Hello, my name is Cynthia Jacobs. I live in HopeMills, North Carolina, USA. I was blessed to be raised with church, however, please don’t mistake that for automatically having a relationship with Christ. Having knowledge of Christ and having a relationship with Christ is very different. I longed to have the relationship I saw others have at church, but I didn’t know how to get there. I thought the more I learned the closer I would become to being able to feel some sort of actual relationship with Christ. Don’t get me wrong, knowledge is a powerful tool but I was still feeling lonely and lost.
I came to know of the Lord at a very young age, but didn’t fully understand what a relationship with Christ was all about until my late 20’s. I turned down many wrong roads looking for what I thought I needed. After making many less than desirable decisions I began to feel guilty and ran. It’s amazing how you can be completely surrounded by people buy still feel very alone. Long story short, I was in the pit of loneliness and decided to look up to the Lord. When you are at rock bottom you are at the best place to look up and see the light of the Lord. I decided that I needed to take the knowledge I had learned so many years ago and apply it to my life. It was hard but it was the only thing that seemed to work. I had a lot of relationships to fix. One of the most important of which was the relationship with my children. I wanted them to know the Lord and his love and have their personal relationship with Christ.
I have now been back in the arms of Christ for about 7 years now. It is by far the greatest place to be. I love to help others that struggle with things like what I have been through. I want more than anything to help others during their suffering. To help them see feel and understand the meaning of a relationship with Christ and the Joy of the Lord that is my strength.
My Grandpa is who prompted me the most to do ministry. He always taught me the importance of helping others. My Grandfather was a missionary to Haiti. It brought him great joy to serve those people. I loved to see his happiness in doing this. I too want to experience this joy.
I identify most with evangelist. I want to help people see that they don’t have to give up! I believe God has given me the gift of encouraging others and I want to use that gift to the fullest. I want to work with young people. My local church encourages me in many ways. We help in our community as much as we can. My church is actually the one who told me about Christian Leaders Institute.
My ministry dream would be to travel to different places encouraging people not to give up. Telling them that there is nothing that can separate them from the Love of the Lord. I walked into a drug rehabilitation center recently and felt nothing but sorrow and darkness. It was full of people that didn’t know that Jesus would love them just as they were. I believe drug abuse is becoming an epidemic and while I do believe we need to spread the gospel all over the world we also need to spread it to those who may know it but feel like they don’t deserve it. I have seen over the last year a great need for the young people of America.
I have a wonderful family that consists of my husband, my greatest supporter, and my three children. We are all walking this out together and learning new ways to help others in their relationship with Christ. As I grow in the Lord I find that helping people makes me feel good. It makes me excited to lead people to the Lord. I want to continue to grow in that. I believe my family plays an important role in my ministry as they are a part of my testimony. They are a huge part of the encouraging story that God wants me to share.
I will go where God wants me to go. Challenges in my area would probably consist of ways to set the stage for people to hear the Word. A scholarship to CLI would help me because there really isn’t a big Christian school close to my home that is affordable. I want to be home with my 3 teenagers as I feel this is an important time for me to be home helping them become good adults and learning their relationship with Christ.
Please pray for God to soften hearts of people to hear his word. Pray upon hearing his word that they would feel an abundance of Love so they will keep coming back for more. Pray for God to open doors for His Word to be shared to those that need it in my area.
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Jesus…the Ultimate Minister of the Gospel
We can learn a lot from observing Jesus and how he was a minister of the gospel. He spread the Good News of God’s salvation to many. Some regarded him as the true Messiah while others laughed and scorned him. With many examples given in the New Testament on how to be a minister of the gospel, we are enlightened to how we should respond in a Christian way to others who accept Jesus and those who do not. The Lord has been a great encouragement in strength knowing we are never alone, He is our faithful witness. Spread the gospel! Become a minister of the gospel to share Truth with the world!
Called to be a Minister of the Gospel
My name is Vernit S. Holder living in Boland, South Africa. I am a 49 year old Cartoonist & Sign-maker by trade (which is my income job) and a Minister of the Gospel at every opportunity. I am a Spirit filled, Messianic Believer of the Scriptures.
In South Africa it is quite a daunting task to share the simple Good News of the Salvation of God through Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ).
We have many traditional churches and smaller non-denominational churches and groups that have a different agenda than just the Gospel. Some want to make money out of very poor people, some want lots of congregants to give them better status. The religious authorities are very opposed to gospel workers, as they think we are going to take their people away from them. It is not true. Yet, we have religious freedom and can be minister of the gospel to people without fear of government persecution.
Divorced and married again since November 2008. I have two grown-up children and my wife has three. My life change started in June of 1985 and my relationship with my Creator started in August of 1985 when I was a young blaspheming, cursing sailor in the S.A. Navy. I used to follow my own multi-religious philosophy (everybody serves the same god). I tried Buddism, TM and traditional Churchianity. I was hitch-hiking to a friend and a man stopped and picked me up. He introduced himself in a very friendly manner. I thought he was gay and wanted to molest me. At that stage I had just finished reading Hal Lindsay’s Book, “The Late Great Planet Earth.” It scared me. I was unsure of my salvation. I was fearful of death and many such worries went through my mind …and then the “gay-guy” …
Well, he was not gay and immediately asked me, “Do you know Jesus?” I got such a shock. I was stammering and couldn’t answer. I tried to explain that I used to go to church and so on, but it was not a satisfying answer for him. His next question shocked me even more, but it was straight to the point, “Do you want to know Jesus?” I thought of jumping out a moving car, but the question grabbed me; it held my mind. With all my being I longed to know Him. I answered, “YES!” and we stopped and prayed the sinner’s prayer. He then continued to visit me for a few weeks, but I asked him to not come anymore as I started to doubt. Yet, I bought four Bibles shortly after that. A KJV, NIV, 1933/53 Afrikaans and a “Nuwe Vertaling” to help me understand. As I read and started understanding the Wrath of God and the Judgment that is coming, I just started becoming more and more depressed and fearful to the point that I did not even want to cross the road!
One night in August 1985, I was woken by a dark cloud that jumped on me and started choking me. I could not breathe; it was shaking me and slamming my head against the wall. I tried to scream, but not a sound. I realized that I had to pray. I opened my mouth and only the faintest whisper escaped my lips, “J…e…s…u…s!” It was like lightning and the cloud fled the room. I got up out of bed and fell to my knees and prayed, “Dear God, I am so sorry for my sins. I am so sorry that I did not believe in your Holy Spirit, yet I believed in spirits. I am so sorry that I disregarded Your Son and what He has done for a lost world. I accept Jesus as my Owner and Saviour….but please give me deliverance from my blasphemy and my cursing and place new words on my tongue, place Your Word in my mouth. The deliverance will be a sign that You truly saved me. Amen!”
Well, by the end of that day I realized I had a brand new vocabulary and I could remember Scriptures from my younger years in Sunday School.
Since then the desire to bring the GOOD NEWS has burned in my being and I have preached, taught, evangelized, led Home Cells, played in Church Bands, created gospel tracts, written hundreds of letters, prayed for the sick, counselled drunks, drug-addicts and sex-workers, encouraged people to go into ministry, ministered to those in ministry, and for four years (2008-2012) been pastoring a home based church of about 30-40 people. Since 2013 I have been translating Scripture from Aramaic to Afrikaans and scaled down to leading a Home Cell of about 5-8 people. Our Home Fellowship had to break up due to everybody and us moving all over the world to different towns and countries!
We have seen a need amongst the rural people of the area we live in at present. A need for proper Scripture based teaching. Truth. Powerful deliverance is needed for the poverty stricken, drug-abusive, alcohol-enslaved people of South Africa. There is a tendency amongst our local preachers to want to use their church as a money-making scheme…we disagree aggressively. There is great poverty due to unemployment. So, we even try to help people by employing some and paying them a weekly small income to be able to put food on their tables for their families. Some families have only one person working to feed six to eight people.
We are going to start a larger fellowship for believers and those wanting deliverance from their addictions. We already council people weekly.
Here I am at this stage of life, doing some sort of “official” study. I identify with calling of Pastor, Teacher, Small Group Leader and Fellowship Planter. To many people credentials are important and I have been advised to get some of those credentials. It may sound disrespectful, but it is not meant that way. I do have the earnest desire to study and be an example to the people we are busy ministering to and those we will be ministering to in the future. It is the decent thing to do; the right thing to do and the Godly order to do things.
Becoming a minister of the gospel would be a great blessing to me. Since we do not earn a high income to be able to afford ministry and living and studying in Africa, CLI’s free internet courses are a big blessing. Perhaps if I were a young man again, someone would consider sponsorship…therefore CLI is truly a Godsend. Please pray that we can press-through in planting a Scripture Teaching fellowship amongst the rural people of South Africa. A fellowship with a Mentor Centre where these poor people who also are called to be a minister of the Gospel can receive this training from CLI. Please pray that we can uphold the employment that we provide for a very few people to help them live and feed their families. Shalom in Yeshua, the Messiah (Jesus Christ).
Become a Minister of the Gospel
With Christian Leaders Institute, we are dedicated to building up revival leaders to become a minister of the gospel! With free online classes, future ministers, pastors, evangelists, church planters, missionaries, and teachers of the Word can greatly increase their biblical knowledge to help prosper the Kingdom of God! Enroll today for this amazing opportunity! Click here to fill out our enrollment form. God bless!
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Leadership Development Training In Ministry- Setting A God Walk Foundation
My name is Darin Thomas and I am from Inwood, WV. Doing ministry in the United States is an honor to me. The formation of our country was founded on many of God’s principles and evidence of this can be found on our historical documents, our money, and even in our pledge of allegiance to our country’s flag. Unfortunately, many of our countrymen have lost their way. Crime is on the rise. We see greed in corporate America, and more people are becoming self serving instead of God serving. Regulations on TV and radio are becoming more lax and foul language and vulgar content are now accepted as entertainment. So called reality shows are spotlighting celebrity lifestyle dramas which is damaging the family unit as we once knew it. The good news in all of this is that there is a platform to serve the Lord and minister to His people right in my own backyard. Based on our historical inclusiveness of God in all of our founding values it is clear to me that revival is necessary. Meaning we must lead God’s people back to God.
I was personally brought back to God in 2009. My grandfather was a trustee in the church. My family decided to attend church with him one Father’s day because we felt that at his age our time together was becoming more and more precious. When I attended that service I was captivated by the truth that was being spoken from the pulpit. I began to attend more regularly and what started off as a one-time visit became a regular thing. It wasn’t long before I publicly accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. A few years later in 2013, my pastor, Pastor Peter Thomas Sr., extended the invitation to become a deacon of the church, and I answered the call. Today I also serve on the financial team and the board of directors.
Since high school I have studied business. I currently own a home-based business and all of my work experience has been in, marketing, management, and leadership development. I am particularly passionate about finding and developing other leaders. As I learned about CLI in the introductory class, I found that their ambition is in harmony with my ministry ambitions. They wish to train and mobilize Christian leaders so that they may duplicate themselves thus creating an army of God’s people. I aspire to train and mobilize Christian leaders as well. I aspire to become a pastor and in that capacity not only preach the word of the Lord, but also implement programs, education, and accountability that will help called leaders get what they need in order to advance the Kingdom. I believe in call to action. It is my vision that I will move people to action, and help lead them to deliverance and abundance in the name of Jesus.
When I was called to be a deacon it really woke me up to the fact that God was raising me up as a leader. It was then that I really began to take my ministry training seriously. As I began to meditate on God’s way, it opened doors in other aspects of my life. I became a better leader in my business because I could lead people through life situations. I discovered that often people who thought they had a money problem really didn’t. What they were struggling with was vision, integrity, self-esteem, and other things. And these root issues were causing the money shortage. If I wasn’t led, I couldn’t lead people out of these situations. Soon I found myself leading people to financial freedom and spiritual freedom at the same time. I started looking at my business as not just a profit center but a platform to lead souls to Christ.
Whenever you network you meet people who know people. Your circle of influence begins to expand geographically which is great but challenging. I have business partners in states that I have never been, but thanks to technology I am able to minister to them via emails, chat, phone, and web conferences. Thankfully, I have been getting a ton of support from my church family. I go to a very small church. I noticed that nobody else was aspiring to become a minister. While I understand not everyone is going to aspire to do these things, I found it strange that nobody was taking the necessary course of action. I began to remember what my mentors in business taught me. People need leadership. I found that once I announced my ambitions in ministry everyone began to rally around me. Now they are inspired and to dream again.
My family has been very supportive. My grandma frequently puts me in tears when she tells me how proud she is of me. She says, “Your grandfather would be so proud of you!” My parents have always believed that I was destined for great things. Lastly, my wife and kids are my responsibility. As the head of the household it is my God mandated duty to raise them up as believers. To love them and lead them in God’s word. My wife is a deaconess and my children, though very young, are already mighty prayer warriors!
Leadership development training with CLI will help me achieve my ministry goals. It is important that you have an education to accompany your work ethic and vision. My desire to serve the Lord is already in place. My vision grows larger and more clearly every day! CLI can offer me the top notch education I need to see the mission through. I am grateful for this leadership development training opportunity. Pray for me as I raise up my family. Please pray that I stay root focused by learning and leaning on God’s word, but that the fruit of this may inspire others. Lastly, unite with me in prayer that I may bring God glory by stepping into all that He has for me!
Leadership Development Training With CLI
Receive your free online leadership development training in ministry with Christian Leaders Institute. Click here to begin a new journey in your life for the Lord as you step out and step up to the plate of spreading the message of Jesus Christ! It’s all about Jesus! And for us at CLI, we’re about building up others in leadership development for the Lord.
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