The view from the Summit

GLEN JEAN, W.VA. — Since I was 6 years old, Scouting has been a cornerstone of my life.

Alongside honing skills like knot tying and leadership, it has also strengthened my faith, reminding me that serving others is one of the ways the Bible teaches us to serve God.

In 2021, after months of planning my project and passing my board of review, I became an Eagle Scout at the age of 14. Like many Scouts, I dreamed of attending the National Jamboree, Scouting’s capstone event every three to four years.

Related: ‘A Scout is Reverent’

But as happens so many times in life, the path God lays out isn’t always the one you had in mind.

While The Christian Chronicle’s Editor-in-Chief Bobby Ross Jr. and I were reviewing a previous issue over the phone, an advertisement for the Members of Churches of Christ for Scouting caught his eye. Given my decade-long background in Scouting, we realized that the approaching National Jamboree presented an opportunity to tell a unique story.

Five years after earning my Eagle, a series of conversations with former MCCS Chairman Steve Leddy led me to the Summit Bechtel Reserve — not as a participant, but as a Chronicle intern covering the event.

Ephraim Rodenbach poses in his Scout uniform.

While hiking miles around camp, I had the opportunity to meet Scouts and volunteers from across the country and — of course — explore the beautiful state John Denver described as “almost heaven.” 

Although Denver’s description isn’t biblically accurate, standing among towering oak trees in front of the world’s longest steel-arch bridge at New River Gorge National Park, it was hard not to marvel at God’s creation.

However, the beauty of the Mountain State isn’t what stuck with me — it was the people.

Over the course of the week, I met leaders who dedicated nearly two weeks to more than 12,000 Scouts and Scouters at the National Jamboree. From chaplains offering a listening ear to volunteers staffing activity areas, their willingness to serve reflected the ideals Scouting strives to instill.

For the volunteers with MCCS, it wasn’t just about staffing a booth or putting on a worship service. These adults and youths were building relationships, answering questions about Christ and, as they described, planting seeds.

That mission became especially evident to me during the Sunday morning worship service.

Scouts sing a cappella hymns at the National Jamboree in Glen Jean, W.Va.

With nearly 200 people crowded beneath a tin-roofed pavilion, hundreds of voices blended in praise of the Lord. The hymn “In Christ Alone” echoed through the camp, and for an hour, the National Jamboree’s activities faded away as everyone remembered the one who made it all possible.

Later that evening, I made the trek to see the Summit Circle, a memorial campfire area commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Order of the Arrow, Scouting’s national honor society. As I walked down the gravel path to the main fire ring, one of the first stone pillars bore a familiar quote from the order’s founder, E. Urner Goodman.

Rodenbach takes a selfie with Scouts from the Middle Tennessee Council contingent after the worship service.

“He who serves his fellows is, of all his fellows, greatest.”

This quote — one I had seen countless times before — was the same one engraved on a memorial bench over 400 miles away, honoring my late father, Stacey Rodenbach.

For a moment, I stood still. After spending four days surrounded by examples of faith, the coincidence between the two places felt anything but random. My first response was to thank God in prayer.

MCCS members and staff gather for a meal at a restaurant in Fayetteville, W.Va.

After thanking God for all the blessings He had provided through Scouting and my family, I finished my hike and witnessed the beautiful stonework built by Scouts just like me.

As I hiked back from the Summit Circle that evening, I realized God had fulfilled the dreams I carried as an ambitious 14-year-old looking for adventure at the National Jamboree — just not in a way I could have ever imagined.

The Lord led me to West Virginia to tell others’ stories and, in the process, reminded me of his faithfulness.

EPHRAIM RODENBACH, a sports journalism major at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., was a 2026 Christian Chronicle intern.

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