Why Should They Follow Us?

At Hope is Alive we are constantly striving to be intentional with our residents. One of the ways we do this through the Men’s Mentoring Program, is through our Wednesday night “Midweek” meetings. In these meetings we split into groups based on lengths of sobriety. One of the groups we have is our managers’ meeting where all eight of our live-in house managers get together and discuss how to better breathe life into their respective residents lives, discuss any issues, celebrate success and work on progressing as leaders. The past several weeks this group has been discussing leading intentionally.

Leadership is connection; for our house managers that means building relationships and connecting with the residents. In order to nurture those relationships and connections we must be purposeful in all aspects of our interactions with the guys. We do this by making sure new residents feel welcome when they first arrive, walking with each resident through the ups and downs of their journey of recovery, and ultimately, being intentional about pointing them back to Jesus Christ. In his book “Intentional Living”, John C. Maxwell writes, “When you intentionally use your everyday life to bring about positive change in the lives of others, you begin to live a life that matters”. Our house managers have all been given the unique opportunity of positively impacting lives on a daily basis and through this opportunity they are able to find purpose in doing God’s work. The house managers understand that there will be highs and lows while leading these men. We stress the importance of celebrating during the highs and comforting during the lows. John C. Maxwell writes, “Though not everything we face can be changed, nothing can be changed until we face it”. This sentence exemplifies the intentionality that we encourage our leaders to exhibit through the challenges and celebrations that they may face.

Recently, our residents had the opportunity to hear a powerful message on being a mature leader from Pastor Clint Smith of North Church (A HIA Church Partner). One thing in particular that he said struck a chord with me. Clint encouraged our men to, “spend their life being worthy of someone following them”. Clint’s message epitomizes what we strive to instill in our men. We want our men to live next level lives and this is accomplished through the intentionality of our leaders. At the end of last week’s meeting I asked each of our house managers if they were living a life that is worthy of someone following them. Below are a couple of the responses I received:

 “I have taken the steps to build a solid foundation and continue to develop the tools I need to have a happy, successful life in sobriety. I want the men around me to experience the grace God has given me.” –  Dylan G.

 “I have a good understanding of what works and what doesn’t based on my own experiences and I want them to know that they don’t need to spend the next 10 years learning it the hard way like I did” – Phil S.

God is in the business of restoring lives and he is actively working in and through the men of Hope is Alive. God has taken these men’s mess and turned it into their message and He is using their message to change lives!

Your support, prayers and encouragement, combined with the intentional work of our manager makes for an incredible combination! Thank you for believing in the work that we are doing and partnering with us to help more people find hope!

Together for life change!

-Zach Schemmer, HIA Program Manager