My name is Hannah Plemmons. I live in the USA. Being involved in a ministry in the US is very easy compared to some places. In April of 2014, I began to struggle truly with my salvation. I had been raised in a Christian home, and I knew about the Bible and what it taught. I was driving home one day from dropping my brother off at work and a song came over the radio. The song immediately convicted me. I decided that I was going to go and talk to a friend of mine. I went to see him, but he wasn’t in. I decided that I would try the next day to reach his wife. Again the opportunity fell through. It was on a Wednesday night. I was in the second row of the church. I can’t remember what the pastor preached. All I could think of was if I died today where would I go. The moment church ended I sought out a woman in the church. We went into a room, and there I poured my heart out to God and He saved me.
My ministry dream is to serve with the youth. They are the next generation and they must know that there is something better than what the world can offer. I am a small group leader. I help lead a small group of young children in my church. They are such a blessing to work with. I decided to get some ministry training to help me better be able to lead. I had heard about CLI before and I decided to look at it. It was a good program with a good pace to work at.
Some of the things about the area that I am currently in. Is that people here are very religious but that is it. They truly don’t have a relationship with God. They think going to church on Sunday morning is enough. They use God when it is convenient for them.
My church is very helpful in supporting me. They have been such a blessing in helping to reach my goals. Through prayer and other means of help. My parents are also very helpful. They believe that I should follow what God has laid before me. I praise God everyday for them.
I scholarship at CLI will help me continue in the things that I want to do. Which is to reach the world with the gospel. Even if it is one child at a time. I would love for CLI to pray that I will have more opportunity to help children and to share the love God has for them.
Religious Renewal in Sweden
Religious Renewal in Sweden will not be easy. Less that 20 percent of Swedes even believe there is a God. In a Eurobarometer Poll in 2010, just 18% of Swedish citizens responded that “they believe there is a god”, although a further 45% answered that “they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force”.In a 2009 Gallup poll, 17% answered yes to the question “Is religion an important part of your daily life?”. Less than 4% of the Church of Sweden membership attends public worship during an average week; about 2% are regular attendees. Some scholars consider the nation to be a place where religion is regarded with “benign indifference”. See Wiki Article
If religious renewal in Sweden is going to happen, it will happen through leaders like Amanda Lindberg. Here is her story.
My name is Amanda Lindberg. I live in Sweden, a country with a long Lutheran tradition. The Swedish society has many great values, but it is written off as growing secularization. The number of people that believe in God has decreased and even though many young people today have some faith they see the church as conservative and stiff. Ministering in Sweden is about meeting the young at their places and to bring God to them. Churches are admirable buildings and a wonderful gathering point. However, God is present everywhere and so does his servants need to be. The large variety of religion in Sweden also makes that in different municipals different religions and variations might be dominating. In some villages the Roman Catholic Church might be dominant, in the suburbs it might be Islam.
The Lord is my Shepard, and so it has always been, I have always known God but though the years I have had the opportunity to get to know him even better. I have visited Synagogues, Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Mormon and more kinds of different sermons to see how his grace manifests and to learn more about how people worship hem.
My dream of ministry is a dream of service to the Lord. To be an instrument in spreading his grace throughout the community and the world. To be someone who shares the Lord’s strength with those who needs it. To be someone who can help the young avoid the temptation of sin. The spread of his word where they are needed. I am a servant of God foremost and most importantly. I am his child, and I minister his word to let his grace flow even more so that his guiding hand will be felt by more. I am a Reverend of the one true God. I revere him as our Lord and will spread that reverence.
Although the feeling of the calling to ministry always have been in my heart the key experience that lead me to it were after a failed suicide attempt. As I recovered I felt like I had been granted a new life and when I stood in the face of temptation of sin I felt it’s corrupting influence over my newfound spiritual redemption and I took the decision to renounce sin and dedicate myself fully to the work of the Lord. It will be a challenging mission to spread his word in a district full of social and cultural conflict. But as I stand fast in my faith the Lord will open new doors.
The Christian Leaders Institute makes this possible. I am already university educated and do a work that is important spiritually and morally. Through the CLI, I have the opportunity to get the education needed for being a bi-vocational minister. The CLI makes it possible for me to do more and through there model with distance learning over the internet I get a qualitative education that I can fit into my schedule without having to stop working and leave my job.
The CLI brings me one step further in service of God. Pray for his glory because it is great. Pray for those struggling with their faith and those going through hardship. Pray and praise the life he given you. Pray for strength and pray for life.
Religious renewal in Sweden may take some time, but God is raising up leaders to change this nation!
My name is Taylor Walton and I was born in the United States in Wichita, Kansas in 1997, but now reside in Denver, Colorado and have since 1998. I was raised in a home where my family wasn’t very spiritual and weren’t on their spiritual walk with God. I found my faith when I was fourteen years old after facing two years of depression and anxiety. My dream for the ministry is to become a Youth Leader or a Pastor. I never saw myself as the person to join the ministry but after facing my struggles and fight with the Devil through my early teen years I want to do everything I can to show people the Word of God and His love. I may face some problems in my walk in ministry in Denver though seeing as there are so many teenagers that are so convinced there is no God and as anyone knows, teenagers can be stubborn. My local church is the church that showed me ministry was my calling and they have supported me unknowingly lately by showing me what I can do if I start a church of my own. My family has also been an amazing support system for me with ministry. Receiving a scholarship from CLI is very important to my ministry dream for a few reasons. One of those reasons is that I want to start as soon as possible and with a scholarship I can. Another reason is that it would push me from giving 120% to giving 170% on my classwork. Please pray for my walk through ministry as I am going to need to stay focused, stay away from temptation as much as possible and not let anyone talk me out of my dream, thank you. God bless you all.