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.
Ministry Vision
My name is Joseph DeClemente and I have a ministry vision for my life. I live on Long Island, New York. Ministry here is very different than other parts of the United States. What is successful in the southern parts or western parts of our country, probably won’t work here. People here are not only very leery of change but if they do not like the direction the ministry is taking, they are not afraid to let you know.
My ministry vision story begins in 1984 while attending Northern Frontier Camp in upstate New York. Even though I had heard the Gospel over and over, I never felt the need to respond. In August of 1984, at a campfire, I responded to the call of Jesus Christ. Tears flowed down my face. Even though I was young, I could feel this sense of overwhelming joy and peace. The excitement of this new life continued even after I left the camp and returned home.
Unfortunately, this did not last as I went into my teenage years. Those years were years of anger and hatred. I was angry at God for taking my grandfather and I hated life with a passion. For three years, my life was an up and down turmoil of emotion, angry this day, hated life the next. In 1990, my father encouraged me to go on a missions trip to Haiti with our church. I fought and fought but decided to put God to the test. I prayed that evening and told God that if He wanted me to go to Haiti, He would have to provide everything. Within a few weeks of that prayer, I was notified that all was paid for. I kept to that commitment and went to Haiti. It was that trip that changed my life forever.
During my time in Haiti, God revealed to me that life isn’t what TV makes it out to be. It is much greater than any of us can understand. I watched as people who were freed from witchcraft were consumed with the love of Jesus Christ and shared that with everyone they met. It was that experience that led me to return to my ministry vision, to a life of service to Jesus Christ.
My calling to enter ministry is multilayered. I wanted to be a pastor in my early 20s but was unwilling to give up everything to get the education I needed. So, I entered the secular workforce but continued to serve in my home church, now called Living Hope Christian Church in Bellerose, New York. Over the years, many pastors and people have told me to go into full-time ministry, however, due to family circumstances (the need to support a wife and 3 kids), I have been unable to do so. In addition, I still did not have the education necessary in the United States.
Over the last number of years, I have served as a teacher, sound crew chair, Trustee and Elder in my church. Within the last year, my Pastor has encouraged me to preach not only at our home church but at churches whenever needed. He connected me with a church on Long Island that desperately needed sound doctrine. This experience allowed me to hone some very valuable skills and learn about the struggles that pastors go through on a daily basis.
It was also through this experience that I began to understand that ministry in church does not supersede ministry in the home. I stepped away from preaching at that church due to not spending enough time with my family. I continue to preach whenever possible, but my focus has been directed to those God has entrusted me with caring for, my wife and 3 sons.
This opening class at Christian Leaders Institute has solidified my understanding of the importance of home ministry before public ministry. It has renewed my desire to continue my education even if it means working and preaching for the rest of my earthly life. I was impressed with the scholarship opportunity because I cannot afford to go to college. I had been seeking various online schools, but all of them were completely out of reach. It was only the Christian Leaders Institute that was within my current financial budget, free.
My personal ministry vision is to get my degree and use the education for the benefit of others who desperately need to know about the saving grace of Jesus Christ. My desire is to one day be able to retire from full-time “secular” work and enter the ministry full-time. Please pray for my family and me as this education does take time and some minor resources. Please pray for strength for my wife and patience when dealing with me. Please pray that my children see whom I am doing this for, our God and Father in heaven. Please pray that I am given more and more opportunities to share the Gospel with others and that others may see Jesus in us.
Learn more about minister ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.