Allen Biddix’s ministry calling is in evangelism and pastoring, and after serving a sentence in prison himself, he felt called to start Pastoring To Prisoners. He enrolled at Christian Leaders Institute to fulfill his calling, and begin his ministry journey! Here is his story…
Pastoring To Prisoners – Allen’s Story
My name is Allen Biddix, and I currently live in South Carolina (USA). I first hear of the Lord while at the fair in 1998. A minister walked me through the sinner’s prayer, but at the age of 10 I didn’t understand what it meant. It wasn’t until I was 13 that I started attending church. During those days, I was mainly going to church to socialize with people my age. I was baptized Easter 2002 at the age of 14. At the age of 15, I was sent to a group home where I spent the next two and a half years of my life. While staying in the group home I began to have a feeling that I was being called by the Lord, so I began to study the Bible.
When I was 18, I was sent to prison due to my idiotic choices. While in prison the Lord showed me my calling. So I began to study more and this time the Lord began to open doors for me to minister to other prisoners. I spent sixteen and a half months locked up before I was released on probation for three years. Not long after my release I was locked up for two and a half years due to a violation of probation. This was when the Lord revealed the ministry He has called me to.
I mostly identify myself as both an evangelist and a pastor. I say, and evangelist because, in my younger years, I am called to minister to anyone or any church who wants to hear the Truth from God’s Word. Also, most of my ministry work will consist of prison, group homes, nursing homes, and orphanages outreach programs. I say a pastor because, in my older years, I feel called to settle down and shepherd a local church.
My ministry dream is to show the world that God loves them through simple gestures of kindness and to help them grow closer to God through His Word. I want to be a pillar for the Lord, speaking His Truth boldly even if it means I will be hated by the world. My pastor is my mentor, and he has been giving me opportunities to exercise the gift that the Lord has given me. My church has given me a position as an Adult Sunday School teacher. As for my family, my mom is a big supporter to my calling from the Lord.
It would be a great opportunity to have a scholarship at CLI because it will allow me to get some formal training and my ordination. I can’t afford to go to college because my past criminal troubles make it hard for me to get a decent job. What little bit of money I do make goes to paying my bills and I can’t afford to take on another bill that I know I wouldn’t be able to pay.
Please pray that the Lord will continue to enlighten me in His Word and that I will continue to speak boldly for the Lord as I strive to be a light unto this dying world.
Thanks for hearing my story.
Matthew Bell has been a High School teacher for four years and has been called to Ministry! He dreams of earning he Degree of Divinity, and he enrolled at Christian Leaders Institute to make his dreams a reality! Here is his story…
Degree of Divinity – Matthew’s Story
My name is Matthew Bell, and I live in the United States of America.
I wish to become an Internet Evangelist.
I was born and raised in Arizona (USA). My mother and father separated because my father was a heavy drinker. He never abused any of his children. In fact, I only have fond memories of my father from my childhood. Thankfully, he quit drinking when I started high school, and now we have a wonderful relationship. However, there was another thing that was missing from my childhood – God.
My entire high school experience was void of God. He was alien to me. But God knew me, and He was sending someone after me. When I graduated from high school, I was totally lost and without any plans or desires. I was lost. Then my uncle (Michael) came into my life and led me to Jesus. He sat down with me and showed me the Gospel of John. Then he walked me down the Roman’s road. He held up the Bible, and it showed me my reelection – I was a sinner. I had to repent.
Then he told me the greatest news I have ever heard in my entire life: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”
My uncle later baptized me.
Immediately I had a purpose in my life. I was saved, and I lived to serve the Kind of kings. I enrolled in Bible college and pursued youth ministry. I knew I wanted to serve the youth, I just didn’t know how. So I remained in the youth ministry program until I was required to take a teaching course. For the moment, I took that course everything became clear. I knew I was called to serve in public education as a high school teacher. I changed my major from youth ministry to secondary education with an emphasis in English. Later, I would graduate from Arizona Christian University as “The Most Outstanding Student in Education.”
I just finished my fourth year of teaching high school English. I got to serve not only the high school student but also the adult teachers surrounding me. At the same time, I continued to teach and serve the youth at my local church. I clearly see God’s providence in my life to call me into ministry in multiple fields: Public Education AND youth ministry.
Now I hear the call again. I feel led to deepening my understand of God by finishing my education in the field of Ministry. I long to go to seminary and graduate with a Masters in Divinity. I no longer want to teach students about Romeo and Juliet or The Odyssey. I long to teach God’s Word.
Teaching will always be a passion of mine, and (God willing) I wish to teach for the rest of my life. But God has also given me another wonderful gift – a family. I met my wife a year after being saved. She is the greatest woman I have ever met. She is loving and brilliant. Since we’ve been married, I have witnessed her do incredible things: she has served as a police officer for over five years, and now she is a nurse in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). But above all, I witnessed her give birth to three wonderful children.
I am not only a husband; I am a father too. And God has changed my passion once again. I have an incredible passion for evangelism. My goal is to become an Internet Evangelist. I want to evangelize to the common man. I average American that spends there time scrolling through Twitter and Facebook looking for something. I want to show them that what they are looking for is God. What they need is not another “Like” on their social media, but a Savior.
I want to create sharable, one-minute videos that proclaim to Gospel! I want to engage people exactly where they spend most of their time – on their phones. I don’t only want to evangelize to youth. I want to speak to fathers and mothers too. I want the entire family.
I will call this evangelism platform – American Christian
Your support and prayers in this endeavor would mean so much to me and my family. Please help me with this call of Evangelism.
CLI graduate David Murphy enrolled at Chrisitan Leaders Institute for the free online training that fit with his schedule. He sought a deeper understanding and education in ministry and utilized CLI’s Free Successful Ordination Training and Certification to accomplish his dreams in ministry. Here is his story…
Free Successful Ordination Training and Certification – David’s Story
Hi, my name is David Murphy. The Lord has blessed me with my beautiful wife Jane and three children. We now have five grandsons that help to keep us active. My wife and I live just outside of a small village, Adams, New York, USA were I was raised.
As a youth, I went to church mostly Sunday school but stayed for some services. My parents did not often go and having only one brother that was older I found myself the only one of the family in church. So by the beginning of my teens I stopped going. Found myself dismayed with what I call church politics so saw no need in going. I did get married in a church but still saw little reason to attend even after starting a family of my own.
Then one day I had a great tragedy enters my life and please forgive me because I do not feel that this is the place to give details of this event, it almost caused me to lose my life. It seems that it is at these times in life that Jesus shows up. After a long time of wrestling with Jesus I finally returned to church where in my late thirties I received Jesus as my savoir and lord. Being baptized not long after there were many powerful experiences in my life. Two to three years into my walk I had this great feeling that I needed and wanted to enter ministry in ways that I had not experienced before. Also at the same time my wife and I found ourselves with the feeling that we should home school our children. This turned out to be a good choice for us and have watched as our youngest now has a bachelors degree.
Through the course of time I have done different courses of study and even have been licensed by a local church I still found myself feeling the lack of a credible teaching. I have continued to preach and do bible studies because of the love for and of God and his word as well as a love He has put in my heart for people. Sometimes it can be hard to minister in the area you grew up in because of the people that have known you through the years. I am sure you know the type that I am talking about. Those who look at you and say your religious or ask when did you get religion but on the other side you also have those that tell you what a blessing you are. These people are the ones that help keep you going in the Lord. As for the region it self you find many things that make it good and bad well trying to serve the Lord. One of the good things is this is where God set a man named Charles Phinny into ministry as well as others like the founder of Woolworth Department Stores and Melville Dewy that started the Dewy Decimal system. While men like Charles Phinny were used to bring a great move of God to the area and beyond it also makes the area a target of the enemy. Witchcraft in different forms can be found strong here too.
This brings me to the part that Christine Leaders Institute comes into my life. As I was seeking the Lord for direction on ministry and how he might use me more and or better I saw an add for CLI. After checking it out I saved the site and started to pray about it. Now in my to often usual way I did nothing about it for months. Finally one day going through my favorites setting that I saved I came to CLI and decided to look it over again. I was a little unsure about signing up to take classes but very glad I did. CLI has strengthen my foundation in the Lord as well as the many things that I have learned through the courses. Some of the things that I was learning I was not so sure how important they were but as I completed each course I could how they came together for a better understanding. The bigger picture if you will.
With the CLI ordination I look forward to more openings in ministry and even returning as a trained pastor to a congregation that God would have prepared me for. As an ordained leader I believe that I would have others enroll in Christine Leaders Institute for the foundation of there training. This was a good experience for me. Please pray that I will more obedient and go where God wants me.
Thank you CLI and God bless.