Meet Lara
Chief Intergenerational Advocate
Lara is Chief Intergenerational Advocate at ncd.life, helping us grasp the transformative capacity of the principles across all ages, especially youth.
Hi! I’m Lara.
To me, the NCD principles are not simply an interesting church health tool, or geeky tests to be used only in the context of church. They are the lens by which I have discovered the best parts of my life. If you gave me the time, I would tell you of all the epic journeys God and I have gone on - my work, meeting my husband (and musical partner), dreams, opportunities, adventures, and more - all largely as a result of addressing my own growth area and being surrounded by people who are doing the same. It would then be no wonder to you why these ‘geeky principles’ are anything but trivial to me. I have seen a glimpse of the things that happen when you remove the barriers to God being able to work more fully in your life. And it’s wild.
Growing up as a daughter of Adam Johnstone, our household very quickly adopted the language of NCD in our everyday life (‘Lara, have you done a faithfulness check?’ was a favourite phrase of my Mum’s to remind me to pick up after myself. Still working on that one!). To this day the language of NCD is what helps me communicate with my husband (‘Callum, I need kindness from you right now!’ or ‘Lara, are you ‘revealing’ what you are really thinking?’) and my family (Okay, Taylor as much as I could talk to you for the next three hours I need to sacrifice right now and go vacuum my floors!). It’s really very valuable vocabulary to have.
What I value perhaps even more than this explicit and direct form of communication, is story-telling through the arts. I have always loved writing, music, and dance, and the way that these animate and bring to life the principles of the kingdom with richness and beauty. My husband Callum and I both share this love of music and often write songs like this one together.
As for dance, my work sees me teaching and mentoring young people through dance and theatre.
There are not many things I find more fulfilling than helping young people to grow to be more disciplined, teachable and humble all the while becoming incredible athletes and artists. This is perhaps why I am so passionate about young people (Christian or otherwise) learning to live ‘in the flow’ and ‘on the principles’ - Seeing generations of young girls living without a sense of purpose, uninspired and having their midlife crisis about two decades early makes you want to say ‘It doesn’t have to be like this!’. There’s a quote that says ‘people don’t know how good the human body was designed to feel’. I don’t think people know how good life feels when you are working with the principles and not against them. Together, we are going to find out.