Teach Children about God
Julie Renee’ Johnston, United States of America
I was born and raised in the United States of America where one might believe that ministry is easy and open. However, I have seen and heard so much negativity toward Christians and our beliefs among neighbors and even some claiming to be Christians. There are a lot of differences on who and what God is and if we need him. Responses to news headlines daily mock prayer and those who ask for us to pray for our leaders. While many have heard God’s word here, it does not penetrate their hearts.
I first came to know the Lord as a young child. My parents took my sister, and I took the Baptist Church each Sunday when we were very small. Then when we were old enough to decide if we wanted to go my mother would take us, or we would ride the church van to attend. Jesus moved my heart when I was seven years old. I accepted him as my Lord and Savior and was baptized.
Throughout my life, I have always had plenty of questions about Christianity, the Bible, and God. There have been those who were able to answer some of my questions and others that dismissed them. I have not always been confident about asking questions as I felt if might seem as if I were questioning God himself, rather than trying to learn and understand. Working with both toddlers and elementary age children in my church, I want to be able to answer their questions, guide them in the scripture to help them better understand God’s word and help them to develop their personal walk with God.
I want to be able to answer their questions, guide them in the scripture to help them better understand God’s word and help them to develop their personal walk with God.
Having been through my share of crises both worldly and spiritually, I believe that I could also help women who have struggled and strayed from God at times. To let them know that they are not alone and God does accept them back when they return to him. There were times that I felt very judged when I returned to God’s calling and already had one child and one on the way with my now husband. I want to help ensure that anyone God brings into our church or my life feels accepted and that they have a place and a person to confide in.
Small Group Leader would be a title I would identify with most since I teach children about God in small classes, and I am most comfortable in a small group or one-on-one with people. Large crowds have never been exciting for me. In fact, when doing various activities growing up, I was always so anxious about having people look at me, even if I wasn’t speaking. God has often tried to move me in these uncomfortable situations, but I never felt confident enough to answer. Having grown in experience and my personal walk with God, today I am more confident in my ability to stand and speak. Now, expanding my knowledge thanks to Christian Leaders Institute will help me be more confident in speaking confidently about God’s word.
While I have always been drawn to a calling in ministry, my heart was moved to fully pursue it after my children were born. I knew that aside from trying to raise my children with love for God and His word, I wanted to help other children to learn of God’s greatness and mercy. The innocence and inquisitiveness of children’s minds make teaching them about the gospel so wonderful and rewarding. I love to see as they ask questions and sing about God’s love for them.
There is a church on practically every street corner here and that allows people the opportunity to find the church that is best for them. Every denomination and non-denomination are represented throughout the region, and of course, each believes it is the best and only way to find Jesus Christ and Heaven. People have been known to scoff at others because they do not share their specific, individual belief system. When people should be rejoicing for one another in finding their path to accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they are judging because it was not done ‘their way’ and is, therefore, wrong. We should be able to gather together as Christians and children of God and share in the delight of His grace instead of trying to pit each denomination against the next in attempts to get all the non-believers in our camp. I have found that often people who have an interest in learning about Jesus Christ and God are turned off of the pursuit because the ‘Christians’ they encountered were so negative toward others.
My church has been so supportive of my ministry calling by not only giving me a place to pursue it but giving me resources to expand my knowledge and mentors to answer questions or simply encourage me when I am unsure of myself or my ability. Even though I came into the church apart from God’s commandments, they saw in me the opportunity to grow myself and my family in Christ and the ability for me to share him with others. My mentors had encouraged me to participate and volunteer when I thought to have two young kids would make it impossible. They have loved me and prayed for me, that I might grow in Christ and do his work.
My family has been so impactful in my ministry calling since I didn’t now answer God’s call until after my children were born. My husband had never been to church until he started attending with me, and I want to be a good example to him of what a good Christian should be. Helping him to find God in his life is another reason I wanted to pursue ministry. Simply exposing him to God’s word each Sunday and Wednesday, and praying for him daily, I hope that through my calling I can help him to answer God’s call in his life as I gain knowledge and grow in my faith and walk with God.
Being an oilfield dependent household has strained our family financially, and we currently are just trying to survive paycheck to paycheck. A scholarship at Christian Leaders Institute would allow me the opportunity to pursue my calling to ministry and gain the knowledge necessary to adequately share God’s word with others. Without CLI I would have to continue trying to discern God’s word through my endeavors and understanding. Something that is possible to do, but would take much longer and leaves room for more mistakes and misunderstanding. A scholarship allows me the opportunity to get the necessary training and knowledge to adequately teach and minister to those who are in need of God’s word, His mercy, and grace.
We all need prayer, and prayer for my ministry calling is needed to help me stay the right path, listen to God always, and answer His calls. Prayer for God’s mercy and grace to help light my path and keep it straight is needed as I continue this journey to my calling and preparing myself to be the light for others to find Jesus Christ. Though there will be struggles along the way, as every person must encounter to grow, pray that I will be steadfast in God’s word and trust in Him always to provide me all I need to minister to others and bring them to God’s word so that they too may trust in Him.
Disaster Relief Chaplain
I am a mother of four children, whom I educate at home in the United States. I am privileged to be free to practice my religion, teach my children my faith, and pursue ministry as a woman.
Over twenty years ago, I was unsure about my future. After graduating high school, I began attending community college with the intention of determining a degree path. However, at that time in my life, I was experiencing a deep personal crisis and struggled with my courses. I decided to set higher education on hold for a time and reached a place where I was completely lost, wandering in the wilderness of the world. I found myself in many dysfunctional and painful situations as a result of sin. I put myself in positions to be seriously hurt by some individuals. I suffered the devastating effects of promiscuity, abandonment, adultery, divorce, drugs, abuse, suicide, crime, and mental breakdown. After reaching my lowest point, Christian counseling inspired me to seek the Lord. When I began to seek God, I slowly rose above the fog and started attending a loving church where I was led to Jesus Christ. I called Him Lord and Savior in the year 2000 and received such freedom and healing that I have never looked back.
Early in my Christian walk, it became clear that I was intended to be a wife, a mother, and a home educator–and that serving my husband and children are my most important ministries. As I grew in the Lord, I discovered a passion for worship, and have been blessed to serve in worship ministry in two churches. I also discovered a hunger for studying and researching the things of God–I developed a burning desire to understand the Scriptures more deeply and have spent much personal time educating myself through the Bible and other resources. As my knowledge has increased, a desire to share the Gospel with the lost more effectively and help others grow in Christ has blossomed in my heart and I have served as an online missionary with a global ministry. I have an ever-increasing love for God’s people and a deep compassion for those that are in the wilderness. I have an overwhelming desire to minister to those that are suffering, in crisis, or have experienced trauma. I have had opportunities come across the path of my daily life to support, counsel, and advocate for those that are confused, afraid, vulnerable, hurting and broken. After ministering to an elderly brother in Christ who was in an abusive living situation, and working with many authorities on his behalf, then walking through the end of life with my mother-in-law in hospice, I began to discern a ministry dream of chaplaincy. I have had this dream confirmed by God twice recently.
I have desired a Bible and ministry education for some time and have longed to go back to school. Two years ago, the Lord gave me permission to take online classes through a Bible college. Although I excelled, the pace was too intense for me while raising my children and the cost was too much for our one-income budget. God told me to set classes aside again for a time. I was initially grieved but obeyed in faith that He would use what I learned and further direct my steps. I believe that the Lord has told me I will need to be educated for the future ministry, so I have been praying for an affordable avenue to continue my education at my pace, in His timing.
A scholarship to study the Bible and ministry through Christian Leader’s Institute is an answer to this prayer. I have no other way to pursue an education at this time, so I am very excited and hopeful about this opportunity. I have the support of my pastors, one of whom serves as a disaster relief chaplain in our denomination. Since asking for their sponsorship, I have been given a leadership role at my church which I hope might lead to chaplaincy in my denomination. Please pray for me as I move forward, that I walk in God’s will for myself and my family, and that the Lord will eventually open the doors for me to minister with credibility in the world as He sees fit, to help others find freedom in Jesus!
Free Formal Ministry Training
The need for free formal ministry training is not being met by traditional seminaries. Many do not have the resources or time to do residential ministry training. Christian Leaders Institute recognizes the there is a need for free formal ministry training and we desire to make high-quality ministry training available. Graduates of CLI have shared their stories of how they found free formal ministry training at our website. Here is one such story.
My name is Sandra Roberts and I reside in the United States. Since my earliest childhood, I always had a desire for Jesus. At the age of seven, I would gather all my neighborhood friends in my room and preach to them the little I knew about Jesus and then I would teach them how to pray.
It wasn’t until I was sixteen, that I officially asked Jesus into my life. It was an unconventional event. (I had no Christian friends and no one that I can recall ever invited me to church.) A family member asked me if I wanted a small Gideon New Testament Bible they had received from someone at a community college. I said yes and read the Sinner’s Prayer in the back of the book. It so touched my heart as I received Jesus and wrote my name in the space provided.
It wasn’t until a few years later that I connected with other believers. This happened through a Bible Study during the noon hour at my place of employment. I was in awe when I attended the first study because the man teaching talked about the Bible as if he knew God personally. A few times after that, he asked me if I had ever been baptized. I told him as a baby and then he gently explained my need to do that again as an act of my will. So he arranged to baptize me on the following Saturday in a hot tub of one of the other Bible Study participants. After that, God led me to a church to connect in.
About a decade later, God told me to start a Bible Study at a the company I was working for. I hesitated much and ran from God’s calling to do that. It was due to the fact that I had never taught anything and had no . I had only attended the one Bible Study at my other job years before and in my church, it was small and there weren’t many Bible Studies going on. Any that did occur generally happened while I was a work. A year later, my unsaved boss, whom I never really shared anything deep with about God, out of the blue one day told me I should start a Bible Study there at work. I was incredulous because my first thought was why would she care? She wasn’t saved and she had no intentions of attending.
Thus, I started the study and long story short, it grew and people from all over the city began to attend. It then led me to an appointment to teach a Bible Study in my State Capitol for two years. The Minority Republican Senator’s Chief of Staff offered me the Senator’s office to conduct the Bible Study in. I was amazed and humbled God put me there because I did not advertise for it. A lobbyist went to the Capitol and sought the appointment and sponsorship.
In 2010, I retired from the secular and was called into full-time ministry. My husband and I planted a church in our area. Many of the people over the years from conducting a Bible Study in companies I had worked at were the ones who first populated our church.
Since leaving the secular, I have now authored three books – one for the legal field with a traditional publisher, and two self-published, a devotional and a children’s book for little girls 3 to 5 years of age. Even so, with all these happenings, my most important jobs are being a great wife to my husband and mother to my children. God has truly blessed me and there is so much more, but I will stop re this subject for now.
My ministry dream is to share the grace and promises of God in such a way that even the hardest of hearts will be compelled to hear more. My husband and I both identify as planters. We love to start ministries and then let others take the reigns. I was once called to be a Women’s Ministry Pastor at a new church plant. Within three months, I had engaged sixteen women as directors of sub-ministries. For a time, the women’s ministries was the core of the church until it grew. Afterwards, I stepped down to go off to plant something else.
I think the unique challenge in our geographic area is that there are a lot of churches, which can afford people an attitude of not wanting to commit. I have found many people church shop and hop because they can. It’s not uncommon to hear that a person attends more than one church on a regular basis. For example, we have people who only attend our evening services because they are “committed” to attending other churches’ morning services. It’s a challenge for support not only monetarily, but also for event planning and so forth.
A scholarship at CLI is very important to me. With leaving the secular to minister full-time, we rely upon and trust the Lord to provide for us, and sometimes there is only enough to keep the lights on so-to-speak. I have a great desire to continue learning and growing in my relationship with Christ. CLI has made this opportunity available to me, for which I am greatly appreciative!
I would love your prayers for helping us continue to do the work God has called us to.
Thank you CLI for all you are doing. You are a blessing!
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