Online Pastor Training
Join today and receive a scholarship towards pursuing Online Pastor Training and being a part of the spread of the Christian revival. Christian Leaders Institute (CLI) offers the ability to earn a scholarship for high-quality online ministry training. CLI accepts any individual, anywhere in their life to learn about Christianity. Read a student’s testimony below who found CLI and is using the scholarship for pursuing pastoral training.
My name is Diana Elston. I live in the United States. I am the Senior Pastor of Word In Seasons Ministry Family and Life Center and Founder of Glory Productions, an avenue by which the Gospel is orated in the form of skits and stage plays. I was born in Hammond, Indiana and at the age of 13, I found myself captivated by the word of God. I grew up in a non-Christian home, and going to church was something as children we did only on certain holidays. But my mother had this extra-large Bible that she would keep open on the table to the 23rd Psalms. I would read it, but little did I know God was planting seeds that would one day help give birth to ministry. I excepted the Lord at the age of 21 but prior to my surrender life was difficult and I found myself going down the wrong road. Now, every chance I get, I share my testimony with as many young people as I can. I became involved in ministry serving, as an usher in the house of the Lord, from there I served in the mission ministry helping homeless and those in need. To this day, I strongly believe in being a servant leader.
After moving from Atlanta, Georgia to Virginia the vision that the Lord showed me regarding the ministry was birth in my home in 2005. I believe the Word of God is the foundation that we should build everything on. It has the power through the workings of the Holy Spirit to transform lives. That is the reasoning behind the name of our church. As an outreach ministry, I desire to serve not only those that are within but those that are without. The Bible says, “And Jesus went about doing good.” I believe we should do the same. As time progressed I felt the need to work full time in the ministry, but the type of work I did would not allow me the time I needed to do so. Refusing to take a salary from the ministry, but yet wanting to support the ministry financially, I took another leap of faith and started my own childcare in my home called, “Created Minds Christian Home Child Care”.
I’ve been married for 16 years to my husband Anthony, who has been my greatest supporter in life and ministry. I love spending quality time with my family. I have two daughters with wonderful son in-law’s, seven grandchildren and one great-grand.
In every generation, God has raised up individual for the purpose of sharing the Gospel of the Kingdom. This generation is no different, I believe that this generation will usher in revival on a level of which we’ve never seen. It is our responsibility to equip them with everything they need. God has blessed me to have a church that is 75% youth. I was told by some pastor’s that I couldn’t grow my church with the youth. They were looking at it from a monetary standpoint. But I’m looking at it from a spiritual standpoint, God in which is the supplier of it all. Therefore, I invest heavily in my youth. I see myself as the Moses generation which must raise up Joshua to take the people over into the Promise Land. I don’t have much, but what I have I freely give to the ministry in which God has called me to that include future leaders. I will take the teaching I’ve learned from Christian Leaders Institute to help them and anyone that needs help fulfilling their purpose in God.
Even though I am a pastor I’ve had no formal seminary training. I know I will greatly benefit from CLI’s online pastor training. In my early years as a minister I was taught the word in various classes I took on my own. I remember praying and fasting asking God for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of His word and He has done so. Still, because of my passion for the word, I pursued any other training I could, which included reading a countless amount of book and commentaries. My favorite authors are Watchmen Nee, Dr. J. Vernon McGee and Pastor David Jeremiah.
When we started the ministry, it was a great financial price we had to pay with no outside help, and we willingly did so, but it impeded my ability financially to attend Seminary. Even though I’ve studied for years in the word, outside of my scope of ministerial associates, I’m not looked upon as creditable because I have no formal training. And as I stated earlier I have a young congregation with young ministers that I want to be an example to in every area of my life. Obtaining my degree at Christian Leaders Institute through the online pastor training, will help me further my learning, help others and satisfy a longing I’ve had for years, which up until now seem financially out of reach.
Check out more stories about CLI students pursuing online pastor training education and becoming leaders in Christian ministry on the CLI Facebook page
Ministry Training Quest
My name is Stephanie Atkins, I am 41 years old and I am on a ministry training quest. I reside in the United States in rural Kentucky with my husband John. My parents divorced when I was five years old and my single dad acquired custody of me and we moved in with my grandparents. My mother chose Florida and I didn’t see her again till I was 10 years old. My daddy saw to it that I went to church every Sunday as a child even though he didn’t go with me. I walked to the altar of Crestwood Baptist Church when I was 11 years old as the church sang the chorus, “I have decided to follow Jesus.” I somehow knew the rollercoaster that was about to become my life was going to take the first of many tragic turns. If I was going to have any hope of making it, I needed the saving grace of the Almighty.
First, I lost my paternal grandfather when I was only 12 and I was in the house when they found him two days after Thanksgiving in 1989. I married when I was in high school at 17 when my mother came back from Florida and decided to make me marry. I did but we lost our beautiful little angel girl, Aleen Nicole, in the beginning of my fifth month. After the loss of my child, my husband became abusive physically, mentally and every other way imaginable until I had no choice but to die at his hand or leave. In the year 2000, my father suddenly died in June. Two months after the death of my father, we found out my mother was terminally ill with bone, lung and kidney cancer. In November, my 92-year-old grandmother that raised me after the divorce went to be with Jesus, and in January of 2001 only two months after her passing, my mother lost her battle with cancer. Before she left this earth, however, I got to hear her say the sinner’s prayer and was saved on her death bed. I lost all of my family in a matter of 7 months time, and I felt lost. Little did I realize that their poor life choices took them from me, and God had different plans for a ministry training quest in my life.
My ministry dream, and what fuels my ministry training quest, is to help as many suffering souls as possible. The bereaved, down trodden, grief struck, and also those who are happy and have found God’s abundance in the form of the love of their life. I desire to preserve the sanctity of marriage the way God created it. I want to hold hands with those who are lost in the vast abyss of the great gulf of grief. By sharing my faith and testimony, maybe God will entrust me to lead a precious soul to the knowledge and peace of a loving, comforting, forgiving God.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the getting started class here at CLI as I pursue my ministry training quest. It has opened my eyes to the spiritual vision, dreams and walks of others in ministry. I would venture to say small groups are my forte for ministry. I like being able to give as much individualized, spiritually grounded attention as possible to those in need. My recent wedding was a defining moment of “I want to perform weddings and funerals.” I want to provide sound Godly counsel and give couples a straight path based on the Word of God on which to plant their married feet.
While encouragers and mentors for my ministry training quest are few, I do have the support of Jesus and an amazing husband who is 31 years my senior. This scholarship couldn’t have come at a better time. Now I can do God’s will and purpose for my life with the proper education in my ministry training quest. I feel like I might finally be able to make a difference in this world for Christ. Please pray that God will give me the words to speak to those who struggle so that God is glorified. I have recently started a grief support group in my area. All of this for God’s Glory that He be ultimately magnified and exalted.
Check out Christian Leaders Alliance to learn more about Ministry Ordination.
Ministry Dream Journey
My name is Josh McMillen. I live with my wife, son, and daughter in Missouri, in the United States. Right now, I am the youth leader in my church. I have been given a ministry dream journey as I am called to be a pastor. At 15 years old, I attended a play called “Heaven’s Gates, Hell’s Flames”. I went several times, but the last time was one I will always remember. I felt the Holy Spirit call me to the front and I prayed that my heart would be opened to Him. I got off the path as I got older, but my family helped me to return to church. They have since encouraged me in this ministry dream journey toward leading a ministry and encouraged me as I received my calling.
Although my ministry dream journey has been full of positives, some challenges we face are getting youth to and from church, bringing family members to church, and getting some family members to accept my calling. It is God’s calling to pursue the ministry and the ones who know about it have been nothing but supportive and encouraging. Only a few in my church know right now, but the ones who do know have encouraged me to speak more in front of the church and they respect me as a leader in general. I started as a youth leader, where I am now, and can’t wait to continue on this ministry dream journey toward becoming a full pastor. As far as my youth group goes, they are like sponges and take what I teach and use it in real-world experiences. I am excited to see that they use Jesus Christ as their leader in everyday life and witness to others through him.
With the help of these classes, following with the assignments has helped me to follow a plan in my Bible. It helps me further my knowledge in those areas as well as studying in other chapters and gaining insight. These classes have helped me develop my ministry dream which would be to one day become a pastor at a church and be able to share the Lord Jesus with the lost people I come across. It is also my dream to help people further their knowledge of the Lord and the Bible and to help them fulfill their mission for God. The financial help from the scholarship available would be a blessing for my family to pursue this dream and allow me to further my knowledge in the areas I lack. I welcome any and all prayers for my ministry dream journey from here on out, including prayers for strength and guidance through the Lord to lead me along the path He wants me to be on. I pray the same for all of you as you pursue your ministry dream journey.
Check out Minister Ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.