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Give your parents one bowling ball at a time.

How would you answer the question, “What is Royal Rangers”?  Many of us look to the National organization and the mission statement.  Evangelize, equip and empower the next generation of Christlike men and lifelong servant leaders.  We provide Christlike character formation and servant leadership development for boys and young men in a highly relational and fun environment.

The Royal Rangers program is a cross-generational ministry that interconnects well with children, youth and adult ministries and fits easily into the fabric of pastoral vision and into the flow of church ministries.  We affirm the male hands-on, interactive learning style by featuring an intentional discipleship journey for boys and young men based on their unique design, needs and interests. Every meeting, outing or service activity is designed to encourage boys and young men in their walk with God.

If you’re like me my brain feels weighted down a little after reading that.  It’s good stuff and if you were in front of a captive audience, you could unpack that together and walk away feeling inspired by what you could accomplish through this ministry.   

Here’s the problem, most people, or in this case, parents are bombarded every day with dates, times and places that their kids need to be.  They have hopes and dreams for their children and aspirations that range from astronaut, to doctor, to professional athlete.  Parents are looking for solutions and don’t have time or mental energy to consume multiple complex ideas even if they are rock solid. 

When given the opportunity you need to have one central idea that doesn’t take many mental calories to consume.  Think of it like this, you can hand everyone one bowling ball, but try giving them a second or third and one of them is going to wind up landing on their toe, and when that happened their gone. 

So why is all this important?  To grow Rangers and your Outpost you need to be able to articulate well the message of the ministry.  It’s naive to think that we are not in competition with many internal and external factors.  The biggest of those is the enemy.  Satan has a huge interest in keeping boys out of Rangers.  One recent stat that I heard was 97% of GMA will go on to serve in the Church.    

Storytelling

One of the best ways to convey any central message is by storytelling.  Jesus himself perfected this and we have been re-telling His stories for centuries.  A great book for all of you entrepreneurs out there is StoryBrand. 

This book really helps you distill your message down to easy to consume nuggets for your audience.  In addition, the techniques described help you create copy that continues to hold your audience’s attention. 

The most effective use of story is to create a central idea that makes you the guide and parents as the hero.  In every great story the hero is going about his day, a villain steps into the scene to disrupt that peace, then a guide appears to help the hero get back what the villain took.

I love the trailer for the first Lord of The Rings, “Fate has call him, the fellowship with protect him, the enemy will peruse him.”  Talking about Rangers you could easily substitute, “God has call him, our fellowship will protect him, the enemy will peruse him.” 

Mission statements don’t accomplish this.  Mission statements are for internal use.  It helps to guide the decisions of the company or organization.

Solving the problem

Everyone loves products that solve problems, or products that help them survive and thrive.  It’s easy for all of us as Commanders to see how Royal Rangers solves a whole host of problems and helps you connect with the one persons that is paramount to surviving and thriving, God.

Pick one of these themes and run with it, but remember to pick just one.  Too many and it just becomes noise and causes the brain to work too hard. 

Something bigger than themselves

We all love to be part of a movement.  Something that gives our lives meaning and can accomplish something bigger when we are all working together.  Again, Royal Rangers has always been that kind or organization.  There is something so true about the idea “it takes a village”.  In this “identity crises” culture Rangers is that rock solid organization that provide something this world can’t give and this world can’t take away.

These have proven to work

Mentoring future men.

• Mentors are not a babysitter
• Mentors help you thrive and survive
• Mentors fill the gap between where you are and where you hope to go

Hands on learning that fuels confidence and competence

• Intuitively we know boys are hands on learners
• As parents we all want confident and competent young men
• This fills a need and solves a problem together

Christ centered platform for dads.  (Know your audience and have several responses)

• This may trigger some single moms, fight or flight
• Operating from someone else’s platform puts you way ahead of the curve

Adventure rich ministry that sets boys up for success.

• Boys love adventure
• Moms and dads what to give their boys great experientially rich moments

Testimonials

Attaching testimonials are just as valuable as great product reviews.  These are usually follow up moments to a great headliner or elevator pitch.  By the way an elevator pitch follows the same basic principles we have been talking about.  Don’t overwhelm the person your speaking to with everything you know about Royal Rangers.  Hand them just one bowling ball and see how they handle it.  You’ll be amazed at how many follow up questions they will ask and that is the type of captive audience your words can inspire.

The National Office is working hard to develop Royal Rangers, cast a vision, and provide Outposts with much needed support, but it’s up to us as Commanders and Ranger parents to speak well and often of Rangers.  Royal Ranger is poised to grow exponentially and I for one would like to be part of that movement.