My Name is Eric; I live in Worcester, MA where I attend Next Level Church with my wife and three daughters. I grew up as a pastor’s kid in a non-denominational church in the north suburbs of Chicago. Truthfully, I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth—spiritually speaking. My parents are mature believers, my father an accomplished pastor, and I have a strong family line of generational blessings and ministry. Though I grew up always knowing and loving the Lord, the idea of cheap grace and my own personal insecurities kept me from living a godly life. In college, I came face to face with James 2:14 and was forced to take a deeper look at my commitment and my life. I couldn’t reconcile “faith without works is dead” and the manner in which I was living.
I had a heart for ministry and often believed I was going to be a pastor—even dreamt of working with my dad someday. Then, life happened. It was numerous twists and turns that caused me to end up where I am now. A new elder board unfairly let my dad go and I became jaded to the idea of professional ministry. I graduated college with a degree in education and started working with my brother at a gymnastics gym where I have been for the past 11 years. During that period to the present, I’ve served in lay ministry at my church, always feeling a pull towards leadership and ministry, but also thriving at my job.
I have been in church leadership as far back as I can remember, starting with peer small groups in Sunday School classes as a kid. As I’ve grown in leadership, I started to see the most fruit coming from the discipleship relationships in my life. This has been supported and encouraged greatly by my church’s leadership. Multiple pastors have made time to meet with, poured into, and discipled me in many ways. Though my walk over the past decade has ebbed and flowed, there has always been a desire, a hunger, and a giftedness to teach and lead. After recently hitting one of those points where God had to hand me over to my sin in order for me to turn fully to Him, I’m finally feeling more ready to take my gifts in ministry and leadership to the next level. That’s where Christian Leaders Institute comes in.
I know there is a call on my life for ministry; I’m just not sure in what capacity or what doors God will open in my life. But, I want to be sure that when He does open doors, I’m prepared and ready to walk through them. With my wife in graduate school and my life busy with three young kids, I needed a program that wouldn’t be too demanding or costly. I wanted to wade into my continued education, leery of making a time or financial commitment I couldn’t live up to. I quickly fell in love with the Christian Leaders Institute. It was a perfect fit for my life! I often woke up earlier in the morning so I could fit in extra reading before work. I often jumped out of the course texts to do additional studying or research on a topic at interested me. Not only has this matured me as a Christian leader, but many of the courses have helped develop me as a manager on the job.
I’m not getting this ordination to meet a specific requirement or get a job. Instead, I see it as preparation for any ministry God calls me to. Right now that means small group leadership and children’s Sunday School at my church, but who knows where it may lead. My focus is equipping and preparing myself so that whatever opportunity God brings me, lack of training or an ordination will not be an issue.
Thinking about the questions “what it is like to do ministry in this country,” and “what are some unique challenges in your geographic area”, the same issues come to mind—comfort, prosperity, and laziness. I think it’s relatively easy to do ministry in the United States because of our freedom and resources. However, it is difficult to be fruitful because there is little “good soil” for the seed to take hold and for its roots to go deep. I’m a firm believer that conflict and challenge are tools to grow, strengthen, and spur us forward. In America, it seems like we’re too comfortable to even consider that. It reminds me of Homer’s Odyssey when they land on the island of the Lotus Eaters. There is so much comfort and ease, they forget their mission and continually put it off until years slipped away. That’s what ministry is like in America. It’s so comfortable and easy that spiritual disciplines aren’t disciplines at all. The Gospel is put off or approached haphazardly, resulting in weak or false converts. There is also a strong sense of intellectualism and being too smart for God. Liberal beliefs are incubated at the universities and then spread. Everything is subjective. The only wrong is to tell someone they are wrong, and though the value of love for others is high, it’s completely void of truth. Not only is everyone too smart for God, but no one thinks they need Him.
Your free ministry training has given me preparation that I otherwise would have put off or maybe not even pursued. It’s helped me fill in gaps in my knowledge and theology. As I continue to serve in multiple capacities, I haven’t really focused on a single ministry. I have learned the importance of and tried to incorporate discipleship into all of my ministries. I think too often we see discipleship as a ministry that is done instead of other ministries, which is a big mistake. Discipleship is key in each of my ministries as I work on growing up and multiplying other leaders beneath and alongside me. If I’m teaching a life group, I’m also raising up a co-leader to eventually lead his own group. If I’m teaching children’s Sunday School, I’m raising up kids who can assist/co-lead while growing my assistant into a leader.
Over all, my ministries aren’t focused solely on leading, but on growing up and multiplying leaders. I would appreciate prayer in that venture and as I work to find where God is calling me. Though I would say that I mostly identify myself right now as an “Equipping and Training Leadership” style of pastor/leader, I’m just not sure what that’s going to looks like specifically. As this stage of preparation and training draws to a close, I’m anxious to see where He will lead me next.
Don’t Let the Lack of Formal Bible Education Stop You
My name is Courtney Johnson. I live in the United States of America. I accepted Jesus Christ, as my Lord and Savior, in a small South Texas church when I was 12 years old and was baptized in water that same year. I was filled with the Holy Spirit, one year later, during a home Bible study.
I am married to Travis Johnson, and we have six children. Travis and I work in prison. I am a Correctional Officer, and he is a Maintenance Tech. Our current mission field is difficult but rewarding. There is a hunger for God within the prison walls.
Travis and I have had a burning desire to be in full-time ministry for many years. We enjoyed working with a homeless ministry for several years. We provided a sermon, singing, a hot meal, clothing, blankets and love to the unlovely. We also taught a home Bible study group for over a year. We had very little help financially so we lived on very little so that we could do more for Christ. We believe that church planting and evangelism are our callings.
It is becoming harder to preach the gospel in a nation that is convinced that sin is acceptable. There is a church on every corner, yet our prisons are full. The homeless and veterans sit under our overpasses, and our youth are at night clubs while unrepentant people sit in church pews drinking coffee while they listen to sermons that fail to convict them because the pastor is more concerned with the head count and tithes than he is about lost souls.
We feel God calling us to do more. Our lack of formal Bible education has prevented us from qualifying for positions we would love to have in the ministry. The education we will receive through Christian Leaders Institute will open doors we never thought possible.
The combination of having a large family and the slump in the economy has made it impossible for either of us to quit our jobs so that we could go back to school. The scholarship CLI offers truly an answer to prayer.
We just want to be doing exactly what God created us to do. Please pray that we will have wisdom, boldness, faith and that we will hear God clearly.
Online Ordination Training
My name is Tony Wetmore. I’m a believer and follower of Jesus Christ. I live in a small resort town in the mountains of Southern California, in the United States of America. Yet, within a two-hour commute from this small community by car is a harvest field of about 22.68 million people!
I came to the Lord at YMCA camp when I was 12, and participated in youth groups during my high school years. I fell away from the Lord shortly after graduation, and spent a decade in the “world,” before returning to Him and becoming born again.
I’m married to a wonderful wife. We’ve been happily married nearly 30 years and have three children. My youngest, Joshua, is a youth leader and worship team leader at our church.
For the past 25 years, I’ve served as a ministry leader in programs ranging from youth and men’s ministry to those aimed at serving the homeless and those in prison. Throughout it all, music and worship leading have been an integral part of my service. I currently serve as the worship leader for my church, Selah Christian Fellowship, in Crestline, Calif. I’m also blessed to preach the message periodically at Selah as well as preaching and sharing the gospel on the street and in a local prison.
I work as a first responder/emergency medical technician for a 9-1-1 emergency ambulance service in Riverside County, where I am able to pray over, and with, my patients in times of crisis and need.
Here in the United States, in every city, in every small town, I have to ask the question: Are we becoming a post-Christian nation like much of Europe? Will my church one day be turned into a museum, where tours of people come through to see how the 21st century Christians in my town used to worship the Lord? Will there be dusty sheet music on rusty music stands with Chris Tomlin and Michael Tait music on it, with song titles such as “God’s Not Dead, He’s Truly Alive” yellowing and decaying?
We are in a spiritual decline here in America. Many Christian denominations are diluting the true Word of God, and making changes to the very Word itself. I am praying that there will be a Great Awakening in the early 21st century to revive the awakenings and enlightenment of the past, here in America, and around the world. But what will that look like? How will it come about? Who or what will be the catalyst? I pray that Christian Leaders Institute will have a great hand in God’s will and work for the future, and help to fulfill the Great Commission written in Matthew 28:18-20: “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”
My ministry dreams have begun to be realized, as our nonprofit, Domestic Missionaries, Inc., is now officially a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. I am the pastor and executive director, and my wife is assistant director. Under Domestic Missionaries, we are able to minister to the homeless, needy, and low-income people on the streets of San Bernardino. We set up “church service” on the street, and play worship music, read scripture, take prayer requests, pray for, and with people, give them a relevant message of hope, and distribute food cards, hygiene kits, first aid kits, clothes, jackets, shoes, socks, blankets and Gideon Bibles. We also share with them the love of Jesus Christ and His gift of salvation. We remind them that the material gifts we give—water, food cards, hygiene kits, etc.—are only temporary. That the real food—the eternal Bread of Life, the very Word of God—is what lasts forever.
At Pilot Rock Prison Camp, we do the same: worship, Word, prayer, fellowship, message, and love, plus the gift of bibles, devotionals and snacks.
Christian Leaders Institute has given me not only the knowledge, and a deeper understanding, of what it means to be a follower of Christ in the modern world, but also has taught me to become a true pastor and shepherd to people in need of salvation, in need of Jesus. Matthew 25:31-40 tells us to tell ALL people—those who are lost, hurting, abused, hungry, imprisoned and even those who think they don’t need Him —about the love and saving grace that can only come through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We need to help them turn from the earthly bread, water and empty promises of this world to the Bread of Life, Living Water and eternal promises of the One who loves them so much that He died to save them.
People ask me: Is revival coming? I say, “Hold on to your bootstraps. His kingdom will come, His will shall be done, on earth as it is in heaven!” (Matthew 6:10)
Christian Leaders Institute has given me the depth and education to move forward in ministry. It has been a blessing to me and many others around the world. I would never have had the time or money to complete seminary if it had not been for CLI! I can trust that my monthly donations will go forward to help train others seeking a higher Godly education, accredited and recognized locally and around the world.
My ordination ceremony was on Saturday, October 15, 2016, with my mentors, pastors and peers, at my side. As reverent and joyous as my wedding vows taken years before, it represented my deepening commitment to our Savior and a conscious step into a new level of service and ministry as I humbly take on the duties and title of “pastor.” My life will never be the same. Praise the Lord!