New National comander.

Attention Rangers!  I think we got a good man in Springfield that enjoyes working with boys and camping.  He is also a Spiritfield Pentecostal preacher that can preach.  

I was able to personally hand him the Article by Johnnie Barnes and bend his ear for 15 minutes at our Commanders Conference.  He has a common sense approach and listens and takes notes.  

He encouraged us to QLT  Question Learn Tweak (NOT CHANGE EVERYTHING AGAIN)  but tweak it.  Work out the bugs and get it to run the best it can.  

He enjoys getting away from it all and roughing it.  He is a breath of fresh air and I am excited to see a man that has many years working with boys serving food at rendezvous and attended NTC as a young man... and said if his future father inlaw had not been the one to have him go to NTC he probably would not have finished it..with them yelling in his face...GRIN!  I told him my story of them doing that to me at  LTC and how it got fixed 2 years later.  

He seems to be a real man with a heart for Rangers.  The Rick Warren business plan isn't the Gospel to him.  I am pleased and hopeful God has heard our pleas for a man that loves working with boys and Ranger Ministry.  Let's get behind him and lift him up before God to see a shinning light for Jesus comming once again out of Ranger Ministry.

He mentoned even seeing the need to teach camping skills again and bringing back the LTC.

Mark Jones

PRAISE GOD

Thanks for the report Mark!

Good to hear! I may need to make a real effort to charter again...

Outstanding.

We're taught that we should pray for out Leaders, no matter what, but...

.....................it seems a whole lot easier to do when you feel in agreement with them.

If the Lord tarries there is good stuff on it's way for Ranger Ministry.

Mark Jones

I may charter again too. Glad the article "Why Camping" was helpful to you. I feel like past 6 yrs been in a famine and drought.

That article made it into our Commanders Conference notebook as well for all to read it. It was also given out in a class on the camping program in Rangers.

Most I have talked with in our District see the decline and know that taking the focus off of camping has caused a major decline in our Ranger Ministry.

The hard part is getting past the 1st paragraph in Johnnie Barnes article on "why camping". He describes the people in charge in a very interesting way. I personally feel that many of these folks are wrapped up in their comfort and their luxuary that they wouldn't have followed Moses out into the dessert. Sad to say but we have to get through them to get out into ministry. That's the hardest part. Cutting out the flesh and getting folks to die to that flesh and get out of the way.

Mark Jones

RRCmdrBennett wrote:I may charter again too. Glad the article "Why Camping" was helpful to you. I feel like past 6 yrs been in a famine and drought.

I will agree with you on the past 7 years on a national level.... yet on a District to Outpost level in our area...we haven't fell for the tom foolery. We know what works and are busy at it.

The rest of it... that is proven that doesn't work...we just nod uhuh and recommend they fix it. Grin!

I am excited to once again see a man that enjoys working with boys and has the vision to take Rangers down a known trail of success and mission. If he can get it done..th would be wonderful.

Mark Jones

Recall Mark many grumbled and wanted to go back to a "comfortable slavery" rather than dangerous uncertain freedom. Recall only III% of colonials supported independence from Britian.

RRCmdrBennett wrote:Recall only III% of colonials supported independence from Britian.

Seems like pretty good numbers to me!

But seriously, any word lately on anything new from Springfield? The silence is deafening...

Phillip Gross wrote:

RRCmdrBennett wrote:Recall only III% of colonials supported independence from Britian.

Seems like pretty good numbers to me! .

OOH!

Herr Weisenheimer!!!

That's my forte...

Any news coming out of National? Still just holding course, or is anything starting to shift?

It's still been pretty quiet.  They did move the Lead back to Springfield.  They did remove some of the reporting on Leaders Awards.  They still need to fix many things.  

Karl is still listening.  Change in the right direction seems to come very slowly.  

It's funny how bad changes can come over night... GRIN!
It's the same at my work at at&t.  They come and go.  It takes years to get something to working right and over night one guy can and often does put it into a 10 year spin wasting money and time.  Yet it seems very HUMAN of us!

Mark Jones

Mark Jones wrote:

It's funny how bad changes can come over night... GRIN!

Mark Jones

It's kind-of like that in Nature, too.

It can take you two years to build a house, and one lousy wind-storm or flood can wreck it overnight.

(The problem is when the "Insurance Company" denies that there is any damage.............)

I understand the mother nature elements not a lot we can do about that. Yet when Tom Foolery comes in and makes a few tweaks he can shut the whole system down in seconds with just a few "Good ideas".

I wished the good ideas had to be passed through the seasoned guys first. So we could explain to them why what they want to accomplish won't work that way because of this and that.

Maybe 1 out of 25 ideas is a good idea. The rest just waste or cost money and time.

Mark Jones

I am reminded at our Ranger Derby many years ago we had a new national staff person come to our derby we were running about 250 to 350 cars. He said he had some ideas to make the registration simpler...the powers that be said ok. He said you need to move this over there and that over there and I said what are going to do with the people standing in line outside trying to get inside from the cold weather? He said there won't be a problem.

Next morning. We had people complaining of standing outside waiting to get in.....grin! Me being me said " I told you this would happen".

GRIN! We went back to doing it the best way it worked.

Even the simple changes can mess it up bad.

Don't get me wrong. I try and tweak the events I have done many times over the years. I get lots of suggestions. It's nice to say we tried that and this is what happened.

Karl has a very interesting mix he is dealing with. I can understand his caution. I just know what worked well and what doesn't from experience. Going back to what worked well is a good way to go. Nothing is perfect but somethings just work a lot better than what we have today.

Mark Jones

For the sake of conversation, put yourself in the National Commander's seat and tell me what you'd do and how.

I would come up with a strategy to get RR going in Canada, not just 2 outposts.

Canadarangers wrote:I would come up with a strategy to get RR going in Canada, not just 2 outposts.

It is interesting that Royal Rangers seems to be thriving in Germany and Eastern Europe, but has trouble finding traction in Canada.

Of course, I don't think that it has much of a following in France or England, and (insofar as I know) much of the Cultural Heritage of Canada comes from France & England.

Maybe I'm ill-informed, but haven't Germany and other Eastern block countries always leaned a little more towards militarism than France and England?

America has always had a fair balance of those who lean towards militarism and those who lean away from it. Maybe ideologies basically determine how well received the program will be.

It seems that as RR watered down the program and tried to distance themselves from anything resembling military, the program has diminished. I'm sure you've all seen the pictures from when the program first started. From the boys, up to the National commanders, the uniforms looked like a military branch. The program was disciplined and growing.

Aren't we called the army of God? Could it be that we have an innate desire to be a part of "the ranks" of something bigger than self? Look at gangs. Young men want to be a part of something bigger and badder than themselves. I think the church as a whole has dropped the ball with this. The modern gospel preached is all about what "Jesus can do for you". Maybe we need to get back to what we can do for Jesus.

So if I were at the helm, I'd start changing course back towards a more disciplined program that isn't "one size fits all".  One size fits all is cheap and doesn't inspire excitement with anyone for long. I think Rangers should get back to focusing on boys that want to part of an organization that is a little rougher and tougher than what anyone and everyone wants to be a part of. If someone else within the body of Christ needs to come up with a program that fits kids who just want to sit around, maybe shoot some hoops here and there, play video games, and hang out at the mall, they can do it. They could call it something like.... Youth Group!

Go back to one uniform standard.

I like that too. Would it be the painter's smock?

Phillip Gross wrote:I like that too. Would it be the painter's smock?

Personally I like the Dickies shirts that we've gone to (old school).