Combined TBM, WMU rally celebrates 100 years of missions education for boys

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FORT WORTH—A joint meeting of Texas Baptist Men and the Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas, prior to the Baptist General Convention annual meeting, 100 years in the making—a celebration for both entities marking the centennial anniversary of the Royal Ambassadors program for boys.

BGCT President Joy Fenner, former Texas WMU executive director, spoke about her experience as an RA leader at First Baptist Church in Paris while in college, acknowledging the importance of that role in the lives of the young men she trained.

TBM Executive Director Emeritus Bob Dixon.

TBM Executive Director Emeritus Bob Dixon told the assembly, “Royal Ambassadors changed my life.”

Dixon recalled leading a group in Tennessee while serving as state recreational director. “Through the years, it’s been a joy to watch the boys grown up through RAs. It continues to give us men who are great churchmen, not only for their church but also for the whole world,” he said.

A brief word by Nelda Seal, interim executive director of Texas WMU, and a dramatic presentation that followed brought to life the history of RAs. The organization began as an idea of the Woman’s Missionary Union, presented to the Southern Baptist Convention by President Fannie Heck in 1908 after a committee she headed studied the idea.

Keith Mack, director of children and youth mission and ministry for TBM.

At the 20th annual meeting of the national WMU, Heck made the motion for the women’s mission organization to sponsor a group for boys ages 9-17, proposing that it be called “The Order of Royal Ambassadors.” A WMU leader from Goldsboro, N.C., left the meeting immediately to start the first chapter at First Baptist Church that same week. Later that year in its Fort Worth meeting, Texas WMU was introduced to the new program by President Mary Hill Davis. The group’s original aims were to focus on camping, organization of the chapters by the boys, increasing spiritual growth and encouraging boys to get involved in missions work.

WMU “birthed” the program “because we saw the need for missions education for boys,” Seal said. “We reluctantly turned them over because we felt they needed the leadership of men in the churches. We like to share this celebration, because we have a goal to teach children that not everyone has heard the gospel and that the Great Commission is for all of us.”

Keith Mack, director of children and youth mission and ministry for TBM, said that through the century of its existence, RAs may have changed in methods but three core things have never changed, including the motto, “We are ambassadors for Christ,” taken from 2 Corinthians 5:20.


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A dramatic presentation depicted the origin of the Royal Ambassadors program conceived by WMU president Fannie Heck in 1908.

“Also, the needs of boys have not changed. They need to know that God loves them and has a plan for them and wants them to be on mission with him,” Mack said. “And the need for men to lead them has never changed, the need for more men to share with boys what it means to have a relationship with God.”

After a word of greeting from BGCT executive director Randel Everett, who himself was an RA at James Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth as a young man, TBM Executive Director Leo Smith wrapped up the program with a personal testimony of the impact of RAs.

“RAs lays a foundation that never leaves these young men. Those seeds are planted and they grow and grow. Around our world are missionaries that got their vision by being RAs or GAs,” he said.

“I’m here today as a result of being a Texas Royal Ambassador leader. They tried to grow me up to be a Texas Baptist Man, but my heart is still a Royal Ambassador.” 

 


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