Take the City 2013

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

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

Rep’s Link – May

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.

Level II Link

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.

 

March 2013 ELP Level III Graduates

Sharon Pierce and David HubbardSharon Pierce – Women at the Well, Pennsylvania
David HubbardSonrise Ranch, TC Oklahoma
Sharon served with Women at the Well, Tennessee for 8 years before God called her to launch out and establish another Women at the Well ministry in Pennsylvania. As a new Director, Sharon says that the ELP Level III training came at the perfect time! She testified at the Level III graduation that every module was helpful in her preparation as a leader and in shaping the new ministry, however, the most beneficial part was the peer learning and the fellowship with other TC leaders. Sharon and her advisory team currently lead outreach and jail ministry, and are in the process of obtaining their residential home for Women at the Well, PA.
David is a Teen Challenge graduate and was an interim Director when he started the Level III in October of 2010. As can often be the case in Teen Challenge, it was somewhat of a “thrown into the deep end” experience. For David as well, the timing of the Level III was perfect; the content of the program relevant; and the shared learning with other TC leaders very beneficial. He testified at the graduation that the Admissions training alone transformed the way they facilitate this aspect of the ministry and greatly improved their tuition revenue!

RESPONSIBILITY – Invest in others

Let’s recap, so far our acronym “Responsibility6225794911_36db2f373f_z
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

Invest is a peculiar concept because oftentimes we say we believe in something or someone but if we are not invested in that thing or person, it’s difficult to really measure the extent of our belief or the value we place on them. An investment is sowing – planting that which was not there before. J. Thorp says “leaders attract followers who are committed to achieving desired outcomes of an organization and therefore willing to invest themselves into the purpose” hall@wpc.net. In the same way when we invest in our emerging leaders, we plant seeds of our organization’s mission, values, vision, strategies through our time, counsel, coaching, training and finances to motivate them to achieve the desired outcomes of both the organization and the emerging leader.  John Maxwell on a Minute with Maxwell shared “when you sow, you don’t reap immediately and you don’t dig up the seed that you plant to look to see if it’s growing, you have to be patient.” Firstly you sow a seed then water it, nurture it, expose it to the natural environs and let it grow organically.

As the ELP Rep, I challenge you to invest (devout) your time, talents and resources in the emerging leaders to accomplish their calling and the organization’s purpose. In so doing we can create a culture which seeks to stimulate the growth and development of others, our organization, and ourselves. The greatest measure of our success is the seeds we sow through quality time and resources which we spend in building relationships rather than the harvest we will reap. As the father of servant leadership (Robert Greenleaf) asked “Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?”

“We don’t accomplish anything in this world alone…and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one’s life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something.”

~ Sandra Day O’Connor

Blessings, Andree

ELP Training coach

Buy Into Our Vision

Buy into” according to dictionary.com means “to be in unison, assent with another” (http://thesaurus.com/browse/buy+into).   In our 19 Days of Prayer e-memos we have been looking at the strands of the TC DNA and what these mean. The ELP is intentionally drilling down to the type of leader (sons/daughters) we want to raise up.  Yes, they should be servant leaders, they must have the Teen Challenge DNA (Earnest Prayer, Dependence on the Holy Spirit, Discipleship and the Jesus Factor, Exemplary Leadership, Personal Responsibility and Faith) and also, buy into our vision and strategy, the EFIVE.

sky-diving teamwork teen challenge elp

The challenge of every leader, new pastor and new business owner is to build a team of staff who buy into the vision you have for the future of your organization” (Dr. J Nance – From Dream to Reality).  Dr. J describes how he got the first staff to buy into his vision for TC FL:

The needs of the staff were overwhelming, and I knew we could not take the ministry beyond the development of the staff.  The biggest challenge was earning their trust and getting them to believe in me and in the goals I had for Teen Challenge. Through those intentional staff days we trained, taught them the vision and I was able to win their respect through spending time with them and caring for their positions within Teen Challenge.  These people could be transformed into a winning, faith-filled team with vision.

He created buy-in through his exemplary leadership, teaching and coaching. How will we get our Emerging Leaders to buy into our vision? Dr. J’s response “we build leaders through relationship building.”

“People don’t first follow worthy causes; they follow worthy leaderswho promote causes they can believe in”

 – John Maxwell

Blessings, Andree

Emerging Leaders Program Coach