“Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
About our Insight for Growth℠ Founder, Reni Bumpas
Thanks for stopping by! If you don’t know me, I’ll share a little about myself and why I started Insight for Growth℠.
If you want to know the meaning behind the logo, click here.
While this site is NOT about me…but a place to share some things I think might be helpful, if you’re like me, you like to know a little something about who’s behind the name. It adds to or takes away from their credibility, helping you know whether or not you want to give your time and attention to them.
That’s why I love reading referrals before I try a new restaurant, hotel, product, book, or whatever… because I HATE wasting time and resources on something that’s not worth it. The way I see it, we all have limits of both, and I want to steward both wisely.
So…the purpose of this post is to introduce myself to help you know the paths that have led me to share the insights I share here. And to let you know some of the areas where you can expect to find insights.
As a 52 year-old woman, it’s certainly not as if I’ve finally arrived and know so so much. If anything, I continue to discover how little I know. And I shouldn’t be surprised to continue to learn that I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
But having been privileged to be a wife, mom, teacher, coach, consultant, writer, editor, speaker, and executive director, I’ve come across MANY valuable resources in my pursuit to do whatever I do with excellence. Life in each of those roles would have been so much easier if someone had said, “Oh, I heard you’re a _____ now. Here’s a resource list with links, and everything, or training.”
So…my hope is to make life a little easier for others…to share some of what I’ve learned…to help individuals, families, and organizations reach their potential.
Early years as a broken girl with no peace
I grew up mostly in Oxford, MS, the oldest of three children in a busted up home.
I thought everyone else in the world was happy besides me, and if I just had a happy home with a mom and dad who loved each other and everyone got along, and friends who liked me, then I’d be happy too.
Though I’m convinced now that my parents loved me, when I was growing up, I wasn’t sure they did.
(On a side note, a book that helped me understand the gap between my parents telling me they loved me and my not feeling loved was Ross Campbell, MD’s How to Really Love Your Child. Though I read it to help me be a better mother, it actually gave me much insight that was a vehicle of healing and personal development.)
God made me the kind of person who values harmony. Ironic that my name, Reni, which is a derivative of Irene, actually means peace.
College and a new life with peace
“Those who are wise will take all this to heart. They will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord.” Psalm 107:43
As a freshman in college, I became a Christian. For some, knowing I’m a Christian may raise all kinds of red flags, for others it may mean nothing, and others may want to give me a hug. Until they talk to me. These days, when you say you’re a Christian, it can mean all kinds of things…
So, to be clear, let me explain.
The lack of peace and love I felt drove me to seek it by trying to win the approval of others–with writing and leadership endeavors at school, my first jobs in the work force as a high schooler, and then with my appearance.
Nothing I did satisfied the emptiness and longing that was like a vacuum in my soul.
My freshman year of college, the God who revealed Himself in the Bible and in the person and work of Jesus Christ, revealed Himself to me, assuring me that He loved me with a never-letting go, stick-to-you kind of love, and that if I would simply surrender myself to Him, He would love me like that. That basically, He would be my God and Father, and I would be His girl. And so I accepted His invitation to be His.
From that point on, my chief aim became to know Him and love Him, and to become more like His Son, and to love people the way Jesus did.
So, if you’re interested in knowing more about what it means to be a Christian and how to grow as a Christian, you may find the resources here helpful.
I graduated in 1988 from Mississippi State with a bachelor’s in educational psychology, and certification to teach psychology, sociology, and English. Upon graduation, I spent the next four years working in Student Affairs at Hinds Community College in Raymond, MS.
Many of the certifications and trainings I now hold were first introduced to me in those early years, and using them personally, with teams, and later with my family deepened my appreciation of their value.
As a wife and mother
“God places the lonely in families…” Psalm 68:6
One of God’s sweetest blessings began July 31, 1988, when He introduced me to my best friend and husband, Wally Bumpas, Jr. Though Wally has loved me unlike any other person, and beautifully fulfills the biblical admonishment for husbands to love their wives like Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for her, he is still a sinner. As am I.
For two sinners to live together is difficult. To actually enjoy one another and keep enjoying one another and working together as one is almost impossible, apart from grace. God has given us this kind of grace. Though it’s a bit scary to write about it publicly, because that little superstitious kid voice tells you you’re going to jinx it.
Still, there are insights and wisdom God has given us along the way that we would be remiss not to share.
And being a parent is not for the weary of heart. It is, as someone put it, “like having your heart walk around outside your body, completely unprotected.”
So, I will share resources that have been helpful in both of these roles, as well as some excerpts from prayer journals. Oftentimes I’ve found the times I’ve grown the most have been the times I’ve struggled the most.
But it was during those dark times I often felt most alone. My hope is that in sharing these struggles and excerpts, it will help you feel you are not alone.
As a writer
My mom introduced me to journaling when I was eight, just after my parents divorced. Years later, as a lonely high school sophomore, I walked the halls between classes, speaking to no one, wondering if anyone was as lonely as I was. For perhaps the first time ever, I looked into the faces of the people I passed by. Really looked. I saw their humanness. I wondered what their lives were like. If they were lonely like me. If they ever felt like the misfit I did. And it hit me. If I could write a book capturing the gaping hole I felt inside, perhaps it would help others feel they were not so alone.
Years later, in a scene from the movie Shadowlands, C.S. Lewis tells a student, “we read to know we’re not alone.” That sentiment captured my heart. I wanted to write to help people know they’re not alone.
God blessed me with a wealth of good teachers and writers who taught me much about grammar and writing. Growing up in a college town like Oxford had the major plus of being surrounded by educated people who sharpened my writing skills, especially Dr. Lynne Murchison, who taught my English classes in 11th and 12 grades.
One of my teachers said, “You can’t be a good writer without being a good reader.”
By the time I was in college, my tastes had graduated from Stephen King and Harlequins to Elisabeth Elliott and much nonfiction. I also loved allegory I discovered in Hind’s Feet in High Places and The Pilgrim’s Progress.
Soon afterward, I discovered C.S. Lewis, Jane Austen, and L. M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables as well as kindled a new interest in Charles Dickens as well as John Grisham and Nicholas Sparks.
In 2005, I joined an online critique group called the Pennwrights. The “Pennies” as we fondly referred to ourselves, taught me and helped me sharpen the craft of writing fiction as I wrote Running Away to Home.
Books they encouraged us to read that I found most helpful include Renni Browne and Dave King’s Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Debra Dixon’s GMC: Goal, Motivation, Conflict, Stephen King’s On Writing, Sol Stein’s On Writing, and Nancy Kress’s Beginnings, Middles, and Ends.
As a non-profit executive director
In August 1999, a year after God called my husband to pastor First Presbyterian Church, Dyersburg, TN, the school our church started hosted a community-wide conference with Dr. Peter Marshall as the speaker.
As Dr. Marshall spoke about the history of revival, he explained that revival was always accompanied by mercy ministries, and he began reeling off potential mercy ministries we might have. In the midst of a chain of possibilities, he mentioned “pregnancy center,” and at that moment, a noticeable hush went over the room, because all the others, we were all basically nodding that we already had them.
Within a few months a steering committee was formed, and because no one else was willing, a friend and I agreed to serve as co-chairs. Then she moved. But God blessed. Everyone pitched in, and within six months the steering committee transitioned to the first board of Life Choices, and I was privileged to serve as chair.
Though I knew nothing beforehand about serving on a nonprofit, much less as the chair, God was faithful to surround me with people with expertise: a couple of CPAs, an attorney, and others who had served on nonprofit boards, a manual we followed to the letter, and similar pregnancy centers who could pass on their training.
We contracted with Life Steward to learn much about successful event planning. It was beautiful to see God bring together people from a variety of churches and denominations work together to birth Life Choices. The Grand Opening was just four days after one of the darkest times in our nation’s history, September 15, 2001.
Then, fast-forward to 2006, quite unexpectedly, God called me to serve as executive director (ED). Before being called as ED, I had NO IDEA all that I didn’t know. I participated in countless trainings to learn about nonprofit governance, best practices, fund-raising, grant-writing, HR, marketing, donor relations, and more. It seemed every time I turned around, I was learning more that I didn’t know, so I kept reading, participating in webinars, and going to conferences and trainings.
Just four months after I stepped in as ED, we began the process to convert our pregnancy center to a medical clinic. Operating under the medical license of a local physician required our entire team, including our board become educated about best practices for a medical clinic.
Additionally, as a clinic that contracted with numerous schools in West Tennessee to provide positive youth development and abstinence education, it became critical that I learn how to walk the tight rope of a ministry serving in public schools with public funds, and leading our team, including our board, how to do likewise.
One of the things I found most helpful was focusing on the goals and values we have in common rather than the ways we are different.
As a consultant and life coach
In 2013, I began consulting with Sparrow Solutions Group, a training and education company we had worked with, to do board and executive director consulting and training. Eager to share some of what I’d learned with others, after retiring from Life Choices in 2014, I began doing more consulting. And more trainings and certifications.
In 2017, God called Wally and me to French Camp Academy (FCA) to serve as house parents, and I also serve in a new position as Life Coach Coordinator. Almost a year before we came to FCA, the board had passed an initiative “to assess students emotionally, physically, spiritually, and vocationally and help them develop a Christ-centered life plan where their gifts, abilities, and talents will be enhanced to prepare them for the next stage of life.”
That spring, I developed a training program, and over the summer over 75 staff participated in three different trainings to become FCA Certified Life Coaches. The training includes MBTI® as well as discussions about spiritual gifts, SHAPE (check out the book S.H.A.P.E. by Erik Rees!!) and life purpose, and also includes coaching basics like asking good questions, listening skills, and setting SMART goals.
The senior class of 2018 is the first class to be matched with FCA Life Coaches. While it’s not possible for me to coach a ton of people, I have provided links and resources for encouragement and support.