The History of Christian Leaders

Christian Leaders was developed to reproduce Christian leaders everywhere through a pattern of daily discipleship in a range of relational connections. This model was developed through the partnership of Rev. Steve Elzinga and Rev. Henry Reyenga beginning in 1994. They were personally mentored by Rich DeVos Sr., who taught them the skills and techniques necessary to train new Christian leaders. Steve and Henry served at the Bible League, where they learned about reproducible Bible culture, home discipleship, and church planting dynamics that are transferable everywhere. It was in this partnership that Steve and Henry formed LifeNet 21, which merged with the Bible League in 1998. In 2002, Henry left the Bible League International to form Christian Leaders, while Steve remained at the Bible League as the head of North American ministries and International Ministry Director of Malaysia.

Rev. Reyenga extensively studied the use of the Internet as a tool for reproducing Christian Leaders. Christian Leaders was founded as a ministry that brought mentorship to church planters based on a home-discipleship operating system. But Reyenga and his team kept running into a wall: these leaders needed advanced ministry training.

Finally, his study of cutting-edge Internet technologies brought him to begin Christian Leaders Institute (CLI). CLI began offering Internet classes in 2006 and brought advanced training to bi-vocational pastors and church planters in the United States and Canada.

Number of New Students at CLI

2006-2007  Six new student with 3 active students (students who at least take one class)    Budget $230,000 (Est)
2007-2008  Twenty five Students with 12 active students    Budget $250,000
2008-2009  Seventy five new Students with 25 active students  Budget $300,000
2009-2010  Five hundred new Students with 110 active students  Budget $390,00
2010-2011  One thousand new Students with 245 active students Budget $450,000
2011-2012 GOAL: Three thousand new Students with 400 active students $550,000

Number of Certificates and Diplomas completed: 2008 2, 2009 4, 2010, 10, 2011 60 for a total of 74.

CLI is led by an outstanding team. Leading on the academic front is Dr. David Feddes. For 16 years, Dr. Feddes served as a broadcast minister for the Back to God radio program, reaching people in more than 50 countries. He also worked with Crossroad Bible Institute, providing biblical distance education to thousands of people in prison. At CLI Dr. Feddes is leading the charge to bring advanced ministry training to aspiring Christian leaders everywhere, in partnership with local mentors. Dr. Feddes leads a team of 11 professors and is recruiting more.

Christian Leaders is currently seeking more partners. Leaders from Calvin Seminary and Northern Seminary have met with the executive staff of Christian Leaders. We plan to form more partnerships to help existing ministries make a bigger impact for God's Kingdom. We plan to utilize the philosophy and tools of Christian Leaders wherever the Internet is available.