Free Ministry Training At CLI Helps Bud Welton Follow his calling…
My name is Bud Welton, and I live in the United States. I was born in the Midwestern United States where my parents attended a Christian College. My wife and 2 children are incredible blessings through my processes of growth and maturity. We home-school our children, for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which is to include Christian values and teaching. Our nine year old boy and seven year old girl are true blessings from God. They are amazing, frustrating, encouraging, and so much more. They love the Lord with all of their heart. My children and wife are wholly supportive of my calling and my need to prepare for service to the Lord with ministry training.
When I was about 18 months old, my parents both finished college and we moved to another town so my father could attend seminary. Shortly after beginning seminary training, my mother became ill and my father stopped attending so that he could work and care for the family. We moved to the Eastern United States, where both of my parents had extended family to help support us.
After moving to the Eastern United States, my mother’s physical health began to improve. My brother and I were being raised in a Christian home, surrounded by the love of Christ. We were attending a Bible-believing, God-fearing church and attending a Christian elementary school for our education. It was here, as a five year old child, that I realized the breadth of my separation from Christ. One afternoon, I approached my teacher and asked her about this. She led me through a Biblical explanation of what I was beginning to discover, and I came to accept the gift, by grace, that Jesus had offered me – atonement and salvation.
Slowly, as the years moved on, abuse entered our home: Sexual, emotional, and physical; mental health issues began to plague us. More physical ailments were followed by a devastating car accident. With each incident bitterness grew. My family left their faithful walk, following the lead of my father. We fell – I fell further from God as each year came. As a young teenager, I was kicked out of our home.
I remember nights of sleeping under a bridge to keep out of the rain; breaking into a library to stay warm at night; searching for unlocked cars so I could sleep with four walls and a roof. I remember staying with one friend or another for as long as I could – until I my welcome was worn out. Through it all, I continued to attend high school.
After two years of this, during the middle of my junior year in high school, I came into contact with my aunt and uncle. They had become aware of my circumstance and were growing concerned for my health and well-being. They invited me to join their church youth group for some Christmas caroling. I reluctantly accepted their invitation. I continued to participate in the youth group activities but as the months progressed, their concern for me grew. After a time, my aunt and uncle invited me to live with them until I was able to finish school.
The faith, love, prayers, and hospitality of my aunt and uncle were the first steps through which God was to redeem me. What an awesome God! Their kindness and hospitality led me to a Christian summer camp where I would meet a Godly man who would point me to a Christian college in New England. At the Christian college, God brought me to a man of God who spoke more truth into my life.
During these times, as God was working in and around my life to call me to Him, to redeem me, I felt called to His service as a pastor. I was scared so I ran, I hid and I stumbled. I fell and yet God continued to be there to pick me back up and set me back on the right path. Often, God would use Christian men to do His work in my life.
Finally I reached out to God with the words, “I am yours. Use me.” It has been difficult but I still feel called to pastor to God’s people – such a humbling and intimidating responsibility – and I feel ill equipped as I have had no formal ministry training.
At my church, I currently serve as the Director of Men’s Ministry. I work full-time running a program dedicated to educating, equipping, and encouraging fathers to be active and responsibly involved in the lives of their children. I have the privilege of doing some great work for very broken families. I often feel I am just “dressing” a wound. “Fatherlessness” is a symptom of a fallen world and men desperately need the Spirit at work in their lives. Men need to understand what the Bible truly teaches about manhood. I love what I do, but I strive to learn more to direct them in dealing with sinful natures using Scriptural knowledge. This is an absolutely amazing opportunity to help ensure that every man of our church is actively engaged in an intentional discipleship process.
I am also currently being presented to the church as a deacon candidate and if approved by the church membership I will have the honor and responsibility to serve the needs of the congregation in another capacity. Through this all, I meet with our pastor on a regular basis in a system of intentional discipleship and accountability.
My wife asked me recently if we should send the kids to a brick-and-mortar school so she could go back to work and I could attend a seminary to further my ministry training. We prayed and fasted and after some reflection realized that God wants us to continue on the path which we have been travelling. It was at this time that I discovered Christian Leaders Institute and the amazing ministry training and instruction they offer. The scholarship that Christian Leaders Institute makes available for is exactly what we need to prepare for our next step in our journey toward faithful service to the Lord.
I thank you for your ministry training at CLI and include you in my daily prayers. Would you please pray for me, my ministry, and discernment of God’s will as I pursue the next step toward which God is calling me? Thank you! God bless!
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As you can see by this testimony you can be a homeless teenager and be led from your circumstances by Jesus into a new life and a new circumstance. This man overcame adverse life conditions from abuse to being homeless and with the help of God and is following his calling to become a strong Biblically equipped leader for the men and families in their church. Free Online Bible Based Ministry Training available at Christian Leaders Institute makes quality ministry training and education available to anyone who has an internet connection! Learn More Now!
Train for the Ministry
Hello and thank you for taking the time to read my story. I am Michael Tutt and I am 55 years old and currently living in Dacula, a small city about 50 Km North East of Atlanta, Georgia in the United States. I was born in England in 1959 with congenital glaucoma and although surgeons operated and restored some sight to my right eye I have been blind in my left eye all my life. In 1992 the disease caught up with me and I lost my sight completely. However, God is the one who literally and spiritually heals the blind and causes them to see. Just so, he has healed me spiritually and given me a vision for salvation and discipleship in my local area. By His immense grace I will fulfil the calling given to me and, in His timing, my sight will be fully restored. That is the basis of my story.
I attended English boarding schools near Brighton and Coventry and seemed to excel academically. However, the combination of being forced to attend Chapel every Sunday, and an increasing scientific skepticism, drove me away from Christ and the ritualistic form of Christianity that seemed to pervade my education.
I took my undergraduate degree at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in Physics and Electronics and went on to gain a string of postgraduate qualifications including a Diploma in Management Studies, Masters’ degree in Intelligent Management Systems, Certificate in Adult Education, and another undergraduate degree in Social Science. Yet I account all this learning as nothing compared with the amazing grace of Christ who saved me in the Fall of 1986.
I was living in communal housing for people with limited or no vision in London, and some people who had befriended me, invited me to Kensington Temple Elim Pentecostal church. This was a genuinely astounding experience, the presence of God was palpable, like electricity in the atmosphere. The relaxed, non-ritualistic, worship made me feel comfortable in a church for the first time in my life. When the Senior Pastor, the late and blessed Wynne Lewis, preached the sermon it seemed like he was speaking directly to me. It went straight from his lips into my heart. I felt the burden of my sin: my turning my back on God, my critical spirit, and my scoffing at those who believed. With tears in my eyes I responded to His glorious call and accepted Christ as my personal savior. I was baptized by full immersion the following year.
I studied for the Diploma in Christian Ministry at the International Bible Institute of London but, as my sight affliction demonstrated, this was not the right time for me to enter the ministry. After losing my sight I was angry with God and couldn’t comprehend why a God of love should destroy MY dreams of an academic career and Christian ministry. It took me a few months to come to terms with being blind, to seek assistance to re-learn the living skills I needed to live independently, and to realize that God never promised me an easy road, that MY dreams and plans were immaterial compared with His much better plans to prosper me, and finally that I could trust Christ to lift me up in whatever state I found myself.
In 2003 I moved from England to Orange County California to marry Susan, after a long distance relationship conducted through the Internet, phone calls, and several transatlantic vacations. We lived there and worshipped at Saddleback Christian Center and then Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa until Susan retired from her work with Experian. Last year we relocated to our current home in Dacula where we have found a very supportive church family in Calvary Chapel of Gwinnett under the care of Pastor Mark Byrd. We are really just getting settled into our new church right now, but I fully hope and expect that Pastor Byrd will be able to make use of my natural and spiritual gifts in the service of Christ’s family.
I am a Pastor, that is not something that anyone can bestow on a person, it is the enormous grace of God, it is His calling on my life. One of the things that grieves my heart here is that although many profess to follow Christ, it is in a shallow, almost ritualistic way, as though by their works they might be perceived as holy. There is a pharisaical quality to their faith (faith that I believe is nonetheless genuine) that is immensely sorrowful to behold. Almost a “worship me with their lips but their hearts are far from me” (Matt 15:8) situation. Yet I sense a true spiritual hunger among many and believe they need help to know how to apply God’s word in their everyday lives.
My God-given vision is to form study groups where I can help people translate the eternal Word of God into a practical application to the issues and problems of living the Christian life, empower them with the Spirit, and provide practical counseling to fulfill whatever ministry God has called them to. This is the heart God has placed within me. Evangelism, equipping the saints, teaching the Word and prayer.
I also hope to use my long-term hobby of amateur radio to reach out to people from other countries with the gospel. I pray that God will use my communications skills to His glory.
I am blessed that Christian Leaders Institute has given me this opportunity to study God’s Word with mentors and friends who can guide me spiritually and help me grow in my relationship with Christ. The generous donations of supporters that have made it possible is an answer to prayer. I have been unemployed since coming to the United States and so a traditional Bible college is not an option. I am delighted that God has made a way for me to train for the ministry at Christian Leaders Institute. Thank you to all those who have made this possible.
Donna Hosea Liles, Texas, USA Enjoys Proper Ministry Training
I was born in 1965 in the state of Texas in a town where Christian Ministry is welcomed by a large majority; however there are those who oppose it and try to discourage it. There have been so many changes here since my childhood. Now my grandchildren don’t get prayer in classrooms in the morning or at any school event. There is no more speaking with God’s blessings openly in businesses. However, the majority of us Christians here still bless one another and Praise God in public.
My Grandmother, Nadyne, led me to my Faith. I remember as a very young child, with three brothers, Grandma would take me to the First Baptist Church in our hometown. I would get to go every time I stayed with her. Vacation Bible School was also a yearly thing when it came to Grandma’s wishes. I was with the Youth Ministry when I was in High School and would often minister for my classmates. I so loved to worship the Lord and share His Word. Faith carried me through many things growing up. From a dysfunctional home to going through my parents’ divorce when I was thirteen. I and my siblings were separated in that divorce; the two oldest with dad and the two youngest with mom. Visits were uncomfortable when we got together on weekends and both parents were not living right. They did not set good examples at this time of our lives.
As an adult I had three daughters and took them to Church often to build their Faith with the Lord. Jesus is the one they could hold on to through the tough times and the easy times of life’s challenges. He has always been my rock and He needed to be theirs. Without Him I could not have made it to be a mother. My spirit had been broken many times. By the time I was 28 I had my third child and counselors were telling me I had already experienced and lived the life of a 46 year old woman. I sometimes wonder how old those counselors would classify me to seem now. I am a survivor of rape, child molestation, many forms of abuse and even the loss of my youngest child; four days before her 11th birthday. She passed away after battling a rare form of cancer over an 11 month span. Nikole was not afraid to die because she knew her Lord and Savior and where she was going. I Praise God for helping me and guiding me to share His love with my children. Our Faith did give me comfort that she knew Jesus and wasn’t afraid. (2 Corinthians 12:9 – …But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.)
I have asked the Lord to use me as an instrument for his work. I want to share His love with others; his mercy, his forgiveness, his promises. I know now that I had to go through many trials to strengthen me. Satan cannot block my Faith anymore or discourage me. My Lord has strengthened me and with him I can do all things. (Philippians 4:12,13 – 12I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.)
I believe Christian Leaders Institute can help me go farther and make it possible for God to use me as an instrument in many more areas. With proper training and better knowledge through the wisdom of his word I can be more effective in my walk and in my community.