Leadership Tips & Training Be Accountable - Plan a Reunion!

Recently, Carole, Pat and I discovered the value of meeting daily to not only pray together, but to share our CR with each other. This has increased our accountability, just knowing that we will have to show one another what we have done daily. As I pondered our new found motivation, I realized another word for accountability is reunion. I used to be a Weight Watcher's leader and noticed a real surge of people joining around March with a renewed motivation. When I asked these new members why they wanted to lose weight, most answered that they were planning to attend their upcoming high school reunion or family reunion. They just had to get the weight off before they could be seen by former classmates and long lost relatives!   My, oh my! How a reunion can motivate us! It calls us to accountability. If you are lacking motivation and have little or no accountability, may I suggest that you plan a reunion!

First Place has many opportunities to reunite with fellow First Place members and leaders. There are yearly First Place events that are planned for encouragement, motivation, inspiration and fellowship. These events have become "reunions" to those who attend. Participants are reunited with those who attended last year's event. F.O.C.U.S. Week, which is our yearly October fitness week, attracts many repeat participants. Thus, we are reunited each October with many of the same people. The First Place staff members are always motivated to begin losing those extra pounds through the summer, in preparation for the upcoming F.O.C.U.S. Week. On October 7 th , we will be held accountable for a year's worth of discipline or folly by those returning to F.O.C.U.S. Week.    We also know that no matter what we have done, First Place people will always extend grace.   Hebrews 12:15   Encouraging words are always to be found at any First Place "reunion." 

Last July we hosted our first First Place Leadership Summit and made many new friends.   This year on July 29 th our second annual Leadership Summit will begin with friends being reunited after one year apart.   We will catch up on our families, First Place classes, and then share our personal "year in review" with one another.   The Leadership Summit has motivated our team of leaders to get back on track and move forward on our weight loss journey.     We want to be at our best when we greet the Summit participants. I have heard from several leaders that they have a certain weight loss goal that corresponds with the dates of the Summit.   This leader "reunion" event has truly called many leaders to accountability.

In September, we will travel to Ohio for our national conference.   It will be about a year since our last conference, which was in Virginia. We will no doubt see familiar faces in Ohio come September! I know that Janet Kirkhart and her team of leaders in Ohio have set goals that they will see accomplished before or on the day the conference kicks off, September 17, 2004. One of my favorite times of a conference is the time we set aside for people to give their First Place testimonies. It is awesome to see people's lives that have been affected by God's power in the areas of weight loss, scripture memory or prayer. Hearing these testimonies inspires many to say, "Next year at the national conference, I am going to give my First Place testimony!" 

First Place Networking Leaders plan Area Leader meetings, which are held once a quarter. These meetings can become wonderful "reunions" for leaders. The purpose behind these leader meetings is foremost encouragement.   Leaders come together to share ideas, prayer requests, challenges and information that will equip them to return to their classes refreshed and recharged. Jenn Krogh, First Place Networking Leader for Wisconsin had seven leaders at her first Area Leader meeting. This past month Jenn saw 37 attend the leader meeting! These leaders are getting something each time they attend the Wisconsin leader meeting- encouragement and a challenge to be all God has called them to be. Now they are accountable to come together or reunite each quarter to share what God has done in and through their First Place ministries. 

Weekly First Place classes can become "reunions." As the leader, it is your responsibility to call your members to accountability by giving challenges. Encourage your members to fill out the CR daily, telling them that you will pick up a CR from everyone who comes back next week, whether it is filled in or not. Give them stickers just for turning it in! Issue challenges with love, grace and mercy! Leaders must call members to accountability, but it must be done with gentleness and compassion. They must not feel pressured into doing something, but love them into it!    Let them know that it is out of love that you ask for the CR and weigh them in each week. When members know their leader cares for them, supports them, and expects them to succeed, they will respond willingly to challenges.   They will be anxious for the "reunion" each week with their fellow class members and leader!

The Apostle Paul would be a wonderful reunion planner. In most of his letters you will read of how he is anxious to see his dear friends again, to encourage them and be encouraged by them.

But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.

Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
- 1 Thessalonians 3:6-4:1

I urge you, First Place Leader, to reunite with your members and other leaders to share the ups and the downs of your life with those who also seek to put Christ first. At your next First Place "reunion" share what good things God has done, but also share what is lacking in your faith. May God strengthen you in your areas of weakness and clear the way for you to attend another "reunion" that you may be encouraged in your faith. Make the time to be accountable to others by attending at least one First Place "reunion" event (Conference, F.O.C.U.S. Week, Leadership Summit, Workshop or Area Leader Meeting) and be supplied with what you may be lacking in your First Place leadership. Be accountable - Plan a reunion!

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.