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The Force of Gratitude: Choosing Gratitude as a Life Discipline
SESSION INFO
Sunday, August 16, 2026
7:00 AM - 8:00 AM
Session Type: Special Session
Every day, justice professionals are confronted with what remains unfinished. Open cases. Lingering challenges. Lives still being restored. In the middle of that reality, Pastor C. Terrell Wheat offers a different way to lead: keep the gain in view, not just the gap.
Pastor Terrell explores The Force of Gratitude, showing how gratitude becomes a life discipline that shapes how we live, serve, and lead. Building on the Gap vs. Gain principle, he invites attendees to look beyond what is missing and recognize the progress they've made, the lives they've impacted, and the good that too often goes unnoticed. Gratitude is more than an emotion. It is a life discipline that helps us live in the Gain.
Through reflection and prayer, Pastor Terrell will share how choosing gratitude shifts anxiety into peace and steadies leaders in demanding work. This is not about ignoring pressure or setbacks. It is about refusing to let them have the final word.
Attendees will leave equipped to carry the force of gratitude into their lives and how they lead, recognizing that every case, every conversation, and every life they touch is shaped by what they choose, starting with their own.
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SESSION PRESENTERS
Rev. C. Terrell Wheat
Prayer Ministries Leader / Prayer Consultant, New Life Covenant Church Southeast
C. Terrell Wheat is a prayer leadership expert, organizational leadership development strategist, and executive advisor with nearly 30 years of experience helping pastors, leaders, and people-centered organizations build cultures grounded in prayer, integrity, and sound leadership.
Prayer leadership is the foundation Terrell has built everything else on top of. For nearly three decades, he has trained pastors, prayer leaders, and intercessory prayer teams to move prayer from a personal discipline to a leadership culture, equipping them with the structure and strategy to build churches where prayer is the engine, not the opening of the service. He serves as Associate Pastor, Executive Director of Ministries, and leader of the Intercessory Prayer Ministry at New Life Covenant Church Southeast in Chicago, Illinois, and his book, The Prayer Leadership Mandate for Pastors, gives ministry leaders a practical resource for doing exactly that.
That same discipline shapes his work with organizations. Terrell helps leaders strengthen systems, align teams, and lead with clarity in complex, high-responsibility environments, drawing on experience in executive coaching, organizational alignment, and culture-building across ministry and marketplace settings alike.
Through C. Terrell Wheat, LLC, he is the creator of Honest and Honorable Conversations, a training currently in active use within a juvenile detention system, giving leadership teams and staff practical tools for direct, respectful, trauma-informed communication and building stronger systems, sharper communication, and cultures of accountability. He is known for translating complex leadership challenges into practical frameworks that leaders and teams can apply immediately.
His approach draws further on decades of experience in a safety leadership and community ambassador role within the transportation and infrastructure sector, sustaining 20 years of injury-free performance and reinforcing the sound judgment and disciplined communication his other work depends on.
A dedicated husband, father, and engaging communicator, C. Terrell Wheat helps pastors and leaders build organizations where prayer is not an afterthought and accountability is not a threat.
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