Leadership Tips & Training Leader Spotlight

I just received my first leader newsletter. I am so excited to see what other leaders try, and what works for them, etc. I saw where a lady wears a suit to class, following your lead. I have a pair of jeans that I used to wear. I kept them for a sign of where I don't ever want to go again. I take them with me to class sometimes. I put them on in the hall before class one evening (they actually fit over my new size clothes-praise God!) and went in like that. All my ladies looked at me like I was nuts. I was able to pull them right off without unbuttoning them. It was an object lesson for them. They enjoyed it! I encourage my group during the second meeting to start a journal for their measurements. I measure myself at the beginning of each session and not during the session. It is exciting to see the inches falling off each 13-week session, even when sometimes the scale doesn't seem to go quite as far as I would have liked. Since last March, I have lost 25 total body inches. Thanks be to God!!

A new idea for our group this session is a pre-study meal together. Our church has a Wednesday night meal before Bible study and prayer group time. Anyone that would like to can eat. But, the meal is definitely not always on the Live-It. Some of my ladies feel obligated to eat, since their husbands or families are eating. So, we enlisted a husband of one of our ladies to fix us a low-fat, low-calorie meal each week. He does an awesome job. We weigh in, and then each member is free to fix their plate and eat before the meeting. This is great. We get to eat together as a group each week and have a little more time to socialize.

Thank you for all you do for us!
Michele Handy
Skelly Drive Baptist Church
Tulsa, Ok


Nancy Taylor is the First Place Leadership Training Director and joined the First Place staff in 1997. Nancy teaches leadership principles to First Place Leaders throughout the country and at Houston's First Baptist Church where she coordinates all the First Place groups. . Nancy also speaks at First Place workshops, rallies, retreats, and conferences, where she delights her audiences with humor and encourages them with boldness. She writes a monthly article, which includes helpful tips for leaders, for the First Place E-newsletter, and was a contributing writer to the Today is the First Day devotional book. Nancy is the resident First Place Bible Concordance because of her love for Scripture memory.