RA

Usually, I do not pay much attention to TV commercials, but this one caught my eye. No, it was not a cute puppy or an exotic island, but it was just two letters on the screen: RA. It took me a moment to realize that stood for Rheumatoid Arthritis. When my college age grandchildren see or hear RA, they would automatically think of Resident Advisor—like the ones who serve in leadership positions in college housing.

In the medical arena, RA stands for right arm. For us geography lovers, we would think of the Republic of Armenia when we see RA.

As a boy growing up in the Mississippi Delta the Royal Ambassador program in Calvary Baptist Church was a significant part of my development as a new believer. RAs was held every Wednesday night in the RA Hut at our church. I don’t remember the name of the helpers, but Charlie Hood was our chapter leader.

The Royal Ambassador program’s motto is found in 2 Corinthians 5:20: “We are ambassadors for Christ.” The program is a Bible-centered, church-based, Southern Baptist mission education program for boys in the 1-6 grades. Hands-on activities encourage spiritual growth, learning about missions, games and sports and mentoring relationships with RA leaders.

Each RA received a vest and had the opportunity to earn patches for things like campcrafts, Bible memorization, service to the underprivileged and fire-making. I still have fond memories of making those RA Racers to compete against other church chapters.

RAs is 100 years old, but it has been dying for decades. It is shameful that our SBC churches have shoved missions education to the side in favor of promoting other things. Many will say that the AWANA program is doing the same thing as the RA program, but I do not believe that. AWANA is a great Bible-centered program for children, but it is not a missions education program, nor is it a substitution for Royal Ambassadors.

Our SBC leaders failed us when the Brotherhood Commission was absorbed into the Home Mission Board because RAs was a casualty. The program was eventually given to the WMU, and over the years RAs has lost its status as a key ministry of the local church.

I am pleased that a few churches continue to have RAs, and I salute them for their passion for missions education for boys. The WMU Foundation has established an endowment to promote the RA program in Florida, and eventually, once the endowment corpus reaches $100,000, funds will be distributed outside of Florida.

Ultimately, the responsibility of teaching missions to our children and grandchildren lies with us as parents and grandparents, but the church’s role in missions education is so important, and I pray that more people will understand the importance of teaching missions education in our local churches. Missions education can change lives. It did so for me. My first call to missions was when I was a Crusader in the RA Chapter at Calvary Baptist Church in Greenwood, Mississippi.

I still remember the RA pledge that all RAs had to memorize (and get a patch for doing so):

As a Royal Ambassador I will do my best to become a well-informed responsible follower of Christ; to have a Christlike concern for all people; to learn how to carry the message of Christ around the world; to work with others in sharing Christ and to keep myself clean and healthy in mind and body.