Music Ministry Journey
My name is Byron Green and I have been on a music ministry journey. I was born in Florence, Alabama. As a child, I began to play and write music. Music was my first calling. It came so naturally. My father’s best friend was road production manager for “Little Richard”. I got to meet and greet with him at 14 years old in a very personal setting backstage. The odd thing about it was that he simply took my hands in his, bowed his head, and prayed that one day my hands would play for the Lord. I didn’t know God then. I thought he was a crazy person.
Fast forward a few years to graduation and the career began. Unfortunately, with no godly roots, it led me down a path of destruction. From 2005-2016, I traveled many places around the Southeast, leading people to sin. One night after two DUI arrests, watching my marriage fall apart and in the process of losing everything, I fell to my knees. I finally came to the realization that I wasn’t able. Praise God! His grace is sufficient! I came to know the Lord in a very unlikely place [a bathroom floor]. Nobody gets alone with God on their knees and fakes it. I prayed for real for the first time. God worked a miracle that night on my music ministry journey. I had been trying to work on my own for 10 years. He broke the chains of alcohol addiction. It was instant. I was free.
In pure joy, I began to tell my Christian wife I had been saved. I was changed [try telling someone who has heard it all before]. Again, His grace is sufficient. By continued steps of faith, prayer and daily devotion to His word, in less than 7 days He repaired the relationships I had spent my whole life destroying. We began looking for a church. I was called to First Baptist Church in Lexington, Alabama for a tent revival. There, the pastor expressed they had been praying for an entire year for a worship leader. I agreed to help as an interim until one came. A month later, after various talks about my faith, and a unanimous vote by the congregation, Little Richard’s prophecy that I had completely forgotten came to pass. I was serving the Lord. I began to give my testimony locally and see God work in the hearts of people who were just like me. People were being freed and accepting Jesus! Powerful confirmations came that entire year. That was this past year. I began to read and teach small videos on Facebook live from passages in Acts. Several of the people who watched asked why I didn’t continue with further education because they saw potential in me.
Finally, a member of the worship team came forward and confirmed my calling externally as I had already been feeling the call internally. I feel my call to be a small group leader as well as a music minister so strongly. The problem with further education now on my music ministry journey is that I had lost everything in the battle with addiction. My wife and I still currently live with my parents as we work diligently to recover and reestablish ourselves financially. My favorite pleasure in reading the word is when the passage says something and then drops what I affectionately refer to as the “but God” bomb. He always makes a way! I thought I would never have this opportunity, “but God” provided me with Christian Leaders Institute. So I praise Him and thank Him for it! I want to effectively disciple believers in an easily reproducible way. By the time I finished the first course [a day and a half], I was equipped with that knowledge already! I can’t wait to finish the program and pray that God makes a way for our local church to set up a mentor center!
Learn about minister ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Youth Minister Call
My name is Ethan Most and I have a youth minister call in my life. I live in the United States and my wife and I just moved back to my hometown of Colorado Springs. To do ministry here is truly an adventure because you never really know what opinions or people you might encounter on a daily basis. I say this because I was heavily involved with a college ministry and children’s ministry in the two churches where I have spent most of my life.
I came to know the Lord as a youngster in my parent’s bedroom. Before this, I had heard all the stories and I wanted Jesus to come into my heart. I wanted Jesus to save me from my sin so I went to those who knew how to lead me to Jesus, my parents. I can remember every single second of that meeting as a young boy. I got up on my parent’s bed and I asked them how to ask Jesus into my life. They led me through a prayer and from then on I was changed. I knew the big picture and I had so much joy in my heart.
My ministry vision for my youth minister call is simple. I want to reach the children and youth of my church and my community for Christ and to disciple them in expanding the kingdom in their own communities. Our youth are lost because of the myriad of influences in their lives. I want to lead them to Christ and a life that has purpose and fulfillment. God has truly given me a heart for them and their craziness. One of the biggest influence on my life was my youth pastor and his patience for a pretty adventurous and troublesome lad. I want to carry that work on in my own life.
This class with Christian Leaders Institute has been very rewarding to me. I have been praying and asking God as to what I should do next in my life and He led me to my youth minister call. Starting this class has given me some tangible evidence that this is where God wants me and I will keep working hard for that purpose.
When I was in high school my youth pastor left for another ministry opportunity in Illinois. I was devastated, in some regards, because the man that had taken the time to mentor me and encourage me was leaving. However, in the years that followed, we had Godly man after Godly man step up and lead my youth group in growing in Jesus. I came to a realization that I wanted to be like those men who stepped up and trusted God for their leadership. In my youth minister call, I wanted God to use me like He used them and that has been reinforced by my college and children’s ministry experience.
In Colorado Springs, there is a mix of a heavy Christian influence and a very secular, worldly presence. We have Focus on the Family, New Life, Navigators and other very large organizations. On the other hand, Colorado has a seen moral decline from places like academia, government, media and most importantly the family. Colorado has become a melting pot of people because of marijuana and other social activities. This is dangerous to the influence on the lives of the youth but at the same time a great opportunity for the gospel to flourish through the youth.
The Bible helps me realize my sins and failures and shows me my strength in Christ. I could not have done any of the ministries in my life without Christ and the Bible to give me confidence and hope to share that with my community.
My church in Flagstaff gave me many opportunities to serve and helped train me for ministry. I served the local church through a myriad of opportunities, such as teaching Sunday school, being a college intern, being the Children’s Coordinator, and leading a young adult group.
My small family has given me the support that I need from them. The role of the family has been influential and incredible in helping me be accountable and humble in my walk with God. My family is important in my faith in God and helping me discern His purpose for me in life.
Christian Leaders Institute is an answer to prayer. I felt a youth minister call but did not know how to go about pursuing it. Through a conversation with my father-in-law, I was told about CLI. After looking into it, I realized that CLI fit exactly with attaining a debt free Christian ministry education. I am not the best student and, quite honestly, dreaded seminary. CLI has been a huge blessing in my life. Being able to get quality training for free has opened so many ministry outlets with coworkers, students, and friends. I am truly thankful that I will not have loan debt and can focus on my community, family, and work.
I ask the leaders of CLI to pray that as I get involved with my community and youth that I stay focused on what is important. That is showing men and women, young and old, that Christ brings salvation and that they can have a personal and purposeful relationship with Jesus. That is what I desire and that is what I pray for.
Learn about ordained minister study programs with Christian Leaders Alliance.
Ecuministry Ordination Journey
My name is Dr. Claudia Niemann. I am 60 years old. I have been on an ecuministry ordination journey. I am originally from Germany. My profession was a chemist and food scientist. I am married to Djamel from Algiers, where we also live now. We have been married for 17 years but do not have children.
My parents were pastors in a small town in former East Germany. That is where I grew up in close relationship with the Lord. I learned all about faith, trust, and serving. I had strong leaders in my parents, Arnold and Käthe Niemann. I learned how to walk with God, sing the praise music, and play the organ in the services.
My brother was a member of the first Christian praise band in former East Germany. We learned a lot about other churches traveling with this band in the country. We also had an evangelist coming every year to our church. His example played an important role in my later calling.
After my father’s retirement, my parents moved to West Berlin. I finished my studies in Master’s degree in chemistry and followed them in 1986. Here, I started my doctorate and earned the degree in the year 1990. After two years of a post-doctorate research position at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, I returned to Germany and pursued my academic career. This career stopped in 2005 when I was a research scientist with Nestlé in Lausanne, Switzerland.
In 2006, I was called by the Lord to be an evangelist and teacher on my ecuministry ordination journey. The calling was revealed in a vision that I am to be a traveling minister, like the evangelist who came to our church when I was a child.
While living at home, I had a daily Bible study and devotion time which brought me to a deeper understanding of the Word. The Bible spoke to me and guided me. Reading the Psalms and the Proverbs over a period of a year taught me an understanding of Praise, Repentance, Lament, and Divine Wisdom.
Back in Germany, on my ecuministry ordination journey, I started studies to become a preacher in 2007. I was an Elected Church Elder in the United Lutheran-Reformed Chuch of Berlin-Brandenburg from 2006 to 2015. I became also a member of the Protestant Faith Fellowship in Berlin, the Pentecostal American Church that emerged from the U.S.Army troops that were in Berlin from 1945 to 1995. Here, I learned all about Gospel music and sang in the Gospel choir led by Gospel singers from the U.S. who live in Berlin.
I earned my degree to be ordained as a Word Minister from a correspondence church school of the Evangelic Church in Mid-Germany in May 2012. This degree enabled me to lead services, distribute the Holy Communion, and preach in the churches of the Association of Evangelic Churches in Germany. I was ordained to be a pastor in community service in the local church of Gramzow, Uckermark.
I had to quit my service in 2015 because the church did not accept my engagement in a free internet ministry association (www.Pastor2go.de) to minister to people who were not a member in any officially recognized church. I continued to minister as a free-lance theologian, and in January 2016, I received the call to Algeria by the Lord.
In Algeria, the conditions for Christians are not easy. They are not persecuted officially. But unofficially, some Islamic elements in the authorities try to make Christian life difficult. They close churches and imprison people who possess more than one Bible in the Arab or Berber language. There is officially a “Freedom of Cults” but proselytism is forbidden.
As we moved to Algeria this year, I became a visiting member of the United Protestant Church of Algiers. The local pastor, however, would not ordain me as a preacher and allowed only for me to work as a member of the praise team. Together with Spirit-driven Christians from other regions of the country and two other foreigners, we have made a new conception for this team.
At this time, and through the new praise team, the Holy Spirit is doing a mighty work in this legalistic-oriented and fear-driven congregation to open up their hearts and minds for the joy and freedom of God’s children. Please pray for this church and its members, especially for the pastor.
I searched for courses in English for another member of the praise team who also wants to become a full-time minister. I was led to the Christian Leaders Institute website and I began the first class. He will begin the courses as soon as he is in his new apartment that he just found (it’s not so easy in Algiers).
CLI studies allow me to refresh my training and to learn new ideas and points of view. It’s important for me to stay vigilant yet flexible with regard to the different churches that I will visit in my new field of work in Algeria. Since I do not have the opportunity to earn money here at the moment, a CLI scholarship gives me the opportunity to follow up with the ministry training to strengthen my ministry. I am also starting up my evangelistic service on this ecuministry ordination journey. Then I can help others to join CLI.
Since my calling is to be a traveling minister as an evangelist and teacher, I am also thankful that there is the ecuministry ordination of the Christian Leaders Alliance. I feel that this is the right ordination for my calling. In an ecumenical and interdenominational environment, for me to serve Christ and mankind, wherever God leads me.