ELP Highlights – June 2014

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Andree Aiken

My name is Cailee Dean and I am currently a student at Women at the Well in Athens, TN. God delivered me from a 9 year battle with self-mutilation. I was in and out of psychiatric facilities for 8 years. Doctors told me I was crazy and I would end up killing myself, but God had a different plan. He delivered me from death’s grip and has set me free. I believe God is leading me to youth ministry of some kind. I desire to minister hope to teens and young adults who are struggling with self-mutilation and depression.

ELP has taught me how to be a godly leader and has given me the tools to walk in and carry out God’s calling on my life.

ELP Rep’s Retreat Testimonies

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Andree Aiken

This past month we had our first annual ELP Rep’s Retreat. We had 14 participants in attendance from the Southeast Region, Tennessee and Virgina. Our goal was to provide training and networking opportunities in an atmosphere of rest and relaxation. Some of our Rep’s shared their testimonies:

Coaching Session – Active Listening

“I was greatly influenced as well as convicted during the Listening at different levels seminar. You see, I have always been a talker and never a good listener. I am now making a conscious effort to understand that I don’t have to have an answer for everything and most of the time I just need to shut up and listen.”

~ Todd Adams (ELP Rep, Pensacola Men’s)

“I walked away from the ELP Retreat better equipped as a leader in our ministry, as well as seeing opportunities to ensure that I am reflecting Christ in every aspect of my walk as a leader worth following! It can be easy to get wrapped up in the task at hand and forget how important it is to take the time to LISTEN to our students being deliberate and intentional in our interactions with them, this opens up opportunities for ministry and growth. We are called to raise up Sons and Daughters of the Kingdom what a precious gift we have been entrusted with.” ~ Deanna Trujillo (ELP Rep, Pensacola Women’s)

Reps Reflecting

“I want to be a Life coach… a Barnabas… to encourage others to make wise choices with the Word of God through their understanding…not mine.”

~ Kristy Sewell (ELP Rep, Women at the Well,TN)

“The most beneficial thing I took away from the retreat was that I am not in this fight alone. I do not have to have all the answers: I have a pool of talented, giving people that I can call on their knowledge and love for the Lord to help me help others. What a great group of people assembled to lead their local ELP groups. I am forever blessed to serve with these people of God. Being invested in is an incredible feeling.” ~ Hershall Bergeron (ELP Rep, Middle GA)

“Really helped me to realize the importance of implementing and encouraging those empowered, on how important ELP could be whether they are seeking a ministry position or not. Excellent for lay leaders as well.”

ELP Rep’s with the youngest Emerging Leader Tabitha Taylor

Prep for Rafting

Prep for Rafting

Rafting on the Chattahoochee

Level II – June 2014

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Andree Aiken

Welcome!

This month we want to welcome Thomas Payne (Jacksonville Men’s) and Kevin Snelling (Central Florida Men’s) to the Level II!

Core Courses

Our core course this month is Leadership Principles and our text: 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell. With Learning the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership you will be trained on how to become a better and more productive leader. You will discover the 21 laws that make leadership work successfully and learn valuable techniques that will help you to improve your abilities in that area. This study comes with a promise that if you know these laws and do them systematically, you will succeed beyond all expectations. “Follow these laws and people will follow you.”

I will be sending out the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership DVD’s to your center. Remember to return these at the end of your course, if you don’t your center will be charged the cost of the DVD’s $299.99 (plus tax). The first post will be up on the forum Monday, June 16th.

Electives

Congratulations to Derek Zimmerman (Oklahoma) for moving on to your electives!

Looking forward to chat with you on the discussion forum.

Rep’s Link – June

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Andree Aiken

Level I Adult

This month’s course is Core Values and our text: Our Core Values by Dr. Jerry Nance. Our Core Values connect our people to our culture. The core values of an organization define the essence of the organization. Whether you have core values written down or not, you practice a set of values every day. Your daily operations, your convictions, how you act, how you think and your daily processes all define your values. This book outlines the core values of our organization.

Level I Adolescent

Our course for the Adolescent track is Building Relationships and our text: Habitudes II – The Art of Connecting With Others by Tim Elmore. Sociologists tell us the most introverted of people will influence 10,000 others in an average lifetime. So how do you influence others? How do you add value to them? Our adolescents will learn to lead up in relationships with those over them.

Monthly Book Orders and Grades

Southeast region Rep’s can go to Google Drive and search for ELP Monthly Order Form and Grade Sheet Edited. Look for your center’s name in the tabs at the bottom and fill in your center’s information. No need to save or email the spreadsheet (Google Drive saves it and I can access the info from my Drive). If you place an initial order on the form and update the order later (i.e. add 2 more books) after we have ordered your books, please send me an email andree.aiken@teenchallenge.cc. Thank you.

Leading Through Forgiveness and Grace

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Andree Aiken

Mercy Said “No, I’m Not Gonna Let You Go!”

As I was thumbing through the Cross and the Switchblade I came across David Wilkerson’s encounter with Nicky Cruz. As Nicky threatened to kill David, he responds “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). David was willing to die so that Nicky could hear how much Jesus loves him and how much he (David) loves him. It reminds me of the song by CeCe Winan “Mercy said No, I’m not gonna let you go, I’m not gonna let you slip away, you don’t have to be afraid, Mercy said no, sin will never ever take control life and death stood face to face, darkness tried to steal my heart away, thank you Jesus, mercy said no.” As servant leaders we are motivated by love because we have experienced God’s mercy and grace and we want others to experience it as well. In Lead Like Jesus, Ken Blanchard asks the questions “Why is forgiveness important as an aspect of leadership?” “Because forgiveness is the way for a heart grounded in unconditional love of God to respond to the imperfections of others.” In Teen Challenge we have many opportunities to respond to the imperfections of others – by forgiving quickly, bringing correction in love and helping our students receive and move forward. “As leaders, the journey of forgiveness must start with us; when we don’t forgive we judge with a view to condemn but when we forgive, we bring correction and restoration” (Blanchard).

“I’ll never forget the day Elaine put her finger on the quality of the love that redeems. “I’ve finally got it figured out, Reverend Wilkerson, ” said the girl. “Christ’s love is a love with no strings attached.” Christ’s love is a love that asks nothing in return. It is a love that wants only the best for these boys and girls. And this is the quality that redeems.” (C&S, p. 165).

The Life of Christ Activates Grace in Us

At our ELP Rep’s retreat Greg Hammond spoke a message on the life of Christ activating grace in us. He said “The death of Christ secured grace for us but the life of Christ activates grace in us.” When Jesus is working in the students lives, they look less and less like the world and more and more like Christ. When our students understand their position in Christ all they want to do is His will and be like their Father – Abba Father. “So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba Father.” (Rom 8:15). “Grace extends unrestrained fellowship to others in celebration of their inherent dignity as being made in God’s image and as the objects of His affection.” – Ken Blanchard. Grace activated in our students helps them come alive to the love of Christ and the abundant life only He can give. “If we are going to enrich culture we need to connect our students to the reality of the gospel so they believe it and grace comes alive in them; they start to identify with their Father – they are no longer “self-conscious” but “son-conscious” (Hammond). As leaders, grace is activated in our relationship with the students when we are present for them, when we accept that we are limited and allow the power of the Holy Spirit to come in and bring life and light in their situation.

In what ways does the Holy Spirit want to extend forgiveness and grace in your relationships with those you lead?

“If students learn to see this grace activated in them wherever they go, the knowledge of the Lord will fill that part of the world because of His son or daughter; their feet will be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, they’ll preach glad tidings of great joy and help fulfill their Father’s legacy and their Father’s dream – that the glory of Jesus fill all the earth.”~ Greg Hammond.

ELP Summit Testimonies

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Andree Aiken

“At the ELP Summit God baptized me with a new fire and passion for ministry. This year God did such a new thing, as He challenged my heart. His Holy Spirit convicted, corrected, and encouraged me to come up higher. I used to think ELP was a program that would help me become a better leader. But its so much more than that. It has helped me to find my identity in who I am as a child of God. And a solid foundation of identity is the core foundation of all leadership.” ~ Kori Briscoe (Emerging Leaders College)

“I had the most amazing experience at this ELP Summit. I was a little nervous at first, not knowing what to expect. Not knowing what kind of young adults would be here. I never knew I could have this much fun, sober. The worship amazingly moving, and the men and women who were in charge, made it an atmosphere of constant worship. Through this summit, God has truly opened a new door in my heart. A door of prayer. A door of gratitude. A door of love. The most amazing part is as God was working on our leader’s hearts while we were there, we came home and the Holy Spirit had been working on our students hearts, and they were right where we were! Prayer, love, and gratitude. It trickled down, and hasn’t stopped. Praise God! Unity Night was amazing. I prayed for people, and in return, they prayed for me. It was so powerful to experience the power of prayer and watch people get healed and delivered right in front of our eyes! Our God is alive! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Through this summit, he showed me how real and present He is, and honestly, since the summit, I have never been closer to Him. He changed my life, and many other’s lives during the weekend. I experienced HOME with my brothers and sisters. All because God is our foundation. He is true to His promise making all things new He CHOSE us for such a time as this. He made us to be loved by Him. What an amazing truth and revelation.” ~ Danielle Wallace (Shenandoah Valley TC)

“The summit was very refreshing I loved every minute of it from the start to the end I could feel the Holy Spirit moving in that place at all times. I got blessed so much to be a part of the Revival on the River to be ministered to and to minister to each other. Thank you for such a wonderful time and a blessed event.” ~ Derek Zimmerman (Oklahoma TC)

“Just wanted to express my thanks for all you do for the promotion of growth in our walk with the Lord. Your ELP Program is a prime example of what can be done if we put our minds to it and commit to continuous improvement. Rich told us the ELP Summit was an exceptional spiritual experience and he was simply bubbling with excitement to tell us all about it.” ~ Sam Cashman & Rich Molton (North Carolina Boys Academy)

“When I was young I was saved and lost my way for quit some time. On August 10th, 2012 my father was killed I went through severe pain and hurt due to my last words to him. On Friday April 25th 2014 I decided I wanted to go to Revival On The River. I have never been able to raise my hand and praise the lord the way I have always wanted to. I finally broke down and I lifted my hands. That night they asked for people to come down who wanted and needed prayer I fought God in going down and he finally would not allow me to fight anymore. So my best friend and I went down and not only received prayer but rededicated our lives to the Lord. After that night my life took a change for the better. On Tuesday morning a tornado came through and ripped apart a friends life leaving her and her family with absolutely nothing. On May 1st I was sitting in the McDonalds playground and something came over me that I needed to take items they needed to them face to face and pray for them. So with that I did as what I feel the good Lord needed me to do. I have never a day in my life prayed for anyone else in a group or prayed out loud. Sitting at my friends we gathered in a circle and God gave me the words he needed to me to say for them. On Friday May 2nd I received a random call from Lauren in Teen Challenge called me and asked how Unity Night was for me I told her my week and she was amazed. She then proceeded to pray for me. I know that is God’s way of saying thank you for showing them me through yourself. I will now continue to pray for others and continue to provide for people the good Lords name and power through myself. I am have been blessed since Unity Night and I could not feel any better than I do now. Thanks so much guys! You are awesome!” ~ Lindsay O’Fallon (community member)

Revival On the River – Unity Night

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Bryan Sampson

Revival on the River was an event that was held in the Chattahoochee Valley area on Friday April 25^th at the Phenix City Amphitheater. When we originally began planning the outreach for the ELP Summit in 2013 we had an idea of putting on a single large event and this is what came from that original idea. I don’t think any of us who did the planning from the beginning had any idea of what God was going to do as we simply moved forward into the doors he began to open. That Friday afternoon during the ELP Summit it was so exciting to see a whole convoy of ELP “troops” heading to get things ready for this event. We all were excited for a chance to serve the area and were anticipating that God was going to do something extraordinary!

That night we saw between 2-3000 people from all over the area fill the amphitheater for a night of family fun, music and free Chickfila. It was so exciting for everyone to see so many people come to the event. We had both of the Mayors from the area come and share. We also had a Teen Challenge choir sing and Dr. Jerry Nance share with the crowd about Teen Challenge. Throughout the night we had different local worship teams playing and also a singing group, a dance team and also local hip-hop group.

Our ELP participants helped to staff many of the different areas through the night and played a major part in making the event a success! They helped give out the food, picked up trash, prayed for people at our prayer tents, assisted backstage and helped gather everyone onto the bridge over the river for a Unity Bridge Lighting with 3500 glowsticks. It was amazing how all of our ELP participants simply served this community during this event and made a great impression for Teen Challenge.

During the altar call we had a large group from the ELP summit who came to serve as our altar team. This team did an amazing job praying for people and leading many people to Christ for the very first time. We saw many people saved, healed and delivered from various issues. As our team prayed for one lady her right ear that had been deaf was popped open and she actually began to hear. The first word she heard out of that ear was “Jesus” as one of our participants whispered into her newly healed ear! It was astounding how many miracles and salvations happened as God ministered powerfully through our participants.

Revival on the River

This event was the outreach that we were able to partner with this year during out ELP Summit. It was an event that not only impacted thousands of lives in the Chattahoochee Valley area but also all of our participants. Many of them shared testimonies later of all God had done and confessed they no believed God for even great things. The heart of our event this year was to see a TC Army be raised up to reach the nations for Christ and I really believe that during this event a lot of our participants saw just the beginnings of what God wants to do through each of them!

God is releasing vision into our ministry that we are about so much more than just getting people to stop doing bad things. He is pulling people out of the darkness and into his marvelous light to impact the nations of the earth for His glory. He is raising up a generation of soldiers from Teen Challenge programs that will be fearless evangelists and bold prayer warriors. I believe that this is just the beginning of many more exciting things to come not only during future ELP Summits but through Teen Challenge programs worldwide.

-Andrew Chalmers
http://andrewchalmers.wordpress.com
@landrewchalmers

For those who came to the ELP Summit, how did this event impact you personally?

ELP Summit Highlights

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Andree Aiken

We call the ELP Summit the “exclamation point” of the ELP! And this year’s Summit was no disappointment – like every Summit, it was the ‘best ever’! 130 participants attended this year representing 20 centers (including 6 beyond the Southeast Region). Our theme was “Frontline Leaders – No Ground to Give”. Our “Commander’s Intent” is that none should perish, and He has raised up Teen Challenge to go to the frontlines of addiction.

Here are the highlights:
– We kicked off the Summit with worship and a ‘prayer assault‘, because prayer is our overarching strategy…
– Dick Simmons, a general in God’s army shared on America’s great revivals and what God can do in our day. (Dick was praying in NYC before David Wilkerson received his call!)
– TC ‘new recruits’ tested their skills and endurance in the Boot Camp Obstacle Course, the ‘Muddy Mesh Crawl’ was the highlight!
– Global Night gave emerging leaders expanded vision for what God is doing through TC around the world. Atl-ihop leader Billy Humphrey spoke a word to Teen Challenge on being ‘gatekeepers’.
– Emerging leaders were trained in the “Be-Know-Do” framework of Army leadership – knowing who you are and what you have in Christ before you go to battle.
– Friday was an epic part of the Summit as our ELP’ers helped lead and facilitate “Revival on the River – Unity Night“, a city-wide outreach at the Chattahoochee amphitheater attended by more than 2,000 people! The beauty of the diversity of Christ’s body was displayed and many were saved and healed!
– Saturday morning was an illustration of the realities of battle as participants visited the US Army Infantry Museum.
– The Summit culminated with the graduation ceremony of 40 Lev I and 8 Lev II grads. Dr. Nance exhorted us to be like the leader Caleb, who had a ‘different spirit’ than his peers who lacked faith in God.
– We commenced the Summit by ‘passing on the torch‘ – representing the TC purpose and DNA being passed along to every ‘Gen Next’!

See you all next year at the, best ever, 10th Anniversary ELP Summit!!!

Andrew interviewing Dick Simmons and Mark Benz

Even the babes were interceding

Level II – May 2014

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Andree Aiken

Welcome!

This month we want to welcome Hannah Larson (Columbus Girl’s) to the Level II!

Core Courses

Okay, so we are on the very last post of People First by Jack Lannom. Remember there is no test for this course. Email or slow-mail me (andree.aiken@teenchallenge.cc) your Personal Action Plan (PAP) fill-ins along with your assessment (first pages) and I’ll grade them and return to you.

The next core course is Strategic Planning and Decision Making and our text is Executive Values by Kurt Senske. “The book combines two aspects of organizational leadership not often mentioned in the same breath: getting results and integrating Christian values within an organization.” Executive Values is a “how-to” book designed to help you succeed in your chosen career without compromising your faith and losing your soul in the process. The first post will be up on the forum Monday, May 19th.

Electives

Congratulations to Phillip Talle’ (Jacksonville) and Sandra Marotta (Southwest FL Admin) for moving on to your electives!

As always, looking forward to chat with you on the discussion forum.

Andree Aiken

Rep’s Link – May 2014

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Andree Aiken

Thank you

Thank you to all ELP Rep’s and Emerging Leaders who attended the Summit. It was a great time of worship, fellowship and training. Congratulations to Mike Randle (ELC) and Deanna Trujillo (Pensacola Women) on being Male and Female ELP Representatives of the year!

Level I Adult

It’s quite fitting that the next course immediately after a Summit is Servant Leadership and our text: Lead Like Jesus by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges. “Jesus is clear about how He wants us to lead: He asks us to make a difference in our world by being effective servant leaders.” Servant leaders lead from the Heart, Head, Hands and Habits. The real secret to leading like Jesus is found in Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” Remember there is a DVD and a Weekly Meeting Guide for this course. If you don’t have a copy of the DVD, email andree.aiken@teenchallenge.cc and we’ll send a copy for you.

Level I Adolescent

Our course for the Adolescent track is Self-Leadership and our text: Habitudes I – The Art of Self-Leadership by Tim Elmore. Our adolescents will learn about leading themselves first before aspiring to lead others.

Monthly Book Orders and Grades

Southeast region Rep’s can go to Google Drive and search for ELP Monthly Order Form and Grade Sheet Edited. Look for your center’s name in the tabs at the bottom and fill in your center’s information. No need to save or email the spreadsheet (Google Drive saves it and I can access the info from my Drive). If you place an initial order on the form and update the order later (i.e. add 2 more books) after we have ordered your books, please send me an email andree.aiken@teenchallenge.cc. Thank you.

What's new with ELP?

Identify. Equip. Train.

Monthly Archives: May 2014

ELP Highlights – June 2014

ELP Rep’s Retreat Testimonies

Level II – June 2014

Rep’s Link – June

Level I Adult

Leading Through Forgiveness and Grace

ELP Summit Testimonies

Revival On the River – Unity Night

ELP Summit Highlights

Level II – May 2014

Rep’s Link – May 2014

Thank you

Thank you to all ELP Rep’s and Emerging Leaders who attended the Summit. It was a great time of worship, fellowship and training. Congratulations to Mike Randle (ELC) and Deanna Trujillo (Pensacola Women) on being Male and Female ELP Representatives of the year!

Level I Adult