David B. Plummer

David B. Plummer is the Executive Director and Endorsing Executive of The Coalition of Spirit-filled Churches, Inc. (CSC), a religious endorsing body established to credential clergy from independent Pentecostal, Renewal, and Charismatic traditions for ministry as military and civilian chaplains as well as professional pastoral counselors. In 2000, the CSC was accepted into the membership of the COMISS Network. Representing approximately one million Spirit-filled Americans, the CSC credentials ministers so that they may be placed into the United States military, Veterans Affairs hospitals, and civilian institutions as chaplains and/or pastoral counselors. The home office is in Newport News, Virginia.

David left active-duty Army chaplaincy in April 1992 from the First Infantry Division (Mechanized), FT Riley, Kansas to serve as the Associate Director of another endorsing body. He separated from that organization in April 1998. He served over fourteen years in the Army (Reserve and Active Duty). David visited and ministered as a reservist at FT Monmouth, New Jersey; FT Carson, Colorado; FT Sam Houston, Texas; FT Meade, Maryland; FT Knox, Kentucky; Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC; FT Hood, TX; and FT Riley, Kansas. His assignments included hospitals, a confinement facility, the US Army Correctional Brigade, as well as Cavalry, Field Artillery, Maintenance, and Corps Support units.

David's professional memberships include the Association of Professional Chaplains (formerly the "College of Chaplains") as a Board Certified Chaplain; the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy as both a Board Certified Clinical Chaplain and a Diplomate Pastoral Psychotherapist; Military Chaplains Association of America; Military Order of the World Wars (Hampton Roads, VA Chapter where he has served as Senior Vice Commander and currently serves as Adjutant), National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces (for which he has served as Treasurer), and the Endorsers Conference for Veterans Affairs Chaplaincy (for which he has served as Secretary). He serves as the CSC religious endorsing body representative with the COMISS Network (for which he is a Past Secretary and a Past Chair of its COMISS Commission for Accreditation of Pastoral Services (CCAPS)). David holds licensure as a marriage and family therapist with the Commonwealth of Virginia. Similarly, he is nationally certified as a clinical member in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. He holds certification as a mediator, and as a Critical Incident Stress Management debriefer. He is a clinical member of the National Institute of Business and Industrial Chaplains, as well as a past Vice-President. In 1997, David accepted a position on the Editorial Committee of The Journal of Pastoral Care. In the over 50-year history of The Journal he is one of the first persons from the Pentecostal/Charismatic tradition to so serve. He served on the committee for over a decade. In 2009, he was elected to The Journal’s Board of Managers. Since 2004, he has served as the Endorser Liaison on the Executive Committee of the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy on behalf of the Association of Religious Endorsing Bodies. From January 2008 to January 2010, he was appointed as the COMISS Network Voting Member on the Joint Commission’s Professional and Technical Advisory Committee as well as the COMISS Network Liaison to the Joint Commission. He now serves as the Alternate to both of those offices. Most recently, in January 2010, he was elected as Chair-Elect of the Endorsers Conference for Veterans Affairs Chaplaincy. In January 2011, he was elected Chair-Elect of the COMISS Network.

Presently, on a full-time basis, David serves as the Manager of the Department of Chaplaincy Services for a 200-bed not-for-profit community hospital in Hampton, VA. In this position, he supervises the hospital's associate chaplains, adjunct chaplains, community clergy, and graduate divinity and counseling students from several graduate schools. In 2000, he completed a fellowship at the University of Virginia's Center for Biomedical Ethics. He serves as an Ethics Consultant for on-call clinical consultations and is Co-Chair of the hospital's ethics committee. He serves on the Eastern Virginia Medical School Institutional Review Board and he also serves as the Research Ethics Consultant for the Sentara Center for Healthcare Ethics addressing compliance issues with respect to human subject research protections.

David serves as a clinical site supervisor for graduate students from Regent University School of Psychology and Counseling, as well as both undergraduate and graduate students from Old Dominion University.

He also serves periodically as a field education supervisor for seminarians from Virginia Union School of Theology and Regent University School of Divinity.

David was born in Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, Denver Colorado, to a career Air Force family. He is an alumnus of the College of William and Mary in Virginia, and Cincinnati Christian University (Christian Church / Church of Christ affiliated). He became an ordained minister in 1986, after completing the Master of Divinity degree from United Theological Seminary (United Methodist). He completed the course requirements for a doctorate in Chaplaincy/Pastoral Care at Regent University School of Divinity. Prior to entering the Army on active duty, he served over four years as associate pastor and later as senior pastor of Valleyview Church (Englewood, Ohio).

His writings have appeared in The [Dayton, OH] Christian Citizen, The Dayton [OH] Daily News, and the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy News. He wrote a Guest Editorial for the Spring 1996 issue of The Journal of Pastoral Care — the primary journal of professional chaplains and pastoral counselors — entitled, "Chaplaincy: The greatest Story Never Told"; and an article for the September/October 1996 Officer Review, the publication of the Military Order of World Wars (a national patriotic organization of military officers). Most recently, he has written several articles for PlainViews e-magazine: "Chaplains: Are Hospitals Our Houses of Worship and Its Staff Our Congregants?" found at http://plainviews.healthcarechaplaincy.org; "Should We Confront and Challenge Particular Cultures" found at http://plainviews.healthcarechaplaincy.org; "The Struggles of an Evangelical Chaplain" found at http://plainviews.healthcarechaplaincy.org. His most recent piece, "Creating a Personal Theology to Do Pastoral Care," is a chapter in Professional Pastoral and Spiritual Care: A Practical Clergy and Chaplain’s Handbook [Publisher: SkyLight Paths Publishing, Date to be Published: October 01, 2011, ISBN13: 9781594733123, ISBN: 1594733120].

For the past nineteen years, David's major thrust of ministry has centered on endorsing chaplains for the US Armed Forces, federal and state correctional facilities, VA and civilian healthcare facilities, as well as for such special settings as law enforcement, fire departments, workplace, and public schools. He recently accepted a position on the Board of the Metropolitan Virginia YMCA.

Additionally, because of his love of the American way of life; love of colonial history; and a desire to communicate these values to youth possessing leadership qualities, David is one of the founding directors of the American Independence Foundation of Colonial Virginia (AIFCV), and an article on AIFCV is at http://www.server-jbmultimedia.net. The AIFCU is a non-profit 501(C)(3) organization established to "Educate and train the youthful leadership of America towards a greater understanding of Colonial America's quest for independence and it's necessity before defining the American freedoms."

David's hobbies and delights include teaching his daughter about the things of God and life. He also really enjoys "just being" with her (and she with him)!