"Preparing Boys For The Future...Building Men For The Kingdom"

Teaching leadership, responsibility, and morality are the core of our purpose in Troop 55.  Our goal is to help lay the foundation of a young man’s heart and to pass on to him the essential knowledge and confidence of his God-given strength and abilities.  We believe that it is crucial to give our Scouts a place to receive instruction from Godly men on how they can fulfill God’s purpose in their lives. We believe that while biological maturity may happen naturally, emotional and spiritual maturity requires shepherding by prior generations.  The men of Troop 55 seek to be those shepherds.

Every boy longs to know the answer of the question of their very being: “Do I have what it takes, and am I powerful enough to impact my world?” Until a man knows deep in his soul that he truly is God’s man, he will be forever trying to prove that he is, while at the same time, shrink away from anything that might reveal that he is not.

Some ancient societies believed a boy becomes a man only through ritual, training, effort, testing, and the active mentorship of older men: a rite of passage from boyhood to manhood. In our culture today, where many fathers are absent, silent or passive, the Church needs to provide a place where, under the supervision of the Elders, boys are given an environment that nurtures them to develop leadership, personal responsibility, moral clarity and other aspects of maturity. We believe that boys need the active mentorship of  men.

The mission of the men leading Troop 55 is to have an active influence in a boy’s life. Troop meetings and camping trips are led by boys, under the close supervision of our adult leaders. In this setting, opportunities present themselves for men and boys to spend intentional time together. The leadership of Troop 55 has a forty year tradition of men mentoring and teaching boys in our troop activities. We believe that it is the responsibility of our Scouts’ fathers and other men in troop leadership to fulfill that mentoring role.  The troop must not ignore youth who lack an engaged father in their lives and diligently make ourselves available to shepherd these young men as well.

We write this statement of ministry to the parents of the Troop to explain the philosophy behind how we do what we do with our young charges, the spiritual authority to which we submit and how it is in tune with the ministry of Christ Presbyterian Church.