The Object of The Boys’ Brigade
“The advancement of Christ’s Kingdom among Boys, and the promotion of habits of Obedience, Reverence, Discipline, Self-Respect, and all that tends towards a true Christian Manliness.”
Advancing the Kingdom of God through training certain habits and recognising we should strive throughout our lives to live out the ideal idea of maturity.
The Motto
“Sure and Stedfast.”
The Motto comes from Chapter 6, verse 19 of the Book of Hebrews from the King James Version (translation) of the Bible (notice the misspelling of steadfast is intentional as it quotes this verse!):
“Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast”.
The Purpose Statement of BB in Australia
“The purpose of The Boys’ Brigade in Australia is to provide, in cooperation with the local church, a supportive Christian community for boys and young men to assist in their Christian growth, balanced personal development, and leadership training, and to assist the church reaching out into the community.”
BB Holistic (Four-sided) Program
Inspired by another Bible verse (Luke 2:52), BB empowers you to develop all areas of your life: educationally, physically, socially and spiritually; believing that we will enjoy and succeed in life immensely more if we have experienced and developed skills or experiences across many diverse areas. That’s why the regular BB program continually balances these areas. Any interest, skill or passion you have or might want to pursue, there is always a way BB can involve it.
Program
As children and young people grow and develop, the program becomes progressively more adventure based, always challenging them and developing their skills at their own level and pace.
Leaders
While providing a positive male influence, the BB program also helps train adult leaders (Officers) who then are equipped to provide activities that bring age relevant adventure and challenge activities such as hiking, camping, bush skills, rope climbing, orienteering, canoeing, games and sports competitions, just to name a few.
While the leaders (Officers) are running the program, as the opportunity arises they are also able to get alongside and mentor the young people in all aspects of life, helping them to ‘discover the leader within’, developing their strengths and encouraging them in less strong areas to have a go at things.
Safety
A risk management and Child Safety policy is employed within each local group, ensuring the safest environment as they experience life and challenge either as individuals or together within a team. All Volunteers must hold a current Working With Children’s Card and have been appointed by the local Church Leadership.
Structure
Everyone wears a uniform as a symbol of belonging to the group. Week night and weekend programs are structured to provide rewarding and challenging experiences within a behaviour model that seeks to honour and respect the individual, the group and the environment.
The structured awards programme is specifically designed to encourage a child or young person to look beyond themself and their comfort zone. Many kids are only interested in one type of activity – perhaps sports, or camping, or bush skills. Our programme includes these interests and at the same time encourages them to try out different activities they are not familiar or comfortable with, maybe for the first time. This provides for a balanced all round program that includes spiritual and social input, as well as physical and educational activities.
Cost
We also know that the cost to parents in sending their child to Boys’ Brigade is an important consideration given the many pressures on family budgets. The BB program is significantly cheaper consistently than many other sports and activities that can be undertaken by children and the variety is greater in BB.
Wider Boys’ Brigade organisation
Local groups network together at regional level (sometimes called Battalions), state level and national level to run big events and activities that are only possible with the combined resources of the wider organisation. Events such as
- Leader Training Courses
- Pan Australian Camps every 3 years
Want to know more?
Contact your state by using the contact form and we will help you with any questions and put you in contact with a company in your area.
The Girls’ Brigade – By the way there is a Girls’ Brigade for girls.