Leaders Meeting on Teams

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• Prayer
• Outreach Vision
  

• Joe Hoban’s follow up on Outreach Strategy
  • Text messages between Joe Hoban and Travis McCrate from Thursday 8/20/26 through Monday 8/24/26.  Travis’ responses to Joes’ questions are highlighted below in italics.
  • Hi there Travis..q for you re: OK RR revival: when your wife called non-AG churches to ask if they were doing boys ministry…could you give me an idea as to best practices/lessons learned on approach and messaging?  Any suggestions on how and what to say or not say?  Many thanks!!
  • Absolutely.  One of the biggest things we learned was not to lead with Royal Rangers.  We approached it more as, “What are you currently doing to reach and disciple boys?”  We wanted to listen first and understand what they were already doing and where there might be a need.
  • Jenny (Travis’ wife) kept the conversation very relational and low pressure.  Something like, “We’re reaching out to churches across Oklahoma because we’re trying to learn what churches are doing specifically to minister to and disciple boys.  Do you currently have any type of boys ministry or discipleship happening during your midweek programming?”
  • If they did, she would ask a few questions and learn about it.  If they didn’t, that opened the door naturally to say, “That’s actually one of the reasons we’re calling.  We have resources and a ministry model specifically designed to help churches reach and disciple boys during their midweek programming.  Would you be interested in getting some information?
  • I think one of the biggest things we unlocked was realizing that churches can say no to a program, but it’s a lot harder to say they don’t want to minister to boys.  So we stopped making the conversation about starting Royal Rangers and started making it about reaching and discipling boys.
  • The biggest lessons were: listen before you present, lead with ministry rather than a program, don’t assume they know what Royal Rangers is, and don’t make the first call about starting an outpost.  The goal of that first conversation is simply to identify the need, build a relationship, and get permission for the next conversation.
  • Q: How did Jenny identify herself to the church representative at the start of the conversation (especially since you want to avoid references to Royal Rangers early on)?  Also, did she ask to talk to a specific person (e.g. lead pastor, youth or childrens’ pastor or other)?
  • We basically spoke to whoever answered the phone, which most of the time was the church secretary.  Our target was always the lead pastor or whoever oversaw kids or family ministry.  We never asked for a Royal Rangers leader.
  • Jenny would identify herself as being with the Oklahoma Boys Ministries through the Oklahoma Assemblies of God.  We found that getting that connection out early really helped tear down the wall because they knew we were connected to the District.  When we led with ”Royal Rangers” we just didn’t get very far.
  • A lot of times the secretary would say, “This is something my pastor needs to talk with you about”, and Jenny would have them call me directly.  She’d then text me a heads-up about who she talked to.  She also kept a simple follow-up after each round of calls; how many churches she called, how many answered, who she spoke with and what the next step was.
  • One other thing that really helped: we took the church list provided by Oklahoma AG and put it into a shared Google spreadsheet with check boxes and notes.  That way I could see live who Jenny had contacted, who she spoke with, and any follow-up needed.

• Outreach Report
  • West, Central, East
  • Churches that expressed interest in starting at Summit Conference
    • Weatherly Faith AoG, Danny Sabella, 570-582-3326
    • Servant Church of the Abingtons (OP 56) Kevin Piwowarski   570-489-8677   (Exists but looking to grow)
    • Transformation Church, Allentown, Cindy Cimba-Ruiz will forward material   Contact:  [email protected] 
    • Philadelphia Dream Center, Danitra Moses, [email protected],  443-416-1814
    • Faith AoG, Dave Ramsey, 484-767-6392, Cressona, PA
    • Ridgepoint Family Church, Tim Michaux Cmdr and Lead Pastor, 724-544-2044  Beaver, PA  (Restarting)
  • Plans to reach out to non AG churches and presentation for June 11 meeting
• Adventure Weekend Plans for September – Planned activities, activity assignments covered, water and drinks, no meals, store, certificates for energy merit, Ranger Kids – Bolls — Rob McCoy
• Financial Report – Steve
• Camp Construction Report
  • Shower House – some finishing touches
  • Farm House – Update
    • Mini splits
• Round Table – any issues, praise reports, etc.
• 5 Minute Leadership Challenge
• Prayer