Hoping to create an opportunity for change?
Wanting to make an impact on your friends and family?
Bring a customized NextLEVEL Leadership workshop to your home!
To celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary and my 50th birthday (strange combination/different story), my husband and I brought NextLEVEL Leadership to our home along with 20 friends and family. We gathered on a Saturday for “It’s a Wonderful Life! Live it! Lead it! Love it!” To plan for this special event, I identified some favorite sections of the NextLEVEL Leadership Modules, and the creative staff team designed a customized one day workshop just for us. We sent the invitations, prepared the place and provided the food.
An early morning coffee, with fruit loaves and muffins welcomed the guests. The NextLEVEL facilitators began our day with a couple of Life Balance exercises to help us recognize areas that drain our energy and consider our priorities in the wheel of life!
We enjoyed a rousing comparison of the Myers Briggs Personalities, contemplated life values, laughed and cried through Emotional IQ and Self-sabotaging beliefs, then dreamed of discovering the perfect combination of passion, skill and need to change the world.
From the Current Reality to Crucial Conversations to Team Building Cornerstones to Managing Change with a brief synopsis on the complexities of Communication in between, we circled the greatness of the NextLEVEL Leadership core teachings to plant seeds of love, light and life in the lives of each one present.
For lunch, we enjoyed a make your own Julienne salad with homemade bread and a snack of fruit and cake in the afternoon.
Throughout the day we considered the Character of Being, the Competence of Doing, and the Confidence of Going.
Couples learned new things about each other, my girlfriends, finally, experienced a taste of NextLEVEL Leadership for themselves and everyone took away tools and ideas to become better leaders in their sphere of influence. To my big and humble surprise, my brothers, whom I hadn’t even thought of inviting to a NextLEVEL Leadership Module, LOVED IT! And they still talk about it – who knew?
We all appreciated the time together.
What a wonderful life and a wonderful way to celebrate!
Bring NextLEVEL to your life!
You don’t have to be a church or organization to reap the benefits of a customized NextLEVEL workshop. We can all find our voice and make a difference in the lives of those we love.
]]>On the evening of Friday, March 20th and throughout the day on Saturday, March 21st, 25 people, mostly from KBC, gathered together to learn about Integrative Leadership through the NextLevel Leadership program.
The NextLevel Leadership program consists of four modules, and we covered Module 1 – Landmarks of Leadership. This program would normally be taught over a two-day period, but in spite of the condensed time frame, the instructors, Cathie Ostapchuk and Lynn Smith kept us fully engaged. No doubt, our attention and concentration were facilitated by the scrumptious snacks and lunch provided by Rev. Nancy Webb who invited Cathie and Lynn to come and present the leadership workshop.
Each participant received a manual. In it was written the goal of “Integrated Leadership” which was, “to encourage and equip Christian men and women to develop the character, confidence and competence necessary to have a credible voice in the decision making processes within the church and society – in order to influence our world for God.”
Through “Integrated Leadership”, one is encouraged to find a leadership style that is a good fit in terms of one’s personality and gifts regarding the leadership situation presented. The areas of character, confidence and competence were addressed both in theory and practical applications. We learned about the need for Integrative Leadership and how it impacts those with whom we interact. We explored the areas of values, passion, giftings and personal vision. Practical methods were taught for use in the areas of strategic planning, teambuilding, dealing with change and included applications for developing mentoring relationships.
Cathie and Lynn were excellent communicators and if another opportunity comes up to attend one of their NextLevel Leadership modules, I encourage you to attend. You’ll learn a lot about yourself and those around you during fun, interactive activities, in addition to acquiring effective leadership skills and tools.
http://www.kingswaybaptist.ca/home/about/39-this-months-feature
Written by Kingsway Baptist Church
]]>I have a friend who adopted twin newborns in 1980. Almost a month after the baby girl and baby boy had settled into their new home, their birth mother decided to have the children with her. It was a heartbreaking time for my friend and her husband. However, they understood and wished the family all good things in life.
Not a day went by, though, that my friend didn’t wonder about the happiness of those babies. When they were five years old, she found out that they had been placed into foster care as toddlers and subsequently adopted into two separate families.
As adults in their twenties, the twins began the search for their birth mother and facts about their early childhood. My friend also began a search – with a private investigator – to locate the babies that had lived in her home for twenty-nine days. She and her husband had felt a love for those twins that never faltered.
At the age of thirty-five, the twins were reunited with my friend. Their personalities and life styles were quite different from each other but both are now in daily communication with a woman who was days away from being their adoptive mother. As she chose them, they are now choosing to have a relationship with her.
My friend refused to be limited by any obstacles that prevented her from reuniting with children that she felt needed her. She took stock of her resources – personal and property – and used both to achieve her goal.
Recently, my friend sent out this parable for her “email family” to consider. I think that it’s worth sharing.
One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do.
Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.
He invited all his neighbours to come over and help him.They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. The donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement he quieted down.
A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing.
He would shake it off and take a step up.
As the farmer’s neighbours continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up.
Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.
For reflection:
As a leader, have you ever been in a “no way out” place – maybe even by your own fault – and all you got was hurtful messages? What resources did you discover that you could build on? What was the benefit in that for you?
The seminary directory opened their session Tuesday with 1 Corinthians 4:1 and prayed to make them better Godly servants.
This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed.
- The women have been using the NextLevel tools to work together on a case study regarding taking the NextLevel training to the Spanish speaking communities that they are from. Pray that the ideas and contacts made here will bear fruit.
- Tuesday evening Catherine had the opportunity to share her testimony with the women. It was very meaningful and it sparked lots of discussion.
- Tomorrow (Thursday), they will be teaching in the morning and then give an opportunity for the women to share their journeys and the ways they have using the training over the 5 years that they have been taking NextLevel together. There will be a graduation ceremony to celebrate the accomplishment.
A few from the class will remain after tomorrow to have a couple of days of facilitator training and will participate as facilitator trainees for the next module 1 class that starts next week.
Picture is of Alexandra introducing “Systems Thinking” Module 4.
]]>At the heart of any ministry that seeks to reflect Jesus, regardless of how enthralling its outward appearance might be – there must be a commitment from its leadership to invest in the mentorship of at least a few in the everyday elements of life. Jesus modeled this – Jesus identified His multitude and invested greater time, energy and deeper teaching to those within that multitude. The ministry of Christ was vast and far reaching but the journey in between was reserved for a few – not for the sake of being exclusive but for the sake of being inclusive for those within His inner circle. The best leaders are always the best followers of Christ it seems to me and the best followers are the ones who purpose early on to be transparent, humble, teachable.
A profound spiritual transformation evolves within a healthy mentoring relationship because its values are always centered around principles of faith. The one who knows her true self and true identity in Christ will always be the most trustworthy leader and these are often realities discovered most beautifully through the accountability and intentional coaching of a mentor. The transfer of life skills and knowledge are so important but the nurture of Christian character that is at once strong and tender, bold and gracious, generous and discerning is always at the epicenter of mentoring relationships.
We were designed to live in community between the now and not yet! I love the way Ruth Haley Barton phrases it when she says “community is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.”
We are called to be iron that sharpens iron and we know this is true of us when we recognize that relationships are the essence of our walking around-earthly lives; when we see those around us realizing and reaching their potential and together we become life long learners, as delighted to be seed planters as we are to be harvesters!
The “be-with” factor of journeying alongside another person; asking insightful questions (and not always wanting to answer those questions ourselves); choosing to listen rather than choosing to “fix”; celebrating the smallest of victories; grieving well together and catching one another’s tears on our shoulders seems to me what it was like with Jesus and His disciples on those long journeys between cities and places of ministry activity.
I have been privileged to be mentored by some of the finest, most faithful women and men of God I have ever known and it has been one of my most humbling and cherished joys to know that many women and men would identify me as a mentor in their lives! But it seems more and more clear to me that no matter how we invest and care for an individual, mentors are always chosen ultimately by their mentees and not the other way around! This is what makes it such a gift to find ourselves on either side of such a relationship. The key marks of the mentored life are gratitude and grace – she who has been loved well, loves well and I pray that when I walk into a room, this could be said of me.
Consider how you might journey alongside someone today in a more intentional way or find someone to come alongside your life in this season. NextLEVEL teaching modules are designed to encourage women to reach their fullest potential, identify and move towards their life goals; expand their capacity and competency and really make a difference in the world, all for the sake of Christ.
]]>This Christmas, bless someone who has blessed you and NextLEVEL Leadership will multiply that blessing!
Donate a gift in honour of a special woman who has made a difference in your life. We will send her a card with your words of appreciation to inspire her, and your donation will make a difference in many women’s lives through NextLEVEL Leadership.
NextLEVEL Leadership is committed to helping Christian women take their leadership to the next level.
Follow this link to Canada Helps https://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?charityID=s85048
Make your donation by December 15th 2014 for the card to be received by Christmas. After that date, we will send a New Year’s card.
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Leo and Caprice each found a way to move forward with integral coaching support that focused them on a new way of being busy – being productive with less stress and wasted energy. Here are some ideas for the time crunched, including what worked for Leo and Caprice. See if any appeal to you and then experiment with them.
The most efficient way I know to lower anxiety and frustration caused by overload is to breathe more deeply and more slowly. When we feel rushed by deadlines and commitments our body often responds by speeding up – we walk faster, we talk faster – our breathing becomes faster and shallower. In some workplaces, this outward expression of “sense of urgency” is part of the culture and can become an unhealthy norm for leaders. Take “go slow to go fast breaks” a few times a day. You can do this at regular times in your day, or set your phone to go off every 90 minutes to ‘take a breather’. Here are a few things you can do during this time.
At work we get caught up in our minds, and much urgency is created in rumination instead of reality. Your body is a wonderful way to bring you smack-dab into a more reasonable pace of living.
Being organized doesn’t come easily to everyone, and creative thinkers often revel in the messiness. Having a sense of what’s before you allows you to react more thoughtfully to what arises. I suggest the concept of “triage” to help you control what you take on, and to provide a logical way to let go or delay some things. Sort your work often, especially as new demands arise. Use your best time of day to get to the top priority tasks. Delegate more often. Once you know what’s most important (at work, at home, in life) it is easier for you to decide on how much attention you wish to give.
Working with others can be a great joy – fun, creative and satisfyingly efficient. When we help each other out, more gets done and the burden becomes manageable. At the same time, unmanaged interruptions from others are a great source of stress. When you allow others to “cut in line” for your time, you undermine your personal authority over your life. Once you have setup your triage system, share it with others. When new demands are made, take time to see how they fit with your schedule and priorities. Learn to negotiate unreasonable deadlines and to confidently say “No.” Be friendly but firm when explaining to others that you don’t have time to chat. Try designating a specific time of the day or week when you are available for interruptions and impromptu conversations. At the same time, be respectful of how often you interrupt others during the day.
You can approach the topic of being too busy from an internal perspective. Here, I draw on Darlene Cohen’s gem of a little book called “The One Who Is Not Busy”. Cohen introduced me to the Zen concept of Simultaneous Inclusion – which is just about taking in the value of all that we do, all day. She calls it, “keeping the soul with you”. When we label an activity as work vs. leisure, or mundane vs. interesting we can feel frustrated or like we’re wasting our time. Instead, we can accept that life is made up of a vast array of moments and that all of them are meaningful in their way. This allows us to have reverence for the current moment, instead of anticipating a better future. We can move from TGIF (Thank goodness it’s Friday) to TGIN – Thank goodness it’s Now. With this kind of reframing, no moment of our lives is wasted. You can practice this by asking yourself how this moment, right now, is a vehicle for the true expression of you.
]]>After a busy summer everyone needs to rest and recharge. Enjoy the peaceful gardens and prayer labyrinth as you discover what Life Balance means to you and your relationship with God and others.
This Module 3 Life Balance does not require Module 1 or Module 2 as a prerequisite. Learning material, overnight accommodation on Friday, snacks, lunch and one breakfast are all included. April Burrows, a certified Spiritual Director will be adding Spiritual Direction content to the weekend as an added bonus.
Here is a quick link to help you find your way (233 Cummer Ave. Toronto, ON M2M 2E8).
Here is a quick link to register: https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1203997
If you have any questions please call 905 483-4854 or email [email protected]
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