In the early 1970s, Greg Hutchison lived just outside Atlanta, Georgia, with his dad, mom and younger brother. His dad had a massive heart attack at 36 and died. Having only lived in Georgia for less than two years, they moved back home to Jonesboro, Arkansas.
It was at Central Baptist Church in Jonesboro that Hutchison got his first taste of Royal Ambassadors (RA). His RA teachers at the church were Mick and Bud Boland, who had worked with his dad. Years down the road, Hutchison said he went to work for the company that his dad worked for, and he too worked with Mick and Bud.
“They were a very intricate part of my growing up,” he said.
Through RA, Hutchison said he “learned about Jesus and how missionaries carried the story of Christ around the world.”
“I went home and was asking my mom about Jesus,” Hutchison said. “She said there is a place in your heart for him and you need to invite him in.”
Soon after, he talked with Pastor Dr. Wilbur Herring and was saved and baptized. His RA experience led him to Christ.
“I was saved there,” he said.
Fast-forward, after school, college and marriage, Hutchison was living in Memphis, Tennessee. At that time, Memphis was the host city of the Tri State RA Camp-O-Ree, the largest gathering of Royal Ambassadors in North America. A friend asked him to lend a hand, and he did.
Then, one night at church, a member told him he was going to start RA and needed some help. Again, Hutchison was asked for help, and he agreed. A couple Sundays later, that individual left, and Hutchison became the RA leader.
After a few years, his job took him to Texas then back to Arkansas, where he began attending Wooster First Baptist Church. They did not have RA. He asked the pastor if he could start RA there. The answer was “absolutely.” That was in 1998, and they still have RA to this day.
“I have RAs that stay in touch with me just because they were my RAs,” Hutchison said, noting when his son was old enough, he was part of RA as well.
“RA had a huge impact on me. And that is one of the reasons I am in Disaster Relief is because of the missions emphasis, the going and the doing, which is what we do in Disaster Relief,” said Hutchison, who serves as the disaster relief coordinator with Arkansas Baptist Disaster Relief.
Since its beginning in 1908, Royal Ambassadors have existed to help churches lead boys to make disciples and live on-mission every day of their lives.
These young men learn to be ambassadors for Christ through Bible reading, scripture memorization, learning about missions, praying for missions, supporting missions, doing missions and telling others about Jesus.
The purpose of RA can be summed up in the words of the Royal Ambassador pledge:
“As a Royal Ambassador I will do my best: to become a well-informed, responsible follower of Christ; to have a Christlike concern for all people; to learn how the message of Christ is carried around the world; to work with others in sharing Christ; and to keep myself clean and healthy in mind and body.”
“Imagine if the boys in your church lived out the words of this pledge? How different would our homes, our churches, our communities be?” said Travis McCormick, men’s and boy’s missions strategist for the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.
“RA is about much more than just a weekly meeting and an occasional mission or ministry project. It’s about missions discipleship and missions discipleship is hard and it takes time. More than that, it takes Christian men. It takes men who love God, are passionate about the mission and who care enough to sacrifice their time and resources to disciple boys and other men. It takes men like Greg Hutchison.”
Originally focused on boys in grades 1-6, RA recently expanded to include guys in grades 7-12.
According to a January Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) article, Challengers, which has been the name of the WMU missions group for young men in grades 7–12, will still be used as the descriptor of those in grades 7–12 under the overall umbrella of RA.
“In the years that followed, changes were made that separated RA from older boys, which we argue negatively affected the ability of churches to seamlessly and effectively disciple older boys in missions,” said Keith Gates, WMU ministry consultant for RA and Youth on Mission, in the article. “We are excited to bring missions discipleship for middle and high school young men back home to RA.”
The missions discipleship curriculum produced by WMU for Royal Ambassadors groups remains unchanged. Boys in grades 1–6 will continue to use Missions Journey: Kidscurriculum and young men in grades 7–12 will continue using Missions Journey: Students.
2 Responses
May his tribe increase!!!
Great story about a great man! Greg is Mr. Southern Baptist! He’s the real deal!