The cry came from afar, plaintive and lilting.

Sharon Chong, 52, then the children’s pastor at Cornerstone Community Church, heard the cry in her heart during her Quiet Time with God on a morning in October 2020. 

“What is this, God?” Sharon pondered. 

In the months that followed, God would unveil His heart: “There is a next generation I’m after, and it’s outside the Church.”

As a children’s Pastor, Sharon was no stranger to contending for the next generation but this time, she struggled.

“I was a little scared,” she admitted. “If it’s outside, I would have to step out. It would mean something uncomfortable.”

But Sharon accepted God’s invitation to lean into Him and trust Him.

Five months later, after 18 years as Cornerstone’s children’s pastor, she stepped down, not knowing what the next step was.

Battle of the mind 

God showed her that the next generation would be fighting the battle of the mind.

Sharon presented God with a litany of reasons why she was not qualified for this call: She was not a psychiatrist nor a psychologist. She was not trained in that area, what was she going to do?

“Perhaps you just want me to pray?” she suggested to God. “I could do that!” 

But that was not what God had in mind.

What He directed her into was life coaching, a mental wellness profession that focuses on shifting negative mindsets.

While therapy focuses on management of past trauma, coaching aims to equip individuals with practical skills to cope with life and reach their goals. 

Sharon Chong, 52, stepped down as a children’s pastor after 18 years to work with kids outside church walls.

“I noticed many children and youths struggling with low self-esteem, self-doubt, confusion  and identity crisis,” Sharon noted. “It pains me to see them wrestling with these and with suicidal thoughts.” 

Though children may be equipped with spiritual skills like praying, hearing God’s voice and knowing Scripture, there is a whole inner world of emotions that impact and shape behaviour and responses in the outer world, she said.

“If children can be taught to take control of their inner thoughts by being mindful of the words they use, it can build in them the emotional resilience and mental strength to navigate a world that is fast-changing and often challenging,” she added. 

“There is a world of difference between surviving and thriving,” Sharon pointed out. “We are contending for the next generation that they will thrive.”

Having always surrounded herself with people who showed her the ropes, taught her spiritual principles, and guided her at crossroads, Sharon was determined to do the same for the next generation. 

“I want to invest in them,” she told Salt&Light.  

So Sharon got herself trained and certified as a life coach for kids. In June 2021, she sank her savings into starting GenBrave. 

Outside church walls 

Sharon’s firstborn Jordanna, fought a fierce battle with an aggressive cancer.

Her daughter’s courage taught her that how well one wins external battles depends on one’s ability to triumph over the internal war of lies, self-doubt and condemnation.

“That simple truth became the bedrock of GenBrave,” Sharon said. 

Apart from one-on-one coaching, Sharon started the Empowering Kids for Life (EKFL) Bootcamp in December 2022 as an outreach arm of GenBrave to the community.  

More than 100 kids, believers and pre-believers, have passed through the coaching sessions since GenBrave started, some through one-on-one sessions and others attend through bootcamp sessions that take place in June and December.

Last November, Sharon hosted the children from the Henderson estate outreach to a life coaching session and lunch. Following that, she invited them to a Christmas drama, followed by lunch and a time of games at GenBrave’s premises. 

Sharon (extreme left) started the Empowering Kids for Life (EKFL) Bootcamp as an outreach arm to the community; she hosted the Henderson estate kids to lunch, drama and games last Christmas.

When word of the bootcamp spread, some came in as outreach partners by sponsoring the children. Sharon is in discussion with similar community outreaches to do the same for more children. 

Although GenBrave drew mostly pre-believers in its early days, more children from Christian families have streamed in as the Christian community learnt about the life coach. 

“There is such a need among kids and youths to build mental and emotional resilience, regardless of their backgrounds,” Sharon noted. 

Although Sharon does not quote Scripture verses or overtly share the Gospel with pre-believing “students” (as she refers to her clients), she is candid about her faith.

Apart from employing psychological tools, Sharon weaves in Bible principles in her coaching and teaches her students to proclaim truths such as “I can do hard things. I’ll try new things. I can do my best.”

Before every session, Sharon would pray for the Holy Spirit to guide her and to minister to the student. She would invite the peace, presence and the power of God to be in the session. With pre-believers, she offers to pray for their needs and struggles.

With the Christian students, she makes it a point to pray with them together at the end of the session or release Scripture to them. 

Drawing on life coaching principles of fostering a positive mindset, Sharon would direct her Christian students to Bible verses such as Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” And Proverbs 23:7: “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.“

“The goal is to point them back to God,” Sharon said.

An overcoming generation

The mission and calling of GenBrave is to raise a generation of brave ones who know that they are here for “such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). 

“I often envision the impact of empowering children and youth for a lifetime, considering what steps are needed. If only they realise their potential for greatness and understand their purpose for this moment!” she said. 

The right tools can teach children necessary life skills and achieve their potential to be world changers. Pictured: A GenBrave bootcamp in session.

With three years of life coaching under her belt, Sharon is seeing the fruit of her labour among the next generation. 

One of her students Johnny (not his real name) came to Sharon when he was 11 years old. Unable to process his own emotions, Johnny would hit himself on the head or on the fist, or wail and cry and shout for hours.

Over the course of the coaching, Sharon found out Johnny had very low self-esteem and could not express himself adequately with words. He would say “I am going to fail” even before taking a test.  

The boy’s screaming episodes began to tail off: From once a week to once a month, he eventually stopped screaming within four months of coaching.

He fared well in his primary school leaving examinations (PSLE) and is now in secondary school studying a course he enjoys.

Johnny went from having low confidence and expressing his emotions through screams and physical punches to being able to verbalise his emotions and articulate his needs.  

The boy who used to say “I can’t” now speaks of taking up leadership roles in school. 

Johnny’s parents told Sharon they felt coached and guided as well during the  routine parent check-ins with her. Sharon now coaches Johnny’s 10-year-old brother too.

“I long to see our generation empowering the next generation to be world changers,” Sharon (extreme left) with one of her coaching students and family.

Another student, Leela, who was bullied and body-shamed in secondary one developed anorexia. She was so emotionally broken she would turn violent at times and beat her mother.

Her anorexia became so severe that Leela was taken out of school and hospitalised. Although she was seeing both a psychiatrist and a psychologist, the latter suggested to Leela’s mother that a life coach could help the 13-year-old change her mindset and cope with life.

Working through practical tools of coaching, Leela learnt to accept herself, regained her confidence and went back to school – a different one. Her relationship with her mother has also been restored. She still checks in with Sharon once a year.

Not every child who comes to Sharon has apparent behavioural issues. Georgie (not his real name) – a gentle teenager with no outward signs of negative thoughts – came from a family of strong Christian faith, whose mother brought him to Sharon to be better equipped for life.

But Sharon very quickly found out that Georgie often felt unheard. Through coaching, he learnt to recognise his emotions and to connect them with his circumstances.

His mother, after Sharon conducted the parent check-in, also started to take time to hear him out before offering solutions. Sharon has seen more positive emotions building up in him.

“I tell the children we cannot control the external world we live in but we can control our internal world by our responses,” Sharon said.

Part of the response for a student who is a Christian is prayer. “We would always pray. We pray for the situation. We pray for the people involved,” she said. 

World changers

Sharon has noticed greater openness among her students. In the past, kids would take a few sessions to open up but they are more willing these days to share within the first session. 

She attributes the shift to the spiritual authority she believes God has placed on what she calls Kingdom fathers and mothers. 

“GenBrave is about birthing destinies,” Sharon told Salt&Light.

In 2020, Sharon stepped down from her position as children’s pastor at Cornerstone Church to obey God to help children in and outside the church. Her trust in setting up GenBrave has seen lives transformed.

“Kingdom fathers and mothers don’t just birth children, they birth destinies. As Kingdom fathers and mothers, we create life by partnering with Heaven in all matters when it comes to raising world changers.”

One of the ways is equipping the next generation to reach their potential and shape the future, she said.   

“Jesus said that He came to give life more abundantly, and one of the primary ways He extends life is through His Body, through you and me.

“We are the conduits of His love on earth, extending life everywhere we go.” 

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