My name is Jerry L. Young, and God gave me a call to serve in His kingdom. I have a wonderful wife named Dianne. We have five daughters and seven grandchildren. I have a call to serve from God. So, I am studying at the Christian Leaders Institute for ministry training and ordination (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here).
I am number four of five children in my family. We are all believers. I grew up on a dairy farm in western Pennsylvania, USA. At age eighteen, I went to work in a welding shop. I have spent my working years in the manufacturing field. I started as a welder, then into supervisory, and eventually into engineering. Although my employment would be considered secular, it was also a ministry. I believe that through Christ, we bloom where we are planted if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Early Life and Conversion
I first joined the church where my family attended at the age of 13. It was March 24, 1967, in a Presbyterian church in Indiana county, Pennsylvania. I took the Bible very seriously and was interested in knowing about God. Then starting in 1973, I had my wilderness years. Fortunately, they did not last forty years. I never abandoned my belief but became stagnant without adding the water that Jesus offered to the woman at the well.
Ten years later, I had the desire to get back into the church. I was living in a Chicago suburb, and I joined the Presbyterian Church in Peotone, IL. I had my foundational teaching and was studying the Bible. Not long after, I began to lead an adult Sunday school. In 1990, I went to a tent revival on the family farm. That night in the spring of 1990, I had an awakening. I was very biblically literate, but my knowledge was academic. I was not saved. If I had died before that night, I would not have made it into Heaven. I would have missed by eighteen inches, the distance from the heart to the head. That night, I came to Christ, and it is undoubtedly the best decision of my life. I became a better husband, father, worker, and person: a new creation.
Calling to Ministry
Two years after my salvation, I felt I had gone as far as possible in my studies. There was no one I trusted to be my mentor. However, I was reading about Phillip and the eunuch, who did not understand the scripture. I thought, “That’s me.” I prayed for God to send me someone who really knew scripture to teach me. At the same time, about six miles away, a man with a Bible College and seminary education was praying for someone to disciple. God put us together. His name is Ron. We talked almost every day. He said I was like a sponge soaking up everything he taught. We are still friends, and he is still my mentor. However, now we live nearly 500 miles apart.
After moving back to Pennsylvania, I talked to one of the employees where I worked, a pastor. We had great conversations. He told me I had a calling. He asked me why I was hiding. In 2012, I was struck with a rare, incurable disease. The doctors said that I was handicapped and would spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair. They were wrong. Jesus cured me of that incurable disease. I can walk again. Then I heard the voice of God, “What more proof do you want? Preach my Gospel.” I became a Presbyterian lay- preacher, but I knew the Lord wants me to be a pastor with a call to serve.
Ministry Training and Journey
In 2013, I took an online Bible course and started to fill in for the pastor when he was on vacation or ill. I signed up for classes through the Presbytery to be a commissioned pulpit supply preacher. Although commissioned, I was not ordained. I wanted to accelerate that education, so I signed up for the Christian Leaders Institute training.
In answering my call to serve in God’s kingdom, I have led many Bible studies and small groups, and in my own quiet time, I also study the Bible. So far, I have read it cover to cover 45 times. My goal is 100. I have read at least 10 versions, and I wrote a summary of every chapter in the Bible. Also, I have a Facebook following and write and post a short message 6 days a week. I have been given the heart of an evangelist, and I want people to hear the truth and be saved. “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works” (Ephesians 2:10).
Walking in Freedom in Christ
Hello to all, my name is Cristina Jones, and I am taking free training in ministry at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here). I currently live in DeLand, Florida, in the United States. I am the proud wife of Casey Jones, and together we have a blended family of five children.
My Youth
Growing up, I never heard the name of Jesus or God referenced unless it was in a derogatory manner. Alcohol was lord in our home. The day after my 10th birthday, my two-year-old brother drowned in our backyard pool. My stepmother, in a moment of grieving, blamed me and sent me away. They sent me to live with my aunt and uncle, and it was there I heard about Jesus for the first time. God planted a seed.
When I was 14, I was attending a Baptist church that preached fire and brimstone. I became scared of going to hell, so I said the sinner’s prayer. Nothing changed. I didn’t feel any different, and my actions over the next few years reflected that.
Challenges and Finding Jesus
Fast forward to 1992. I am 21 years old and stationed overseas at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan. I am walking home one morning from being out all night at the clubs, and I hear a voice say, “Go to church.” I got back to my barracks and found what I thought would be “church clothes,” and walked to find the base chapel. After 3 weeks of hearing the Chaplain tell everyone all my dirty deeds and how I was living, I raised my hand to receive Jesus into my heart for what I felt was the first time. (Afterwards, I learned that it was the Holy Spirit speaking to me and directing me to go to church that morning) The day I was baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, I became radical for Jesus!
However, for the next 26 years, I would fight, and not win, the battle with my addictions. At the age of 10, when I was sent away from my family, I was exposed to pornography by a family member. I opened a door. A sexual addiction began. It led me into several broken relationships, 2 failed marriages, and a lukewarm relationship with God.
After my encounter with Jesus when I was 21, I KNEW God called me to preach the gospel. Unfortunately, everywhere I turned, the “church” told me I could not preach or teach because I was a woman. So I spent 20 years trying to find my identity. And questioning the call God had placed on my life. I believe it really stunted my growth as a believer mainly because I let it.
New Freedom
It wasn’t until I hit rock bottom after the death of my fiancé that I knew I had to surrender EVERY secret part of my life to Jesus. I was empty. Which was exactly where God needed me to be so He could fill me with all of His grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love. That is when I was healed and delivered of my addiction, and God brought my husband into my life. Today I walk in the freedom of the Word of God and who I am in Christ.
My passion is ministering to women who feel broken and teaching them their value is found in Jesus, NOT men. My husband and I have a passion for seeing marriages restored. We have been serving couples and teaching marriage classes for 4 years. There is nothing that sets my heart on fire more than studying the Bible and teaching others the power of the Word of God. It’s all with a little “Cristina flavor.”
Free Classes in Ministry at CLI
Every challenge and tragedy I have experienced in my life made me the woman, wife, mother, minister, preacher, counselor, mentor of God that I am today. With that being said, when God called my husband and me to plant a house church in late 2019, I realized I needed more structured ministry training. I didn’t know where to find that training without going to seminary (which I do not feel led to). Then a friend’s daughter reached out to ask if I would marry her and her fiancé. This led me to Christian Leader’s Institute because I DID NOT want to “buy” my wedding officiant certification. I wanted to earn it.
My husband will join me in taking some classes as we move forward with our house church. Being able to take advantage of free training has helped us more than we can say. We have been living by faith for the resources needed to complete our entire home renovation. God has met every need, including the free training classes in ministry I am taking through CLI and CLA. We are eternally grateful for the Lord directing our steps which led us here.
By becoming a Gold Vision Partner, we decided to sow into the Kingdom because we believe in the Christian Leaders Institute’s vision. With the opportunity for free training classes in ministry at CLI, we pray that we reach more people for Christ with no obstacles.
My name is Greg Sullivan. I live in San Antonio, Texas, USA, and am studying at the Christian Leaders Institute for deacon minister training (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here).
My Beginnings
I was born in New York State in 1949, the youngest of three children. My father had me late in life due to health problems. My mother was confined to a wheelchair well before I was born due to polio. She was a good person but also a chronic alcoholic. I later found out that she drank all through her pregnancy with me but not my older sister and brother. That knowledge brought me much peace. It explains many things about myself that I never understood.
Growing up Catholic, I had no conception of a loving God who cared about me. I didn’t fit in well growing up and started drinking as a teenager. Before I finished high school, I was a chronic alcoholic. I was led to the Lord in my early 20s by a godly cousin. However, by then, I was too far gone into my drinking. I accepted Christ as my Savior, but it was a difficult struggle for the next 35 years. I ended up living on skid rows all around the country.
Hit Bottom and God Saved Me
Today, I praise God for every rescue mission and Salvation Army that took me in when I got too sick to stay on the streets. I started going to AA in 1983, but it was a revolving door relationship. I wanted to get sober but couldn’t. In 2005, I hit the lowest point in my life. I knew without a doubt that I would soon be dead on the streets in Morgan City, LA. There seemed to be nothing I could do about it. How dark it is before the dawn!
I made arrangements to come back to San Antonio, though I had no idea why. Through the kindness of a friend, I had a place to stay. I returned to AA, not expecting anything to change. A man spoke who made me realize for the first time that I had no understanding of “surrender.” My journey from there started with baby steps. However, I soon realized that God was truly doing for me what no one on earth could do.
Deacon Minister Training at CLI
The friend who gave me a place to stay is my loving wife of fifteen years, Karen. We married in 2006, and what a journey it has been! Several years ago, we both felt that we needed a local church. We went to several. But, as soon as we walked into SE Baptist Church in San Antonio, we knew we were home. I have been nurtured and mentored by the godly men in my church, including Pastor Jerry Cosper. I was invited to pray about becoming a deacon, and I do not doubt that God called me.
God placed it in my heart that I needed ministry training to be an effective servant. I had no idea how that could happen. I am still working full time as I have no pension and very little social security because of how I lived. Out of nowhere, I saw an ad for the Christian Leaders Institute. I thought, “This is too good to be true! What an awesome God we serve!”
I am not sure what else the Lord has planned for us, but I am as excited as any man half my age. Literally, I laugh out loud when I think how God is using this old sinner. I am taking deacon minister training courses to be an effective, ordained deacon. I hope to continue as long as God allows. Thank you, CLI!