Free Pastor Training
Follow Logan on his journey as he answers God’s call to become a pastor with free pastor training at CLI.
The Grace of God: How His Pursuit Changed my Life
My name is Logan Roberts and I am receiving free pastor training from Christian Leaders Institute. I live in Northeast Ohio with my wife and our daughters. When looking back over my life, I can see how God was calling me from the darkness. He called me into a life lived with, for, and in Christ. I was very stubborn though. I didn’t submit in humility and love to God’s pursuit of me until August 2010.
Early Struggles
My upbringing was not in a Christian home. We did not go to church. I even made fun of some neighbors who did and tried to share their faith with me. I went to a vacation Bible school over summer vacation to my aunt’s house in Tennessee when I was maybe ten years old. Silently, I mocked it the whole time in my head. However, she bought me a study Bible, and I was interested in it. I remember reading Genesis, John, and Revelation. I found it compelling, but not enough to devote my life to it.
All the way through my senior year of high school, I had a small amount of interest in God surrounded by darkness. I was into being a weird art kid. I made sure I looked the part as well. Partying and drinking were a part of those years as well. After high school, I had no plan. So, a year afterward, I randomly decided to join the Ohio Army National Guard.
Into The Darkness
I was in the National Guard from 2007 to 2013. A friend of mine from school had joined, and I contacted him. I got his recruiter’s phone number. A few months later, I graduated from Infantry OSUT training and with the same unit as my friend. I had a son during the early years of my military time. In 2008, I deployed to Egypt. While I was gone, the relationship with my son’s mother fell apart. When I returned home a year later, we tried to reconcile, but it was too late.
When we found out our son had cancer, we were frustrated and confused by it in the midst of our failed relationship. She met someone else and married shortly after. She and my son moved to North Carolina. I shut down, lost interest, and turned into an absent father. I was devastated by the whole thing.
Life seemed to fall apart, so I drank and partied away months of my life. I crashed my car into a brick wall in January 2010 and was charged with drunk driving. Then, I lost all my friends because I couldn’t handle losing my only means of dealing with life (no matter how harmful that method was). That still wasn’t enough to turn me to God. Instead, I tried to become an intellectual, but that quickly failed. By the summer of 2010, I was partying again, only worse because I knew I had a problem.
God Called Out of the Darkness
My friend and I had National Guard training coming up. We would be gone for three weeks, and I showed up hungover and depressed. He was different. He was going on and on about this youth group he was helping lead at some church. Throughout the next few weeks, he shared the life-changing story of how the gospel changed him. Jesus Christ was now his Lord and Savior. Therefore, it felt amazing to be free from the baggage he had been carrying around. He wanted to devote his life to Christ and the church.
He had some books with him. As we talked, I got interested in and borrowed one. It had much to say about God’s love for me and was filled with scripture references. So, I bought a Bible on the post to read the texts. I was hooked. I was new. Something gripped me about the Bible and God that had never done so before. God became real, and the Bible became alive. And, Jesus became a person in my heart, mind, and soul. I felt the Holy Spirit convicting, reforming, and restoring me into a child of God.
Free Pastor Training at CLI
It’s been almost nine years as I write this. God put a desire in my heart to become a Pastor. I still feel strongly about this, and I continue to follow and live out my faith as a husband and a father. My wife and I have been married for almost eight years. At this time, it is in my family that I find my primary role as pastor fulfilled. We are part of a church plant. One day, I hope to see myself pastoring in this context.
My spiritual dream is to see Titus 2:11 become a reality all over the world, for all people in all times and places. “For the grace of God has appeared, bring salvation for all people.” (ESV). I considered pursuing more traditional means of obtaining an education. However, I’ve found that this nontraditional path I’m on is the path God has set before me (and we see it throughout the Bible). My prayer and hope are that the free pastor training I get at Christian Leaders Institute/CLI’s Leadership Excellence School will prepare me for ministry as a Pastor.
Learn how you can be ordained through Christian Leaders Alliance Ecuministry ordination.
Ministry Training Guidance
Hello! My name is Nickie Burr, and I am seeking ministry training guidance at Christian Leaders Institute. I live in a small town in the state of Arkansas, in the USA, population just over one hundred. In 1996, both my husband and I received Christ as our personal Savior at the age of thirty-six. We have been serving in our local church in a variety of positions ever since. Up until May of 2018, I had served as a full-time volunteer elementary school supervisor in our little church school for thirteen years.
Since the closing of our Christian school, I have been seeking the Lord as to what His plans are for my future. At this time, I am still somewhat unsure. So, I am trying to take care not to fill my days with too much nonsense and drown out His still small voice when the direction comes. I do believe that the Lord has been leading me into small group leadership. Through this work, I can help the hurting women come to know God’s forgiveness and hope for the future. I hope to do this by sharing God’s love through Christ’s death and resurrection with them. There is a special burden on my heart for women suffering silently in the aftermath of abortion.
I desire the assurance that I will be leading in the absolute truth of God’s Word. I believe that the opportunities available through the Christian Leaders Institute will be a stepping stone to that end. At the age of fifty-nine, returning to school has been hard. However, I am willing to give it my best effort with the Lord’s help, of course. Blessings on all of you at CLI for all you do to minister to those of us with a desire to be used of God to minister. Thank you, CLI, for this opportunity!
Learn about women’s ministry ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Ministry Education Free at CLI
My name is Walter Rudolph “Waldo” Swart, and I’m eighteen years old. I am excited to receive ministry education free at CLI. I was born and raised in Pretoria, South Africa. When I was eleven, we (my parents, brother, sisters, grandpa, and I) moved overseas to Western Australia where my dad found a better job. To live right next to the ocean was exciting. Then, we moved to Melbourne three years later. Living next to the city was also a new and exciting experience for us.
My Childhood Years
Thanks to my family, I have been homeschooled my whole life. I have always been a Christian, so I have always believed in God. I love my family and I love God very much. As a child, Christianity was very basic and simple to understand. However, as I grew into maturity and began my Christian studies (books, homework, Bible reading, etc), I have started to discover the depth of the Word of God and what it means for me.
My Spiritual Dream
I was interested when Pastor Elzinga said that most answers to the spiritual dream question fall under two categories. Those categories are your relationship with God and your relationship with other people. I can see this throughout the Bible. So what is my spiritual dream? I want my relationship with God to become stronger and stronger. My desire is to share what He gives me with everyone else. So my answer would be to serve God because I believe that affects my relationship with people.
Obstacles
For me, the obstacles were about bad characteristics: selfishness, anger, fear, impatience, swearing, passive aggression, and doubt. These obstacles probably don’t look big. But, as I began my recent Christian studies, I realized the negative impact it had on my life. I was shown how to let it go. I learned how to become a more patient, sharing, and compassionate person. Thankfully, God’s grace has changed me.
Why I Need Jesus
When I think about beliefs other than Christianity, I can’t imagine what it would be like to live without Him. Through Jesus Christ, I have the strength and guidance to live a good life. I have the humility to say when I need help. The Holy Spirit shows me what is good and bad, and I have the belief that I’m saved by His amazing grace. For me, this is what grace is: to receive His promise of everlasting life and to submit my life to Him. Grace is believing that no matter who you are and what you’ve done, you are still loved. What is this love? Jesus knew everything that would happen to Him, knew He had the power to walk away, saw us and chose to die for us!
What Christian Leaders Institute Means To Me
My previous Christian studies, both in school level and after-school studies, mean very much to me as a Christian. Not only did I discover so much about the Word of God, but I also discovered so much about myself. So, when we recently found the Christian Leaders Institute, which is going great right here where I am, we were really happy. My heart just warms every time I see or hear about someone who receives God and says so without shame or fear. For people to receive God in their lives, to love, honor and serve Him, and to believe that they are saved through grace is the most necessary thing in the world. Ministry education free at Christian Leaders Institute which inspires people to answer God’s call serves to inspire me to do the same.
Ministry education free at Christian Leaders Institute to train strong and inspiring Christian leaders is a blessing to me. I hope that my time studying with the Christian Leaders Institute will enable me to become a strong Christian leader. I believe through many God-incidences that this is where God wants me to be!
Learn about minister ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.