Leadership Tips & Training God’s Live-it!

The Live-it plan is the nutrition plan to which First Place members commit each session in order to lose weight and become healthier, so that they can serve God better and longer, physically. The spiritual sister to the Live-it commitment is the Bible Reading commitment. This commitment is God’s Live-it Plan! Taking in God’s Word on a daily basis improves and maintains our spiritual health. If our body, being temporary, needs 45 specific nutrients each day to function efficiently, then how much more does our spirit, which will live eternally, require?  We can take care of our bodies by exercising and eating healthy, yet one day our bodies will wear out and eventually fail us. But the good news is that if we live a balanced life, caring for our physical and our spiritual needs, then we will experience great reward.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
(2 Corinthians 4:16-17)

Leaders, encourage your members to keep the Bible Reading commitment by stressing the need to balance both spiritual and physical nutrition. I often ask those potential First Place members at an orientation if they have heard the computer term, “garbage in – garbage out.” They all nod their heads in understanding and then I proceed to present to them some rhetorical questions such as, “How much time do you spend watching television, reading magazines or talking on the phone?” Then I tell them that most battles are won or lost in the mind where we store this garbage! If we would instead fill our minds with the truth of God’s Word on a daily basis, then that truth will eventually be lived out in our lives. This is what sets First Place apart from most weight loss programs. It is grounded in the truth of Scripture.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
Colossians 2:8 

Here is an acrostic that may help you and your members when applying the Bible Reading commitment:

R

    Review each chapter or passage after reading it. Try to write a summary statement of what you just read, which will help cement in your mind the truths and insights of that passage.

E

    Experience what you read by placing yourself in the text as one of the characters or as a bystander of the situation. Ask yourself questions about how you might feel or react if you actually lived this passage.

A

    Apply the verse or passage to your life by asking if there is a command to obey, a promise to claim or a sin to confess.

D

    Do what it says. Once you have read a passage, reviewed it, experienced it and applied it to your life circumstances, determine to do what it says. 2 Peter 1:3-8 says that once we have the knowledge, if we use self-control and diligence, then we will become godly in our behavior. Thus, truth in – truth out!

May the Lord use the truth of His Word to renew your mind as a leader and influence those you lead in the process

Lead on!

Nancy Taylor
Leadership Training Director


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.