RAF Regiment Trainee Gunner Course Graduates. UK MOD © Crown copyright 2022
David explains the urgent need for Scripture Readers in the Royal Air Force
When I joined the Royal Air Force in 1979 as a young RAF Regiment Gunner, I was sixteen and a half. I served for six years. At the time, I had no idea how spiritually uninformed I was.
I had not grown up in church. My first real contact with chapel life came at RAF Swinderby, and if I am honest, it began for practical reasons. Chapel meant getting off Sunday duties. That was enough to get me through the door. Once I started attending, I kept going. I learned the rhythm of services, the hymns, the prayers. From the outside, I probably looked settled.
Inside, I did not understand the gospel. I believed in God in a vague way, but I did not know Christ. No one had ever sat down with me, opened the Bible, and explained that Christianity is not about attendance or routine but about repentance and faith. I was present in chapel, but I was untouched at heart.
During those six years, I never met a SASRA Scripture Reader. In fact, I did not even know such a ministry existed. Looking back, that absence matters. I was not hostile. I was not closed. I simply did not know. A steady, patient person walking me through the Scriptures one to one could have changed the course of those years.
When you look today at the distribution of Scripture Readers across the country, the contrast is clear. Army bases are generally well served. On RAF camps, the number is far smaller. Yet the spiritual need in the RAF is no less urgent.
Young men and women still join at sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. Many arrive with little church background. Some step into chapel out of curiosity. Some come for the quiet. Some come for reasons that have nothing to do with faith at all. Without clear explanation and intentional discipleship, they can remain close to Christian activity without ever grasping the gospel.
This is why having SASRA Scripture Readers based on RAF camps is so important. Chaplains carry significant responsibility across the whole station. Scripture Readers complement that work in a distinct way. They are present in the ordinary flow of station life. They build trust over time. They create space for honest questions. They can patiently explain what it means to move from religious habit to living faith.
The relative scarcity of Scripture Readers on RAF camps is not just a staffing detail. It represents real people. It represents young airmen and airwomen who may sit in services but never have someone walk alongside them in the Scriptures. It represents conversations that never begin.
This is not about criticism. It is about opportunity. The RAF is a mission field in uniform. There is openness. There is access. There is need.
Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.' John 4:35 ESV
Take Action
“The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.” Matthew 9:37-38 ESV
PRAY WITH US
- Please pray that God would raise up men and women to serve as Scripture Readers on RAF camps
- Pray that He would send workers who love the RAF community and will commit themselves to it.
- Pray that when the next sixteen year old walks into a chapel for the wrong reasons, someone will be there to help them discover the right Saviour.
