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.
Home Church Planters
I am Joshua Hickman, and my wife and I feel called to be Home Church Planters. I live in Temple, Texas, USA. I’ve been serving Jesus passionately since October 1999. I was 16 years old and my mom made me go to something called a “Revival Service”. Little did anyone know that this annual event, at this small country church in Bastrop TX, would be totally rocked by the power of God in a radical way!
The night my mom forced me to go to church, I was sitting listening to this little southern country worship band singing about Jesus. The only thing I knew about Jesus, at this point, was that He had something to do with two holidays, and my mother had become obsessed with Him for the past six months. So, I’m sitting in the soft green chairs listening to this band sing songs and I began to really think about how empty I felt all the time. I became overwhelmingly lonely and depressed. Then the crazy preacher got up there and started talking about Jesus, and how God is good, and about the Holy Spirit.
The next thing I knew, I was pushing the nice people over who were sitting next to me, and I was crying, and running to the front of this church. I wasn’t the only one though. Twenty to thirty others were with me up there. As we began asking Jesus to forgive us, I suddenly was overwhelmed again, but this time with Joy! I didn’t feel lonely and bitter anymore. Life has been a crazy process since then, but it’s been fun, to say the least.
It was in this same church that I began to learn about life as this new person, and how the Father gave me unique gifts to fulfill a unique purpose in life. At different points in my life over the next 10 years, God would bring many men and women into my life to mentor me. Some would help me hone my musical abilities, some my relationships, and others, my character. The Senior Pastor, however, was the first to really see and then publicly confirm the call on my life as a Pastor. One Sunday morning, after sharing with the congregation a song I wrote, the Pastor ran up to me with tears and laid his hands on me. He began to declare things about me that he said were in the Father’s heart for me. Now, I can’t possibly remember everything exactly as it was said, but I will never forget that moment. The main idea was that I was being set apart in that moment to lead others around me into a closer relationship with our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit!
Fast forward to 2017. I am now married with four BEAUTIFUL children and an AMAZING wife. We serve as the Senior Leaders of a small (but growing) network of home-based churches. Although my wife and I are currently the primary pastors of our church, we feel a call from God to actually travel and plant many churches! We are home church planters with an exciting ministry dream. What I love about the way we have been expressing the local church gathering is the fact that my children (all under the age of 8) are so excited every time we have a home group meeting. They are learning to be a part of the church by engaging with adults and other kids as we worship, pray, and discuss God’s Word.
I had been to a discipleship training school in 2008 and had awesome opportunities to do international missions work, but still felt the drawing by the Holy Spirit to deepen my knowledge and study. I believe that formal ministry education can, and does, help boost confidence and understanding. I feel that the instructors in the Getting Started Class did a great job of, essentially, saying the same thing. I remember reading the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian many times, but one time it hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized that I have reached a point in my life that I need help understanding more of God’s word from more than just my own perspective. I have a few local mentors, who have all, at some point, encouraged me to look into seminary training. After searching for weeks online, I finally came across Christian Leaders Institute.
I’m so excited to continue to pursue higher education through CLI as we grow as home church planters, a family, and a church community. For us, CLI is already making an impact on everyone in our church! I’ve spread the word to the people my wife and I mentor so that they can eventually pursue additional training.
We would really appreciate prayer for our region, the Bell County area in Texas. As a church, we feel a call to restore the family aspect to the church of our area….regardless of denomination or race or gender. My family and I would appreciate prayer as we continue to work as volunteer home church planters for our new church plant, in an area that has largely never experienced home church, and for financial provision! Currently, I work full time for a Furniture Retailer in our area, and as a full-time volunteer with our new church plant.
Learn about ordained minister study programs at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Officiant Minister Ordination
My name is Roger Paligutan. I am deeply blessed with the task that God will give me as I am looking forward to receiving this Officiant Minister Ordination.
I am 54 years old, a registered nurse by profession. I am married to my beautiful wife, also a registered nurse, Jocelyn Aljibe-Paligutan for 25 years. I am blessed with three children, Ivan Roger (25), Rogelyn Paligutan (21), and Gerlyn Joy (15).
I was born in the Philippines. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Commerce and in Nursing. A year after graduating in 1996, I migrated to the United States of America in 1997 through my mother’s petition. I was not saved yet when I came to the USA. I did not have any idea about having a “personal relationship” with Jesus Christ. All I knew was that I had so many gods. I used to worship graven images of various kinds and believed that going to heaven is through good works.
It was February 1998, when I was invited by a Filipino US Veteran to come with him to the church he attended on Sundays. On that first Sunday, I surrendered my life to Jesus and accepted Him as my Lord and Savior. That day I heard the verse Matthew 22:14, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (KJV). I believed that day I was one of those called and chosen. My spiritual life had changed and my walk with our Lord Jesus Christ began.
My very first prayer to God was for the salvation of my wife who was left in the Philippines with our children. In just a couple of months of praying, I called my wife and was excited to tell her about salvation and being a born-again Christian. Lo and behold, my wife told me that she had already accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior just a month before I shared my testimony with her.
For almost two decades of being with Christ, my daily walk with God through His Word has gradually changed my life spiritually. I feel the hunger for His Word every day. God has given me several pastors that guided me with the Bible. I was mentored by several of them and continue to study God’s Word and wait until God called me to serve Him.
My current pastor at the Assembly at Crawford, Pastor Daniel Esperanza, advised me to take a Bible course online to help equip me with the Word of God through an in-depth study of the Bible. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I ran into the website of Christian Leaders Institute (CLI), who offer Bible courses online for free. I read all the CLI courses and was amazed by their curriculum, and how it perfectly fits my needs.
I enrolled at CLI in the year of 2014. The courses I have completed equip me with knowledge about the Bible and being a Christian leader. Christian Leaders Institute provided me with the right training in every course I enrolled, and I will continue to pursue the advanced courses and training to be fully equipped with the knowledge about the Word of God. My officiant minister ordination is a step on this journey. Whatever God’s plan for me, He is making sure I am ready.
I am currently serving as a leader and member of the Pastoral Staff at the Assembly at Crawford under the leadership of our Head Pastor, Pastor Daniel Esperanza.
Learn about minister ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.