Treign Up
Our Story
In 1988, I (Jeff) left a promising military career to respond to a call to ministry. That work became Salt and Light Ministries and is still in existence today. During those years, I raised my family of two boys along with my wife Debbie. I was always looking for ways to infuse adventure into their lives and promote their manhood. Early in their lives, we went on camping trips with other men and their boys. This expanded into a larger group and eventually, I saw it as an opportunity to mark their journey into manhood, especially with rites of passage. These fall retreats became a priority on our calendars and gave all our boys a loosely organized path to manhood.
Now, my oldest son (Ben) has sons and the burden to see this process promoted in our manhood-deprived culture has become a call to arms. Our response has been to study, pray, examine the problem, and consider our philosophy of ministry. The result is our ministry to boys called “Treign Up”. We hope that you will join us in this much needed endeavor. Like Jordan Peterson said in his call to Christian churches, “…Young men have a woman to find, a garden to walk in, a family to nurture, an ark to build, a land to conquer, a ladder to heaven to build, and the utter, terrible catastrophe of life to face stalwartly in truth, devoted to love and without fear.” We hope to be a part of that.
Meet The Team
Ben Smith
Army PSYOP Officer
Management Consultant
L&D Expert
Captains Coach Founder
MBA
PMI-ACP and CCMP
JFK Special Warfare Graduate
The Captains' Playbook and Sports PSYOP Author
MVP of Rugby National Championship
Collegiate - High School - Middle School Sports Coach
Jeff Smith
Director of Salt & Light MInistries
Children's Church Pastor
World-renowned speaker and author
Retired Army
Masters in Communication, Screenwriting, and Worship Arts
The "Rodfather" - Founder of the famous dowel rod ministry
Creator of 20+ Vacation Bible Schools
Written and Produced 50+ Books and Musical products
Root Causes
Deprivation
There is a pandemic of boys without intentional fathers in the home. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18.4 million children, 1 in 4, live without a biological, step, or adoptive father in the home
Disengagement
There is a bias against boys as students. Almost all of our environments and structures are not designed with boys in mind, and it is leading to boys losing in education and discipleship.
Distortion
Confusion and denial of biblical manhood are leading to the demonization of masculinity; causing a generation of boys to lack direction in who they should be and what they should do.
MALE BY DESIGN
We are created male by God's design.
mASCULINE THROUGH NATURE
We become masculine through the release of chemicals in our bodies that make us grow in strength, stature, and sexuality.
mEN BY SACRIFICE
We become men as we learn how to appropriately channel this power into sacrificial responsibilities of providing, protecting, and presiding.
gODLY MEN BY DISCPLESHIP
We become Godly men by incarnating the logos in all manner of being and carrying out our responsibilities.
Tenets
WHY "TREIGN" UP?
“Train up a child in the way that they should go and when they are older they will not depart from it.” - Proverbs 22:6
What if the character you die with is the character you go to heaven with? That is the way we should consider raising up our sons. To be men of Godly character who not only take their rightful (biblical) positions in this life, but more importantly, the LIFE we have for eternity.
We are training to have Christ-like character so that we can rule and reign in heaven forever.