How to Involve More Dads In to Your Trail Life Program

Post date: Aug 20, 2019 7:19:59 PM

By: Jerry Kwasek Point Man Southern California

A-Know the “why” your church has adopted Trail Life for the development of dads’ and sons’ discipleship fervor in love with Christ.

In practice: Does your Trail Life program vision and mission statement match the vision and mission statement of the Pastor and the Church?

B-Be A channel of the Holy Spirit to do His work through you. St. Paul says the he is crucified with Christ that no longer is anything he is or does is himself but is Christ who works through him. He goes on to say that we are to pray unceasingly. Jesus was always in communication with God the Father.

St. Augustine said that without God we cannot and without us God will not!

In Practice: Realize that we cannot do Trail Life without God the Holy Spirit, to allow us to accomplish our task and in particular recruiting of dads to be active members in our Trail Life troop. Begin each Trail Life meeting before the boys and moms in a men’s circle and huddle. (Just like the football players or the HS Basketball team begins before play.) Have all the dads, registered or not, join in a 30 second huddle prayer before the opening flag ceremony. The dad prayer leader for the Trail Life meeting gives the Trail Life sign up for a moment of silence and calls all the dads together in a huddle for the prayer and blessing upon each of them. In the eyes of God men are always the moral leader of their families.

Pray what comes to your heart in the 30 second period and then disperse the dads in the room each to their respective Trail Life meeting places. Encourage non-registered dads to be with their sons in the same proximity as their sons during the meeting. No dads ought to be sitting in the car outside or texting in the back of the room. Encourage the sons for the next Trail Life meeting to invite their dads who are staying at home to join the men in prayer. In this way we are calling on the dads to do something not only more important than what they are doing at home but raising their human lives to the divine lives. Jesus says he who serves children serve him and he who serves him serves God the Father.

C-Prayer allows grace to flow upon all in the Trail Life meeting. The apostles failed to remove an evil spirit from someone who was possessed. They asked Jesus why they could not. Jesus replies that some things can only be accomplished with prayer and fasting.

In Practice: Realize that men volunteering is out of the norm. It is only the unusual and out of the ordinary men/dads who would actually volunteer. When you allow grace to take effect in your Trail Life meetings then you will no longer recruit volunteers but call disciples.

Why call on disciples and not volunteers? Disciples are filled with the zealous love of Christ and are willing to sacrifice their lives for Him. The Apostles were associates of Jesus but not really disciples until they received the tongues of fire upon them at Pentecost. Disciples will speak like John the Baptist, “I must decrease and He must increase.” Disciples never quit because they are on God’s mission and not their own. St. Paul would get beat, stoned and whipped and then brush himself off and move on to the next town for another God filled mission. Good News Trail Life does not allow beatings, stoning or whipping. Dads can feel great relief. All they have to do is show up and participate with their sons.

D-Call Fishers of Men. Jesus called his disciples exactly where they were in life. He saw fishermen and told them that he would help them become Fishers of Men. Jesus knew men’s hearts and he knew that if he told them, that if they joined Him they would be camping outdoors, with chilly nights, and no sandals or extra sleeping bag/cloak…. They would be chased not only by wild animals but religious and civil authorities and may even end up martyred. No wonder men do not regularly volunteer!

In Practice: Good News, in Trail Life, the men may encounter a few wild animals, probably some cold sleeping bags and likely be thirsty and hungry on outings but it is quite doubtful they would be arrested or martyred.

As part of the Trail Life meeting, ask the dads to share their vocations and what they do to put food on the table for their families. Allow the men to give a two-or-three-minute presentation each meeting, and have one or two of the dads registered or not give a presentation. Like Jesus you are taking the men exactly where they are in life. All dads can see themselves defined by their work but likely will not see themselves as Rangers, Troop Master or Advisors. They will need to witness success before the youth. So, we start them out by talking about themselves before the youth. Both the youth and dads are winners. Express privately genuine thankfulness for every dad…Certainly the dads will leave a lasting impression on the young Trail Men and inspire them to become future plumbers, carpenters, software engineers, truck drivers, construction workers or sales men, book keepers, scientists and the like.

I had one dad who said that he could not give a presentation because he was un-employed. I told him that he had some very valuable information to share with the young Trail Men. We dads have become unemployed, laid off for one reason or another. The young men need to hear how to have the right attitude, build a resume and methods to find a new job or career.

To grow the Trail Life relationship with the pastor: Have the pastor SML or TML give a brief presentation on what a pastor does and how to know if God is calling them to be future Billy and Franklin Grahams or Albert Schweitzers.

E-Jesus sent out his disciples in pairs without an extra cloak or sandals. Jesus said where there are two or more, he is among them. Paul walked with Silas. Peter and Mark were together on their journey.

In Practice: We use the buddy system in “Safe Swim Defense.” “Youth Protection” “Canoe tag teams” etc. We call on two deep leadership for the troop meeting positions. We have a 1st and 2nd Officer, Patrol Leader and Junior Patrol leaders.

No difference with the dads. Ask each dad to adopt another son beyond their own during the Trail Life meetings. I remember a canoe trip where a dad and son were not just synchronized together and their canoe was getting further behind. I received the son in my canoe and switched out my partner. In a way I adopted the young man in Trail Life and we had the best time of our lives. I learned some new youth things and the young man learned some new dumb songs I sing from time to time…too bad for his family…when he returned.

This would be a great reason to require all dads to register and a way through the back door of dads hearts to be involved in the Trail Life program. There will be boys coming in the front door without dads for whatever reason. Every boy deserves a dad. We all have a perpetual dad..God the Father!

F- Provide a success environment and good feelings: Jesus sent the disciples out in twos and they were astonished at what they accomplished. Jesus tells his disciples to rest a while for they will accomplish far greater things with the faith of a mustard seed.

In Practice: Find ways and times to praise the dads registered or not by name in front of the youth Trail Men. For some dads this may be the only praise they ever receive. A study was done by the BSA why men become scoutmasters and one of the surprising discoveries is because the men in BSA began to feel important and enjoyed the praise and awards they could earn in Scouting. Although the awards were not the top reason for being involved. It was certainly on the list of reasons. Many of the men related they had little or no recognition at their jobs except their pay checks. They knew they would get praise from their spouse and children but could not count on recognition outside of their immediate family.

G-Create a vacuum: Jesus left an empty tomb so that his disciples would grow their faith and maturity as genuine disciples and not just capricious associates. Jesus had to ascend to heaven to allow the Holy Spirit to guide the apostles on their mission. The Book of Acts suddenly ends with Paul ending up in Rome. The evangelist is telling the reader that we have to pick up where Paul left off and continue the Christian salvation story in our daily lives.

In practice: Sometimes you and I are so good at what we do that we scare dads away as they think to themselves that they could never be as good as us. Jesus says that he did not have a place to lay his head. How could this be? He is the Son of God. He owns it all. St. Paul said that Jesus emptied himself (Kenosis). Jesus practiced humility. Allow yourself some mistakes in the meetings and demonstrate humility… Skip a few Trail Life meetings. Forget a lesson plan on purpose and ask the dads present to pick up the meeting using their own talents to lead and or guide the meeting. This would be a great time to have a career vocational meeting and have all the dads share their vocations with some show and tell displays. Have the a softball game or ultimate frisbee challenge ..or bring out the board game one night and break out all the dads with their sons to enjoy the meeting time, together. Better yet have the dads exchange their sons with other dads to help get the dads used to the idea of working with other youth besides their own.

Above all have fun and have songs, even better (Orange Gloves a Plus!)…Even Jesus and the Apostles sang a hymn at the Last Supper and Jesus undoubtedly danced at the wedding feast of Cana.

Create opportunities for succession planning: I am thinking of the following great godly people who could surpass me in many ways as Point Man for Southern California: Justin Riggs, Brian McCormick, Jim Martin, Joshua Sanders, Greg McCollough, Matt Malinowski, Michael and Theresa Waning, David Gasso, Drew Rosato, Alan Langborgh, Steve Pennington, Greg Hosburg, Walter Christensen, Javier Ek, Chris Weinkopf, Mike McGharrahan and Salvadore Perez!

H-Be Specific: Jesus called his disciples specifically. He did not go up to the fishermen places and asked to find a few volunteers to join him. He called them by name and told them they would be fishers of men. “Peter, upon this rock, I will build my Church.” Jesus in the Gospel does not say before his Ascension I am looking for some volunteers to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus instead did the aforementioned preparation of his men so they knew specifically that he was not recruiting the apostles but calling them. When the disciples had some practice in their ministry with Jesus, he then called them for a specific task.

In Practice: Call your disciple dads not volunteer dads. When you accomplish the other aforementioned points in this outline then call the dads to be Asst. Troop Masters, Asst. Advisers and Asst. Rangers. Call them by two. Dads may not be ready to do it alone and it’s not a good practice to only have one Ranger or Troop Master but to have two deep leadership per program age in Trail Life. “Bob, you really did great sharing with the youth your vocation and skills. I believe the Trail Men really were inspired by your presence of self-giving. Please assist Tom as our Patrol Asst. Ranger. In this way you can substitute for each other when unforeseen circumstances arrive in our very busy schedules.”

Fraternally “Walk Worthy”

Be our guest in Trail Life when you come in and walk out as our Trail Life family!