SWBTS professor graduates from police academy during half-year sabbatical

FORT WORTH  For Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary counseling professor John Babler, intertwining ministry as a firefighter and a police chaplain with academic training has been a natural part of life and work. So, when the prospect came to overlap the ministries during his third sabbatical from the seminary, Babler jumped at the opportunity. 

For 22 weeks in 2015, Babler attended the North Central Texas Council of Governments Regional Police Academy and upon graduation became a reserve police officer for the Forest Hill Police Department. Babler already serves as chaplain for the FHPD and will continue in that capacity as well as in his roles as professor at the seminary, part-time minister of missions at Birchman Baptist Church in Fort Worth and vice president of the Texas Corps of Fire Chaplains.

Babler explained that the goal of sabbatical leave from the seminary is to expand a faculty member’s ministry in some way. Going through the academy with fellow cadets will make him more effective as a chaplain as he ministers to and encourages those working in law enforcement. 

“Now, having been through the academy, I’ll have a credibility where they can’t say, ‘Well you really don’t understand because you don’t know what it’s like.’ Well, actually, I don’t know what everything’s like, but I’ve been through the academy.”

John Babler, SWBTS counseling professor

“It provides a level of credibility,” Babler said. “Obviously, as a seminary professor, my education and experience on the ministry side is there, and they don’t question that. I’ve been accepted very well because of that. Now, having been through the academy, I’ll have a credibility where they can’t say, ‘Well you really don’t understand because you don’t know what it’s like.’ Well, actually, I don’t know what everything’s like, but I’ve been through the academy. I know a lot of what they’ve gone through. To some degree, in some ways, it’s somewhat incarnational in the fact that I’m there and one of them, being there with them.” 

The experience also strengthens his classroom teaching and writing in addition to improving his counseling roles and work as a Texas Line of Duty Death Task Force response director.

Babler not only left the program with an even deeper respect for law enforcement officers and civil servants, but he said the Lord also taught him humility and empathy.

“It is a humbling experience to recognize the number of challenges that people, especially in law enforcement, face,” Babler said.

A few weeks into his time at the academy, Babler, who also serves as director of the Walsh Counseling Center at Southwestern, began a Bible study with people in his class. Of 22 cadets, 12 came at least once, and three came regularly. Babler says he believes the Lord allowed him to impact those in his class while he studied with them.

Unlike previous sabbatical leaves Babler has taken, this time he opted to take half for his police academy quest and the other half to write a book about emergency services chaplaincy—a task his academy experience will help to shape and fuel.

“Part of my vision is to help churches and Christians and pastors develop a vision for chaplaincy as ministry,” Babler said.