EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first installment of a two-part series about the change in leadership at Adult & Teen Challenge of Arkansas.
After serving nearly 40 years as executive director of Adult & Teen Challenge of Arkansas, Tim Culbreth has seen his vision for the faith-based addiction recovery program “come to life” and is passing the torch to a “kindred heart” with a fresh vision.
“It would have been 40 years Oct. 15, but this close, and the number of years that my body’s put on me, I think I deserve 40 years,” Culbreth said, jokingly, on Thursday as he sat down in his office, which will soon belong to incoming executive director Stephan DeLorenzo.
Culbreth made the decision to retire about four years ago with the target date of December 2020. Like many things, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed his retirement by a few months.
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“When I came here 40 years ago, one thing that I — early on I wanted to know clearly from God when it was my time to go,” he said. “I did not want to out-serve my welcome, and I am pleased and excited with what we’ve been able to develop here.”
When first starting his journey at what was then called Teen Challenge in 1981 with his wife, Sallie Culbreth, it was not his first choice.
“But when I came in,” Culbreth said, “and I interviewed with the board; I saw the property, and saw a vision. In 40 years, that vision, I saw come true.”
His vision was to further develop the campus, which was done with the addition of what is now the dining hall, and further develop the Teen Challenge program.
“One of the reasons I had a hard time coming here is because I love the cities; I wanted to impact cities, and I’m sitting here going, ‘Arkansas? Well I grew up here, and in Hot Springs, Arkansas, how are we going to impact cities?'” Culbreth asked himself, initially.
“And over the years,” he said, “we developed curriculum that actually has been used around the world with Teen Challenge Centers. I led the National Organization for pretty much two years as an interim, so I impacted many centers throughout the U.S., and actually kind of set the stage for, you might say, the next part of … Adult and Teen Challenge USA.”
The reward reaped while completing his vision has been to witness students graduate from the addiction recovery program and go on to be pastors, missionaries or even come full-circle to be Adult and Teen Challenge staff members.
Now that his vision is complete, the time has come to pass the product on to someone else with a fresh vision.
“Besides, I’m old and kind of worn out,” he said, laughing.
In retirement, he looks forward to spending time with his three grandsons, fly fishing and riding his bicycle. But before he leaves, Culbreth’s insight for DeLorenzo is quite simple: have patience, learn to go with the flow and always stop and think.
“Probably for 40 years, some of my biggest mistakes was that I didn’t stop and think,” he said, cheekily.
“I feel Stephan has a vision for here,” Culbreth said. “When we were in the interview process, and we interviewed several, I was very much drawn to Stephan because of his heart. I saw my heart 40 years ago, and I knew he was, at that moment, we hadn’t voted, but I knew he was the person for the job. … We had a very much kindred heart when we came here 40 years ago, and I see that in he and his wife.”
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