New to RangerChat and Royal Rangers

Hello! My name is Tim and I attend Deer Valley Worship Center in Phoenix, AZ. We recently started a new Royal Rangers Outpost #037. We have between 11 and 13 boys every Wednesday, mostly Discovery Rangers with 3 Adventure Rangers and 2 Ranger Kids.

Now about me! I love to hunt and fish. I shoot archery and rifles. I have a concealed carry license. I have chickens, dogs, fish, a cat, and a bearded dragon. I have a son in Royal Rangers age 8 and a daughter in STARS age 10. I am happily married to my wife of nearly 18 years. I work in the public sector in Water Distribution fixing water meters and fire hydrants among other duties "as assigned". I am working on promoting, so if anyone feels like lifting me up in prayer, that would be a good one. I am a graduate of Northern Arizona University with a BS in Public Administration. In addition to Royal Rangers, I work as one of the sound board technicians at my church. I also help out in the children's ministry on some Sunday mornings. Last month, I started getting trained in the Cafe making espresso drinks. I love coffee and will often buy raw coffee beans and roast them myself. I make turkish coffee, black coffee, and cold brew. I will drink almost any coffee.

I think that about covers it. If you have any questions, please ask!

Hi, Tim. Man, it's hot down where you live. I remember driving through one time and we watched a double feature to get relief from the heat. We got out just before midnight and it was still 100 degrees. Should've just kept driving.

Some on this forum, myself included, have suffered the loss of their outpost through a pastor's "new direction." Never seems to have worked out for them, though. How was it that a church without RR experience ended up reaching into the bag and pulled out a ministry that works?

Our Pastor has been working through what he terms Family Focus. 3 years ago we began our first Ed Cole's Maximized Manhood Commissioning. The second year, I began working through the first 6 books with a group of 8 youth for a dagger commissioning. Our church has now commissioned nearly 50 men and 8 young men. One of our Commissioned men has 3 boys. He was tired of only seeing women teachers and wanted something to help his boys "man-up" and, between he and our pastor, they decided Royal Rangers was the answering. He came to another commissioned man and myself and asked for our help. The ladies decided that the girls needed something and they began teaching the STARS curriculum. Now, we have a group of women going through a commissioning program similar to (and including some of the books) the Maximized Manhood program. Our Pastor is big on discipleship and Royal Rangers/STARS programs starts discipleship young. Many of the men in our church went through Royal Rangers as kids. I went through a similar program called Royal Ambassadors.

WELCOME TO THE TRENCHES.

Ranger Chat has been a bit slow, lately. I believe that it is, in large part, because we haven't seen many new members, and the same old guys hashing the same old stuff can get boring.

Even though you didn't ask for it, a free piece of advice is: Run the Ranger Program the way that it works for YOUR Church. Don't think that, if you can't have a Perfect Program with full uniforms, that you can't do it.

As hard as kids are on clothes, many outposts just go with printed T-Shirts (and maybe Awards Vests) for the meetings. We keep the Awards Vests and Dress Uniform Shirts in the Ranger Room, as we have too often had a boy come to 2 meetings, get his uniform, then we never see him again.

Even the boys who are faithful have a problem with, "Where is your uniform?" "I don't know. My Mom washed it, and put it somewhere.....".

Thanks for the advice. We had already looked at that possibility. I contacted Royal Rangers for the acceptable use policy and will, most likely, be making t-shirts for the boys. We are looking to get them all award vests for sure and will look into the dress/uniform shirts as we progress further. My wife makes "bleach" shirts and has a cricut for the screen print style, so we may have a couple of options for each of our rangers.

Welcome Tim, we are glad to have you.
I agree with Claymore on the shirts. Start with T-shirts.

Back in the day, a couple of my outposts were in large seaports with a Navy presence. I would go to the base thrift stores and get khaki shirts and pants for the boys at a dollar apiece. (and then add $10 for the GPH patches...grrr)

joecool wrote:Back in the day, a couple of my outposts were in large seaports with a Navy presence. I would go to the base thrift stores and get khaki shirts and pants for the boys at a dollar apiece. (and then add $10 for the GPH patches...grrr)

I still do that.  You can go onto eBay, and find Navy Officer or Marine Khaki shirts for $4.00 to $5.00 each (rather than dropping $40.00 for something that a boy will outgrow in a year).

Our Outpost purchases the shirts and sews on the patches, but the shirts are kept in the Ranger Room.

We also sew 2" wide strips of dark Navy Blue Velcro (soft/pile side) to the backs of the Awards Vests, and sew the hook side to the backs of the merit patches.  When a boy earns a merit, we can just slap it to the back of his vest.  If he outgrows his vest, no problem in transferring the patches.

We also sew a 5" long strip of Velcro ( pile side, at/about where the front/left upper pocket would be. We have name tapes made in blue-black with white lettering, and attach them to the Velcro. That way, it is easy to see which vest belongs to which boy.

If the kid leaves the Outpost, we pull the patches off and recycle the Awards Vest.

We did try to use the "Iron-On" Velcro for the Merit Patches, but I found that the embroidery thread in the merit patches melted by the time that you got the adhesive to bond.

Jump in and work with those boys! It's a great ministry.

Mark Jones

Remember, the hear, see, do, and teach (boys helping boys learn) approach works best. Heavy focus on doing and boys teaching others. That’s the best way to disciple and teach leadership than just using handouts and listening to a Commander monologue. By identifying your leaders and using them to teach will grow them and multiiply your forces. Let the boys “own” their Royal Rangers experience.

May have missed it but curious how you discovered RC?

Tim, my name is Max I’m on AZ District Staff. We should meet up sometime! You’re in my section and I’d love to connect with ya!

Mherzog@thenssp.org

Max, it looks like tbrown's last post was on/about August 19. Hopefully, he is occasionally checking the thread.

I'm still checking in periodically. I'd love to meet up with you sometime Max. I was hoping to attend the Ranger Basics that was held last weekend, but I was on Sound at my church last Sunday and our worship team practices on Saturday. My elk hunt starts on the 14th so I won't be able to attend the Ranger Essentials this time either. There are 3 of us leading the boys and I'm sure the other 2 would be interested in meeting you as well. If you live in or around Phoenix, maybe we can meet up somewhere once hunting season settles down? I was asked not to do an evening coffee meet. One of the other commanders doesn't handle late caffeine.

Tim,

It looks like Max is one of the BIG DOGS in the Ranger Shooting Program. He is on staff with the Royal Rangers National Shooting Sports Program.

Here is a link to their page:

http://www.thenssp.org/


(I guess that I'm going to have to watch myself, when I try to speak with authority on the Shooting Merits & Competitions, now.)

Always good to help each other out and meet up and shake hands.  One of the best things about Royal Rangers that I really enjoy with the open arms we have for fellow Christian Brothers in Christ.  Then we get to do Cool things that challenge us and the boys/girls/folk we bring along.  So many open doors with Royal Ranger ministry.

Claymore wrote:Tim,

It looks like Max is one of the BIG DOGS in the Ranger Shooting Program.  He is on staff with the Royal Rangers National Shooting Sports Program.

Here is a link to their page:

http://www.thenssp.org/


(I guess that I'm going to have to watch myself, when I try to speak with authority on the Shooting Merits & Competitions, now.)

I am on National Staff, yes (it's not a big deal, was just at the right place at the right time). Claymore, I honestly forgot this sight existed. I'm happy to help where needed. I'll be checking in much more often (not interested in spying, just wanna help). Got an email for some reason and relaxed I haven't logged in here in ages!

As of now, we are still trying to build the national program, some merits are being revised, we appreciate any and all input. So, feel free to reach out.

tbrown3589 wrote:I'm still checking in periodically.  I'd love to meet up with you sometime Max.  I was hoping to attend the Ranger Basics that was held last weekend, but I was on Sound at my church last Sunday and our worship team practices on Saturday.  My elk hunt starts on the 14th so I won't be able to attend the Ranger Essentials this time either.  There are 3 of us leading the boys and I'm sure the other 2 would be interested in meeting you as well.  If you live in or around Phoenix, maybe we can meet up somewhere once hunting season settles down?  I was asked not to do an evening coffee meet.  One of the other commanders doesn't handle late caffeine.

Feel free to email or call me. I'm pretty flexible. I'd love to meet up with ya guys and help y'all out any way that I can.

602-332-4919
mherzog@thenssp.org