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The CEP™ Discipleship Program for Individuals©
by Robert E. Alderman, Jr.
Many successful people have found and concluded for themselves that there is nothing greater, nothing more significant and nothing more fulfilling than living according to God’s plan for them.
In fact, everyone has been uniquely created, strategically placed and specifically blessed to do things that no one else can do. Such is our individual purpose in life.
If we seek out that purpose, pursue it and live it, rewards beyond our greatest imagination will be achieved!
Unfortunately, the world and the workings of society have drowned out the voice of God calling us to live the purpose He has for us.
The pace of life and the attraction of superficial goals make it very difficult for most of us to achieve, through our individual effort alone, a life of real purpose and fulfillment.
The reason is, we have either built a comfort zone from which we are hesitant to leave for fear of failing, or have convinced ourselves that the walls around us are too great to overcome to have a life different than what we are currently living.
The CEP™ Discipleship Program, however, has been designed to change that - with the specific and focused goal of helping you move closer to the unique purpose and plan God has designed for you.
If you pursue the program, your coach (in a one-on-one relationship with you) will train, guide, encourage and hold you accountable through a journey of progressive stages toward your heart felt purpose of living an enriched and significant life for the glory of God.
Your particular coaching program can be pursued in conjunction with or separately from your business and professional life as you may choose (though, normally the two are interconnected and dealt with together, since both are part of your stewardship responsibilities).
Thus, your personal purpose can be sought out, identified and pursued, but it cannot be scripted or copied from another person.
This means that the experiences and the transformation you achieve through the CEP™ Discipleship Program will be drawn from who you are as an individual producing an enrichment that is special to you.
Because of that objective, the contents of each stage in the program; the amount of time spent on each one; and the selection of exercises and other applications for your personal growth cannot be, should not be and will not be exactly the same as that of another student.
Your individualism and uniqueness is found in your heritage and background; your current circumstances and your personal dreams, goals and visions of what you seek to obtain and are meant to achieve. Simply put, the fine distinctions of God’s plan for your life are not the same as they are for anyone else!
Finally, the stages in your journey of striving toward the personal destinations of purpose and significance of your life will be structured in a series of step-like searches and discoveries. At each stage, your achievements will occur at a pace and in progressions according to your individualism, your time availability, and the effort you choose to expend.
F o u r D y n a m i c s o f t h e J o u r n e y
The four stages of your journey, if you finish the full program, are listed and described in the following paragraphs:
- Evaluation is the foundation stage
- Diagnostics is the framing stage
- Build out is the construction stage
- Follow-through is the finishing stage
Clearly, you already have a desire to find, live and fulfill your unique passion and purpose in life otherwise you would not be considering this program. The desire you have is actually an inner voice found within the soul of every person - speaking according to God’s plan for you.
Very few of us, as mentioned earlier, however, have the courage and commitment to pursue and achieve our unique purpose without the guidance, encouragement and support of others as well as accountability to others for the progress we make or fail to make.
Thus, the first stage you will experience in the CEP™ Discipleship Program will involve reflective and external exercises aimed at evaluating the strength of your current commitment and your readiness to transition from where you are now to where you are meant to be personally and/or professionally.
This stage will also serve as a screening process to determine whether or not sufficient "fit" exists between you and your coach in the program from which an effective, long-term student/coach relationship can be built.
The “commitment” and “readiness” elements pertain not only to your inner desire, but also to the objective realities of the financial and time factors needed to complete the program.
Of these evaluation factors, the most important is the existence or absence of the potential to develop a discipleship "connection".
If the program is going to be as productive and successful for you as possible, you and your coach have to be "on the same page" and "reading from the same book" with respect to heart-felt values and principles. You and every "student" in the program must be able to communicate openly and honestly with your coach at every stage.
In fact, these open communication traits must occur within the evaluation stage itself since the “fit” developed from this stage between you and your coach will serve as the foundation for all remaining stages. If it does not exist in the beginning, it will seldom be acquired as the program moves forward.
The readiness and commitment factors are of such importance to the program's foundation that if they are not established during the evaluation exercises, any movement into the stages that follow must be seriously questioned and in most instances not pursued at all.
The second dynamic stage you will encounter in the CEP™ Discipleship Program is the diagnostic or framing stage.
At this stage, we will address the issues of what you hope to accomplish from the program, where you are presently in relation to your goals, dreams and aspirations, and what time frames, obstacles and other issues may exist that will need to be addressed during your journey.
Your general "feelings" of direction and purpose will be tested, narrowed and refined in this stage as your student / coach “connection” is expanded.
How and at what pace you travel through this stage will depend on how quickly and precisely you are able to articulate your objectives (i.e. identify the elements of your unique purpose and its application to your life, practice or business). Whatever time is needed, however, is what will be spent with you in this stage to guide you through a discovery designed to bring your unique purpose and passions into focus.
Here, the correlation of Biblical teachings on the interconnections of possessions, people, purpose and paradise will be clearly brought into the program to provide you with both a frame work and clarity of direction for your journey.
This will include dealing with the stewardship issue of REAL wealth and the WHOLE person estate with which you have been blessed – and the goal of fulfilling your responsibilities within those areas for the glory of God according to His unique plan for you.
A general blue print or game plan will then be created (subject to your constant review and revision as you move forward in the program) of what action steps will be taken in the build out and finishing stages.
The diagnostic stage should not be passed through artificially or half-heartedly since the framing created from its exercises and processes will determine how strong and durable your end result will be.
It is also important to remember throughout this stage that life changing transformations are your objective rather than the exercises or the processes themselves.
In other words, personal progress toward living your unique and individual purpose is the real “product” and goal of the program.
Once you complete the evaluation and diagnostic stages enhancing the sense of your life’s unique passion and purpose (possibly also for your business or professional practice), the actual work of building toward those goals will begin.
The build out stage will, in fact, be your heavy work phase.
This will not only be a time of testing, challenges, and building, but also one of deeper self reflection, clutter removal and refocusing for you.
Various discovery exercises, reading assignments and discussion sessions will be used to create structure and substance to what previously existed as perhaps only a mere shadow or quiet hint of God’s intended direction in your life.
During this stage, your coach will begin to serve as both your collaborator and commander as you make greater strides toward the destinations of your journey. The definition of a coach as: "someone who makes you do what you don’t want to do, so someday you’ll be able to do what you always wanted to do" will become a clear and positive concept to you.
The build out stage is where you will have to make decisions as to what kind of “business” you’re really in (privately and professionally) as well as identifying the true principles and values that drive your life. This stage for you may even involve working through an exercise in the program called "mining to miracles" as a way to gain a better grasp of how your purpose and passion can be included as a positive factor in your business world.
We each have a moral choice to make in our commercial endeavors as well as personal life styles. Making that choice in your life and then creating the structure to sustain it will be your ultimate goal in the CEP™ build out stage.
Remember... your life and business are a stage for glorifying something. What that something is in your life is the question you will be encouraged to consider and answer.
Clearly, this stage will be a challenging, an exciting and an enriching time for you. However, what you receive from it will depend on the degree of strength, heart and soul with which you pursue it!
F o l l o w - t h r o u g h
The final factor for you to obtain success through participation in the CEP™ Discipleship Program will be determined by whether or not the change and transformation you achieve through the first three stages are sustained afterwards by you. Such is the reason and need for follow-through.
To maintain your accomplishments in the first three stages, it’s necessary that you engage in structured follow-through and accountability. For most students, and possibly for you, this stage is not only crucial, but may also be the most difficult.
How the finishing work or follow-through processes will be structured and applied for your individual discipleship program cannot be selected until you arrive at this gate or threshold in the journey with your unique purpose and direction well in hand.
If the follow-through and finish work are neglected, it is a virtual guarantee that much of what you accomplish in the prior stages of the program will be lost. Most likely, however, as with other students, if you reach this stage of the journey, you will experience a sense of momentum and strength from your student/coach bond that will carry you successfully forward.
The structure of this stage will be in the form of on-going communications, reporting, and reminders to or from your coach as well as periodic tinkering and readjustments in your focus and activities. Even the best of the best in all fields of endeavor use occasional review and evaluations by their “coach” when circumstances and/or time have drawn them off course. This stage of your program will work in a similar fashion.
Again, as with all stages of the CEP™ Discipleship Program, the follow-through stage will vary in its nature, frequency and length according to your particular needs and desired progressions. Regardless of what that structure may be in your case, it is not uncommon for a lifetime bond to be created between coach and student as a result of their accomplishments through the program.
The ultimate reason for the follow-through stage is the simple reality of life that sometimes, we each need to be reminded of the obvious and there is no one better to help keep us accountable and on target than our discipleship coach.
It may be true that some people have not yet discovered that spiritual fulfillment and living with purpose and passion are as valuable as the achievement of financial gain. In reality, however, God’s plan for you and His plan for me are more valuable than any amount of gold or silver we might obtain.
The very fact that you’re looking to possibly join the CEP™ Discipleship Program is an indication that you already have an understanding of that truth. But, you’re looking to enhance and embrace it in all that you do.
Thus, my goal through this program is to bring you as close as I humanly can to achieving an abiding relationship with God by seeking, finding and living the unique plan He has for your life personally.
Our journey together will not be a pinpoint GPS guidance system. It will actually be more like a Lewis and Clark expedition. Many of the goals you’re seeking and the landmarks you encounter along the way may not even be understood or recognized until you find them.
But instead of saying, "There’s the path through the forest; good luck", I will be on the journey with you.
Though I will use all that I have learned, applied and experienced in my own life to enhance what you are now trying to find in yours, I cannot manufacture, extract or script the purpose and significance of your life for you.
The processes, the time spent and the discoveries you come upon, however, will be greater as the result of our discipling relationship than they would be if you were making the journey alone.
I also believe it’s important to remember that God’s goal for everyone is eternal riches through changes in the wealth of our character. His goal is never about monetary abundance, though such is sometimes a secondary aspect of His plan for some people.
Please understand for clarity on a difficult topic, I’m not saying that financial gain will not occur as an aspect of your purpose in life. It very well could be. However, it has been my experience that the greater a person’s focus is on financial gain, the less real wealth they actually attain.
Thus, if you’re considering the CEP™ Discipleship Program with a primary goal of building financial wealth, I encourage you to consider someone else’s program. Though money is necessary, I don’t believe it’s important.
Please think about what’s been overviewed in this writing; pray about it and ponder whether or not you believe the CEP™ Discipleship Program will help you identify and move closer to your life’s purpose and passion.
If you think it is, contact me and let’s begin your journey! It would be my pleasure and privilege to work with you. However, whatever you decide... may God’s grace always be with you and may all your endeavors in life be to His glory.
Bob Alderman
"You are my greatest miracle. You are the greatest miracle in the world.
Count your blessings! Proclaim your rarity and go another mile!
For, I gave you this world and dominion over it.
I gave you the power to think.
I gave you the power to love, the power to will.
I gave you the power to laugh, the power to imagine.
I gave you the power to plan, the power to pray.
And... I gave you the power to choose.
So, wipe away your tears. Reach out, grasp my hand, and stand straight.
For this day, remember... YOU are the greatest miracle in the world!"
[May these excerpts from a poem by Og Mandino titled, "The Greatest Miracle in the World" inspire and encourage you to leave your comfort zone; to take the hand of God toward the destination of His plan and purpose for you.]
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