whatever the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh hurl at us,” he said. “We are all in a sin-sick world and poor miserable sinners, but as we go through this Lenten season, we are reminded again and again that we are forgiven for Christ’s sake and that our Lord Jesus saves us. He did live, suffer, die, and rise again to redeem us lost and condemned creatures, and He gives us forgiveness, life, and salvation.”
The Ash Wednesday and Good Friday programs will be offered through our digital-only platforms, including streaming on our YouTube channel, through Roku, Apple TV, Google TV, and Amazon Firestick, as well as online on our website at WorshipAnew.org or through our app on iPhone and Android devices.
Learn more at WorshipAnew.org/app.
Our viewers overseas may also watch Chaplain Muehler as he leads devotions alongside our Worship Anew programs through the American Forces Network for those serving abroad.