Mark Baylis / Staff Writer | Posted: Monday, January 31, 2005 12:00 am
It/s Sunday morning at Trinity Church of the Nazarene and staff member Mark "Gunny" Hestand is on his belly behind a tree, an imitation M-16 in his hands, showing six teen-age boys in fatigues how to ambush an enemy.
Hestand, 43, and a teen-age squad leader have been barking at the "soldiers" who are cranking out pushups and line sprints beside the church.
"You girls are going on a hike tomorrow," shouts squad leader Zach Smith, 15. "How are you girls going to hike tomorrow if you can/t do 25 pushups?"
Thirty minutes later, the teens march into the church cafeteria in two single-file lines to the cadent commands of Smith. They gather around a table with Hestand and Bible study leader Tom Gilbert.
"Man has lost his focus on purpose," Gilbert says to the boys, in a lesson taken from the best-selling and controversial Christian book "Wild at Heart," John Eldridge/s examination of masculinity.
"Life needs man to be fierce. Aggression is part of the masculine heart," Gilbert says.
The teens are part of "Boot Camp," a youth group that mixes Marine Corps values and combat techniques with Bible study. The concept is the brainchild of Hestand, who started the group in 2001 to encourage youth involvement in the church. As far as he knows, Boot Camp is unique in the Christian world.
While some may find the juxtaposition of military and the church to be unusual, or even alarming, Hestand said he believes the two share key principles.
"We take the basic principles that are Christian and basic principles of warfare and we merge them," he said. "Our enemy is Satan. Our weapon is not an M-16, it/s the Bible. We/re trying to get them to be warriors for God."
Hestand lists the Marine values of honor, courage and commitment as analogous to Christianity.
"One of the reasons I chose the Marine style over other military branches is that almost anything they say you could replace the word /Marine/ with /Christian,/" Hestand said.
Boot Camp has just over a dozen members 77 all in junior high or high school 77 who have signed pledges of commitment to the group. Every Sunday, participants arrive early to church in their camouflage fatigues and black boots.
Once the 90-minute service commences, the boys gather outside, usually in the church/s south parking lot, where for 20 minutes they do physical training like new recruits under the barks and orders of drill sergeants.
"We really get in their face," Hestand said.
The next 20 minutes are dedicated to combat techniques, such as ambushes or guerrilla tactics. The last 45 minutes are spent on Bible study.
Marine recruiter Sgt. Thomas Bustamante swings by once a month 77 without compensation and on his own time 77 to instruct the physical training and combat portion of the service. Recruiting isn/t part of Bustamante/s involvement, Hestand said.
Hestand sees no contradiction in instructing military combat techniques alongside the teachings of Jesus, who often is considered a pacifist because of his doctrine of "turning the other cheek." Neither does it bother Trinity/s Pastor Jim Morris, an ex-Marine.
"His turn-the-other-cheek comment was talking about confronting things in life that seem unfair: An opportunity to be gracious rather than combative," Morris said. "Having said that, we/re not preparing these guys to go into the military. We/re using a military model as a hook."
While Boot Camp/s four-year existence is too short to judge whether it is encouraging church youth to join the military, at least one teen says his military days won/t end with Boot Camp.
"I/m looking at the Marines," said Zach Smith, the team/s squad leader. Smith said his training at Boot Camp is a solid foundation for the military and a good start toward his goal of becoming a U.S. Marshall.
Despite his nickname 77 Gunny for gunnery sergeant 77 Hestand has no military experience. At just over 5-feet tall, he didn/t meet the minimum height requirement to join. A former social studies teacher, Hestand said his absence of military experience is a lesson for the teens.
"God took someone who didn/t have the capabilities, only the heartfelt desire to do something, and put them here," Hestand said.
Hestand doesn/t get paid to do Boot Camp. He is employed as the manager of the church/s radio station, KRQZ 91.5, though one wouldn/t know by looking at his church office.
Framed marine posters hang on walls Hestand painted army green. He sits behind his desk on a weekday dressed in fatigues and boots. A G.I. Joe doll is displayed on a table. A Bible wrapped in a camouflage book cover rests next to his computer.
"My office looks more like a ROTC recruitment center than a radio station office," he said, laughing.
Morris and Hestand are well aware that Boot Camp is "way out of the box" of normal church programs, but the only complaint thus far has been from the occasional parent concerned about the marine-style yelling of drill instructors, they say. Occasionally a parent will be uncomfortable with the use of toy guns. But Morris says it/s in boys/ nature to play with weapons and if it wasn/t guns it would be sticks.
This aggressive and combative nature is at the heart of Boot Camp. Hestand and company say that men 77 particularly Christian men 77 have become domesticated, boring and divided from their natural instincts of adventure and drive to tackle challenges. The end result is a docile and unhappy man.
The idea that Christian men must be reshaped is straight from Eldridge/s "Wild at Heart," which argues that man/s wild heart is a mirror of God/s and that man/s three natural and worthy desires are to: fight a battle, live an adventure and rescue a beauty.
"Wild at Heart" has sold over a million copies since its 2001 release. It has sparked debate, but is used as a manual by many churches and is prominently displayed in Christian bookstores.
Other Christians consider Eldridge a demagogue who shapes God in his own "muscular Christian," outdoorsman image. They say his teachings 77 which favor movie icons like the character William Wallace of "Braveheart" and bash "Mr. Roger Christians," who hold office jobs and "make decisions at the kitchen table," 77 are dangerous and heretical concepts.
Church leaders at Trinity say the book is a refreshing reprieve from a culture that favors the introspective "Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus" and churns out meek men.
"Guys will be guys and boys will be boys" and the trick is not to stifle that, but encourage the correct use of it through discipline and morality, Morris said. "The message of Christ is timeless, yet the methodology has to change in order to connect with the culture."
The teens in Boot Camp go on monthly hiking expeditions as part of their physical and combat training. They bring an arsenal of automatic and rapid-fire air-soft guns and practice ambushes and other tactical warfare. Once they even went with the police Explorers to Vandenberg Air Force Base and practiced at a simulated shooting gallery with real M-16s, complete with recoil, hooked to computers.
Once a week, the church opens the gym to all teens to play air-soft war games.
Boot Camp kids also get involved in occasional public service. Most recently they helped out with Toys for Tots at Christmas time.
Surprisingly, none of the Boot Camp kids have military parents. Hestand says kids who have parents at VAFB don/t want more military structure and don/t join. Many of the teens come from single-family homes and homes without fathers. The all-male camaraderie and mentorship compensates for the absence of a male figure at home, church officials say.
The program is also not designed for teens with behavior problems, though Hestand said he believes it would be productive for them also.
The group would like to start a female Boot Camp, but doesn/t have enough interested girls yet. Initially the group had girls, but Hestand prefers to keep the genders separated. Examining male identity is central to Boot Camp, Hestand said, and guys are less honest and forthcoming with girls in the group.
The nearly 80 other junior high and high school kids at Trinity participate in a separate youth group led by Youth Pastor Brad Clark, 27. Clark said there is no pressure for kids to join the Boot Camp. He said churches need such innovative programs to attract kids 77 and they need to understand the context of Boot Camp.
"The thing I don/t want is these guys to think it/s about violence. It/s easy to see guys in camou and running around with air-soft guns and think that/s what it/s all about," Clark said. "It/s really not. It looks like that because of the packaging but it really is more /Get at the heart of what a good man should be: That we should be protectors./"
* Staff Writer Mark Baylis can be reached at 736-2313, Ext. 105 or by e-mail at mbaylis@pulitzer.net.
Jan. 29, 2005