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Commander John Robinson – A Leader’s Leader [S03,E99]
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Commander John Robinson – A Leader’s Leader
Welcome to the Royal Ranger podcast, your virtual outposts for gearing up and mapping out your next great adventure.
Links mentioned in the show
- https://royalrangers.com/FCF
- http://www.nationalfcf.com/
Welcome back to the show everybody, and thank you for joining us here on their range, your podcast. As long as you can find all the show notes and show details at therangerpodcast.com or on iTunes or your favorite podcast app. If you have never gone to the website, check it out. There’s plenty of things on there. There’s the ready for anything page, which is full of all of the tools and gadgets that we use when we’re camping and hiking and doing different things, ranger style. And also there’s a place for you to comment on every show. We’d love to hear from you. We appreciate all the emails and comments that are coming in like us on Facebook. We always put show notes there and we, give a little heads up on, on places we’re going to be. So, make it available to yourself .
Welcome Commander Wayne. Thank you. It’s good to be here. So we’re on location today. It’s a little different we’re actually here at our Outpost lodge. The OP169 lodge. We’ve done it before, but when we are not in the studio, we like to be next to the fireplace and the lodge-ee fell of our home base.
The reason we’re on location tonight is because we have a special guest on the show. We do. He paid a visit to our outpost tonight. We have the Alabama district director and FCF territorial representative for the riflemen territory. Welcome to the show John Robinson. Well thank you. It’s great to be here. I’ve always loved your outpost.
How many years has it been? I met you here in the gymnasium. It was the first regional exposed that I was the director over here at Victory Church. Yup. Wow. You in the gym, you were in your full fcff fit. Yes. It was a good one too, but I can’t remember what year it’s been a long time ago. Long, long time ago. Well, I can tell you that just because I happen to have a few notes in front of me. Okay. That commander John has been in Royal Rangers since [inaudible] 91 that’s true. 91 okay. And when did we, when did, when did victory start? It was 91 when I met that command. Now I’m just trying to date 31 years ago. 30 40 years. 32 years ago. Wow. Okay. But do you, um, say, and you’ve done quite a lot of things in rangers over the years.
I mean you’ve, uh, you’re heavily involved in FCF. Yes sir. I am. And tell us a little bit about what the territory representative for the rifleman saddle about. Well, I’m over the southeastern United States and Puerto Rico for the frontiers men camping fellowship. And because of that, I’m on the national staff. And so I’m the representative for all of that area. For, for FCF commander John, that’s the southeast region. Right? That’s true. Okay. And which includes, um, Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Florida, the districts in Florida and then Puerto Rico. Wow, that’s a big territory. It is a big territory. So what’s the biggest event that you go to associate with that? It would be, well, besides the national rendezvous, it would be the territorial rendezvous and we easily have a 250 to 300 men and boys there for an event. And is there, you know, I’m, I’m unfamiliar with this and from a, from a standpoint of where people would go to find out information about that.
Is there a national website, especially with FCM? There is and it’s, I’m horrible with, uh, yeah. That’s okay. We’ll make sure we put that in the show notes. So yeah, I’m horrible with the website. Okay. So I use Google a lot and you just type in national frontiers when camping fellowship. Okay. It’ll go to the national page. Okay. And so if there’s outposts out there that aren’t heavily involved in FCF, where do they get started? How do they, do they, they, they started there, they go to the website and kind of work our way backwards or, well, they can go there, but each state, um, our district has their own FCF chapter so they could contact their FCF president. The guy over there state for FCF, uh, would be somebody good to talk to. And if they can’t find out anything, they can always contact the national role ranger office and they’ll, they’ll get them steered in the right direction.
Yeah. And they actually, and the national website, we’re rangers.com is really upgraded their look. I mean it’s really got a neat oh yeah, they really changed it a lot feel and, and I think you can put your fingers tips on some, some information easily, maybe more easily than before. The search tool is a great thing. Yeah, absolutely. And it works really well on your phone now too. Where’s the last website? Did a lot of that pension zoom and it’s just more difficult because you know, we use a lot of times, I mean you’re in the classroom, sometimes you look up something quickly and you know, just sharing some information so it’s, they’ve done a good job with it. So you actually, um, as as the uh, coordinator for the district, that means you guys are revving up for pow. We are, we’ve got hours coming up in April.
Yeah. Which is the same farmers too. So you guys are in full swing and that means getting the property ready and getting all the, the outposts promoting it and that kind of thing. Yes sir. Yeah. The note you have your, you have your own range of property like in Florida? We do, yes. It’s right beside our camp and conference center for the district. They actually touch and the join. And you’ve been down to camp wilderness? I just came back from there. I was at the FCF trace this past weekend. Okay, cool. So you know, I’m a little bit jealous only because you briefly started describing the property that your panel is on and you’re going to full zip line there, which is we do, we’ve had the zip line as long as I’ve been enrolled rangers. Okay. Before that, what are some of the other activities that you guys do and and uh, for the power, well, we have a 22 rifle shoot. We’ll have archery. Wow. Um, there, there’ll be some type of games that are my pal coordinator comes up with and uh, competitions and stuff. Um, I’m trying to think of some of the other actual games. And you guys, is there like a ranger to the ranger kids camp overnight or they just have a fun day? We have a range of kids, a fun day. Sometimes the ranger kids are invited to come, but they’re one, their dad needs to be with them because when you get boys that young, they’re going to get home sick, easy, and you’ll get halfway through the night and it’s like, oh, I want my Mama. Um, so yeah, that we want their dad to be there and that helps a little bit. But, um, we start inviting boys when they’re a, a discovery ranger, which would be fourth grade right now. Excuse me, third grade. Um, do you guys take advantage of like, we do the, uh, we’ll have some inflatable things. They’re like, we’ll have a dunk tank and uh, we’ve done some of that in the past. We haven’t lately. Okay. They’ll, uh, there’s plenty of things for them to do. Saturday afternoon we got and where we have strictly FCF stuff in the village, uh, handcraft items and all of that kind of stuff and throwing the Tomahawk though when the knives and all the fun things that boys can do, it kind of reminds me of traders row is what we call it. Oh yeah. The boys can go and they can even purchase some things in or trade for some things. Well we actually have some stuff that they can make while they’re sitting there and, and take home with them. So that’s great. It means something to them. And of course there’s the camp entrances and you have a particular theme this year that we do, um, uh, breaking, let’s see.
I don’t know exactly, but breaking chains is a cool, okay. We had the boys design the patch this year, so I’m excited about that. Nice. And uh, they’re going to get a, like Disney, they get the free pass to the front of the line. Okay. Because they participated in the, the uh, patch competition and the boy that actually one, the one that design is going to have entry to the camp for nothing. He gets a scholarship and you guys, um, you guys cook for everybody that comes or we do, you’ve got the choice. You can buy with the meal package or you can prepare meals in your outpost. 90% of the people will go ahead and buy the meal package. I wasn’t for it it at first, but when you walk up to a line and you get to eat and you’re not in camp for a couple of hours preparing, it makes a difference.
You get to have a lot more fun that way. So 10% only 10% cooking count. Correct. Wow. It was totally opposite from POW wow. Yeah. There’s quite a few people that are cooking their own. Most of them. Yeah. Now I’m, I’m guessing that the, uh, the format’s probably some similar where each night you’ll have a service and you guys wrap it up on, like I said, is it Friday night? That’s when kids roll in. Well, we have, you can come in on Thursday, but POW doesn’t officially start till Friday. Okay. And they’ll have some activities going on Friday while everybody arrives in sets up camp for the most part, all the activities or Saturday. But we could go into Sunday and yes, we have a service each night. I’m excited. This year we’ve got whit Sasser who, uh, he was a long town children’s pastor in Alabama and then became a senior pastor until his wife passed away and he’s down in Tallahassee now. So he’s out of our district and he’s going to come back and he’s going to rock it. He’s an awesome speaker and relate to the kids. And uh, so we’re going to have him back this year. One of the things that that pin forward has done in the last few years is they’ve broken the services up. So we do the ninth through 12th graders will have a service of their own and then all the kids have a service.
Yeah, I heard that. Yeah, I’d like to see it, but of course I’ll be at Moffitt. Oh yeah, no, I actually really like it a lot. And I think one of the big things is that the pastors that come are sometimes able to tackle some things that these kids are dealing with and really on their level and be a little more age appropriate. So for that reason, I think it’s really, really great that they can do that. And we’ve had some amazing times at the altars and it just sometimes it’s, it’s, it’s heartbreaking and at the same time when you just hear some of the things these kids are dealing with already at, they’re still young age and sometimes it’s pretty unbelievable. Yeah. You know, it’s also hard to, you’re able to, like you said, you’re dealing with different problems, but it’s really you can, you think of the, uh, your speaker trying to gear a ultra call and a message to third and fourth graders and then you’ve got high schoolers in the same exactly.
Same arena. So it really did. I think it was a, it was an awesome movie, is a good move. Yeah. And there have been those speakers that just do a phenomenal job across the board. I did just the particular messages that they bring can connect with everybody. You know, it’s really those moments where I think, and I think you would agree, commander John, where it’s a moment where everybody’s disconnected from the technology, from just the everyday life and hustle and bustle and, and the pressures and peers around them. And just that alone can allow them to bring a need. And that may be be be the one thing that they were wanting to do when they get to pow wow, it says bring that need to the altar. And that may be just, just enough, you know? Well, when Johnny Barnes founded royal rangers getting boys out of their environment into the woods, when you have that counsel far out there, it draws the boys’ attention and there’s nothing else going on. And they pay attention to what’s being said by the speaker. You know, he was on to something. Oh yeah. And he’s still on the, yeah, we still carry that on. And when you get a boy out of his environment, um, he might not like it to start with, but then they’re plugged in after they get out there and having fun. And when they go to the service, that’s all that’s happening. And so they pay attention. And even if you think they’re not, you see them playing with the grass and stuff like that. And then they’ll be the first one down to the altar. Exactly. So as we were talking before the show, you’re involved in a lot of leadership things. I mean just in involved in training, you’ve done a lot of training. You’d go to lead every year. What’s that saddle about? Is that so that you can bring back those tools to your leadership and, well, the lead of course, but I don’t think a leader can get too much training. Every time you go you learned something, even if it’s the same training that you go back to. I think he learned something and we can feed off of each other the, if you go to just say range of basics and then you decided to go again another time, there’s going to be different people that are there and you can glean leadership things from the new ones that are there are maybe impart something on them that, uh, that you’ve got, you know, inside that God’s put inside you.
Yeah, and we’ve had some, you know, I totally agree with that. I’ve been to many of the, the ranger basics and sometimes you’ll have a young commander there that um, we had one, he’s an elementary school PE coach. Right? Is that come of Chris? Chris Hall? Yeah. Yes sir. And just some of the things, his teaching styles and are very helpful. You mean you kind of see some of the things he’s learning outside of the scope of rangers but yet tied in with what you’re learning about rangers and ranger basics. It there just in little gold nuggets that you can kind of bring back to your outpost and really plug in and you, so you’re right. Absolutely. Yeah. So when you, from a leadership position, what do you think some of the key things that were the years that you’ve seen that help draw commanders in drawl, new leadership in and retain leadership? And we were talking a little bit about that before the show that I’m a, you’ve seen some real growth in different outposts and what are some of the that, what are some of those consistent things that seem to draw people in?
Well, I think when, when of course when you have a successful outpost, and I’ve been in my outpost at outpost one 82 in Huntsville, Alabama. And it wasn’t always plenty of commanders like we have now. It was me and one other commander. And a lot of times that one other commander would change. And so it was me and somebody else. But the consistency, you stay faithful to God and he’s going to bless it. And it seemed like it took a lot of years. But then one night I woke up and I had, it wasn’t just me and another guy. I had 11 commanders and uh, I told him then I said, God, put 11 commanders here because we got the boys come and so y’all better get ready. And uh, we, I made sure we got those guys trained and ready as commanders and all when I, it’s been a good thing, but when, when you’re successful and people see the success, they’re going to be drawn to it. And that’s kind of how I keep commanders. Um, our outpost is one of the better ones in the state, in Pr. I’m pretty proud of that, but I know it’s what’s what God has done and not what John Robinson has done. Wayne. For me, one of the, the key words that I heard commander John say is consistency. It’s huge. I mean it really is. You know, I think, uh, when people, frequently we’ll look at stuff like you might talk in terms of church growth or ranger growth, but as I’m hearing you talk commander John, you know, if you had a moment where you were given out hamburgers and hot dogs and had jump lanes and you were kind of attracting the community around you to kind of come see rangers, well, okay, that’s great, but what’s next Wednesday look like? Why are they coming back? What I hear you saying commander John is the growth happens from the inside out. It’s, it’s going to grow. If you stay faithful, stay consistent, pour into your leadership, give them the training they need and the tools they need. That’s where you’re going to see the growth. It’s not about just drawing in numbers as rapidly as you can because again, if you don’t have the structure there, you don’t have the consistency, you’re probably going to lose them anyway. Right? Also, if they’re not committed to God, you really don’t need them there. They’ll, there’ll be there now and be gone shortly after. And, and also I’ve seen, uh, the deeper you get into training, the longer you’re gonna stay in rural rangers. If you just take the first class, a lot of times we won’t see them again at district events and stuff. But if you continually improve yourself and progress down the road to take all the training, then you’re going to be around for a while. And Commander Wayne, I’m sure that you guys have talked in the past, but when you started implementing the interview kind of process, and that played such a big role in exactly what commander John’s talking about, where commander Wayne, we’ll sit down with the commander or with the potential commander dad maybe, and talk to him a little bit about where his heart is, where his relationship with God is, where his devotion time is. He’ll want to meet with the spouse, talk to him and pray with the spouse. And that’s kind of what you’re talking about is, is really finding the faithful and flushing that out. Because if not, then they’re, they’re just, their heart’s not going to be in it and they’re going to fizzle out. Right. Yeah. Commander wanes a checklist and everything he does, I might not measure up to be a commander here at one 69.
It’s pretty intensive, but I, I did springboard off of that idea and I have, um, I got with my pastor, we came up with a list. This is what we expect of a rural ranger commander. And I’d have my commanders read over it every year and a recommit each year at, and uh, we just finished doing that. So hopefully my guys will stay around. But I used commander Wayne’s idea to some extent. It’s more than I used to have. It’s an awesome thing. I’ll tell you. And he just gave me a nugget. Oh No. Oh yeah. You should I write it down though. We’re going to work on okay. To reevaluate every year. You have the initial interview and we know our staff, their heart’s in it, but just to step back up to the plate, if you had a commitment card with everything that you committed to a year ago, tour date night, three days, three times a year, your daily devotion, your Bible reading date night once a month and you sign that card that I’ve committed to this for another year.
That’s a brilliant idea. Command is John. You know it’s funny. This year I had a commander that was talking to me about possibly going to another church. Probably a week later we had a commander’s meeting and I handed out the forms and he signed it real quick and turned it in. So he’s still around. Hmm. And so do you have them do that each year? I do a little bit idea and I’ll share a quick story and I want to be sensitive to the, to the person behind this story. I just thought it was great that, you know, commander Wayne does this so effectively and consistently, but there was a, a young commander that wanted to be involved. Commander Wayne went and met with them and talked about the requirements, talked about the involvement and this man said, you know, I’m not sure that I’m where I need to be.
And so commando Wayne gave him a devotional, told him what he thought he should be reading and kind of how much time is spent in the word and the prayer. And he did. He spent the next month or so and then came back and, and really had a, a leap in his relationship with God in his personal time devotional time they spent with God and, and really felt like he was now prepared to kind of take that, that commitment. You know, the thing with that is, one of the statements he said to me was, no one has ever held me to that standard. So he realized, you know, you may think, well, wow, you gave it a devotion book. Now he’s ready to serve old stay off. Wouldn’t necessarily like devotion book within itself. But it was the fact that someone held him to a standard and it was, it was, it clicked with him, wow, this is what I need to be doing with my life.
This was where I, my walk needs to be and no one’s ever really held me to that. And Dutch, you think there’s probably a few commanders out there or senior commanders or, or you might think that’s would be off putting and you might be intimidated a little bit by really upfront, kind of demanding that level of commitment. But yet here we’ve never scared anybody off. It’s actually quite the opposite. They’re drawn to it. They’re, the men are drawn to that, that code, that code of conduct and, and the responsibility. Do you see that? I do. And when I have a new person that comes and they want to be a commander, first thing I do is give them that list and I tell them to go read it and then come back and talk to me. And sometimes it’s like command or Wayne said they feel like, Oh man, I don’t know if I can measure up to that. And then you get to talk to them about a deeper commitment and it’s all, it’s always a good thing. I don’t always get them as a commander. Yeah. But it’s like commander Wayne was talking about about that other man that he drew closer to God and that’s what it’s all about anyway. Sure. I’d love to get a new commander, but if we can do something that brings somebody closer to God and that’s why we’re in it for the boys. Exactly. As to bring them, introduce them to guide and or bring them closer to God. Yeah. We still, I mean we talk a lot about the, uh, the mission statement of Rangers, but we still go back occasionally to the old mission statement or reach, teach and keep boys for Christ. And just the old motto seems to be a, it’s just a good reminder once a while.
Oh yeah. It’s still in there. It’s ingrained. It has, yeah. Yeah. We, we frequently kid around on the show that if you take the Johnny Barnes vision and you just opened that box and apply it exactly the way he would have applied it 50 plus years ago, it still works. It was a god ordained kingdom initiative and, and those kinds of things are timeless. I mean, they just always work. Creation and being out in God’s playground is never going to get old. Yeah, you’re right. I heard it said the other day and I thought this is so true that you know, God intended us to be gardeners in Eden, but yet we turned Christ into the gardener of our graveyards and it’s powerful to me, very that, you know, we were intended for something so much better. I’m going to put you in the hot seat a little bit.
Okay. Because let’s hear some pains and gains. You know what, uh, what’s may be a pain, you know, something that in ranges you’re really stubbed your toe on and you thought, okay, I learned something really valuable here and this is a piece of insight we can, you can pass along to some of us that are a little newer. Well what jumped in my mind to start with, we used to bus kids in to our church and we had about eight kids that were church kids and we had about 12 that were from the, the lower income apartments and we could never keep control. It was me and another commander and I, I had a boy that got his gold medal of achievement but he was still in high school and you could probably say I threw him to the wolves because I depended on him like a commander and he did a great job but he got burned out real fast.
He wasn’t ready for that kind of pressure and it was my fault because I was, this is not, wasn’t the senior commander at the time, but I did everything like a senior commander cause the one that was in the position was older gentleman and he had just come and sit in the class because he liked to be with the boys. But he was in his eighties and stuff. Yeah, yeah. I’ll put that boy in there. And uh, he wasn’t ready for it. And, uh, I shouldn’t not, shouldn’t have done it. And that’s one thing I regret. Uh, that’s probably a big toe stub even. There’s something really valuable about that lesson from a standpoint of boy lead adult facilitated and spend some time behind the scenes thinking about that when we, because in every outpost, if you’re in drs, there’s some age appropriate voilette adult facilitated and it’s a little different. And ars and the little different ers and you know, so I can see that. I can see totally that happening where you kind of lean on those kids that immediately show some leadership skills but still have that age appropriateness. And they’re still needing that facilitation of you kind of mentoring argument. And so, and in that incident, I didn’t give much facilitation because we needed him as a leader. And when he was there, I anointed him as a leader and kind of step back and sure, I had my own struggles trying to keep control and stuff. But anyway, well then I’ve heard some, I mean you’ve talked about lots of big gains and uh, so tell us maybe one of your favorite big gains. And um, I was telling you earlier about, and FCF territorial rendezvous and we were having an ultra called the altars were full. And I had this pastor come up to me and ask if he could address the, the group. And I remember saying to him, well, you’re a pastor and if God’s given you something to say, you know, go right ahead. And he said, well, I wanted to check with first because
you’re the pastor of this group. And I never looked at, I mean, I knew Royal Rangers was ministry, but I never looked at it as if I was the pastor. Uh, which put a whole different perspective on things. And so when I teach a range of basics class or some of the new commanders, I always make sure I tell them, look, you’re in this to Gad those boys to Christ, but you are their pastor and whatever group that God puts you in, you’re the pastor of that group. And, um, you know, we answered to our, our senior pastor at our church, and he’s, he’s the one that’s gonna make your outputs successful, um, by the support that he gives. And so you want to have a good one where he’s proud of you and he talks about you all the time, which, uh, feel fortunate where we were there and it feels really good.
But a year, the pastor of that group, when you get with those boys on a camp out or on a Wednesday night, you’re their pastor and they’re going to turn to you before they do most anybody else because you’ve developed that relationship with them. And, uh, that’s key. But, uh, that was a big, I remember the, it was like one of those Aha moments that the Lord really hit me hard, but he got me to understand. Um, and you know, I learned a long time ago, whatever position God puts you in, if you love the people that he’s given you and you pray for them and stay close to God, it’s going to be successful. And Yeah, those are some great, it’s a great perspective. And I think commander Wayne, you get something similar that maybe in the last year or so. What’s kind of your Aha moment really along the same vein and that’s the butterfly effect. And you’re constantly reminding us that every action you take, every thing that you do makes a lasting impact. It can be such a small thing. And you remind me of, of a story. Um, that was with, um, you’ll think of the young man’s name, I can’t think of right this second, but I was, you talk about kind of being their pastor, being kind of that spiritual leader in different areas. Well, one of the things that we were doing in our outpost settings at the end of the night, we would kind of make sure the door stay close, parents are outside and we would uh, circle up for prior and we would kind of join hands and we’d just take each boy one at a time. So you got anything that you want the group to be praying for a little by little it belt, this camaraderie. And you would see like some kids just nod their head, they don’t need anything. And then it would be an unspoken and then all of a sudden it would be a spoken need, you know? And they would share something deeply personal in their life and we would make sure all the boys and they were saying, hey listen, you know, remember this does not leave the room. These guys have entrusted you with this prayer need and we need to be lifting up and prayer. Well, it was that relationship that I’ve built through with some of these boys. Well, I’m sitting there, it’s approaching Christmas time and I’m sitting on my couch having a devotion. This has never happened to me before. And God says, go to Walmart, buy this gift card and give it to this young man. Well, until that moment, and I’d been in Rangers probably 12 or 13 years by then, I’d never bought a ranger Kidd, a gift card, never bought them, but many of them Christmas presents per se, you know, never, never an individual. And I’d never bought a Walmart gift card ever. So I said, okay. So I went to Walmart and bought in the gift card and that Wednesday night came around and I’m looking for this young man. I can’t find him. Finally, I’m headed into classroom out in the portables back here, and I see him, he’s standing by himself on one of the wood decks out there before it gives the classroom as it, hey, hold on, hold on. And I said, listen, I don’t know how to present this to you. I don’t really even know what to say, but this is what I told him. I said, but the god of the universe spoke to me and said, go get this gift card and hand it to this young man. I handed it to them and tears are streaming down his eyes and he said, Commander Randy, I’ve been praying and asking God, do you even hear me? And I was like, wow. I mean, and so when you say that your, that pastor year, that spiritual light, every, I mean, it’s amazing. Just a small connections and what a big impact. And I didn’t know it until maybe you told me, but this young man was living in some very rough conditions. He didn’t have anything. I mean, any money that he, if somebody ever gave him anything, his family took it from him. I mean, he just had nothing, nothing at all. And I didn’t know any of that but, but amazing. But God did. And God let him know on that night that he did know and he didn’t care. And, and uh, it really is what makes ranger special. And if you don’t, like you said, if you don’t walk in on Wednesday night and have that unique perspective of you’re the pastor, the butterfly ethics, something that really checks you out the door, you’re going to miss out on some golden opportunities for God to use you. And very what seems like very simple ways, but power, voice, very powerful ways. I remember a camp aroma trip and we had stopped at a better fight. A commander Andrew was a coordinator. And so, uh, it was time for that bus to pull over to the side of the road, one of the restaurants, towns we were going through. So he googled what was nearby and we let the, let the young rangers, we let the young men and make the choice. They made a choice and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, go to the other restaurant.
You’re thinking I’ve got a bus of 40 that want to go one place and I’m going to say, no, we’re going to the other restaurant. Oh, it’s already been taken. Let it go. And I said, uh, in the Holy Spirit said, go to the other restaurant. So we did and let everybody unload. And we were Robert Tanner and I both come in, Robert and Tanner and Abra both last and, uh, got a re everybody in and they were all sitting in a, uh, in a, uh, an area that was, uh, you know, kind of a reserved area for large parties and so forth. And Commander Robert Tana an hour because we were last, there was enough room were sitting on the outside there and the, a young lady that, uh, was our server just engaged with us. And Robert Coming to Robert started witnessing to her and talking to her and so forth. And she was going through a very hard place. And uh, here it is. We were in Alabama, north Georgia, some place like that, but she had made the, we’d made the connection that at three years prior to, she was here at victory in New York children’s pastor, pastor Kim Kelly at the time. And she had a little boy that she had had had a wedlock and she moved to Alabama to try to just make a fresh start, get things going in a different direction. And so forth. So, uh, I was not filled with the Holy Spirit at the time. Commander Robert was very bold. So, uh, she, she was kinda telling, sharing the story with us. So, uh, she went to get us some refills or whatever the case may be, and I don’t remember those details, but commander Robert said to me, hey, when she gets back, we’re going to pray for, I said, right here in the restaurant. I mean, it was, it was full. And he goes, well, yeah, I think we’re supposed to pray for her. I said, well, okay. And, uh, when she came back, he had her sit down and said, hey, do you mind if we pray for you right now? And she said a gun at all. I said, well, look, uh, you know, we don’t want to get you in trouble or anything if you know, if you want to wait or, oh no, I’m not worried about it. She just took us by the hand and command. Robert prayed. And we were, when we were done, she looked at me and said, don’t ever be afraid to do or to speak into someone’s life. My prayer this morning, God, do you hear me? Do you listen to me? Do you know what I’m going through since somebody my way today to let me know that you, that you hear me?
And uh, he sent a class full of Richard. He did, he sent a bus full of rangers in a, in a very bold commander, our retainer that was filled with the holy spirit that spoke up. I wasn’t at a time, I wasn’t that bowl. And uh, it’s a commander Robert Right here in the restaurant. Well yeah, she, I think we’re supposed to pray for and it just goes to show you is she said to us, to me and said, don’t ever be afraid of that because this was my prayer this morning and you guys are in it. Wow. A commander, John, um, you know, Brag on you a little bit cause he also shared a story with me about just since your time in Rangers, you’ve seen some outposts grow from literally just a dad or to to some of the strongest outpost is in your any area. Talk a little bit about that situation and some of the things that you’ve seen them do well from a leadership standpoint that maybe other outpost could, could key in on. While I keep thinking about in my town of Huntsville, Alabama, the Rock family worship center was the largest outpost in the nation. And Wow, I saw that from the start. I got to train their leaders. A commander, Greg Nelson was the senior commander at the time and he told me, I’m going to have a meeting to see if anybody’s interested in rural rangers at our church. There were 60 boys that came to that meeting plus their parents and it just blew him away. And so they started role rangers, uh, from nothing. We train their leaders. It was, it was funny, they were meeting in an old hotel. We had our ranger training classes in the old bar. I think that was God’s sense of humor, know, take this devil. Uh, but that core leaders, um, you know, they stuck wow. And they grew to the largest outpost in the nation. And um, I was really proud of commanded Greg. He’s also from that outpost. They started busing in a inner city kids. And uh, he was a lot smarter than me because when, when we had our inner city kids that I was talking about, we couldn’t keep control.
And uh, you were always saying, sit down, get your hands off of him. Leave him alone. We weren’t teaching him anything. I don’t feel like it was just discipline from start to finish and hoping you could survive the night. And a commander, Greg had them come in with his outpost, but they were always disruptive and everything and he figured out that in their neighborhoods they have a pecking order and they know where they fit. But when you throw him in a new situation, they’re trying, they’re trying to start to save volley. That’s not the right word. They’re vying for their place. And trying to see where they fit in. Uh, he started having an urban rangers and he took those inner city kids and started rangers on the, on another night and started working with them. And they would do range of merits and stuff like that, but more, uh, teaching the boy, you know, not just the merits, but it was more so teaching them how to be a man.
That’s awesome. And, uh, he told me one time, he said, my inner city kids, my urban ranger kids are more well behaved than my church kids. And he said, because they, they already know their place, they know where they fall in the pecking order and then they just fall in. He would have urban rangers on, on Tuesday night and he’d have his normal rangers on Wednesday night. And then when they went on a camp out, they were all together. Uh, but I wasn’t smart enough to figure out they were looking for their place in the outpost, I guess, under my direction. They never found it. But, um, that’s great. Yeah, I’d love to say, I would love to see like an like what you calling the urban outposts setting. It’d be interesting to, to really dig into the house to see it in operation. If you can make a trip to Huntsville, Alabama, I can make that happen.
Yeah, we’ll do it. It’d be, it’d be an awesome a weekend of podcasting, which is fascinating because you really realize that some of these cultural situations and settings and socioeconomic settings can make a difference and there’s a good reason why you would you really want to learn a little bit more about that to the chicken, apply rangers and cater it to them a little bit more so, yeah, and I think it’s ranger essentials. There’s a video where they interview a pastor rusty, the pastor of that church and Greg Nelson about urban, right, about rangers and about urban rangers. And you’ve probably seen it and just didn’t realize it at the time. Yeah, no, I know. I’ve seen some things out there. I just been awhile since I’ve, since I’ve noticed that, but, well, I’m getting the impression commander Wayne that a commander John is a reservoir of wealth wisdom a lot of hours.
So let me ask you one quick, in 1991, what was your calling? What called you into rangers? What happened there? Well, that was already, that was youth pastor at my church. And that’s a long story about how God turned that around. But I was in the army. We had just come back from Germany and I found out that I was going to be able to stay at redstone arsenal then in Alabama. And as soon as my church found that out, they came and asked if I’d be the youth pastor. And uh, that was in 89. December 89. And so about a year later, my wife and I were talking about it. We, I felt like when my assignment at redstone arsenal was up, we would be going back overseas. And I wanted my son to be able to continue with rangers even if it was just me and him. And so I started going through the training, but as a youth pastor at that church where you connected with rangers? Rangers? There I was, I was a lieutenant commander for the, uh, at the time it was the air sea and trail rangers, which is expedition Rangers. Now the older boys, I was, I was a helper. That’s what I like to do is be a helper. But God, his kind of placed me in some other leadership roles. I have to make decisions now. Um, he took my, he took the very faithful and made them very able, well, I don’t know how able, but, um, I own faithful. I try absolutely. Well, something we haven’t talked about that’s always on my heart and I don’t know how much time we have. I don’t know how your podcast runs, but when I was 13 years old, God placed something in my heart about missions. And so everything I do in rural rangers, I try to promote missions. And quite a few years ago, probably about six now, I guess I had a missionary that, uh, he was a ranger commander and he became a missionary and he called me and said, Hey John, I’m going down to Florida to 10 arrayed. Um, I got some speaking engagements down there and I want to hit as many grow ranger outpost as I can because rangers has been good to me. And I told him to come on. But, uh, based on a pledge that we had had a couple of years before, uh, for light for the lost, that my boys had trouble meeting and I had to end up putting some money with it to make it go. Um, I told him we’re not going to do this anymore. So I told him, will, you can come but we’re not going to be able to support you. And uh, I worked it out where, uh, the town next to Huntsville is Madison and Madison Assembly of God started Rangers 30 minutes before we did. So I worked it out. He started in Madison, did half an hour, drove across town and finished with us. And while he was presenting, um, the country he was going to and, and what he was planning on doing their guts started stirring my heart that we needed to make a commitment to him. And, uh, so I told my boys and commanders, y’all stay here, I’ll be right back. And I walked him out to the car and I said, I know, I told you we weren’t going to do anything but God’s telling me that we need to. And of course he was like, well, praise God. So I went back in and, uh, that pledge for life for the loss was 60 bucks. And I thought, you know, if my boys had trouble with that, they’re going to have trouble with anything. And I said, uh, hey, I feel like God’s telling me that we need to support this missionary. And what do y’all think? And of course, one of the ranger Kidd boys raised his hand and says, $25. And my first thought was, I hope we can do that in a year. And, uh, I mean, I had no faith. And so everybody agreed. And I said, okay, $25. And I said, y’all are gonna have to raise it though. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we will. They were all excited. And uh, so I called the missionary and he was down the road a ways and I said, hey, we’re going to pledge you from our outpost $25. And he was like, praise God. So, um, we started every time we have assembly on Wednesday night, we never formation into our pledges and all in and we take up a missions offering and I’d like to encourage any outpost. It’s listening to start that because you can’t believe the blessings that brings. Um, but we started and two weeks later we had $23 and 75 cents. And I had to get on my knees and ask God to forgive me for my lack of faith. And that year, um, we were able to pledge $25 to five missionaries and we gave him 50 and we sent $50 with a team from our church is going to Moldova on a missions trip, 300 bucks. And it blew me away. And we haven’t stopped, uh, this past year. Um, milepost is 25 with the commanders and uh, so we’re not a real big outpost. We gave over $2,000 this year to missions. That is awesome. It is awesome. It is incredible. It started on a small basis and those boys on, you know, about once a month I’ll go out there and I’ll go, why aren’t we doing this? And every single one of them are like, we’re doing this for missions were supporting missionaries. And I think it’s so important. And if, if people across this nation would start doing that in their outposts, there’s no telling what they could do that it’s so true. I mean, if the numbers are really, you know, 250,000 plus chartered Rangers, I mean, they compound the impact that would make if you brought a dollar over here. Oh man, that’s incredible. Well, you two guys must be cutting in a similar cloth. Okay. Commander Wayne is a big missions. I just tried to measure up to what Lynn Elliot. Goodness Gracious. That didn’t take much. Yeah, I’m beginning. I’m beginning to wonder, uh, you know, I’m, I’m the third wheel every, I’m the third night. You’re combined expertise is, I was going to say, you’re probably the better one of the group. No, just me. There’s a story there, but uh, that’s for another podcast will come in. And John, I’m glad you came today. I mean, it was amazing. You know, Wayne gave me a heads up. I appreciate you coming in and um, I hope you get to visit a lot more. We’d like to hear a lot more from you. Well, this is awesome. This is my first podcast. So cool. Yeah. You may be getting letters from people saying, no man, what are y’all thinking? And it’s fun. Trust me, I’ll, uh, I’ll, I’ll watch the numbers tick up on the syndication companies plotting and I’m, trust me, it’ll be a big hit. But hope you get letters from all the people I know out there and they say, hey, I know him. There’s no quick, you know, it’s, it’s funny you say that though, but every time we have a guest, you know, we get a boost in numbers and it’s so fun to see just the community of Rangers continue to come out and unite and, and talk about various things. And it’s amazing. It all it takes is some little nuggets here and there and you’ll begin to stack some of those skills in a way that make a big impact in your outputs. It doesn’t take, you know, commander waiting and I talk about it. That’s the kind of the, it might be time to sweat some of the small stuff because it can really be important, the important to be. But we do have to let everybody go. So thanks again, commander John and uh, we wish you all the best and safe travels home and if we can get down Alabama, we’re coming to you and we’ll pack them like, and we’ll do this again in your neck of the woods and, and no, we’d love to see your operation, see as much as the stuff that you got going on Europa. So well commander Wayne, appreciate you as always. It’s always a pleasure. Well everybody, thanks again for tuning in and make sure you go out to the range of podcast.com. Check all the notes there and you’ll find all the links to the things we’ve talked about in today’s show. We’ll make sure we put some links out there for FCF and to, uh, commander John’s outpost in some of the things that he finds helpful and in the work that he does with Rangers. Also, uh, go ahead and subscribe to us on iTunes. It makes a big difference in the rankings and how were are seen and noticed on iTunes or your favorite podcast app. So, uh, we’ll see you back here next week. Everybody have a great range of week.
Thank you for listening to the Royal Ranger podcast. Your virtual outposts for gearing up and mapping out your next great adventure. To get even more information and helpful tools, check us out at the royal ranger podcast.com and remember, life is a journey, one adventure at a time.
