Ordained Church Pastor

My name is Marie and I hear God’s call to be an ordained church pastor. Born in the United States to a couple from a rural farming community in Georgia, my parents were praising God when I was born. You see, my mother had five miscarriages before I was conceived and many physicians told my mother that she would never bear any children to term (due to ABO incompatibility with my dad). When she became pregnant with me, her family doctor thought I was a tumor! He wanted to schedule my mother for a dilatation and curettage (D & C) to remove the tumor. My mother said to him in faith, “I do not have a tumor; I have a condition that nine months usually cures. Seven months later, I was born and ten months after that, my brother was born in the same year; the only two children our parents bore to term and both living miracles.

My parents were Christians who trusted in God and raised us in the faith and in the church. I cannot remember a time that I did not know about the Lord. As a child, I accepted the Lord into my heart and remember the day I was baptized at the age of 7 in a small church. My childhood consisted of weekly church visits, daily prayers, and lots of child’s play. My parents owned a country store and I vividly recall playing church with my four cousins and brother. I was the pastor and even took up an offering. My mother had me give back the “offering” because that was my cousins’ money to spend at the country store my parents own (soft drinks and candy bars were a quarter for both back then!). Fundraising for the church was also important then and my mother and I would rise early in the morning to arrive at the Krispy Kreme Donut Shop an hour’s drive away to fill our car with donuts to sell from town to town. I loved that experience and our little church soon had a parsonage! My childhood was a living testimony of miracles and faith in action. God was preparing me for the future.

The call to ministry as an ordained church pastor happened over a twenty-year period. No longer a child, my childhood memories of playing the preacher and collecting an offering were now fond memories. After marrying young, bearing four children, and, later watching nurses care for my dying aunt and mother, I felt led to go to nursing school. While in the final semester’s clinical experience, I was assigned to a busy medical-surgical unit. Nearing lunchtime, a nurse’s assistant invited me to eat in the break room with her. She was a fellow Christian, full of faith, and began prophesying over my life. She said I would have a fifth child, obtain further degrees, and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I received the prophesy gladly. My fifth child’s name is Brandon, he has a diagnosis of Down Syndrome and is now eighteen years old. I have a Master’s degree in nursing. And through the ministry training at Christian Leaders Institute, I will reach my call to be an ordained church pastor.

My ministry dream is to complete all the work that the Father of our Lord Jesus has for me to do. The Father wrote a book about me in Heaven; He wrote about me before He ever sent me to this earth, as He does for all of His children. This book includes that I will pastor a church soon. The training at Christian Leaders Institute (CLI ) will help me on this journey.
The CLI Bachelor of Divinity (BDiv) degree will provide valuable training to assist me on the journey to becoming an ordained church pastor. The CLI philosophy of online training and local mentorship is ideal because it mirrors that of the early church. The BDiv degree specifically provides courses in theology, church history, and Biblical interpretation, including hermeneutics and exegesis. Additionally, proclamation courses and practical electives are offered to assist with effective sermon delivery. Armed with a good local mentor and the knowledge provided by the BDiv degree from CLI, I have faith that the proper foundation for pastorship will have been laid. My miracle life belongs to the Trinity! Keep me in your prayers!

Learn about Minister Ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.