Affirming Parents

Our leaders seek to encourage parents, to involve them with discipling their sons

Relationship building activity is a main ingredient in Brigade Achievement

This is a letter sent by one of our Regional Directors to a local Brigade Leader to encourage him as he seeks to challenge, encourage, and equip the parents in his local church. 

Dear Chris,

I appreciate that you are encouraging parents to support their sons and to give them encouragement from home.  I know what you are dealing with, it’s never an easy road but the parents are key.

I see this now with my grandson, a fourth grader. He’s making progress in his achievement mainly because I take some time most weeks to go over some part of the requirements, a step each week.  As long as he sees I’m interested in working with him, he cooperates.  I doubt if any of it would be done on his own.

Arden Musselman is CSB Regional Director for the Delaware Valley and Capital Regions

And yet that’s the point. We are discipling the boy.  This requires a person, not a system, willing to help make those disciples. And parents need to be affirmed in their God given role of discipling their children. Brigade is there to help in this vital task.  We’ve been telling people that the Brigade achievement program is not about patches, it is a time tested map for discipleship.

I had the immense privilege just today of doing Exploring God’s Word in Blockhouse Two with my grandson.  Did he want to do it right then? No, but once I showed him with

a positive attitude that this was the course we were going to take together he read the story out loud, we talked about it, and he came up with some really interesting questions. Though it took some effort we finished it, I was given a chance to encourage him for doing something difficult and I think he was rewarded with a feeling of accomplishment.

All this comes in the context of activities that we share by doing together, both in and outside of the achievements. Just recently shoveling snow off the walks with me turned out to be an adventure for this young man. The best part of today however was, I got to talk with him about God, His Word, and how it came to be written down.  Zion always shows interest in the Bible Stories I read to him; there were such characters in there! The things they did, just think of Jonathan’s feat along with his young armor bearer!

This is what I’m interested in for my own family and for the church, for many churches in fact.  I just worked with a team of two others to put together a diagram and explanation of the purpose of the new Stockade materials. It’s just been finished today.  I recommend it to you just to review the purpose of it all. View the Materials Guide

Sincerely,

Arden