Rev. Doug Knepp, our 2009 Camp Evangelist, is taking a new path to serving the Lord. The following article appeared in The Reporter on February 14, 2010 and tells of Doug's journey into the National Guard.

The Reporter News: Local minister becomes military chaplain

The clothes and location may be different, but in some ways the job is the same for Cornerstone Community Church Pastor Doug Knepp and Pennsylvania National Guard Chaplain Doug Knepp. -- Bob Keeler, The Reporter

"A big part of a chaplain's job is just to be there for the soldiers and be there when they need guidance," Knepp said.

That's where his two decades of experience in counseling and ministry is an advantage, even if it does put him past the age when he normally would have been able to take on the chaplaincy.

"Many squadrons don't even have a chaplain," Knepp said. "They're in such need of chaplains that they extended the age to 47 that you can enlist."

That left an opening for the Perkasie resident, who is going on 45.

"I've always felt a desire to serve in the military," Knepp said. "I've always felt called to serve as a pastor as well."

On the military side, his father served in World War II and both grandfathers in World War I. On the pastoring side, he was hired in 1990 as First Baptist Church of Doylestown's assistant pastor.

When that congregation created Cornerstone Community Church as a church plant in 1998 at Highland Park near Sellersville, Knepp was chosen to be the pastor.

To become a chaplain, he needed the approval of his denomination, the Conservative Baptist Association of America; written references; and agreement by a military review board, including waivers for his age and high cholesterol.

"They gave me the thumbs up the beginning of October," Knepp said.

First Lt. Knepp is now the chaplain for the Pennsylvania National Guard's 104th Cavalry, which has five troops of about 125 soldiers each. Three are in the Philadelphia area and two in the Fort Indiantown Gap area.

"I've already been serving even though I haven't had formal training yet," Knepp said.

For the next three months, while he takes a sabbatical from Cornerstone, he'll be getting that basic training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina.

"It's basically four classes," Knepp said.

The first is officer training, which includes physical training and 5 a.m. starts to the day, but isn't quite as physically demanding as non-officer's boot camp, Knepp said.

"It's more like a gentleman's boot camp," he said.

A lot of the training time is in classes, he said. That's followed up by an officer correspondence class to learn about writing reports, then two consecutive classes of three weeks each for the chaplain training.

"It covers a lot of counseling," Knepp said, "how to perform a military funeral or a wedding."

Counseling training includes suicide prevention, and family and marriage counseling.

The chaplain duties Knepp's performed so far have included taking part in Yellow Ribbon events for soldiers returning from deployment and at drill weekends.

The congregation at Cornerstone has been involved during the process of his becoming a chaplain, Knepp said.

"It requires sacrifice on their part, but they see it as an investment in the kingdom of God," he said.

Cornerstone is a small enough congregation that he will be able to serve as both pastor there and as a chaplain, he said.

On drill weekends with the Guard, he will still be able to also perform Sunday services at Cornerstone after completing the sabbatical.

"They see it as an opportunity to send their pastor out to be a missionary," Knepp said, "basically, sharing me with the military."

The chaplaincy also is expected to include a year's deployment along with the troops for each five years of service. The 104th is now expected to be deployed the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012.