Be an Effective Follower of Christ
Hello. My name is Alvin Wayne Coulter Sr. Currently living in Dallas, Texas, USA. I am 45 years old. First and foremost, I want to thank God for this opportunity to be a part of Christian Leaders Ministries. It is truly a blessing for me to have found a safe place to learn to be a better servant of the Lord. Christian Leaders Institute has given me a way to get the Bible training needed (Learn more about online free Bible courses, Click Here). Then I can fulfill my call to ministry more effectively without the enormous finical burden of student debt.
My Youth
Growing up in a small country town in Arkansas, God was always present. My father was a Pastor, and my mother was also in ministry. So, I have always known God. Even as a young boy, I had a tug in my heart to know God. I saw many things right before my eyes that were God’s hand at work. Since I knew God from an early age, it was easy for me to see God. God worked miracles in my family’s life and in my life. For example, God healed and delivered me from a fatal illness at birth. At the same time, God healed my mother from a different sickness. That was the first of many times God showed Himself strong and mighty.
I came to know the Lord at the age of six. I found Him as my Savior at the age of nine. As a young child choosing to walk as a child of God was not easy. It came with many challenges and obstacles. I endured some bad situations growing up, such as bullying and name-calling. Throughout my years of schooling, I realized that I needed help. I could always get help from my parents and family, but I needed a different kind of help. I needed God, and I needed Him more in my life. God gave the type of help that would always be with me no matter what came my way.
Finding CLI/CLI for Bible Training Needed
Later in life, I hit a wall when nothing seemed to work anymore. It seemed as if everything went downhill. My way of life began to decline. Then I found myself in a lifestyle that did not please God. I didn’t know what was happening at the time. As the years went by, I fell deeper and deeper into this dark side of life. It took losing nearly everything for things to change. I heard God’s voice call to me, and it looked like a hand reaching down and pulling me up. Then God said, “I called your name. Why did you run?” I responded, “I don’t understand.” God said, “Everything was going well for you and I called your name. You got scared and ran. I had to wait until you got to this place in life to come and call your name again.”
I lost 13 years in running from my calling. But, now it is my dream to see it to the end. God has placed so much in my hands to do. With the help of the free Bible training needed at the Christian Leaders Institute, I can be better prepared for my calling. I plan to complete an Associate’s and/or Bachelor’s Degree at CLI’s Leadership Excellence School. Therefore, God’s Will be done according to the vision that He has given me.
Steps to Sign Up At Christian Leaders Institute
Step 1 – Register for a free study account that automatically enrolls you in the Christian Leaders Getting Started Course Part 1 &2.
After you register, you will automatically be enrolled in the “getting started” course. You will locate the course at your “home” button when logged in. Scroll down to find the Christian Leaders Getting Started Course Part 1 &2 Link. Click the link and open the course.
Step 2 – Complete Part 1 of this course, and then you are allowed to enroll in mini-courses or regular courses.
The Christian Leaders Getting Started Class Part 1 shows you how to enroll in courses and mini-courses. Part 2 of the course connects your calling into ministry with programs offered through Christian Leaders Institute. Part 2 will offer some ministry training and introduce you to the other programs offered through Christian Leaders Institute.
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost college degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.
Hello! My name is Angela Skibitcky. Presently, I live in New Haven, Ct, USA. Currently, I am getting formal online Bible training at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online free Bible courses, Click Here).
My Spiritual Journey
I’ve always enjoyed working with people. My career as an esthetician began in a salon. I wanted to help people look and feel good on the outside so that they may feel good on the inside as well. At 30 years old, I attended Community College, got an AS in Human Services, and was certified as a Recreation Therapist. Then, I worked in a nursing home mostly serving the elderly. I witnessed the difference between those that had a love of God and those who did not as they neared death.
My heart has been invested in helping people as far back as I can remember. I did not grow up in a “church family.” Although I had been to church, I had never heard the gospel. I now see God reaching out to me and preparing me. Also, at 30 years old, I became born again despite never hearing the Good News. At the time, I did not know that I was ill, only that I was struggling with my mental health. At the end of my rope, I walked into a dimly lit church on Ash Wednesday. I cried out to God, asking Him for a new life. Thank God I left the service a renewed person despite my continued struggles. That was 27 years ago, and what a journey it has been!
Learning and Growing
Let me back up in time. My mom gave her life to Christ in her sixties and had been praying for me. She bought me a Bible that I had kept in its box for two years. One day in the wee morning hours, I frantically searched for it. Once I found and began reading it, I could not put it down. I could not get enough. So, I called into work “sick’ just to read the Bible all day into the late hours.
For the first time, I was learning what sin is. The Holy Spirit was opening my eyes as well as my heart. I was literally “wowed,” and I wanted to share God’s message with everyone I knew. So I did! Although a few received, I mainly found resistance, adversity, and even hatred toward God and me. I had a lot of zeal without knowledge! I lost friends and didn’t understand. My mother-in-law even threw me out of her house because I informed her that she and we are all sinners! She did later accept Jesus as her Lord and Savior through a Jewish- believer friend of mine.
Struggles and Growth
My search for God’s people and a church continued and continued. Ironically, I found the most unbelieving people in the church-people who proclaimed Jesus but didn’t believe or understand His message, His Word, His love, or His grace. I attended several different denominations. Then, I landed in a religious, rigid, legalistic “cult-like” church. It exasperated the traumas I suffered as a child. What I heard was not what I was hearing from the Holy Spirit. I mainly saw depression, suppression, oppression, and “failure” within its walls. However, this is where I learned how important it is to know and study the Bible.
During this time, I became ill and lost everything. I lost my job, divorced, and the money I had planned on never came. There was very little support from family or friends. Finally, I was diagnosed with hyper-parathyroid disease. HPT causes “fibromyalgia-like” symptoms as well as severe depression and anxiety. It also causes memory loss and an inability to learn even simple things. I spent many days on the couch and not showering. This time is when God showed up for me!
Because I rarely felt well, I stopped regularly attending church. I gave up on fellow Christians, but I never gave up on God. Once again, I dug deep into the Bible, Christian books, and Youtube videos. I intently prayed day and night, asking God for clarity and direction. I began to experience what the love and grace of God indeed are; to know His strength despite my obstacles and situation. So I had a peace that surpasses all understanding and hope. His Spirit impressed that this was a time of drawing closer and learning precisely what the Bible did and did not say.
Changes and Finding CLI
I married my best friend during this season, who I had brought to the Lord several years prior. We had worked together and always kept in touch through our different paths. We always loved each other as individuals. He was willing to care for me and support me financially, emotionally, and spiritually. Everything the devil was using to destroy me, God not only redeemed me from but used for good. My husband and I finally found a home church that we both love and serve. First, I found healing with a Christian therapist and a Healing and Mentoring Program. Then, I found formal online Bible training at the Christian Leaders Institute! I found the fire!
My spiritual dream is to know and have an even closer walk with God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I want to be a daughter and bring others through the Holy Spirit to Him effectively. I also want to encourage and strengthen believers within the church, to perhaps one day formally teach and educate, to apply the Word of God in my life, and give Him glory. Through my journey, I have found that God’s gifts are honest and for today. Therefore, I am not afraid to use my voice but humbly, and love that I love theology and apologetics and am a truth researcher.
Formal Online Bible Training at CLI
I’ve wanted to get formal online Bible training for quite some time now. However, I am in my late 50’s and starting over financially. So, I am not interested in a degree or a title or writing papers at length. Yet, God called me to share His Word, love, and grace to unbelievers and believers alike. I want to be able to have an answer and give hope when asked.
If it were not for CLI, I don’t believe I could do this effectively. I don’t always finish what I start. There are days it’s challenging to sit down and focus when life is pulling me in different directions. However, I make CLI a priority so that I can magnify Christ. Through Christ, His Spirit is alive in me. Through learning, my soul has healed. Being a student at Christian Leaders Institute is an honor and a privilege. Thank you, CLI!
Steps to Sign Up At Christian Leaders Institute
Step 1 – Register for a free study account that automatically enrolls you in the Christian Leaders Getting Started Course Part 1 &2.
After you register, you will automatically be enrolled in the “getting started” course. You will locate the course at your “home” button when logged in. Scroll down to find the Christian Leaders Getting Started Course Part 1 &2 Link. Click the link and open the course.
Step 2 – Complete Part 1 of this course, and then you are allowed to enroll in mini-courses or regular courses.
The Christian Leaders Getting Started Class Part 1 shows you how to enroll in courses and mini-courses. Part 2 of the course connects your calling into ministry with programs offered through Christian Leaders Institute. Part 2 will offer some ministry training and introduce you to the other programs offered through Christian Leaders Institute.
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost college degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School
See: Study of Ministry
asMessage to the Wanderer: Go Home
My name is Steve. I’m from Franklin, MA. Currently, I am a called servant leader and studying at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online free Bible courses, Click Here).
My Story
My story started when I accepted Jesus at eight years old in my heart. It was then that my family accepted Christ due to a healing miracle my cousin Jim experienced. Further, there was Jim’s vision of Christ at the foot of his bed shortly before the scheduled operation. Their family and ours were nonbelievers. Yet, we understood the power of what had happened and who it was that Jim said he saw that night by his bedside, Jesus.
We were faithful to follow Christ through church attendance and small groups. As a result, I was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and the speaking of tongues at the age of 12. I loved Jesus. But then, the trauma.
It wasn’t until recently that the Holy Spirit showed me to help me process life experiences properly in His ever caring way. I realized it was this same event, my Grandfather dying violently beside me in my childhood home, that was the entry point. It led to decades of rage, insecurities, injustices, pity, and fear. Then all the actions and consequences came from those chaotic emotions that my then 12-year-old heart could understand or comprehend.
Trauma Impact
Failure and incompletion after failure and incompletion, my choices led me further and further away from the Lord and everything having to do with Jesus. In my early teens, I was stealing alcohol from my Dad and deep into experimenting with the typical gateway drugs. I turned away from the worship of God and turned into a rebel with a rebel’s heart. I was disobedient and hurtful towards my parents, disallowing the protective love that I so desperately needed but didn’t know I needed.
There were troubles in my Christian Middle School, in my public High School, with the law, keeping any jobs, in my military service, and with my relationships into my adult years. Drugs and alcohol couldn’t soothe the pain, women couldn’t cure the anger, and staying distracted proved itself unable. It seemed as if my cycles of destruction were the only truth in my desperate life.
Turning Point
This cycle carried on for many years, with my choice of pain relief escalating to the highest level of drug use and alcoholism. So much so, it ultimately became my everyday state of being. I was not looking for this to end, nor did I even know how to stop if I wanted. My life was of such dysfunction that I was in a relationship that ended with my being threatened with my fiancee’s murder-suicide attempt.
I needed help. Yet, I wasn’t availing myself of repentance or God. However, my situation was bound to turn for good because I had a praying Mom in my corner. She battled fiercely for me.
Just a few short months after this threat against my life, I was weak enough to be vulnerable to the “calling home” of the Holy Spirit. He asked me a straightforward question, “Which do you want, son, what you’re chasing after, or what I have for you.?” I broke! I wept for the last 25 years of being a spiritual runaway! Then, I repented as if my life depended on it! I renounced my rebellious deeds and desires as a man escaping death! Finally, I renewed my relationship with the Creator of this beautiful universe, and my Heavenly Father welcomed me home!
Changed and Called as a Servant Leader
Within days, God supernaturally set me free from drugs and alcohol. Within weeks, I had an intelligent vocabulary restored, and within months, I was smoke-free. That same year, I was gifted a business opportunity by the Lord through a connection in my church. Then, at the end of that year, I was introduced to my now-wife, Janet. We’ve been servants for the Lord together since and are also the foster parents to a beautiful 13-year-old daughter.
I’ve come to appreciate the compassion and unconditional love that my parents modeled to me through these troubled years of living. I pray that God continues to see fit to use me as a called servant leader wherever and however possible. Further, I’m grateful to the leadership and staff here at the Christian Leaders Institute for opening up even more possibilities for me to be a called servant leader to all that I come in contact with. All Glory to Christ! Peace to you all!
Steps to Sign Up At Christian Leaders Institute
Step 1 – Register for a free study account that automatically enrolls you in the Christian Leaders Getting Started Course Part 1 &2.
After you register, you will automatically be enrolled in the “getting started” course. You will locate the course at your “home” button when logged in. Scroll down to find the Christian Leaders Getting Started Course Part 1 &2 Link. Click the link and open the course.
Step 2 – Complete Part 1 of this course, and then you are allowed to enroll in mini-courses or regular courses.
The Christian Leaders Getting Started Class Part 1 shows you how to enroll in courses and mini-courses. Part 2 of the course connects your calling into ministry with programs offered through Christian Leaders Institute. Part 2 will offer some ministry training and introduce you to the other programs offered through Christian Leaders Institute.
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost college degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.