Royal Ambassadors (RAs) is going back to its roots.
For the past 13 years, “day-to-day operations and oversight” of the RA and Challenger programs have been handled by the North American Mission Board (NAMB). But NAMB announced at its March 1 annual missions education roundtable meeting that it would give those responsibilities back to national Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU), which founded RAs in 1908 and transferred the program to the Brotherhood Commission 49 years later. The Brotherhood Commission became part of NAMB in the 1997 merger of three Southern Baptist organizations to create the mission board.
“We believe missions education is foundational to effective missions work and deeply value both NAMB and WMU’s joint efforts in providing leadership and curriculum for children and youth that have helped raise up generations of Southern Baptist missionaries,” said Mike Ebert, vice president of communications for NAMB. “While NAMB has the SBC (Southern Baptist Convention) assignment for missions education and will continue to do so, the reality of tighter budgets, fewer staff and a narrowing of focus means we must find new ways of fulfilling the missions education assignment.”
In a March 2 press release, Wanda Lee, WMU executive director, said, “RAs was born out of our heart and our soul. We gave it lovingly to the Brotherhood Commission. Now we welcome them back and pledge our support and partnership with both mission boards (NAMB and the International Mission Board) to continue the work as best we can.”
At press time, WMU and NAMB were working on the specifics of the partnership, but they hoped the details would be finalized “in time for the September 2012 curriculum delivery.” The release added that NAMB would “continue to operate Baptist Men’s ministry work” and “maintain close ties with the development” of the RA curriculum.
Ebert said benefits to the transfer to WMU include “coordinated curriculum” for the Girls in Action and RA programs, as well as the Acteens and Challengers ministries. He noted that the change also would give churches “one central place for ordering materials for children’s and youth missions education organizations.”
Steve Stephens, RA and Challenger leader for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, said state RA leaders responded positively as the information was announced at the roundtable meeting.
“The main task of WMU is missions education,” he said.
“With NAMB, that is not going to be a priority, and it hasn’t been a priority. So for us to be under WMU whose task is missions education is why we are happy. … We need to educate our young people on how to support, pray, give and be involved in missions, and that needs to be the priority.”
Stephens believes WMU also will help expose RAs to more churches.
“I think we will be able to have quality magazines because WMU has produced quality material,” he said.
“It has been hard to find RA materials, and now they (churches) will know where to go to get the material. The content of our material will be more towards supporting the offerings — Cooperative Program, Annie Armstrong and Lottie Moon — and praying for missionaries.”
And while WMU typically serves women and girls, Stephens is not concerned about it producing “boy-oriented, gender specific” materials. “We feel confident they will give it the masculine structure that it needs,” he said. “We believe WMU will work as hard as they can … to educate boys in the way they learn. They will be able to take it back and do that as they originally did.”
Stephens just hopes the switch will take place “as quickly as possible.”
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