Church Planting in Liberia

Church Planting in Liberia

CLI student, Jerome Allison is seeking ministry training because he feels the call to church planting in Liberia. Allison hasn’t had it easy he was raised in a home with two conflicting religions but he chose salvation.

Read Allison’s story in his own words below:

I was born and raised in West Africa, Liberia. Currently, I’m living in Las Vegas, NV with my wife and five children. My wife is an African and also a chef.

I grew up in the midst of two tough families with an opposite belief. My parents and grandparents, especially my mother and her father are completely opposite to each other when it comes to religion. My mother is a very strong Christian and on the other hand, my grandfather is a traditional man. When I was two years old, my grandfather took me from my mother to be with him as his own son cause his only son, died before I was born. My grandfather’s purpose for my life was wholly different from that of my mother. However, I grew up learning about both Christianity and West Africa/Liberia’s traditional beliefs. As I grew up, I found it very difficult to decide what belief to follow. With my grandfather, I always had the spirit of not belonging. For this not belonging spirit, I decided to spend more time with my mother and my uncle who was a pastor for a Baptist Church. Even though, while I was with them, going to church was an act of obedience to them. After years of their encouragements, teachings, and prayers, I became a Christian. In the year 2000, at the age of 15, I finally accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and savior. After I was baptized, I became a member of the church (Effort Baptist) in the Ivory Coast which was pastored by my uncle. I also voluntarily became its janitor. Later, I was made Sunday school teacher for the church’s kids. I work for the church until relocating to the USA. The journey has not been smooth, but God is always there for me and my family.

My life has been truly inspired by CLI beyond my expectation when I started. The sound teachings help to shift my experience in so many areas of my life. My understanding of God’s word had greatly improved compared to when I first started with CLI and without a pressure of student-loan debt. There is no better way to really explain the experience with CLI but to just say thanks to God for CLI.

Been ordained is very important to my ministry calling. With this ordination, my family and local church will rejoice with me, knowing that I have responded to God calling by studying his word and by the confirmation of other pastors.

I love reading God’s world, it brings joy to my heart. I always desire to share this joy by teaching other people the word of God and helping them to understand how to live base on God’s word. I believe the first thing in my calling is to study God’s word. I believe Christian Leaders Institute Ordination as a pastor and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I can accomplish the work God calls me to do.

I am so grateful to CLI for this Ordination. Even though I teach sometime and after many studies with CLI, recently started preaching once in a while in my local church, with this ordination my preaching will now be regular in my local church preparing me for my mission calling to the world, starting with Africa.

My calling is church planting in Liberia. In my country, there are villages where the gospel has not been preached. The mission is to reach out into these villages and share the gospel of Christ and establish churches there. However, most of the people in these areas can’t read. Therefore, for the gospel to be effective, there must be some kind of Educational system in place to teach those that can read so they can teach other the gospel. The first challenge is how to establish this educational system. The second challenge is, no Internet connection can be found in most of these villages and the Internet café in the city can be expensive; therefore, I can’t get those that can read to be trained by CLI.

I am grateful for my local church for their encouragement and support. My ordination service has been fully organized by my church members. The senior pastor who is also my mentor was always willing to answer me and explain to me in more detail where I had questions.

I am seeking for God’s protection, boldness and his direction in church planting in Liberia.

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