Meet the CRC's Newly Endorsed Chaplains

The Christian Reformed Office of Chaplaincy and Care is excited to introduce Adie, Jacob, Bernie, and Trent, our newly endorsed chaplains! Chaplains are ministers and pastors with specialized training who serve in institutional settings such as prisons, hospitals, hospice, long-term care, counseling centers, industrial and workplace and military installations. As specially trained ministers of the gospel, they seek to encourage others in their relationship with Jesus Christ. They seek to minister to the whole person, addressing not only a person's spiritual needs, but also their physical and emotional needs. Please visit the Chaplaincy website for more information. 

Adie Johnson, from Boulder, CO, has just completed her CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) training as a chaplain resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. A commissioned pastor since 2013, Adie previously co-pastored a church plant in Boulder and has been part of ministry in the Rocky Mountain region for 17 years. Adie feels that with chaplaincy she has found her niche. She sees it as such a natural follow on to church planting in that it is ministry outside the church building, meeting people where they are, and supporting them in their own journey with the divine. Adie plans to return west in September and hopes to secure a full time position in either Colorado or Nebraska (where her grandsons live).

My name is Jacob Lapre. I have been working as an Instrumental School Teacher for the last 16 years teaching at the middle school and high school level.  For the last 2 years I have been in place of discernment as I try to grapple with what God is asking me to do with my life.  I found God has led me to seminary and serve him in the U.S. Armed Forces as a Chaplain with the United States Navy.  I am extremely happy with this decision and consider it an honor to serve God and my country at the same time.  I currently live in Orange County in Southern California and I attend Talbot School of School Theology at Biola University where I am in my first year of seminary.  I look forward to my time at Calvin as I look to be ordained in the CRCNA.  

My name is Bernie Haan. I have been an ordained pastor in the CRCNA since 1983, having served as the senior pastor for two congregations in Iowa and one in Indiana, and then as a specialized transitional minister (STM) for the past three years for a smalltown congregation in South Dakota. It was during my first year serving that congregation that I decided to take the advice of some fellow STMers by taking a unit of CPE. I found that experience to be very helpful to my service as a STM, plus it led to a connection with one of the large local hospitals in Sioux Falls, South Dakota where my wife, Brenda, and I live. Another student in the class was a chaplain there and he encouraged me to apply for a PRN (as needed) chaplaincy position at the Avera McKennan Hospital, a Catholic hospital whose faith-based mission, vision, and core values make it a God-glorifying and gratifying environment in which to serve. I ended up getting that position and also taking another unit of CPE. In February 2017 I became a regular chaplain at the hospital. My wife and I are blessed with four children (who are all married) and with eight grandchildren.  

My name is Trent Elders. I am a CPE Supervisory Education student at Bronson hospital in Kalamazoo, MI. My wife Kelly and I spent the last year in Los Angeles while I completed a CPE residency at UCLA. Previously, I worked as a youth and young adult director at Church of the Servant in Grand Rapids, MI, while simultaneously completing my Masters of Divinity at CTS. We currently live downtown Grand Rapids as my wife works as a Human Resources manager for AHC hospitality. Apart from chaplaincy, I enjoy spending time with photography, as well as wilderness pursuits like backpacking, kayaking, and fly-fishing.