Our Purpose
"Facilitating life transformation one person at a time"
Victory
By Joseph S. Batluck Sr., President Teen Challenge, USA
Read: 2 Chronicles 20
Prayer, fasting and praise have everything to do with victory and overcoming. Everything. 100%.
I am not in any way suggesting that we don’t have to roll up our sleeves and put our shoulders to the wheel. I am suggesting that the model for victory, recorded in 2 Chronicles 20, is the model that is timeless and guaranteed.
Judah is faced with overwhelming enemy forces. Annihilation is imminent. There is no Plan B. The leader, King Jehoshaphat, with fear as a motivator, does what he has trained to do. He turns to God! In verse 3, he proclaimed a fast for everyone. In verse 4, the people acted as a unified whole to seek God. In verses 5-11, the leader prayed and confessed God’s faithfulness. In verse 12, the king declares total abandonment by saying “We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on You.” In verse 13, the people stood to honor God. In verses 14-17, everyone listened to the plan. In verses 18-19, everyone worshipped. In verses 20-21, they prepared for battle with thanksgiving. Verse 22 says that “when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the…enemy…so that they were routed.”
Any victories must be built on the timeless principles of prayer, fasting and praise. The best plans, strategies and tactics fade except when they are anchored in and by prayer, fasting and praise. The future of Teen Challenge is only as bright as is our resolve to be spiritual leaders in prayer, fasting and praise. It is out of this context that God will guarantee victory that can only be accomplished by His hand.
History
Teen Challenge is the oldest, largest and most successful program of its kind in the world, and was founded over 50 years ago by Reverend David Wilkerson. It was Feb. 28, 1958 when the 26-year-old Pentecostal preacher from rural Pennsylvania disrupted a highly publicized murder trial in New York City. Wilkerson had made the eight-hour drive from his quiet mountain town to downtown Manhattan for a simple reason; to speak to the seven accused gang members about their salvation. In a grave attempt to share the love of God, Wilkerson rushed to the front of the courtroom at the close of trial proceedings and pleaded publicly with the judge for permission to meet the teenage defendants. News media were everywhere, and Wilkerson unwittingly made himself the source of headline news throughout New York City.
The judge had been receiving death threats during the trial, and Wilkerson was almost arrested as a presumed assailant. The judge later refused Wilkerson’s request to see the boys and ordered him never to return to his courtroom. Wilkerson made more than the news back in 1958; five months after his discouraging day in court, his compassion for teen-age gangs and drug addicts began to make history. Since Wilkerson opened the first center in New York in 1960, Teen Challenge has grown to more than 200 centers across the nation, and 1,400 centers in 117 countries. In 1971, Wilkerson founded a global evangelistic ministry, World Challenge. David Wilkerson died in 2011 at the age of 79. Teen Challenge, a ministry that he founded, continues to touch hurting people worldwide, bringing recovery to those trapped in addiction. The Teen Challenge residential program continues to be one of the largest and most effective substance abuse recovery and prevention programs of its kind.
The Value of Servanthood
The Value of Servanthood
by Jerry Nance PhD, President, Global Teen Challenge
This month I want us to look once again at one of the values, so critical to Teen Challenge which we embrace in this ministry. As I think back over the years, I am reminded of so many on our team who exhibit the spirit and value of servanthood. I am reminded of men and women who are just wonderful people who never consider the question, “What’s in it for me?” They just serve to the good of
others first, and the good of the ministry. WOW! God grant us all hearts of servants.
I continue to herald the idea that we can do more than I can, any day. We are a team of committed men and women whom God has called out to serve the thousands of men, women, boys, and girls who walk through our doors each year. The ministry and value of servanthood is critical to the future of any organization. Just think, if all of those individuals who have servant hearts leave us, where would we be; where would you be? That’s a scary thought to me. We so depend on those with servant hearts to keep the culture of this organization true to the heart of God and focused on serving those in need. May God grant us the grace to appreciate the servants around us, and may we ourselves strive to live out the value of servanthood.
I want to draw your attention to a teaching that John Maxwell, one of our Global Advisory Board members, wrote on this subject. He takes us to John 1:41-42.
“Today we’re going to look at a person who showed such a servant’s heart. What a biblical model we find in the life of Andrew. I begin to think about somebody who was a servant, who did ministry, but not up front. Somebody who didn’t sing the solo, didn’t preach the message, but just did ministry week in and week out. I look at the life of Andrew, and I begin to get inspired. There are three things out of his life that I want to draw upon. In John 1 we are introduced not only to Andrew, but also to the kind of person he was, the kind that made the disciples of Jesus great...the kind that makes a ministry great.”
The Example of Andrew...
Andrew’s ministry was characterized by three significant insights the others didn’t seem to grasp.
1. The value of people.
Everywhere you find Andrew in the Gospels, you find someone pouring his life into
someone else’s.
John 1:41-42 gives us a good sense of Andrew and his effectiveness for the kingdom. The first thing he did was to find his brother and tell him he had found the Messiah. Here’s a beautiful example of Andrew, behind the scenes, going out and getting his brother, and bringing him to Jesus.
Remember the time when the Greeks wanted to see Jesus, and they came to Philip? They recognized Philip as one of the disciples, and they came to him because he was Greek. The first thing that Philip did, instead of taking the Greeks to see Jesus, was to find Andrew. And
Andrew took the Greeks to see Jesus. Andrew was always finding people. He was always
pouring his life into people, because he understood the value of the individual.
Five principles for individual people helpers.....
- Character is more important than gifts. What we are and who we are is
more important than what we do.
Being godly is more important than being right. Many people have many different opinions, but God wants us to live righteously.
Love is more important than good works. Loving the people of God is more important than anything we have.
You cannot lose by being a learner. If you keep having a servant’s attitude and have a spirit of learning, you’ll always grow.
There is always room for one more servant.
2. The value of invisible service.
Behind-the-scenes ministry really is where servanthood begins. Picture with me for
just a moment the story that we’ve looked at in John chapter one:
The day he brought Pete to Jesus, Andrew understood that he would never be one of the top disciples. These two boys grew up together. Peter was the charismatic individual, the leader, the strong one. When the two of them went anywhere, Peter was the one everybody noticed and everybody followed.
Andrew, growing up, no doubt lived in the shadow of his brother. And now he’s bringing him to Jesus. He’s basically saying, “The moment that I introduce him to Jesus, I know that I’ll never be one of the top disciples, never be in the inner circle. I know Jesus will see Peter’s leadership ability, and immediately take him, and I will kind of fall back into the ranks of the other disciples.”
But what a heart for God! Basically he says, “It’s okay. I don’t have to be up front. I don’t have to be in the inner circle. I don’t have to sing the solo, or preach the message, or teach the lesson. It’s okay if others don’t see me.” The people who have the ability and the willingness to do ministry in the background, unlike some of us who are in front all the time, getting the praise and the pats on the back, are doing just the gritty day-in, day-out background ministry and displaying a servant’s heart. Their motives are pure. They’re doing it for God because they love Him, not for applause, recognition, or the praise of others. Jesus said the way to greatness is servanthood. Washing the disciples’ feet.
At the funeral of Dawson Trotman, that great founder of the Navigators, a pastor from Taiwan said, “I’ll tell you what I remember Dawson Trotman for; in Taiwan together, we took a hike one day when it was very muddy. We came back that evening extremely tired and fell into bed. The next morning when I woke up, my shoes were washed and shined. Dawson Trotman had gotten up early.” A servant’s heart.
A lady by the name of Ruth Caulkin says it all in a little bit of poetry called “I Wonder.” “You know, Lord, how I serve you with great emotional fervor in the limelight. You know how eagerly I speak for you at the Women’ Club, and you know how I effervesce when I promote a fellowship group. And you know how I love to teach a Bible study. But how would I react, I wonder, if you pointed me to a basin of water and asked me to wash the calloused feet of a bent and wrinkled old woman, day after day and month after month, in a room where nobody saw, in a room where nobody knew.”
In Mathew 20, the mother of James and John went to Jesus and asked that they have favored positions in His kingdom. She’s saying, “They’re certainly with the right person. Now I want to see if I can get them into the seats of honor...at the head table.” Jesus said, “You know the foreign rulers like to order their people around, and the great leaders have full power over everyone they rule. We can’t act like them. If you want to be great, you must be a servant of all the others; and if you want to be first, you must be a slave of the rest. The Son of Man did not become a slave master, but a slave who will give His life to rescue many people.” Faithful over a few things...rule over many things – that’s what He was talking about.
I think that Andrew can teach all of us to take God and His kingdom seriously, to find what our gifts are, to be who we are and to uniquely use those gifts right where we are.
3. The value of insignificant gifts.
Remember the five thousand? Andrew knows how to find the little things that’ll
make a difference, because Andrew finds the boy in the crowd. A few loaves, a few
fish; you know the story.
A friend of mine was mowing his lawn, trying to get done by dinner, so he was pushing pretty fast. Then his six-year-old, Mikey, came out and said, “Dad, I want to help.” So Mikey got behind the lawn mower. Of course he couldn’t push it very well. So Dad put his big hands on the outside, and then he’s straddling his little boy and walking and mowing the grass like this. Of course it’s much slower now than it was before. But Mikey’s helping him.
My friend said, “All of a sudden I started to smile, because spiritually that’s probably how I help God in His kingdom.” One day, I’m going to say, “God, I don’t even understand why You partner with us. If my son had died on the cross, I wouldn’t have used John Maxwell.”
The most amazing thing to me is that God, in His incredible love for us and His incredible omnipotence and omniscience, is walking around His kingdom, with us helping Him.
It’s not that I’m so valuable to the kingdom that God can’t make it without me – He doesn’t hold His breath every time I get on a plane and hope I make it; nah, if I drop down sometimes, His kingdom will go on. He wants to partner with me because He wants me to grow closer to Him. It’s for me. I mean, He’s the senior partner, and I’m the junior partner. It’s for my growth. So many times we think, “Well, I’m doing this for the church. I’m doing this for God.” No, no, no. You see, you grow three ways. You grow through the Word of God. You grow through the fellowship of saints, and you grow through the ministry. And some of you, bless your hearts, are lopsided in your growth. You’re growing potlucks and fellowship lunches. And you’re good on pew potatoes, but you flunk ministry. Now, that’s just a thought.
Billy Graham told a story about an 80-year-old blind lady who was talking to God; “God, you know I served you all my life. Take me home.” And God said, “No, I’ve got some ministry for you to do.” One day she realized that she had a Braille telephone directory. From that day on, starting with the A’s, she started calling people on the phone every day and witnessed to many people for nine years. At 89, this blind lady, who just used the phone to call people, had led over 3,000 people to Jesus. Here I am with a complete set of faculties, and I’m sitting back saying, “Is there anything I can ever do for God?”
Ten truths about ministry:
- The foundation of ministry is character.
- The nature of ministry is service.
- The motive of ministry is love.
- The measure of ministry is sacrifice.
- The authority of ministry is submission.
- The purpose of ministry is the glory of God.
- The tools of ministry are the Word of God and prayer.
- The privilege of ministry is growth.
- The power of ministry is the Holy Spirit.
- The model for this ministry is Jesus Christ.
John has shared some great truths on servants. I pray we can learn from this message and continue to strive to serve as Andrew did, with no hidden agendas or self-serving motives. May God grant us the grace to simply serve.
Source: Leadership Link June 2014
Purpose of Global Teen Challenge
About Global Teen Challenge
The mission of Global Teen Challenge is to assist in the development and implementation of Teen Challenge programs around the world. Today there are more than 1400 Teen Challenge programs in 118 countries of the world. It is our desire to provide the best and latest tools available in helping individuals with life controlling addictions. According to the United Nations, more than 247 million people worldwide struggle with drug abuse. Drug users are getting younger and their use is becoming more frequent. Alcohol and drug addictions are plaguing our nations, our cities and invading our homes. We are committed to doing everything we can to reach people around the globe with life controlling problems. For more information on Global Teen Challenge, visit the Global website at www.GlobalTC.org
TC in Europe
Europe Teen Challenge
TC in Europe has a long history. Since its beginning in 1969 until now, the vast majority of TC programs in Europe were started through street outreaches we have called "coffee houses." The residential rehabilitation centers, for the most part, grew out of these early evangelistic efforts. The Europe TC headquarters - first called by the name "Continental TC"- was a training and coordinating hub helping launch national TC programs in many countries.
Today there are over 100 ministries in 34 different countries. There are also over 75 coffee house ministries reaching out to the hurting.
Europe Teen Challenge - Alive and Well
Tom Bremer
by Tom Bremer, Global TC Regional Representative in Europe
"I'm ruined! The Kingdom of God is in me! I will never be the same!" So were the words of a student in one of the Teen Challenge programs in Europe as he came to the realization that the "old man" was passing away, and something new and miraculous was happening in his life. It is words like this that express the heart and soul of the TC work both here in Europe, and everywhere the Holy Spirit is at work changing lives with what I like to call : "The Divine infection."
A Fellowship of the Spirit
Europe TC is a fellowship of the Spirit. It is not a corporation with a board of directors only, but more important, it is a group of national programs and leaders which/who have voluntarily decided to enter relationship with one another for the express purpose of "stimulating one another to love and good deeds", and "bearing one another's burdens". After 43 years, this fellowship is not only alive and well, but it continues to grow. It is the culture of Teen Challenge
Prayer in Bucharest in Europe.
Expansion through Adoption
As evidence of this culture many of the National TC works have helped establish TC's in other countries. In the 1980's, TC in the Netherlands helped put TC Poland on the map. In turn TC Poland helped TC in Belarus at its very beginning. Now TC in Belarus is helping to train others in the Russian-speaking countries. A few years ago, TC in Latvia was in the process of building a new rehabilitation facility. All of the programs in Europe contributed to an offering for new windows in the Latvian center. Some TC's in Europe have had great influence beyond their own borders. Most notable are TC Portugal - helping establish TC Macau, Guinea, and Angola, and TC in the UK helping in India and Swaziland. TC Czech is involved in Slovakia, Moldova, and Israel. Just one month ago, TC Czech organized the construction of a security fence around the new women's center in Arad, Israel. Teams from Czech and North East Scotland TC's came to do the work. The list goes on and on. I believe that God is well pleased with this fellowship!
TC Leaders in Bucharest
Current Economic Crisis
Many of our TC programs in Europe are experiencing the pinch of the economic crisis. In some countries where we received government funding we have lost it. Though it would seem natural to panic in such situations, we see the hand of God in all of it. On one side, it is more difficult to run the TC programs, but on the other side, the lack of funds finds its way to addicts on the street. We are beginning to see more desperation and a greater motivation to change among the drug users. This is the environment for a miracle!
2012 ETC Conference Rimini, Italy
Each year we have two gatherings of leaders and workers in Europe. In April of 2011 we held our annual conference in Gdansk, Poland. The conference theme was "Life, Family, Ministry". The annual Fall 2011 Leaders Meeting was hosted by TC Romania in Bucharest. This was a family time where we shared our victories and challenges with one another and had many times of prayer together - A real fellowship of the Spirit.
Our annual Europe Teen Challenge Conference will be held in Rimini, Italy April 19 -22, 2012. The theme is: God's Word: Alive, Active, Sharp! (You are all welcome to join us. See registration link in Conference section.) Our Fall Leader's Meeting 2012 will be hosted by Teen Challenge Slovakia in November.
New Projects in Europe
At this writing, we are working on a number of projects. TC Kazakhstan has sent a couple to Bulgaria to start a TC work there. The TC women's center in Israel is in its infancy. We are attempting to connect with a Christian rehabilitation work in Greece. Several staff training seminars are scheduled around Europe. In addition to these, Europe TC is playing a major role in establishing a fellowship of Christian works across Europe. This is being done with The International Substance Abuse and Addictions Coalition (ISAAC) out of the UK. This year in May we will take part in the first ISAAC Europe Conference.
2011 Europe TC Conference, Gdansk, Poland
We are mindful that a lot of activity is not the key to successful TC ministry. So, all of the events we sponsor and participate in are purposeful: to maintain and promote the fellowship of the Spirit so that we can "ruin" more lives with the Divine Infection!
May God richly bless all of you in your works around the Globe for Teen Challenge.
For Europe Teen Challenge
Tom Bremer
Core Values
Our Purpose
"Facilitating life transformation one person at a time"
Our Core Values
1. Integrity
"Living and working with excellence”
2. Compassion
"Embracing hope, love, and reconciliation”
3. Community
"Working together and supporting one another”
4. Vision
"Seeing beyond the present"
5. Stewardship
"Faithfully managing God's call and resources"
6. Faith
"Believing God for the impossible”
7. Servanthood
"Dedicating ourselves to the success of others”