New Positive Lifestyle Program released with extra focus on faith
- 18 hours ago
- 3 min read
BY LAUREN MARTIN
A new version of the highly regarded Positive Lifestyle Program (PLP) has been released by The Salvation Army’s Integrated Mission and Resourcing department.
The program has been used in Australia in various settings, including courts and prisons, schools and community engagement, for nearly 40 years.
The new PLP Discipleship Journey resource encourages participants to explore Christianity more deeply.
The nine-session resource goes through the same topics as the original Positive Lifestyle Program (with one added session):
- Self-awareness
- Anger
- Depression and loneliness
- Stress
- Conflict resolution (added)
- Grief and loss
- Assertiveness
- Self-esteem
- Future directions
The program can be done as a one-on-one journey with a community member or in group sessions. The key difference with the new resource, released earlier this year, is its focus on viewing the topics through a spiritual lens.
“The program’s core foundation maintains that thinking and feeling directly affects behaviour,” said Victorian chaplain Major Andrea Elkington. “Each PLP session explores an alternative way of thinking … and offers a more spiritual lens to promote a positive change.
“Participants engage with Scripture, are encouraged to listen to the Spirit and apply spiritual practices that reinforce the teaching on a range of important issues, including how to deal with the feelings of loneliness, depression, anger, loss and grief, as well as how we see ourselves.”
Tim Frost, Ministry Team Leader at Mt Gambier Corps (SA), facilitates the Positive Lifestyle Program in prison.
He said he recently conducted the PLP Discipleship Journey with a man who had already completed the original Positive Lifestyle Program: “I asked him, ‘Is there a difference between the two?’ And his response was, ‘It’s as though God got a baseball bat and hit me around the head because it’s powerful and it changes my life.’”
Major Deidre Dearing, Homelessness Services Chaplain at The Beacon in Perth (WA), said she had started using the PLP Discipleship Journey with people who expressed a faith or an interest in Christianity.
“Within the discipleship journey [booklets] I have found that the Scripture references, and [me] encouraging them to read further than the verse just printed on the page, as well as the practical suggestions of how to pray, are really helpful,” she said.
The Positive Lifestyle Program is coordinated within the territorial Chaplaincy team, which oversees the delivery of the now four different versions of the program: the original Positive Lifestyle Program, Youth PLP, PLP for High Schools and now the PLP Discipleship Journey.
Existing facilitators can access the new PLP Discipleship Journey by visiting the PLP Toolkit at my.salvos.org.au.
A short training video outlining the changes to the booklets can be watched before ordering or downloading the new booklets.
The team is hoping the PLP Discipleship Journey will be used by facilitators as a ‘what’s next’ after completing the original Positive Lifestyle Program with members who are keen to continue meeting; for creating faith pathways from mission expressions to corps; for building trusting relationships and enhancing holistic ministry; and for corps to use at Bible Study materials.
“The Discipleship Journey is a really great addition to the PLP suite,” said Andrea.
“Often, as Christians, we think we need to be perfect or have it all together, and we suppress anything negative or what we are struggling with. The PLP Discipleship Journey provides a safe space to grow more into the people we were created to be, supported by trained PLP facilitators.”
Anyone interested in becoming a facilitator for the Positive Lifestyle Program can contact The Salvation Army’s PLP National Coordinator / Trainer, Major Christine Pickens, in the National Chaplaincy Support Unit: christine.pickens@salvationarmy.org.au
