A Testimony: Leadership Through Example

“I don’t know where I’d be today if I hadn’t had that discipline and leadership through the examples set before me.”

Battalion didn’t change my life; Coit Morrison changed my life through the avenue of Battalion. I’d struggled with the issue of authority when I was a kid  … and today I’m a cop, so obviously something changed! That change started at the top of Hawksbill Mountain. I was in my chubby faze at around age 14. I didn’t know that I was only 30 yards from the top of the mountain so I sat down and quit. I said “I’m not moving and you guys aren’t going to tell me to go any further!”

So they said, “Okay. Have fun” and they left me there. That’s when it first clicked in my head that there was something more to Battalion than just doing fun stuff.

Through the Practical skills of Battalion I learned more than I would have ever learned on my own or through books about being a man. Knots,fires … playing too close to the edge of the Mountain Cliff and things like that. I learned about the things that shape a boy into a man.

These things, without a doubt had a massive impact on my confidence levels and my abilities to go out and tackle life, but these practical things were always tied into my spiritual walk. One of my leaders, for instance, taught me to read the church fathers. I’ve now got a seven-month-old boy and I already am trying to read Calvin and Edwards to him. He isn’t really liking it yet … but he’ll get there. And so it passes on, and keeps going. This ministry is critical, it’s important, and I don’t know where I’d be today if I hadn’t had that discipline and that leadership through the examples set before me.