Ecuministry Ordination Journey

Ecuministry Ordination Journey

My name is Dr. Claudia Niemann. I am 60 years old. I have been on an ecuministry ordination journey. I am originally from Germany. My profession was a chemist and food scientist. I am married to Djamel from Algiers, where we also live now. We have been married for 17 years but do not have children.

My parents were pastors in a small town in former East Germany. That is where I grew up in close relationship with the Lord. I learned all about faith, trust, and serving. I had strong leaders in my parents, Arnold and Käthe Niemann. I learned how to walk with God, sing the praise music, and play the organ in the services.

My brother was a member of the first Christian praise band in former East Germany. We learned a lot about other churches traveling with this band in the country. We also had an evangelist coming every year to our church. His example played an important role in my later calling.

After my father’s retirement, my parents moved to West Berlin. I finished my studies in Master’s degree in chemistry and followed them in 1986. Here, I started my doctorate and earned the degree in the year 1990. After two years of a post-doctorate research position at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, I returned to Germany and pursued my academic career. This career stopped in 2005 when I was a research scientist with Nestlé in Lausanne, Switzerland.

In 2006, I was called by the Lord to be an evangelist and teacher on my ecuministry ordination journey. The calling was revealed in a vision that I am to be a traveling minister, like the evangelist who came to our church when I was a child.

While living at home, I had a daily Bible study and devotion time which brought me to a deeper understanding of the Word. The Bible spoke to me and guided me. Reading the Psalms and the Proverbs over a period of a year taught me an understanding of Praise, Repentance, Lament, and Divine Wisdom.

Back in Germany, on my ecuministry ordination journey, I started studies to become a preacher in 2007. I was an Elected Church Elder in the United Lutheran-Reformed Chuch of Berlin-Brandenburg from 2006 to 2015. I became also a member of the Protestant Faith Fellowship in Berlin, the Pentecostal American Church that emerged from the U.S.Army troops that were in Berlin from 1945 to 1995. Here, I learned all about Gospel music and sang in the Gospel choir led by Gospel singers from the U.S. who live in Berlin.

I earned my degree to be ordained as a Word Minister from a correspondence church school of the Evangelic Church in Mid-Germany in May 2012. This degree enabled me to lead services, distribute the Holy Communion, and preach in the churches of the Association of Evangelic Churches in Germany. I was ordained to be a pastor in community service in the local church of Gramzow, Uckermark.

I had to quit my service in 2015 because the church did not accept my engagement in a free internet ministry association (www.Pastor2go.de) to minister to people who were not a member in any officially recognized church. I continued to minister as a free-lance theologian, and in January 2016, I received the call to Algeria by the Lord.

In Algeria, the conditions for Christians are not easy. They are not persecuted officially. But unofficially, some Islamic elements in the authorities try to make Christian life difficult. They close churches and imprison people who possess more than one Bible in the Arab or Berber language. There is officially a “Freedom of Cults” but proselytism is forbidden.

As we moved to Algeria this year, I became a visiting member of the United Protestant Church of Algiers. The local pastor, however, would not ordain me as a preacher and allowed only for me to work as a member of the praise team. Together with Spirit-driven Christians from other regions of the country and two other foreigners, we have made a new conception for this team.
At this time, and through the new praise team, the Holy Spirit is doing a mighty work in this legalistic-oriented and fear-driven congregation to open up their hearts and minds for the joy and freedom of God’s children. Please pray for this church and its members, especially for the pastor.

I searched for courses in English for another member of the praise team who also wants to become a full-time minister. I was led to the Christian Leaders Institute website and I began the first class. He will begin the courses as soon as he is in his new apartment that he just found (it’s not so easy in Algiers).

CLI studies allow me to refresh my training and to learn new ideas and points of view. It’s important for me to stay vigilant yet flexible with regard to the different churches that I will visit in my new field of work in Algeria. Since I do not have the opportunity to earn money here at the moment, a CLI scholarship gives me the opportunity to follow up with the ministry training to strengthen my ministry. I am also starting up my evangelistic service on this ecuministry ordination journey. Then I can help others to join CLI.

Since my calling is to be a traveling minister as an evangelist and teacher, I am also thankful that there is the ecuministry ordination of the Christian Leaders Alliance. I feel that this is the right ordination for my calling. In an ecumenical and interdenominational environment, for me to serve Christ and mankind, wherever God leads me.