Free Life Skills Class – Become a Stronger and Healthier You
by Professor: Dr. David Feddes
You are part of God’s special operations. Your mission is to reclaim the world for Christ. You have been saved and called to help. This class is about helping you to become a stronger and healthier you. This free life skills class is perfect for living a more confident and healthy life!
This free life skills class gives you Biblical insights and practical knowledge that make you stronger for your mission. Each topic is applied to your spiritual, physical, financial, intellectual, emotional, relational, and vocational dimensions of life.
Dr. David Feddes will bring you through the crucial areas of total fitness for you to thrive in leading others.
You will Learn and Grow in this free life skills class
- Total fitness: hear God’s call to embrace practical wisdom and discipline for strengthening the whole person.
- Spiritual fitness: draw near to God and stand stronger against Satan through spiritual disciplines.
- Physical fitness: know why the body matters to God, improve bodily health, and use body language well.
- Financial fitness: earn a good living, escape debt, build wealth, honor God and bless others with money.
- Intellectual fitness: build healthy curiosity, sharp thinking, lifelong study, and courage to stand for truth,
- Emotional fitness: learn to face feelings honestly and discover God working through emotions.
- Relational fitness: heal from past relational wrongs and wounds, and interact with others in a wise and godly manner
- Vocational fitness: pursue God’s calling for job, career, and other tasks.
You are welcome to take this free life skills Class supported by generous vision partners. These vision partners include blessed Christian Leaders Institute Graduates, Kingdom-minded Christians and Foundations, and others.
Begin your free life skills course now! You will begin by taking a Getting Started Orientation class. Then you are encouraged to enroll in the Christian Leaders Connection Class which helps you get situated at Christian Leaders Institute. You are also free to immediately take this Total Fitness class by Dr. David Feddes.
Other Opportunities:
More Ministry Training Classes and Programs -These Ministry training programs will fuel your calling and increase your impact. Gather digital mission credentials or order official awards. These credentials are perfect for local ministry opportunities and ordination.
Ordination – Completing free classes opens you up to an ordination opportunity that is both locally and globally recognized with the Christian Leaders Alliance. Check out how you can become an Ordained Christian Leader. Low fees apply for ordination packages.
College Degree – Earn your College Degree – Use your Christian Leaders Institute free classes for collegiate credentials. Earn certificates, diplomas and degrees. Low administration fees apply.
As Christian Leaders Institute continues to grow, we are always encouraged to see positive feedback from our Bible school students. Many courses ask for a final reflection paper where the student evaluates what he or she learned in the class and how it applies to life and ministry. In a reflection paper for Pastoral Care and Marriage, Thelma Williams-Grady talks about what she learned in this course.
“I think this [how to really listen] is one of the most important things I will take away from this course because you not only have to hear what people say but we must listen to what they say. There is a difference.” The concept of learning to listen to what people have to say comes hard to many people, but the exposure to this key element of counseling and care will stick with Thelma for years to come. Learning to listen will also strengthen her ability to lead, counsel, and care for others in the future.
Thelma talks about a lot of other things that she learned in Pastoral Care and Marriage, but she concludes by saying, “While counseling maintain and keep client information confidential. In our society we as church leaders need to support marriage not condemn it, because marriage support is at an all-time low. I will use this course to strengthen my own marriage. Please pray for me because I have a hard task ahead of me. People come to church to hear the word of God not gossip.” This last point is another key element of ministering to and counseling others. Gossip is always destructive, tearing down the person who is being gossiped about, the gossiper, and the listeners all at the same time. In fact, learning what not to listen to is often just as important as learning to listen. The lessons that Thelma shares from this course are ones that every Christian, not just leaders, should apply to their lives through the power of Christ.
Learning to Listen so We Can Better Share God’s Love
When she first joined Christian Leaders Institute, Thelma completed the course Getting Started: Christian Basics Certificate. In this class, students are introduced to the Bible school model at Christian Leaders Institute. They are also asked to write a brief letter talking about what brought them to Christian Leaders Institute as well as their ministry goals. In her letter, Thelma writes, “My dream ministry is to preach and teach the gospel the way that is becoming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I have a testimony of how the lord has blessed me, and I just want to tell the whole world.” The desire to share God’s blessing in your life with others honors God and shows others that you truly believe that everything comes from Him, not from your work. Yet, just as in pastoral care and counseling, learning to listen to what the other person is saying can increase the impact of your message dramatically.
When Thelma completed Getting Started: Christian Basics Certificate, she received her Christian Basics Certificate. This is the first certificate offered to students at Christian Leaders Institute. Once students complete this certificate, they can move on and take any of the other courses offered here. It is a blessing to see the work that God is doing through these courses, and our prayer is that He will ever increase the number of people reached through Christian Leaders Institute.
At Christian Leaders Institute, students are asked at the end of some classes to submit a final reflection paper. Sometimes the courses offered at CLI impact students in amazing ways. One such student was David James, who wrote of his experience in the course Missions and Revivals.
“I found this course extremely valuable in several ways… …Living and working in South East Asia, I was particularly interested in the missions aspect within this course, although the revivals did hammer home one key message; prayer is always the starting point!” After talking for a few minutes about the power of prayer, David goes on to say, “Someone that I found most helpful to my own personal situation was John Williams… …He sent missionaries to Samoa in 1830 and in just seven years, over half the population had converted to Christianity. In the Christian History extract, it asks, “Why such spectacular growth?” and goes on to state, “Williams understood how much influence chiefs had in village life, and he intentionally sought to win them over in order to secure not only the respect of the community but also the admiration of other chiefs… …This really emphasized to me the need for a good understanding of local and national culture and attitudes. It’s often far too easy for us to think that the way we have been brought up is the only way and everything else is wrong. I think we need to remember that being different is often just that, different, not wrong.” David James has many other things to offer concerning the course Missions and Revivals, but in his conclusion he returns to the starting point: prayer. He says “I will continue to pray for guidance in this matter, knowing He will reveal His plan for me in His own time.” This is key for him to understand if he is to be an agent of God in bringing revival to South Africa.
Revival in South Africa Starts With Prayer and Training
David James began his studies at CLI with the course Getting Started: Christian Basics Certificate. This course serves as an orientation where students get acquainted with the Bible school model. Additionally, it asks students to fill out a profile and write a letter. These assignments allow them to introduce their ministry goals and reasons for studying at CLI. In his letter, David writes “My returning to the fold, as I like to see it, has been quite recent, although it’s been “getting there” for the last decade. As Was mentioned in the course, it’s often in our worst times we can come close to God. Even though I was away from God, He was never away from me. How true the “Footprints” poem is! I can see that where there was one set of prints, God was carrying me.” He also writes in his reflection paper that he has a deep desire to serve God in helping to bring revival to his country. It is the prayer of everyone at Christian Leaders Institute that the Lord does a great work through him. It is also our prayer that the training he receives here will equip him for everything that the Lord has in store for him.
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At Christian Leaders Institute, one of the challenges is the ever-present difficulty of determining the effectiveness of the training. As part of an effort to accomplish this, CLI asks students to submit final reflection papers in some of their classes. One such class, Church and Ministry, seeks to teach students what it means to lead a church. In her final paper, Angela Palle of the United States has this to say about Church and Ministry.
“This course has blessed me in ways I cannot even begin to describe. Before taking this course, pastoring to me was being knowledgeable in the word of God and being able to teach it… …this course has taught me that just knowing the word of God is not enough. You must be sensitive to situations, in your response…”
As Angela begins her reflection, she talks about the greatest impact that this course had in her life. The realization that leading a church well requires more than just knowing the word of God and teaching it is central to any church leader. In Church and Ministry, Angela was able to gain a new understanding of this truth.
As she continues to reflect on Church and Ministry, Angela says “…I always believed the pastor should be an example of organization, uprightness, holiness and what have you. But if you allow your Christians to see your human side you make your position and the standards you set reachable.” Later on she talks about another specific area of this course that helped her learn what it means to lead a church. “Finally the importance of small groups to the growth of the church, hospitality in these groups, training new leaders, the difference between an assistant and an apprentice gave me new insight into this walk. I am very grateful to this course.”
Getting Started: The Path to Lead a Church Well
After submitting an application to Christian Leaders Institute, Angela was enrolled in the class Getting Started: Christian Basics Certificate. This class introduced her to the CLI Bible school model, but it also gave her an opportunity to introduce herself to the faculty. In this course, students are asked to share a little bit about themselves and their ministry goals. Angela writes this “I want to open a women’s ministry. This will be a forum for women to take on the challenges of life prayerfully, support one another in various ways and reach out to other women who are going through similar situations. CLI will make that happen for me by inculcating in me the knowledge, skills and tools I need to run this ministry that is why I really need this scholarship.” After finishing the Getting Started class, Angela obtained the Christian Basics Certificate and was able to progress to further studies at Christian Leaders Institute.