My Journey to Free Bible Schooling at CLI: My Side Walk and My Salvation Walk
My name is Joseph Nyamari, and I am excited about free Bible schooling at CLI. From Kenya, East Africa, I am 51 years old, a born again Christian, and love Jesus, my Lord, and my Savior. My local church is Rehema Pentecostal Assemblies of God, situated in Migori Town, Kenya. My spiritual father/mentor is Rev. John Okari, who is also the Senior Pastor. I am a father of two children – a daughter and a son. Though separated from their mother, I am trusting God for a restoration of my marriage.
I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in Linguistics and Philosophy from the Kenyatta University of Kenya. I also completed a Postgraduate Diploma course in Mass Communication from The School of Journalism, University of Nairobi, though I did not graduate due to financial constraints.
My Side Walk on My Journey to Free Bible Schooling
What I refer to as my sidewalk started in my childhood. I was born into a Roman Catholic Church family. They were staunch adherents. My father died when I was barely five years old, and so I did not get to know much of him. Although, they told me he was a staunch Christian. I was brought up by my mum, who ensured I got oriented wholly into the Catholic Church. I am grateful to her because she introduced me to God. Therefore, I grew up us a God-fearing person. It is my “side walk” because though I knew about God, Jesus, and the Roman Catholic teachings, I never got to experience a personal relationship with my Creator and my Savior.
As a young boy, I felt a strong calling to join the priesthood. As a result, I spent the whole of my boyhood serving as an altar boy. When I attended High School, this went a notch higher because my school was owned by the Catholic Church and run by Catholic Brothers. The brothers’ influence made me change my ministry calling from priesthood to brotherhood. I now aspired to become an ordained Roman Catholic Brother.
As I advanced in my High School education, the brothers took me in as “visitor” in their formation house. It was the initial stage towards training into the brotherhood. However, the story changed when I got excellent grades in my studies. There developed a negative and hostile attitude towards me from my fellow trainees and the Brothers themselves. Later, I learned that they were all scared of my academic excellence. This animosity made me drop out of the training. I am glad I did because I could still be side-walking with my God today in the name of serving Him.
My Salvation Walk on My Journey to Free Bible Schooling
With the advent of the Pentecostal Movement in Kenya, I became curious but suspicious of the born again Christians. I assisted one priest in doing an anti-born-again movie called “Je Umeokoka?” which translates as “Are You Really Saved.” This movie was a mockery of the Pentecostal Movement portraying them as mere pretenders.
But as time went by, the Lord drew me closer to Him as I listened keenly to the messages of the preachers. Finally, I accepted Jesus as my Savior in the year 2001 through a Kenyan radio evangelist. Later, I joined a PEFA church in Kahawa West, Nairobi, Kenya. That is how I started my salvation walk and my journey to free Bible schooling.
My Ministry Calling and Free Bible Schooling at CLI
As for my ministry calling, it had grown cold. Then, my current local church pastor and my spiritual mentor approached me with a proposal. He wanted me to take up a ministry role in our church. This proposal took me by surprise, but I told him to give me time to pray about it. I prayed and prayed. It was clear that the Holy Spirit was ministering to me. Thus, I remembered my childhood call to ministry and accepted my pastor’s proposal. The Holy Spirit further guided me to seek training to gain ministry competency and confidence.
I couldn’t afford formal ministry training. Therefore, I went online and searched for free Bible schooling. While searching, the Holy Spirit guided me to Christian Leaders Institute. I am grateful I found CLI. God is doing a new and powerful Kingdom fulfillment in me through the ministry training with CLI. For anybody out there seeking ministry training, CLI is your one-stop site. Long live, CLI!
Learn about ordination with the Christian Leaders Alliance.
NEVER PREACH BORING SERMONS - FREE PREACHING COURSE
NEVER PREACH BORING SERMONS
By Bruce Ballast
One of the secrets I’ve learned over the years is that people will tune in to good preaching and tune out boring preaching.
Back in 1989, I had the privilege of attending the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Manila, the Philippines. The messages were stirring, powerful. The seminar speakers spoke powerfully. The crowd of people from all the countries impressed me.
One seminar sticks out in my mind as I write this blog: I attended a talk by a famous author and church leader. He talked about obstacles to reaching the world with the Gospel. I listened, enraptured by his use of words. He obviously had skill as a speaker. As I got so caught up in the words, that I stopped taking notes. A short time later a friend asked me what was said, and especially what the main points of the speech were, and I could not remember anything specific that was said.
Since that day, almost thirty years ago, I’ve learned a great deal about good preaching. People will listen to good preaching in worship or outside of it. But the question is, “What is good preaching today?”
It begins with the speaker, meaning the one who is giving the message. Listeners receive the message, and give feedback by the way they respond. In the case of my time in Manila, the speaker gave a speech that may have been full of great information, but I didn’t receive it.
TALKING SO PEOPLE WILL LISTEN
In this reflection, and in the ones to follow, I will be looking with you at how we can talk in a way that the people will listen, will receive the message. I am deeply indebted to many people for what follows. To begin with, I’m going to use a picture that was developed by Steve Brown in his book, How to Talk So People Will Listen. He says that the “good” speech (or sermon) will have the characteristics of the acrostic, TULIP. Those letters will guide our reflections over the next few weeks.
THERAPEUTIC
The word therapeutic refers to treatments that make a person better, or, in other words, that are addressed to his/her needs. In the medical health field, therapeutic speech is that which helps the speaker feel heard. It involves sitting forward, making eye contact, and letting the speaker know that you are hearing what they say by the clarifying questions you ask. In a sermon, it is preaching to the felt-needs of the people in the audience.
One of the roles I fill in my life is to be a partner to a younger pastor. In our meeting last week we talked about his message from the week before. He has already developed the skill of reading the audience, and he knew that he had lost them somewhere along the way. He summed it up by saying, “This sermon would have gotten an A in my seminary days, but the congregation didn’t follow it, however, because it was too involved.”
That’s putting it well, I think. New seminary or Bible School graduates feel the temptation to impress people with their learning. One of the keys to good preaching is to realize that people really don’t care about things like the Graf-Welhausen documentary hypothesis. They want to know that there is a God and that he cares about them.
DEFINING YOUR PURPOSE
So when you are preparing your sermon, think about the purpose. What difference will this make to the hearer? This doesn’t mean you can’t preach on the great doctrines of the faith. It does mean that you must find a way to make those doctrines relevant to the lives of the people who are listening to you. Listeners give you the gift of their time, so use it well.
Never Preach Boring Sermons and it is your responsibility to make them as interesting as possible. I love the fact that Christian Leaders Institute offers free preaching course along with their 90 additional classes. These free preaching courses will help you be the preacher hearer will appreciate! Click Here to see more Ballast Preaching Posts