Do people in your church know what outpost needs you have?  Like many, my outpost doesn't have much of a budget and we struggled with getting out the word about what our larger needs were.

The name of the game is making it easier for people to help you!

This is the coolest Ranger room I've ever seen.  This meeting room belongs to Victory Assembly in Lakeland, FL (OP 169)  Now victory is a big church (easily in the 'Megachurch' category) before I heard the story of how this room came to be, I simply thought that a church like that could just afford it and wrote a check. But this is a story of Vision.  Vision is what lead the outpost leadership to conceive and promote this idea and it took a long time to get it there (planning, fundraising, promoting). 

There is a long corridor leading into the room on the right side its lined with pictures of all their GMA's. On the left side is various awards, pictures, and a display case inset into the wall.  At the end of the corridor is a check-in pc as well as bulletin area for the latest news. To the left is the couch and fireplace (pictured above). Behind them is the Outpost store which has various Ranger gear as well as snacks/treats.  On the other side of the room is a game area with tv's and xboxes ready to play.

The main use is to hang out in pre-meeting.  The Sr. Commander says "No one enters this room and doesn't want to hear more about Royal Rangers"

What are you doing with your room? Even if you don't have a dedicated space you can still do cool things that generate excitement.  Know of someone with a great meeting room? Send us some pics and a write up.

Tracclub (http://www.tracclub.org) has been out for a while, if you haven't heard about it I highly suggest checking it out.  Basically its an online curriculum subscription for Royal Rangers materials.

It's great to be able to print on demand just the curriculum I need for just the boys I have. But one of the features I want to share with you is something they don't really talk about.

I don't know about you but the only challenging part of the Ranger curriculum is the "required materials" section of the meetig guide. I have to purposefully sit down and make a list to see what I have (or don't have as is more often the case) and then either go and get it next time I'm out, or make a special trip if I don't have time to wait. 

I was floored when I asked a few pastors to tell me what one of their biggest issues in having Royal Rangers at their church was.  They almost identically responded something to the effect of:

"My Leaders are passionate but all they do is Royal Rangers, I wish they'd engage elsewhere too"

I think the issue here is that we are excited to be Royal Rangers leaders and so of course we've put a large amount of time and effort into the ministry and want to continue to in the future.

The problem with that is this: We want to be examples to young men, in effect we wan't to clone ourselves so that the next generation has a passion for the lost, working with a ministry, and being an example of Godly manhood.  So the question is would we tell someone else its ok to be only involved in a ministry at the church to the exclusion of every other ministry?  Would we also tell them that our ministry is better than all the others?

NO! and their lies the problem, because pastors can perceive this problem with their Royal Ranger leaders.  So how can we model for our boys men that are fully engaged?  Let me ask you this?

When was the last time you did a project as a whole outpost (boys too)?  What a better opportunity to show your boys that Godly men don't just consume at church but they actively participate?  So find a project or need your church has and see what you can do to get involved!

Most parents are always a little nervous sending their son camping/overnight activity for the first time with an outpost?  So first I want to tell you that Royal Rangers leaders are well trained in these kinds of events, so breathe easy!

Does your Outpost have enough money? If the answer is yes than please find an other article to read (and if you don't mind, send me your email so you can write me a check for my outpost)  If your still reading I'm assuming your outpost could use some more money.  So does your outpost need new tents, classroom equipment, maybe a new trailer?  Those are all worthy things ,however, let me challenge you for a moment to think that things like outreach should also be on that things-I-need-money-for list.

What a silly question! "Are my boys having fun in Royal Rangers?"  Of course they are having fun. I'm a great commander! Ok, well let me put it to you this way:  Are your boys inviting their friends to outpost meetings?  Is your outpost growing?  If you can't say yes to both of those, then guess what?  Your boys are not having fun at Royal Rangers!