Chaplain Jim McNabb
The newsroom pastor · Voice of sacred solace
Chaplain Jim McNabb’s voice provides the very opening note of solace for ChaplainUSA’s Survivor Network. His poignant reading of the classic passage from Ecclesiastes—“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven...”—serves as the lead, flagship video featured at the top of the Survivor Network gallery, offering immediate, timeless grounding to grieving families, officers, and community members facing catastrophic loss.
Caring for Those Who Cover the Crisis
A veteran journalist, adjunct professor at St. Edward’s University, media critic (News McNabb), and South Austin singer-songwriter who holds degrees from Baylor University and UT Austin, McNabb spent more than four decades observing the transformation of Central Texas media. His ministry grew directly out of his own trade: while first responders have debriefing teams, chaplains, and peer support, reporters and photojournalists are dispatched straight into trauma, violence, and tragedy with no institutional support for what they carry home.
In his Police Chaplain Project conversation, Who Cares for the Ones Who Cover the Crisis?, McNabb addresses this unexamined operational gap:
Cumulative Newsroom Trauma: Detailing how the complete absence of post-incident debriefing quietly erodes journalists, media crews, and photojournalists until burnout forces them out of the profession.
A Call for Media Care: Urging newsroom leaders, media managers, and public safety chaplains to extend pastoral support to the men and women holding the cameras, notebooks, and microphones.
Grief and Ritual Teachings: Joining Senior Chaplains Dave Fair and Larry Todd in Survivor Network video modules to provide gentle, practical guidance on funerals, memorial rituals, and navigating the profound stages of loss.
Every profession on a crisis scene has someone assigned to its care except the people covering it. Jim McNabb has made it his calling to be that steadying presence, ensuring that the storytellers are never left standing alone in the dark.