Why should you go to Wood Badge ?~ Presented to a group of LDS Stake Leaders. Reference to Dahlquist Article 2007 link on right hand side.
It has been
said by many General Authorities and Prophets including: David O McKay, Gordon
B. Hinckley and most recently Thomas S. Monson “What ‘er thou art act well thy
part”. Tonight, and always, I am a scouter. I was born into a scouting family
with a great scouting tradition. I love what scouting teaches. I love the
adventure scouting brings. I love how it has influenced my life from the start.
I love the friendships that I have developed through scouting, and I love the
continued life lessons I learn each day, week, month and year through scouting.
I am going
to cut to the point, I believe you all know the good that can and does come
from scouting for millions of young men, I am here tonight to invite you to
attend one of the five upcoming Wood Badge courses offered by our council. I
want to emphasize how important this training is to all of us so please before
you totally turn off because I said Wood Badge let me take 5 minutes and go
through the letter you have from Charles Dahlquist, former young mens general
president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
He starts
“It is vital that we as Priesthood and Aaronic Priesthood/Young Mens leaders take
training seriously. We are part of this great partnership with Boy Scouts of
America for very specific reasons… that our young men will be blessed and
better prepared for missions and for the blessings of the temple”.
I think
because of recent decisions of the B.S.A. some leaders and young men’s leaders
believe that scouting is quickly on its way out of the church. They believe
that the church will produce its own program. In 2013 on the 100th
anniversary of the partnership of scouting and the church President Monson said
“Impossible to measure is the great good which has come from this organization
during the past century…I believe in scouting. I believe in the goals of the
organization. I believe in the power of scouting to bless and enrich lives for
good”. President Monson continues to support scouting today. On August 26th
2015, the church released a statement: “At this time, the church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints will go forward as a chartering organization of
BSA, and as in the past, will appoint scout leaders and volunteers who uphold
and exemplify church doctrine, values, and standards”.
The church
is in scouting. President Monson is in scouting. The quorum of the twelve is in
scouting. I ask rhetorically are you?
Brother
Dahlquist says “If we fully
participate, our young men will be blessed and better prepared for
missionary service and for the blessings of the temple.” Fully participate is
the key phrase to the success of the young men. He continues “If we are really
intent in touching the lives of our young men in building, as Elder Ballard has
challenged, “the greatest generation of
missionaries this world has ever seen” then we will do whatever is
necessary to help us to accomplish that-including getting trained. For the most
part of us, Wood Badge is life changing because it has to do more with vision
and understanding this great tool (scouting) for strengthening young men of the
Aaronic Priesthood than anything else”
I can also
testify that Wood Badge for me was, and continues to be, a life changing
experience. I learned more about myself in two weekends of Wood Badge than I did
from any formal schooling and it rivaled the 2 years I spent as a missionary
for this great church. I learned communication skills, conflict resolution
skills, team development and leadership skills, and many others that I had
never learned before. It has been said that similar training in the cooperate
world would cost well over $1500 and there is no way it could be as fun. Wood
Badge incorporates the most important part of Scouting in its training “the
outing”
You will
spend two successive weekends (Thursday through Saturday) or a full week living
the best parts of scouting. You will be organized into patrols; the member of
your patrol will go from complete strangers to life-long friends over the
course. You will learn leadership skills through scout games and activities.
You will have the chance to camp, cook and have tons of fun. If camping is no
longer your favorite thing our council has invested a lot of time and money
into building heated facilities for the trainings and for sleeping. There is
enough room for everyone to sleep on a bed with a mattress if desired. They
even have limited hook ups for campers if that sounds better still.
You might,
at this point, be thinking I have nothing to do with scouting right now. I go
back to Brother Dahlquist who says “The call is for every leader, including
stake presidency members working with youth, high councilors, stake Young Men
presidencies, Bishoprics, ward Young Men leaders and Scouting leaders, to be
trained. I know companies that don’t even allow a new employee to step into the
plant or office until he has received initial trainings. They do that because
they know that, without training, most individuals will be ineffective in the
job they were hired to do. And yet, we call leaders to strengthen, motivate and
prepare young men for missionary service and life in general-without one iota
of training”. I promise the skills learned at Wood Badge apply to more things
in life than just scouting. Who doesn’t need a little more conflict resolution
when it comes to marriage and children?
In closing I
echo the words of Judah in the Old Testament. You might recall Judah was an
older brother to Joseph who was sold into Egypt and then became Pharaoh’s right
hand man. Judah and his brothers came to Egypt to get food because of famine
and didn’t recognize Joseph. Joseph hid a cup in Benjamin’s, the brother who
Judah had previously said could not leave their father or else he would die,
sack of food as they were leaving and had them brought back to the palace as if
they were in trouble. Judah worried for Benjamin and especially his father, who
had already gone through the pain of losing one son, says “For how shall I go
up to my father, and the lad be not with me?” Wood Badge has given me skills to
be able to go up to the father and have all the lads, including my own sons be
with me and I will be eternally grateful for it.
