Chaplains in Schools (CiS) was founded when Pastor Paul Steinberg discovered that two-thirds of the children in Christian voucher schools in Wisconsin have no church home. As the name suggests, CiS provides Christian schools with chaplains to lead chapel services, meet students and teachers privately for prayer, and be a spiritual resource for students and staff.  

 

The idea of creating a digital discipleship phone app was born with the realization that the word of the Bible needed to be widely accessible to parents, in order to continue blessing children. The content already existed within CiS's 16-hour Lutheran adult confirmation course and Bible study called “Meet Jesus.”  

 

Phillis, a parent at HOPE Christian School: Fortis, started the “Meet Jesus” course when she realized her children knew more about the Bible than she did. “I don’t have any family and was never able to trust anyone. But when I started the Bible study course, I felt like I could trust again. Learning about Jesus made me realize that I don't have to do anything to own this specialness. God put me on this earth and that is enough.”  

 

Phillis met with Pastor Steinberg twice a week over the course of a year to study God’s word using this curriculum. However, these classes became especially difficult to attend with the onset of the pandemic. She asked Pastor Steinberg if he could send Bible Study lessons to her phone. This request was echoed by several parents who could not physically attend Bible study because their time was stretched thin across job and family commitments.  When asked what she thought about the new app during its development, Phillis said, “I desperately need this. I’m always telling Pastor Steinberg, 'let’s set up Bible study.' But when the time comes, I often simply cannot make it. Accessing it through the app will be life-changing for me and the kids.”  

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Pastor Steinberg refers to the DiscipleShipment app as a “spiritual habit builder.” Content will be broken down into daily readings, videos, prayer prompts, and quizzes. “When people complete the course, they will have the outline of a spiritual ritual, which they can use throughout their life even if they aren’t necessarily getting new content from the app,” added Pastor Steinberg. 

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CiS serves around 3,000 students at three of the Hope Christian schools in Milwaukee, three Shining Star schools, and 18 Center for Urban Teaching Summer School sites. Once the app is launched in July 2021, access to Bible studies and the adult confirmation course will dramatically increase to reach every adult and high school student connected to these schools. CiS will continue providing its in-person work and services, but the app will be an additional tool to spiritually guide people in their journey to becoming an active disciple of Christ.

 

Learn more about Chaplains in Schools.