Royal Rangers leader changes community
By Ryan Beaty
Life is full of “what ifs.” What if I had gone to college? What if we had bought that house? Some “what ifs” lead us down the proverbial “road less traveled,” but others are just wise decisions.
In 2005, Greg Nelson of The Rock Family Worship Center in Huntsville, Alabama, asked, “What if we used Royal Rangers to reach inner-city boys?” Four years later, that question has a resounding answer — Kingdom impact!
Nelson, a veteran Royal Rangers leader and already overseeing an outpost of more than 200 boys, knew this would not be an easy task. After much prayer, he felt the leading of the Holy Spirit to approach his pastor, who not coincidently, is Nelson’s younger brother.
“Rusty [the pastor] had seen the success we had been having with Royal Rangers and supported me in giving this a shot,” Nelson tells. “We felt a burden for boys living in the projects and knew they needed to hear about Christ.”
With his pastor’s blessing, Greg gathered leaders and developed a plan, but it was not an instant success.
“We started bussing boys in on Wednesday nights into the preexisting classes, and we had all kinds of problems. The inner-city boys had their personalities and hierarchy of respect, as did the church kids. We were breaking up fights weekly until it all got to be too much. We decided to have Royal Rangers with the urban boys on Tuesday nights. That’s when it all turned around.”
With an outward demonstration of Christlike love and discipline, the Tuesday night Royal Rangers began to see profound life-changing results.
“One young man came in, and I put my arm around him. He immediately pushed me away and said, ‘Don’t touch me!’ A few weeks later, I was working on something, and all of the sudden I felt a kid jump on my back and hug me tight. As I turned and looked, it was that same young man. Now, he was smiling and laughing and longing for a positive, loving touch.”
The experiment has been a huge success. The boys who have come through the Tuesday Royal Rangers have grown and developed into young men of God. Discipline problems at school and home have decreased. Several families have been integrated into the church. A number of the young men have become active members of the church youth ministry.
After four years, the group now has a weekly attendance nearing 80 boys. It has been so successful that the church is now following the same model with Mpact Girls Clubs. The future of these young people is now bright because of the impact of Royal Rangers and because someone asked, “What if?”