It’s a given today. If you want to be a pastor, you need to go to seminary. Don’t worry about the tens of thousands of dollars of seminary debt you’ll pick up along the way. All you need is one of those upper middle class pastoral positions and you’ll have the debts paid off in no time, right?
This is much less true than it was many years ago. Positions for full-time pastors and associate pastors are becoming more scarce, and in many instances the pay for such positions is much less than it once was. This is illustrated by a story published in The Atlantic on July 22, 2014. The story talks about a seminary graduate named Justin Barringer. Barringer was unable to obtain a job after applying to over 200 churches, according to the article, and now works three different jobs with little hope of paying off his seminary debt. Justin says he does not harbor any ill-will toward the church. He also says, “I wish someone had advised me against taking on so much debt in order to be trained for ministry.”
Justin isn’t the only one in this predicament, though. In 2011, Forbes Magazine published an article about the massive seminary debts acquired by many who wanted to be pastors. This article, like the one in The Atlantic, demonstrated the unavailability of sufficient positions for the current number of seminary graduates. Still another story featured on PBS talked about seminary graduates who were unable to put their training to use upon graduation.
Can You Get Training Without Seminary Debt?
So what course of action is available to you if you feel that you are called to preach the gospel? Taking on mountains of seminary debt will only guarantee you mountains of seminary debt. Is there another way to receive training that won’t leave you with more bills than you can pay?
Most seminarians would say no. Seminaries have been around for years. They have time-honored traditions, thousands of books concerned with the exposition of religious doctrine, tenured professors, and the full weight and authority of their church behind them. Seminary is the only way to get great, authoritative training for ministry in the church.
Jerry Bowyer, a contributor to Forbes Magazine, has a different approach to this idea. He says that we should return to the original method of training church leaders that was modeled for us by Christ: apprenticeship. Apprenticeship doesn’t require that enormous seminary debt be required to pay for training. Additionally, it has the benefit for the student of actually experiencing the life and ministry of a pastor. This, Bowyer says, is worth more than the hours spent in a seminary classroom.
But What About Theological Education?
Theological education is important. Jerry Bowyer acknowledges its importance in his article, “Bursting the Seminary Bubble (part II),” but he offers a solution for that as well. Get your education for free! Bowyer points to a few different sites and resources around the internet that offer some materials that will assist with theological education. There are even resources to assist ministry aspirants in learning Biblical Greek and Hebrew. Bowyer talks about a class his daughter is going through about the theology and impact of C. S. Lewis. There may be some searching and piecing together to do, buy Jerry Bowyer points out that all the education you need is available without the necessity of a seminary building.
But what if somebody had all these materials in one place? What if a prospective pastor could get access to all the theological education he needed without accruing mountains of seminary debt, and without piecing together a hundred different internet resources by himself? What if there was already somebody there in 2011 when Bowyer wrote the article who practiced the free model of seminary training, hand-in-hand with the apprenticeship model?
Christian Leaders Institute Leaves No Seminary Debt
Another word for apprenticeship is mentorship, and Christian Leaders Institute has been vocal about the mentorship since its inception in 2001. Students are encouraged to find and stay in frequent communication with mentors. Mentors are asked to participate in the student’s studies by encouraging them, listening to sermons and giving feedback, and guiding them through the theological education at Christian Leaders Institute.
Additionally, course materials at Christian Leaders Institute reside entirely on the internet. There are no classrooms for students to attend, which means no seminary buildings requiring millions of dollars annually to operate and maintain. With the low budget that is facilitated by this online method of bringing the training to students, Christian Leaders Institute is able to offer the training to anyone in the world without cost to them!
Christian Leaders Institute will not have any Justin Barringers with mountains of seminary debt, working three jobs to recover from their ministry training. Even in the event that a graduate of Christian Leaders Institute is unable to find a full-time pastoral position, she will not be weighed down with seminary debt in whatever calling God has for her. Christian Leaders who are trained at CLI can use their ministry training for any ministry role without having to be concerned with paying off their student loans. This also offers people the freedom to take the courses even if they aren’t planning to use the training for a high-paid job elsewhere. And CLI accomplishes all this without compromising on the quality of the ministry training courses.
Have you been called to the ministry? Would you like to get your training without the mountains of seminary debt that accompany it? Enroll at Christian Leaders Institute. It’s free to join, and you can get started with your first class TODAY!
Free Online Ministry Training with Christian Leaders Institute
Christian Leaders Institute provides all the tools necessary to equip those called by God to become a pastor, a minister, church planter, missionary, evangelist. Whatever ministry area you are led to go into, CLI can train you with our free online ministry training. Free doesn’t mean lack of quality. The professors of CLI have put together many courses from what they received with their seminary education. The courses have been made top notch and filled with nothing less than high quality education for you as a student of Christian Leaders Institute.
Here is a testimony from one of our dearest students of CLI taking full use of the free online ministry training we provide.
Arianna Found Free Online Ministry Training A Blessing
“My name is Arianna. I currently live in Michigan, USA with my husband Mike.
I am originally from the United Kingdom, although I immigrated to the USA in 2001. I was the only child of my English father and Persian mother.
My father was a business consultant and my mother was a stay at home mom. I led a privilege upbringing in many ways, materialistically, although neither of my parents were Christians. Due to cultural differences and emotional traumas in both of my parents lives, my childhood was very intense.
I was living in Saudi Arabia when I was saved, due to my fathers work at the time. My mother had some Persian friends and the lady was formerly a Muslim, who had converted to Christianity. Her and her husband were running an underground church in Jeddah at the time. They invited myself and my mother to their house church. It was there I heard about Jesus and having a personal relationship with him. I gave my life to Jesus at 15yrs old and was baptized in a swimming pool in Saudi Arabia.
For many years after my initial salvation, I struggled in my walk with God but at the age of 25 years old, God took hold of me and supernaturally healed me, both physically and emotionally from a number of debilitating issues. Jesus loved me back to life!
As a result of this experience and the great privilege of leading my father to the Lord 24 hours before he died of cancer, in Dubai, this has inspired a huge passion in me to see others come to know the healing, restoring love of God. I consider my core strengths to be in evangelism, teaching and intercession.
I am currently pursuing my dream of being a mentor/minister of the Good News of the Gospel. Myself and my husband have a plan to start a local Christian Mentoring Center in our community that helps those whose society and Governmental systems have been unable to help. We seek to provide any persons looking to better their current situation, with quality education, skills, mentoring and encouragement. We believe, that by showing the Goodness of God to people in our community and being a model of Christ to them, we will ultimately win souls automatically and produce sustainable, long term Christian disciples.
Eventually we would like to see these Centers set up in other communities and Globally.
Our local Pastor has been very supportive in encouraging us in our vision. However, the resources necessary for full ministry training were not available to us on a local level. Credible Christian Seminaries were all hundreds of miles away, which was not conducive for work and business, not to mention they were extremely expensive.
As a result we felt limited in our ability to move forward with our vision. We desire to be a couple of character excellence, credible and accountable. We both felt called to minister but we also believed that it was also important to be credibility trained in our respective callings.
I began looking online for alternatives to expensive seminary training. I looked for a long time and stumbled across Christian Leaders Institute. I was intrigued. After all, how good could FREE online ministry training be?
After doing my research and looking into the credibility and training of the provost and the other professors and discovering they were all legitimate, I was more at ease. Christian Leaders Institute website is fully functional, easy to navigate, with a great back office. The quality of the courses is indeed, as they stated, equal to Seminary style education. The fact that Christian Leaders Institute makes it easy to study, by using videos, as well as free course material is fantastic.
Overall, I have to say that I am more than pleased with my experience with Christian Leaders Institute so far. I would be happy to recommend them to anyone looking for free online ministry training. I have mentioned them to several of my friends and my pastor at church is looking at using them to train congregants who wish to pursue a ministry vocation.
I just completed the Basic Christian Leaders Institute course and I am looking forward to pursuing my next one.
I anticipate a long, happy lasting relationship with Christian Leaders Institute and am so eternally grateful that this resource was available. What a wonderful vision for the Body of Christ and for those wanting to pursue their ministry dreams, but up until now, not being able to because of finances, time or location was a hindrance.
Thank you to Christian Leaders Institute for your hard work and dedication to excellent education being available to all, for free! Bless you!”
Is Free Online Ministry Training Needed By You
Sign up now for free online ministry training by clicking here. Find for yourself the high quality education CLI provides in helping you with your ministry dreams or to even just better your understanding for your own personal walk with the Lord.
Free Ministry Training in Ghana
Christian Leaders Institute offers free ministry training in Ghana online. This free ministry training in Ghana begins when someone enrolls in the getting started class at Christian Leaders Institute. Once finished with this class students graduate with their first certificate, a Christian Leaders Basic Certificate, which they can print out. This free ministry training in Ghana includes certificates and diplomas up to 90 credit hours of high quality ministry education.
Thousands have signed up in Ghana. Here is the testimony of one such student.
My name is Evans Kwaku Owusu-Sakyi and Ghana is my country where I live. There are Christians, Muslims, and some who practice idol worship here. In all, the Christian religion dominates and the people of Ghana are God fearing. I gave my life to Christ Jesus after hearing His words and believing in Him, I realized that I was lost and needed a savior. I confessed my sins and accepted Christ Jesus as my Lord and personal savior.
I started going to church and was baptized by immersion into Christ Jesus. I attended church on Sundays but wasn’t involved in any church activities. At a certain point I stopped going to church and started enjoying life, which resulted in a sinful life, but I didn’t care if God minded. Life wasn’t easy because I lived however I wanted with no objectives in mind. I smoked, drank, and was immoral because it made me enjoy life and I was proud of it. I didn’t know that before God formed me in my mothers’ womb He knew me and had a purpose for my life. He had a vision and a mission for me to accomplish on earth.
I have come to realize that no matter how stubborn one may be on earth, God can turn their life around in the twinkle of an eye, if He wishes.
With me it began with dreams and revelations. I saw myself preaching, casting out demons and healing the sick. I consulted a Christian woman in my area who interpreted my dreams and told me that God had a purpose for me and would use me if I gave myself to Him.
She introduced me to their pastor and as they prayed for me God spoke to me and them about my future. He gave me powerful visions regarding His plans for me and then anointed me with His power for this calling. Since that day of deliverance the Holy Spirit has been my constant companion and I have purposed to walk in His truth and be obedient to God in all that I do.
I have studied and the Holy Spirit has taught me a lot about God’s ways. I have written books about God and believe He is calling me to plant churches and establish people in the faith.
This free ministry training in Ghana has enabled me to be equipped to fulfill my ministerial calling and help me to meet my ministry goals. My goals are: to help people come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord, to help build His church, to see people healed and set free to live for Christ , and waiting for His appearing.
I would appreciate prayer for grace to fulfill the task that God has given me to do, to fulfill my God given mission.
Sign up now for free ministry training in Ghana by clicking this link. If you want to want to check out the donation website click here.