Sense of calling characterizes church’s commitment to Boy Scouts

TEXARKANA—Adult leaders of the Boy Scout and Cub Scout programs at First Baptist Church in Texarkana see the church’s connection as more than just providing a place for Scouts to meet on Monday night. They view Scouting as a ministry that touches more than 250 families a year and shapes the lives of countless young men.

More than four decades ago, parents of boys in Troop 16 invited Carlton Fountain to lead them when the troop’s first Scoutmaster had to resign to due an unexpected job transfer away from Texarkana.

Fountain felt ill-equipped for the task. So, he went to visit the man who had been his boyhood Scoutmaster to ask his advice and counsel.

“He reached in his desk drawer, pulled out a shingle and handed it to me. On the back was a portrait of Christ and the verse from Philippians chapter 4, ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,’” Fountain recalled.

That reliance on Christ—and sense of calling to service among its leaders—set the tone for Troop 16.

On Scout Sunday this year, First Baptist Church set an attendance record, and the congregation recognized a dozen new Eagle Scouts and 50 Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts who earned their God & Country religious service awards.

Members of Troop 16 gather in the “Scout Hut” on the First Baptist Church of Texarkana campus each Monday night. First Baptist Church has been the charter organization for the troop 45 years. (PHOTO/Courtesy of Fred Norton)

“One family joined our church in uniform on Scout Sunday,” said Randy Brown, chairman of the Scout ministry team at First Baptist Church.

In the last 45 years, Troop 16 has produced 155 Eagle Scouts—the highest rank in Scouting. “I started carving Eagle neckerchief slides for each recipient in 1993, and I have carved 93,” Brown recalled.

Troop 16 has grown from 15 boys to 93 active Scouts and 40 adult volunteers, and another 110 boys are in Cub Scout Pack 16.

At the same time, the church also continues to have a thriving Royal Ambassadors program, Brown noted. He sees the age-level missions program and Scouting as complementary, not in competition.

“We need both,” he said. “We’re reaching kids through Scouting we would not reach other ways.”

Scoutmaster Stephen Rushing leads a morning devotional for Troop 16 at Glover River Camp in southeastern Oklahoma. (PHOTO/Courtesy of Randy Brown)

That’s why Stephen Rushing agreed to take on the role of Scoutmaster last October after two years as an adult volunteer with Troop 16. He felt God calling him.

“There are opportunities for ministry present every time we’re together,” said Rushing, who until a few months ago was bivocational pastor of University Baptist Church in Texarkana.

Initially, he had hoped the small church he led might start its own troop. But when his son, Cody, visited Troop 16, Rushing was impressed and knew he and his family needed to serve there.

“I fell in love with the program—particularly the involvement of the troop in the way they honor God,” he said.

Rushing—who now worships at Trinity Baptist Church on the Arkansas side of town—became the first Scoutmaster of Troop 16 not a member of First Baptist Church.

Rushing noted that during any “Scoutmaster minute”—a weekly inspirational moment at the troop meeting—or in a weekend morning devotional, he was “preaching” to a larger congregation than at the church he served.

“I have six years worth of sermons I can turn into Scoutmaster minutes,” he quipped.

Rushing cherishes the opportunity not only to teach Scouting skills to boys, but also to remind them of the “duty to God” part of the Scout oath.

Boys from Troop 16 are recognized for their achievements at the Caddo Area Council’s Camp Pioneer in Hatfield, Ark. (PHOTO/Courtesy of Fred Norton)

“There are a couple of young men in the troop who—if they are listening—pretty obviously have God’s call on their lives,” he said.

If those Scouts respond, they won’t be the first who have been called to ministry from the troop.

Eagle Scout Landon Eckhardt, now a senior at Samford University, served as a chaplain with Troop 16—an experience that helped clarify his calling to ministry.

Planning and leading a morning devotional time on a Scout campout was “the first church service I ever led, if you want to call it that,” Eckhardt recalled. “It’s where I formed the idea the Lord might have a calling on my life.”

Eckhardt—who has led several mission trips to New York to work at Brooklyn Tabernacle during his time at Samford—plans to serve in inner-city ministry and continue his education at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston.

“I would love to start a church in the inner-city someday,” he said

Eckhardt readily acknowledged he would not be where he is today had it not been for the influence of adults who mentored him—teachers at First Baptist Church and Scouting leaders in Troop 16.

“I think you’re molded and formed by people across the years and by the things you do,” he said. “It was such a good experience for be to me in Troop 16. … Scouts taught me discipline, leadership and—in a lot of ways—taught me how to be a man. It taught me life lessons I can apply even today.”