Boys Need Godly Men

I was twelve years old and it was going to be my first real camping trip. We were going to be backpacking in the Linville Gorge in the beautiful North Carolina mountains. I had been camping all of my life, or so I thought. But this was a different level. My parents weren’t there, I had to carry my own food and gear, and the next day we would be rock climbing and rappelling. But I was ready to go.

The joys of youth. That’s what they say. But that night I did not find joy. No. That night it was twenty degrees outside and I was in a Michael Jordan sleeping bag that was rated for about sixty degrees. It was cold. I was cold. Talk about a long night.

But, I made it through the night. My troubles were over…. Right? I could not have been more wrong.

The next morning we hike to the top of “The Chimney’s” to do our rock climbing and rappelling. Now, I had never done anything like this before. I had never even been on a major roller coaster at this point in my life. I was scared to death. However, I wasn’t going to let anyone else know that fact. So I strapped in a harness, clipped into the rope, and listened to the instructions.

“As you start down, make sure you let out rope to be at about a 90 degree angle to the cliff and walk down slowly.” These were the words of our leader, Coit Morrison. Simple right? No problem!

So I backed to the edge of the cliff, walked over the edge, and was told to start letting out some rope. But there was a problem. A minor detail had been forgotten. As I let out more and more rope, I forgot to also walk down the mountain. The next thing I knew, I was completely upside down and my legs were tangled up in the rope.

My worst fears had come true. But the short end of the long story is that they got me down safely. And no, I was not traumatized so badly that I never returned to another meeting of Christian Service Brigade. On the contrary, I would return every week until I graduated from high school and would then go on to work with the group as an adult leader.

This trip was pivotal for my life. It was pivotal because it solidified a relationship with godly men who would speak into my life the rest of my school days, and even now at the age of 38. I am still advised and mentored by some of those same men.

The theme verse for Christian Service Brigade is 2 Timothy 2:2.

“and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:2, ESV)

The ministry of Brigade is important. It is all about training boys for Christ. Teaching boys how to be true men of God. In short, it is all about discipleship.

I cannot stress enough how much we need good, godly discipleship and mentoring for our young men today. If we truly want to change the world. If we want to win the culture. It has to start with training our youth. We need to teach them the Word of God and how we apply that Word to our lives here in the 21st Century.

So the question to all of us is this, what are we doing to train the next generation for Christ? What are we doing to make that impact?

If we do not readily know the answer to that question, we need to evaluate our Christian Living and decide what we need to do. Talk with your pastor, see how you can get involved in the lives of youth and train them to be godly young men and women.

To learn more about Christian Service Brigade go to https://csbministries.org