Click the video link above to hear from Mike Zello about the early days of Teen Challenge and the future of the ministry!
Mike Zello is a pioneer of Teen Challenge who began working with David Wilkerson in 1958. In this video he shares about the early days and about the way he sees God raising up a new generation of leaders within Teen Challenge through the Emerging Leaders Program.
At our recent ELP Summit we looked at each of the “strands” of “TC DNA” -where you see the DNA in our heritage, and how TC Gen Next must be carriers of this DNA into our future. But actually we can’t claim this DNA as exclusively ours. Study any move of God throughout history and you’ll see evidence of this DNA. It probably started with prayer, the Gospel was proclaimed, the work of the Spirit was evident, etc. You might have noticed there is an intentional order to the “DNA sequencing”… So this means two things 1) it’s best that we not attempt any “genetic engineering” with our DNA, and 2) so that Teen Challenge might remain a move of God, He is zealous to make it impossible for us to forget our DNA.
The book of Deuteronomy is a great example of God making it impossible to forget something. The book itself is a repeat of what you can read in the first 4 books of the Bible. As you read through it several phrases are repeated over and over again, up to 40 times! Phrases such as “don’t forget”, “remember”, “keep” and “be careful” or “take care”. For instance, “don’t forget that you were slaves in Egypt”, “remember what the Lord did for you in the wilderness”, “keep all the words of this law”, “be careful to obey”… You can imagine people in the crowd listening to Moses that day thinking that he had finally gone senile and couldn’t remember that he had already said something…37 times. But if you think of the context of that day, no one was taking notes on their iPad or getting the mp3 downloads after the message, so repetition was the key to remembering.
We don’t have those constraints today, but while the Israelites weren’t bombarded by multiple media sources competing for their attention, the problem for us is on the other end of the spectrum: we’re surrounded by a lot of noise. Not only that, the challenge for TC Gen Next is that the spirit of anti-Christ is an increasingly formidable force in the earth bringing deception and distraction with it. This is why the Emerging Leaders Program must be as intentional, and repetitive, as Moses in cultivating the TC DNA in our leadership culture. So let us know when you feel like the ELP has become senile, that means our communication is starting to come through! So ELP’ers, don’t forget how the Lord led David Wilkerson and our TC pioneers these last 55 years, and take care to keep the DNA alive in your leadership and in your center!
DNA Descriptors - Click here to see the 7 DNA Strands
As we continue to develop the mentoring and coaching pieces of the Emerging Leaders Program we want to streamline one other process to work more efficiently and effectively as a department i.e. our monthly book orders and grades. Please click here elp monthly order form and grade sheet look for your Center’s name and type in your book orders, grades, monthly TC Intake and Graduate figures. This form will be sent as a recurring email to your inbox each month to remind you to fill in this information. I will continue to contact you on a monthly basis, however these calls will focus on connecting with you one-on-one, and to do training and coaching webinars. Our first such webinar will be held on Friday, May 17th at 11:00am (EDT) and will start our series of 30-minute training webinars on “Responsibility.”
LEVEL I ADULTS
It’s time for our next core course Armor Bearer and we will be studying “God’s Armor Bearer” by Terry Nance. Everyone in the body of Christ should carry the spirit of an Armor Bearer – the heart of a servant. To be the greatest in the Kingdom is to be servant to all. Terry looks at how God raised up Elisha as Elijah’s armor bearer, how to develop the spirit of an armor bearer and much more. This course comes with a book, DVD set and a participant’s guide. Let us know if you need to order a copy of the DVD set for your campus.
LEVEL I ADOLESCENTS
The Habitudes series is a great read for our adolescents because of the imagery displayed in the books and the wealth of information and experience that Dr. Tim Elmore brings to training young leaders. We start out the series with Habitudes I – the Art of Self-Leadership. Please click here elp monthly order form and grade sheet look for your Center’s name and type in your book orders, grades, monthly TC Intake and Graduate figures.
Welcome
This month we want to welcome Carl Johnson (Emerging Leaders College), Marsha Rice (West Florida Boy’s) and Eleonda Stewart (Women at the Well) to the Level II! Welcome leaders! We look forward to see how God will grow your leadership through the ELP.
Congratulations!
Congratulations to Pastor Bernie Foschini (Western KY), Stacy McLaine and Anna Spencer (Columbus Women) and Nikki Osborne (Women at the Well) for moving on to your elective track!
Core Courses
Let’s jump back in after our one week break from posting. I am enjoying your insights from From Dream to Reality.
Our next course starting May 15th is a 3-month course Values in Leadership and we will be studying “People First” by Jack Lannom. This course will heighten your appreciation for every aspect of leadership and will stretch you as a leader. Your notebooks and CD’s (for the auditory learners) will be sent from this office. Your first post will be up on the forum on Monday, May 19th. Looking forward to our journey in learning the values in leadership.
Let’s recap, so far our acronym “Responsibility”
Recruit
Equip and Train
Spirit-filled
Praying
Optimistic
Next-Generation Leaders
who lead Self well
Influence others
Buy into our vision
Invest time and resources
Love the Lost
God ignited a fire in our hearts last week, let’s keep that fire burning. How about starting your own ELP “Take the City” project or a “TC-HOP” (IHOP) with Harp and Bowl Worship and prayer at your Center?
When David Wilkerson ministered to the gangs on the streets of New York in 1958, he met Nicky Cruz, assistant to the president of the Mau Mau gang, who told him after a time of preaching and ministry “Go to Hell, Preacher.” But David’s response was “you don’t think much of me Nicky, but I feel different about you; I love you Nicky.” Nicky said ” you come near me Preacher and I’ll kill you.” David was moved with great compassion, gentleness and patience and these words rolled off his tongue “you could cut me in a thousand pieces and lay them out in the street and every piece would love you” (C&S, p. 72). This is the depth of love our students need. Our students come to us because nobody loves them. Most of them did not experience unconditional love from their mother or father while they were growing up therefore they searched for love in all the wrong places. It is the unconditional love that we received through Jesus Christ that will make the difference in our students’ lives. Prior to their encounter with God, all they knew was conditional love but we can show them the unconditional love of God when they walk through our doors.
Last Saturday while we did our Take the City outreach, I realized how much the enemy is using drugs and lies to blind the eyes of people from receiving God’s love. When we invited one lady to leave her lifestyle and come with us to our Women’s Center, she said “I can’t do that to my “family” (other addicts). I confronted her with the question; “on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how much do you love your friends? 10. When asked the same question about God she responded “I can’t say that, I don’t even want to say that.” Although she professed to know God and pray to Him every day, she realized she loved her friends more than she loved God.
As staff we have to model unconditional love for our students. As Christ has loved us, so also we must love one another (John 13:34, NIV). David Wilkerson came to the realization years ago that “they’ve (drug addicts) got to start over again, and they’ve got to be surrounded by love” (C&S, p. 60). Pray that God gives you a burden for the 250 million drug addicts all over the world and ask Him how we can bring hope within reach of every addict.
Blessings, Andree
Our team can truly say that this year’s ELP Summit was the best we have ever had in these last 8 years. The theme this year was, “The DNA of Leadership.” During the event we had panel discussions that were all hosted by Dave Batty who began working with Teen Challenge in 1968 as a college student. Our panels had speakers with 20+ years of Teen Challenge experience. We were privileged to have Mike and Kay Zello who actually began working with David Wilkerson from the very beginnings of Teen Challenge in Brooklyn, NY.
Not only were the 116 ELP participants able to glean from all the discussions in the panels but they were also given a time to practice the 1st DNA strand of Prayer from the very beginning of our event. After the first panel discussion we had an amazing time of worship and prayer for over two hours! At the end of the meeting God released a great freedom into the room as all the participants and speakers began to cry out and dance in worship before the Lord. We could tell from the very first session that God planned to really pour out his Spirit at the event and give vision to each and every Emerging Leader!
“The energy on Thursday morning when we started was absolutely amazing.”
- Dr. Jerry Nance, President of Global Teen Challenge
Thursday afternoon we had an activity with all our participants split into 14 different
teams. During that time they had to work together as a team to build an altar out of wood and different supplies they were given. The teams looked into scripture for direction and wisdom as they built their altars and then at the end a panel of judges voted on the best altar based on the teams explanation of the symbology behind the different elements of their altars. The activity was inspired by the need for our organization to rebuild the altars of prayer and evangelism that Teen Challenge was originally founded upon.
During our Vision Night we had Dr. Jerry Nance share about the exciting vision of Global Teen Challenge to “put hope within reach of every addict.” We also had a Skype session with a staff member from TC Ukraine and heard reports from mission trips that Teen Challenge programs had taken overseas. Friday night we had our graduation for all of our ELP Level I and II graduates. Afterwards we heard an unforgettable commencement sermon from Mike Zello and had a time of prayer and ministry.
On Saturday morning we had a time of worship and evangelism training before we sent over 130 people to 14 different outreach locations in the city of Columbus, GA. During that time we saw at least 3 participants baptized in the Holy Spirit and many others touched by the amazing love and power of God. After the time of ministry we released the participants and team leaders to do a wide variety of things in the city like: homeless ministry, elderly ministry, kids outreaches, cleaning projects and even prayer ministry in different places all over the city. We saw hundreds of lives impacted and several people accepted Christ!
Truly it was an unforgettable event and our entire team cannot wait to see what God has in store for next year!
What are your favorite memories from this year’s ELP Summit? (share in comments below)
We are so excited to announce that this year we will be doing our first ever outreach during our ELP Summit on Saturday April 27th! We believe that a major strand of the DNA of Teen Challenge is evangelism and want to be sure that we impart that into all the emerging leaders being raised up within our organization. During that morning we plan to send out the 150+ participants out into the city of Columbus, GA to try and reach the lost for Christ.
The major event will be in the downtown area where we will be sharing about Teen Challenge from the stage at the Market that morning. During that time we will have students sharing testimonies, musicians playing music and other things going on from the platform. We also plan to send out other teams to reach out to the homeless, the elderly, kids and even just the general population of the city.
Columbus, GA
The theme God has given our team for the outreach is “Take the City”. Our hearts are so filled with excitement to release such a large group into the city to share the overwhelming love of Christ! We believe that this is just the beginning and will truly stir up a passion for evangelism and outreach within each and every ELP Summit participant.
Please be praying for the upcoming outreach and that God would open the right doors and lead our Outreach Leadership Team to select the best places! Also, if you are interested in sharing any ideas or leading an Outreach Team during the event email – andrew.chalmers@teenchallenge.cc
Core Courses
Level I Adult
This month we continue with our course Knowing and Understanding God’s Will and our text Experiencing God. We hope the emerging leaders are gaining much insight from this course and are growing in intimacy with the Lord.
Level I Adolescent
The course for the Adolescent track is Discover Your God-given Gifts and our text: Congratulations…You’re Gifted by D. Fields and E. Rees. “Are you confused about who you are or where you’re headed? Does your life seem cluttered and chaotic? Do you wish you understood God’s plan and purpose for your life? Do you want to uncover your God-given strengths? If you said yes to any of these questions, you are at right course. Inside the pages of this book, you’ll discover the place where your God-given passions and strengths intersect, and you’ll find the way you’re designed to serve. With interactive exercises and questions for you to answer, you’ll learn more about your: * Spiritual Gifts * Heart * Abilities * Personality * Experiences Understanding each of these areas of your life, you’ll begin to see who you are and how you’re designed to serve” amazon.com.
I will be calling you on Wednesday, April 3rd to get your book orders and grades. We will accept new applications for the Level I Adolescents only up to Wed, April 10th.
Congratulations!!!
This month we congratulate Kyle Brown (Prayer Mountain Boy’s), David Hunter (Oklahoma Men’s), Mike White (Jacksonville Men’s), Jonathon Cooper (Central Florida Men’s) and Carla Bottrell and Denise Freeman (Pensacola Women’s) who will be graduating the Level II at this year’s Summit! Leaders, you have fought a good fight and have won the race! Looking forward to see you at graduation.
All Level II Participants please register at the link to attend: the Summit.
Core Courses
I am enjoying our discussions on Integrity and hearing the different ways God has challenged our integrity these last two weeks. Great work leaders, you have done well!
Our next core course is Ministry Development and our text is From Dream to Reality by Dr. Jerry Nance. The journey that Dr. Nance, his family and staff have taken is captured in this story of God’s divine favor upon a team of leaders who were willing to risk all to do God’s will. In the text you will find the story unfold in 21 chapters, each one covering a different principle. This book will inspire you to dream big, apply the principles found within the pages and motivate you to make an invaluable contribution to the Kingdom of God. For those of you who do not have a copy of this book, please send me an email and I will send you a copy. Your first post will be up on the forum on Monday, April 15th.
Sharon Pierce – Women at the Well, Pennsylvania