On Wednesday, April 18th The Champaign County CTO Chapter hosted a Dad’s Ceremony for the men of Windsor Road Christian Church (WRCC). Bear and a group of men from WRCC went through the Raising a Modern Day Knight curriculum. The overall theme of the class was for fathers to become more strategic and intentional in the lives of the boys that God has blessed each of them with. The goal was to learn how to better serve their sons.
A big part of being intentional & strategic as a father is to prepare ceremonies that allow these dads to celebrate their sons. The purpose of this particular ceremony was for the dads to launch their sons into this journey. The young men of CTO wanted to make it special for these families by preparing the evening for them so the dads could put the energy and attention on their son and not the tasks of the ceremony.
The CTO Sportsmen with the help of CTO Volunteers set up the large, extremely hot bon fire (think of Daniel 3), the smaller fire for keeping warm, prepared the meal, and organized the buffet of sides, hotdogs, hamburgers, and venison steaks. Overall they did an excellent job serving these dads and their sons.
As the Sportsmen watched each of these dads take their sons up to the fire both holding onto a sword they were moved by the words these dads used to bless their son’s present and future. They were given an opportunity to see what kind of dads they could be in the future. They were able to witness what it means to be a Christian dad. So many of the CTO Sportsmen come from homes where they witnessed fathers that haven’t always made the best choices concerning their sons, but by seeing fathers like these, it inspires them that they can make better choices for their future families.
Bear’s interest in the material was slightly different. He was looking to learn how to better serve the boys of CTO by putting more meat into CTO’s Trail of the Guide: A Path to Christian Manhood Program. God is calling us to recognize milestones in these boys lives as they become men. Cross Trail Outfitters needs to also be intentional and strategic. We need to provide opportunities for these young men to be celebrated, by us and their families, as they are released into the world as followers of Jesus. We are launching boys into manhood! Giving them a map of the trail only makes sense.
