Life Focus
Foundational Opportunities Centered Upon Scripture
Program Overview
- Overview
- Correspondence Course
- Training at the Indianapolis Training Center
- Training Details
- Humility and a Servant’s Spirit
- Personal Relationship With God
- Understanding and Application of Basic Life Principles
- Effectiveness in Ministry and Evangelism
- Personal Relationship With Father
Overview
Life Focus is a discipleship program for young men aged 14 to 17. The program starts with a three-week correspondence course to be completed at home, followed by a seven-week training session based at the Indianapolis Training Center (ITC). The fathers of the Life Focus students participate in some aspects of the correspondence course and are required to attend the last three days of training at the ITC.
Note: Students from single-parent families in which the father is unable to participate are welcome. Please contact our office for more information.
Correspondence Course
Before a student is eligible to participate in the seven-week on-site program, he (along with his father) must demonstrate several crucial prerequisites to success by completing the correspondence course.
The son should demonstrate a willingness and ability to follow instructions, complete detailed assignments, seek God’s will, possess a certain level of commitment, be held accountable for time and memorization, think through and articulate personal beliefs, and give testimony to what God has taught him. The father should demonstrate a willingness and ability to spend time with his son, evaluate his son’s strengths and weaknesses, motivate his son to complete tasks, and provide accountability and leadership in areas of time management and memorization.
The curriculum requires the son to complete two topical essays per week
and portions of the Journal of Faith.
The father and son work together to memorize assigned Scripture
passages, fill out an accountability worksheet, complete assignments
based on The Power for True Success
and The Exceeding
Great Power of God’s Grace,
and have weekly meetings to discuss what they learn.
Training at the Indianapolis Training Center
During the teen years it is crucial that young men are trained and tested before they are placed on the front lines of spiritual warfare. Life Focus seeks to help young men develop a right relationship with God and family in preparation for effectiveness in future ministry. The program begins by encouraging a foundation of humility, after which the students receive specialized training and opportunities for ministry in an intense, highly motivating, and spiritually challenging structure. We host the fathers of the Life Focus students for the final three days of the program. This allows us to assist the fathers as they develop an achievable plan for maintaining a high level of spiritual growth in their sons as they return home.
Training Details
Basic Program Outline
- Humility and a Servant’s Spirit
- Menial and difficult work projects
- Teamwork
- Following instruction
- Personal Relationship With God
- Preaching and teaching
- Team leader/mentor with a proven commitment to following God
- Individual discipleship through daily, personal exhortation
- Accountability and encouragement for consistent Christian disciplines
- Understanding and Application of Basic Life Principles
- Basic Seminar
- Follow-Up Course
- Principles of Godly music
- Journey to the Heart
- Personal consultation
- Effectiveness in Ministry and Evangelism
- Practical ministry training
- Community outreach
- Evangelism training
- Street evangelism
- Homeless shelter ministry
- Public speaking
- Strengthening Father/Son Relationships
- Open lines of communication
- Develop accountability
- Establish a plan for success
Humility and a Servant’s Spirit
Menial and Difficult Work Projects
Life Focus students participate in intense physical labor, both indoors and outdoors. The goal is to help meet the needs of others in any way they can. Mowing, weeding, sweeping, painting, landscaping, laying carpet, drywall, construction, demolition, kitchen cleanup, mopping, vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, and picking up trash are typical activities that Life Focus students may be involved in.
Team Work
Each student in the Life Focus program will live and work with a team of 5–7 students and 1–2 leadership staff. This enables each young man to learn to build healthy relationships with others, learn the benefits of teamwork, and experience close accountability.
Instruction
During the early days of the program, clear instruction is provided regarding practically every aspect of day-to-day life. Decisions regarding schedule and activities are kept as a surprise and are made for the students, teaching them valuable lessons in faith, humility, and having a servant spirit.
Personal Relationship with God
Preaching and Teaching
Students receive many hours of exhortation and instruction. Past speakers (live or via video) have included Dr. Bill Gothard, Rev. Dean Howell, Dr. Bob Norvell, Dr. Joe Norvell, Ed Grose, Dr. Roy Blackwood, Pastor Loren Regier, and Nathan Ritchie. Discipleship, prayer, the preeminence of Christ, moral purity, music, evangelism, authority, bitterness, faith, and effectiveness in ministry are among the subjects covered. Topics vary based on the maturity and needs of the class.
Team Leader/Mentor
The lives and testimonies of carefully selected team leaders challenge the students to deepen their relationships with Christ, strengthen their relationships with their parents, establish standards of excellence, give to the needs of others, and develop a ministry focus. Team leaders are with their teams nearly 24/7. This facilitates many teachable moments when the student can learn both by observing the example of and receiving instruction from his team leader. Since the team leader grows to know those on his team very well, he has the opportunity to discern where each student is in his walk with God and then can individually challenge each student to grow in personal, specific ways.
Personal Discipleship
Life Focus young men participate in a rigorous program of spiritual disciplines and accountability that includes rising early, having personal devotions, fasting, memorizing Scripture, journaling, and various Biblical studies and assignments.
Understanding and Application of Basic Life Principles
Basic Seminar
Each class attends the Basic Seminar.
They receive teaching and do application projects based on the principles of design, responsibility, authority,
freedom, suffering, ownership, and success.
Follow-up Course
Each class completes the Basic Seminar Follow-Up
Course. The teams read the booklets, complete the worksheets, and
then design and present programs about each principle they studied.
Principles of Godly Music
Each class studies “The Sound of God” video series by Loren Elms, Director of the International Academy of Music. These sessions reveal how God’s musical being is reflected in the very fabric of His creation and explain from Scripture His primary purposes for music. Having established this, the discussion progresses to principles for discerning music that fulfills God’s purposes and pleases the Lord.
Journey to the
Heart
Students travel to IBLP Headquarters and then on to the Northwoods Conference Center in Michigan for a ten-day time set apart for examining their hearts and pursuing God.
Personal Consultation
Periodically, leadership staff sits down with each student to evaluate and discuss personal strengths and weaknesses. In response to shortcomings, a strategy is developed to improve the situations.
Effectiveness in Ministry and Evangelism
Community Outreach
We partner with local neighborhood associations to introduce the students to a wide variety of community involvement that can be easily reproduced at home.
Urban Youth Outreach
Local Bible clubs and kids programs allow us to participate in their ministries on a limited basis.
Homeless Shelters
We participate by painting fences, serving meals, cleaning rooms, or even preaching on occasion.
Bible Printing
Bearing Precious Seed has a printing press in Indianapolis where they produce Bibles in a number of foreign languages. As the students assist in projects, such as collating, they have the opportunity to observe this vital ministry from the inside.
Evangelism
The students are taught how to present the Gospel clearly and effectively. After they spend time in preparation, learning key Scriptures and several different presentations of the Gospel, the students go out witnessing in small groups.
Public Speaking and Communications
Each student prepares and presents testimonies and reports. The presentations are critiqued based on content and presentation so that everyone can learn basic rules of effective communication.
Open Lines of Communication
Throughout the course there are many times that the relationships within the family are emphasized and discussed. Students are prompted regularly to share their desires, burdens, and struggles with their parents. During the last three days of the program, Bob Norvell, director of the Eagle Mountain Training Center, and his son, Joe, lead a series of discussions designed to help fathers and sons grow closer together.
Develop Accountability
Each son is taught the value of effective accountability, along with several approaches to establishing it. Fathers and sons are encouraged to establish open accountability in specific areas with one another.
Plan for Success
Often when one has a profound spiritual experience, there is a period of excitement and diligence in pursuing the things of God. As time passes, this can dwindle and even die out. With this tendency in mind, we guide fathers and sons in developing a strategy for maintaining a high level of spiritual growth.