GET ORDAINED IN IOWA
Are you ready to embark on the pastoral journey of becoming a wedding officiant in Iowa? Or perhaps, you’re feeling the inviting Midwest wind guiding you towards roles such as a ministry chaplain, a coaching minister, or a seasoned minister?
IOWA'S STATE LAW
To officiate weddings in the Hawkeye State, you need to align with the state’s specific laws and regulations. As per Iowa Code, Chapter 595.10, wedding officiants should be ordained by a recognized religious entity or be duly authorized to solemnize marriages. This program seamlessly aligns with these guidelines, ensuring your capacity to lead weddings amidst Iowa’s sweeping prairies and river valleys.
EXPAND YOUR MINISTRY OPPORTUNITY
CLI provides a training program as vast as the Mississippi River, meeting Iowa’s prerequisites for wedding officiants. Transcending the often superficial “Online Only” courses, CLI nurtures a comprehensive ministry education and effective practical training. Participants gain an in-depth understanding of conducting wedding ceremonies, premarital counseling, and delivering heartfelt wedding messages. You’ll be equipped to lead weddings with the grace and professionalism required by Iowa law.
The Christian Leaders Institute (CLI):
We are thrilled to introduce the Christian Leaders Institute, a warm and welcoming online educational platform that provides free ministry and ordination training programs. Our mission is to make theological education accessible to individuals from all backgrounds, empowering them to deepen their understanding of Christianity and prepare for various ministry roles. Our comprehensive courses cover a wide range of subjects, including biblical studies, theology, church history, leadership, and pastoral care.
The Christian Leaders Alliance (CLA):
Through our partnership with the Christian Leaders Alliance, we offer an ordination program for individuals who have completed CLI’s training and courses. See Iowa CLA site. The Christian Leaders Alliance has been empowering ministers since 2014 and has ordained thousands of individuals. By joining CLA, you will receive formal recognition and authorization as an ordained minister, allowing you to perform weddings and other religious ceremonies in Iowa, in accordance with state law.
Flexible Timeline – Get Ordained in Iowa:
Just as the mighty Mississippi winds its way at its own pace, this program respects your unique timeline and the needs of those who may officiate weddings occasionally for loved ones. The licensing process requires less than ten hours of study, with only one recommendation. However, if you’re set on traversing greater heights and aiming for a higher ordination level, you will need to delve into more rigorous studies and secure additional recommendations.
The Significance of Credibility:
Your ordination gains recognition and credibility through your membership in the Christian Leaders Alliance (CLA). This connection underscores your dedication to thorough training and endorsement from your local Christian community, verifying the authenticity of your ordination. By joining the CLA, Iowa wedding officiants can enhance their standing within the Christian community and increase their ministerial credibility.
Emphasizing Legitimacy:
In Iowa, where the bond of marriage is as cherished as the state’s rich heartland, it’s crucial for wedding officiants to uphold legitimacy. Couples need the assurance that their wedding officiant is sufficiently trained, holds the necessary credentials, and fulfills the state’s legal obligations. By choosing CLI and CLA, aspiring wedding officiants in Iowa can offer professional and respectable services that honor the sanctity of marriage and align with the law.
Becoming a licensed Christian wedding officiant in Iowa involves understanding and complying with the specific requirements of Iowa Code, Chapter 595.10. CLI and CLA offer a reliable compass for this journey, providing comprehensive training, personalized support, and recognition from the broader Christian community.
By selecting CLI and CLA, individuals in Iowa can be confident that they are well-prepared to meet the state’s demands, uphold the highest integrity, and provide professional wedding officiation services, all in accordance with Iowa law. Embark on your expedition to create lasting memories and make a significant impact as a licensed Christian wedding officiant in Iowa, with the guidance of the Christian Leaders Institute and Alliance.
GET STARTED AT CLI
GET STARTED AT CLI
To enroll in the program, follow these steps:
- Create a free study account with the Christian Leaders Institute and get familiar with the Study.christianleaders.org platform.
- Enroll in the Christian Wedding Officiant Skills course and commence your training.
- After completing the Skills course, you will enroll in the Licensed Christian Wedding Officiant Recognition Class. This class recognizes your online training and completes your ordination into a local geographic endorsement-based ordination credential. You will be listed in the Christian Leaders Alliance Directory, and you may order your ordination credentials. You are eligible to register a local ministry at a Soul Center.
VARIOUS OPPORTUNITIES
Are you looking to extend your ministry roots deep into the fertile soil of Iowa? Whether your heart yearns for the nurturing role of a wedding officiant or the adventurous path of other ministerial roles, the Christian Leaders Institute (CLI) and Christian Leaders Alliance (CLA) stand as your dependable cornfield guides. Let’s venture into the breathtaking landscape of opportunities spread before you:
Wedding Officiant: Picture yourself as a wise river guide, steering couples through the significant journey of marriage. By becoming ordained through the Christian Leaders Alliance, you can legally perform wedding ceremonies in Iowa, helping love bloom like the state’s famous wild prairie roses.
Field Minister: If your time to devote to study is like Iowa’s precious golden cornfields – limited but valuable – the Field Minister role is your treasure map. CLI offers free introductory courses, providing a solid foundation for lay ministers, church elders, and deacons, letting you serve your community like the mighty Mississippi serves its riverbanks.
Licensed Minister: If you seek to delve into the lush prairie of ministerial roles, the Licensed Minister program is your trusty compass. Thirteen credits of in-depth study and six mini-courses will navigate you deeper into the wilderness of ministerial knowledge, readying you to serve in various capacities.
Licensed Coaching Minister: For those drawn to the blend of coaching techniques and ministry, like Iowa’s unique fusion of prairies and rolling hills, the Coaching Minister role is your trail. Two free coaching courses, fifteen credits, and six mini-courses will equip you to lead effectively through coaching.
Licensed Ministry Chaplain: As a beacon atop one of Iowa’s beautiful limestone bluffs, a Licensed Ministry Chaplain can provide much-needed spiritual care in places such as hospitals or correctional facilities. Eighteen credits and six mini-courses will prepare you to be a lighthouse in life’s storms for those in need.
Ordained Minister: For those eager to scale the highest peaks of ministry or seeking comprehensive training, the Ordained Minister role stands tall as Iowa’s lofty Hawkeye Point. With 21 credits and seven mini-courses, your journey is well-prepared, enhancing your ministerial abilities and revealing new panoramas of service in Iowa.
As a minister, you share the good news, much like a farmer revealing Iowa’s bountiful harvest. Informed by Isaiah 61:1, let your ministry be a beacon of hope for the downtrodden, just as the first light of dawn illuminates Iowa’s vast prairie.
So grab your hiking boots, chart your course, and expand your ministry’s horizons in Iowa through the programs offered by the Christian Leaders Institute and Christian Leaders Alliance. With God as your North Star and the backing of these reputable organizations, you can fulfill your ministerial aspirations, serving as a guiding light in Iowa’s vibrant spiritual landscape.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How is the Christian Leaders Institute funded? Christian Leaders Institute is funded through a “Give It Forward” Approach. Click here to read more.
Can I register my church or religious society under the banner of Christian Leaders Alliance? Yes. Locally registered Soul Centers are being register all over the world. Click here to read more.
Can I receive a College degree after I enroll at Christian Leaders Institute?
At Christian Leaders Institute, our college degrees are offered through our Leadership Excellence School. We provide access to both Associate Degrees and Bachelor Degrees. To begin our degree program, you must first enroll as a student in our School of Christian Development. Every student starts by creating a study account at the Christian Development school. Once you complete the “Getting Started” class, you can proceed to enroll in our Leadership Excellence School, where our degree programs are hosted.. Click here to set up you account.
This degree is ideal for those who desire to pursue their Master’s Degree with one of our partner Seminaries like North Point Bible College and Seminary, Kairos University, Calvin, Western, Northern, and more.
Christian Leaders Institute is your access or gateway many professional ministry opportunity.
My name is Barry Healey, and I live in Dallas, Texas, in the United States. I currently serve as an elder in a Cowboy Church in Terrell, Texas. Further, I am studying at the Christian Leaders Institute to become an ordained minister.
My Long Journey to the Ministry
My journey to the ministry has been long. I was not brought up in a churchgoing family and thus not raised with a knowledge of God and his wonderous love and gift of salvation.
As a teenager, in the mid-1970s, I joined an Episcopal church in Ennis, Texas. There, I served as an altar boy until I graduated high school and left to join the military in 1979. Although I had not yet come to know the Lord as my Savior, I felt I wanted to become a preacher. That may have been the Lord nudging me to accept Christ as my Savior and serve Him.
After my discharge from military service, I made a profession of faith in March 1985. Shortly thereafter, I moved to Mesquite, Texas, and joined a Baptist Church. There, I served in the bus ministry as a driver and in the children’s ministry, teaching Sunday School and occasionally preaching a message in the Children’s Church.
Spiritual Growth and Discouragement
I met my wife in 1989 and we married in 1990. In the mid-90s, we joined the youth group on a trip to a youth camp in West Virginia, where my life was changed even more. During one of the nightly tent meetings at the youth camp, I felt a strong calling to preach. Therefore, I responded to that call by going forward to profess my calling to the pastor.
Upon returning home and informing my pastor of my calling, he mentored me and others in the youth group who also experienced a similar calling. He provided us with informal training in sermon writing. Further, he gave each of us the opportunity to preach from the pulpit during our mid-week service.
The following year, I was invited to attend Pastor’s School in Hammond, Indiana, for additional training in various ministries. Once I returned from Pastor’s School, I sought to further my formal ministry education. However, the opportunity eluded me due to a lack of funds. After several years, I became discouraged and fell away from the church for several years.
New Direction
In the early 2000s, we found a new church. It was a Cowboy Church that was being established in Mesquite. We attended the first service and absolutely fell in love with this new church. I felt a renewed excitement for the Lord’s work and a renewed call to the ministry. Our pastor provided me and others with some instruction on sermon writing during this time.
A few years later, we moved to a Cowboy Church in Terrell, Texas. We have experienced more blessings than ever. Our pastor even asked me to deliver the message during our mid-week service when he was on vacation.
Become a Fully Ordained Minister
Still, formal education was elusive. That is until I found the Christian Leader’s Institute. Now, I have the opportunity to fully respond to the Lord’s calling and study to become a fully ordained minister. I pray that with the education and knowledge I receive from CLI, I will be able to understand His word better and spread His gospel message of salvation.
Register a Study Account
Register for a free study account, automatically enrolling you in the Getting Started Class at the Christian Leaders Learning Platform. The Getting Started class will take you less than an hour to complete.
When you log in to the Learning Platform, you will notice that the Getting Started Class automatically appears on your dashboard.
The Getting Started Class will orientate you to the Christian Leaders Learning Platform and the Programs offered, including:
- Ministry Awards, Certificates, Diplomas, and Degrees with the Christian Leaders Institute.
- Minister Credentialling (Ordination) with the Christian Leaders Alliance, including local Soul Center registration possibilities.
Note: You can enroll in tuition-free courses or mini-courses immediately without finishing the getting started class.
Find out more about women in ministry here.
My name is Deborah Fox from Gwynedd in the United Kingdom. I signed up for Bible courses and clergy credentials at the Christian Leaders Institute on the 4th of July in 2023. I am amazed that we can study for free without pressure to donate to this fantastic platform to study the Word and gain clergy credentials. God is good!
A Selfish, Broken Life
I have been a Christian since 2009 after losing my brother-in-law to heroin addiction. Before this, I was a lost soul. However, I didn’t know that. I am from a small town in Buxton, England. I have three sisters. The eldest is deaf and dumb. Our dad left us when I was eight, and we girls grew wild as we got older.
Drugs and drinking were a usual way of life in our town. I preferred smoking weed and cannabis to taking different kinds of partying drugs and dancing the night away. I had several jobs, from working nights in a factory to a hotel bar or in a pub. I had no real career but always loved art and drawing at different times of my life. A friend convinced me to go back to college in the late 1990s. So, I did a foundation course in art and design. However, it didn’t come to anything because of my lifestyle.
Times became more complicated when two of my sisters became drug addicts. It wasn’t easy to deal with. In 2000, I got into a violent relationship. We ended up living in Devon. The relationship became too violent, so I ended it in 2004. Then, I moved into a shared house. There, I was abused, and things spiraled. More fearful and unstable, I ended up in a psychiatric hospital for a few weeks with a nervous breakdown. They put me on antidepressants. So, I got my life back on track. My mum, a Jehovah’s Witness at that time, sometimes talked to me about God.
Searching for God
In 2009, my brother-in-law died from a heroin overdose. At that time, I worked in a call center. Further, I began to talk to God. I asked if He would reveal Himself to me as real. I had to return to Buxton to face my sister, the funeral, and everything. God used my mum’s 73-year-old friend, Allan, a Jehovah’s Witness at that time. Every time I prayed, Allan would either ring me or I would bump into him. I spent about two weeks in Buxton. I also spent some time with my mum talking about God. Furthermore, I took a Jehovah’s Witness Bible home with me and some Watchtower magazines.
Back in Exeter, I emailed their website and started a Bible study with them. Then, I attended the Kingdom Hall for meetings. I moved back to Buxton in July 2010 and started a new Jehovah’s Witness Bible study there. I asked a lot of questions and wasn’t 100% sure. This led me to a conversation with someone who was a born-again believer. The person told me Jehovah’s Witnesses were a cult.
Freedom in Christ
Therefore, I tried the church the person attended on September 18, 2011. Soon, I left the Jehovah’s Witnesses and began my new journey as a born-again believer. At last, life made more sense! I did an Alpha Course and attended a prayer storm meeting in Manchester on 11/11/11. They showed a clip on child sex trafficking. It broke me, and I couldn’t believe that things like that were happening.
It also caused me to face my past trauma. Thankfully, I dealt with it by getting counseling and doing a Freedom in Christ course. That is how God healed me. I also had problems with my back sciatica from my previous violent relationship and fibromyalgia from the trauma. Therefore, in 2012, after doing the Freedom in Christ course with my church and having two extraordinary older ladies pray with and for me, God healed me mentally and physically! Hallelujah!!
Ministry Service
For five years, I worked an excellent job in Buxton as a part-time supervisor in a Christian charity shop called Little Blessing. We sold everything from baby to maternity clothes, cots, beds, and prams. The charity raised money for choice counseling free of charge for anyone dealing with miscarriage, abortion, or anything to do with mothers struggling mentally. We also did hardship funds for working mothers and mothers-to-be. It was a wonderful job, and I met many amazing people and friends. Sadly, the shop closed in 2017 after struggling financially.
However, I built such a fantastic friendship with one of the ladies I worked with that we moved to Bolton. I lived with her from 2017 to 2021. Also, in 2016, one of my dear friends, an older woman, had a vision for me about me picking up my artist equipment again. So, I started painting on canvas, and God inspired me to paint with Him. I have sold a few of my paintings. It has been a wonderful experience listening to and painting with the Lord.
Some Wandering and My Marriage
Since I had little Bible instruction, I got into some unbiblical teachings with some New Age practices mixed in with it. But God is so good! He used my mother’s death in 2020 when Covid hit to open my eyes. It was painful because I had to cut some friends off and relearn/unlearn things. Because of Covid, I couldn’t travel, which also turned out to be more fruitful.
On November 8, 2020, I met my husband. We had our first date on November 29. We knew without any doubt how we felt for one another. So, we married in May 2021. For one year of our marriage, we struggled to find a biblical church that had sound doctrine after moving to Halifax. Then, we moved to South Wales last year in 2022 and found a fantastic church. But our family stressed we were too far away, so we compromised and moved to North Wales. We found a lovely, small, biblical church in Anglesey. We love it and are involved in outreach.
Clergy Credentials
So here I am today at the Christian Leaders Institute to get a strong biblical foundation and clergy ordination credentials. My husband likes to go out onto the streets and evangelize and has done so since he was saved. We are figuring out what God wants us to do together and/or separately in ways of serving. We’re praying. The classes at CLI will be helpful and give us a firm foundation and clergy credentials. Then, we will be prepared for whatever God calls us to do.
Register a Study Account
Register for a free study account, automatically enrolling you in the Getting Started Class at the Christian Leaders Learning Platform. The Getting Started class will take you less than an hour to complete.
When you log in to the Learning Platform, you will notice that the Getting Started Class automatically appears on your dashboard.
The Getting Started Class will orientate you to the Christian Leaders Learning Platform and the Programs offered, including:
- Ministry Awards, Certificates, Diplomas, and Degrees with the Christian Leaders Institute.
- Minister Credentialling (Ordination) with the Christian Leaders Alliance, including local Soul Center registration possibilities.
Note: You can enroll in tuition-free courses or mini-courses immediately without finishing the getting started class.
Find out more about women in ministry here.