This month’s podcast is 4 of 12 on Coaching. Click here to listen to Cathy Alford (Life Works) and I talk about The Heart of a Coach. You can use the PowerPoint and Assessment for training interns and staff.
Monthly Archives: June 2015
ELP Highlight June 2015
My name is Jarret Murray and I am thirty-three years old. I am from Labelle, Florida and am currently a student at the Ft. Meyers, Florida Teen Challenge.
I believe the purpose and calling God has given me is to serve others who have been through similar struggles. ELP has been a part of me fulfilling my purpose and calling by helping me to become a Christ-centered leader.
I started using drugs at the age of thirteen which led to my life spiraling out of control. I began leading the lifestyle of a criminal and ended up in jail and prison many times. I tried to stop using and get my life under control on my own many times. In 2012, after not being able to take anymore I tried to commit suicide multiple times. I eventually ended up back in jail where I learned about Teen Challenge. Through this center I have found God’s grace. He has restored my life and I helped me to find purpose for my life.
Level II Link – June 2015
Welcome
This month we welcome Shannon White (Columbus Girls) and Mike Spivey (Jacksonville) to the Level II. Shannon has been serving with the Columbus Girls for 3 years and Mike has been serving at Jacksonville for a year. Welcome leaders! This is the level of the ELP where you will truly learn self-leadership and personal responsibility.
Core Courses
For those of you who have not returned the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership DVD’s to the ELP Office, please return them soonest. If not, we’ll charge your center the cost of the DVD’s ($299.99) starting Jun 15th.
Our next Core Course is Ethics and Integrity and our book: Integrity by Dr. Henry Cloud. Clouds’ byline for Integrity is “the courage to manage the demands of reality.” Most people define integrity as “doing what is right when no one is looking” but another, even greater, perspective Cloud gives is “integrity is integrated character; who a person is will ultimately determine if brains, talents, competencies, energy, effort, deal-making abilities, and opportunities will succeed.”
Your first post for this course will be up on the forum Monday, June 15th. You’ll make an initial post and then respond to someone’s post.
ELP Rep’s Link – June 2015
Welcome
Over the last few months we’ve had a few changes in Rep’s within our region; we want to welcome new Rep’s Danielle McKinney (Pen W), Todd Adams (Pen M), Frank Carbonell (Tallahassee), Sandra Marotta (Southwest FL W) and Rachel Olmeda (Lakeland). Welcome leaders! Thank you for answering the call to raise up sons and daughters on your campuses who know their identity in Christ, their purpose in life and are ready to serve the ministry and the Kingdom of God. Huge responsibility, but with the Holy Spirit’s guidance we can do it!
Level I Adult
This month is the beginning of the core course cycle with Knowing and Understanding God’s Will and our text: Experiencing God by Henry and Richard Blackaby and Claude King (ISBN # 978-1415858387). God is inviting us to experience Him in an intimate love relationship through which He reveals to us His will, His ways and His work. When you realize where God is working, you can join Him in what He is doing. You will have great discussions in your weekly ELP meetings in this 2-month course!
Level I Adolescent
Our course for the Adolescent track is Leading Others and our text: Habitudes #3 – The Art of Leading Others by Dr. Tim Elmore. The images Dr. Elmore provides are memorable and powerful in conveying key leadership principles. We want to communicate to our students that in the ELP leadership starts first with leading yourself well – then with connecting with others – and finally, we lead those in our care.
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 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 Kerry Pevey (ELP Admin Asst) an email at kerry.pevey@teenchallenge.cc. All new applications must be in by the 10th of the month for students starting the 15th. Come on Reps, get your stuff in on time, I know you can do it!
Leadership Transitions
Transitions are like delivering a baby; difficult for a while but when the baby arrives it’s the cutest thing you have ever seen! They are also difficult because something dies or closes for something new to give birth and there are so many unknowns in the process. Solomon describes the paradox of life this way “there is a right time for everything under the sun – a time to be born; a time to die; a time to plant; a time to harvest, a time to destroy, a time to rebuild’ (Ecc 3, TLB). For every season of our lives there is a beginning and there is an end. However, Jesus comforts us with these words from Matthew 6 “your heavenly Father already knows perfectly well what you need and he will give them to you if you give Him first place in your life and live as he wants you to. So don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time” (TLB).
“ For many of us, as we move through various stages of our lives, we reach junctions – points of transition. Some challenges require us to rise to the occasion – they will either become tollbooths we progress through or roadblocks.The price to go through the tollbooth might be a tough decision we must make, or a situation we must leave behind; it may mean a class we must take, or a job we must quit. We must calibrate our expectations, manage disappointments, and be realistic about the speed and ease of our lives. The best solution then, is to learn adaptability. We must balance how we possess expectations, but also realize that a wonderful gift may not be wrapped as we expect.” ~ Dr. Tim Elmore – Habitudes for the Journey
If we are pliable in God’s hand – yielded to His will, His thoughts and His ways, then we become more flexible – more adaptable to times of transition and change and, as a result we grow in our dependence on the Holy Spirit. Reminds me of this paraphrase of Matthew 11:6 “blessed is he who does not get offended at [how I choose to operate My kingdom on this earth]” (paraphrase by Virgina Young). Recently, our Corporate Training Team went through a major transition which was painful but I had to rest in the fact that God had everything under control and He had each one’s best interest at heart. We all had to spend significant amount of time with the Lord as we contemplated the next season. God is good and He is faithful to perfect the good work He started in us.
It is with mixed emotions of sadness, and yet excitement, that we say goodbye to Karissa Corpeny and Andrew Chalmers who served our emerging leaders and staff for 8 years and 4 years respectively. Karissa moved on to start her own consulting business and Andrew started Take the City as a non-profit organization. Please keep them in prayer in their new endeavors. Dustin Nance is now the Divisional Leader in charge of Training which means ELP will merge with the Emerging Leaders College. There is a creative team that will be assessing the structure of ELP and looking for ways to provide more role-specific training for Teen Challenge staff. We look forward to see what God births in this new season.
Some coaching questions to ask as you go through a transition:
How am I balancing my expectations with reality?
Am I in a season of giving birth or closure?
What do I see when I assess the speed and ease of my life?
What are the themes that are consistent when God is preparing me for a transition?
Articled submitted by: Andree Aiken – ELP Leader/Coach