Gospel Ministry Training

Gospel Ministry Training

I am on a gospel ministry training journey. I was born in 1981 and raised in East Texas. I started my journey with my family going to a church. When I was eight, the sudden death of my 14-year-old brother rocked our family. Not knowing how to grieve, our family drifted apart from the inside while putting on a false pretense that we were normal, devoted, and moving forward in our family walk. Of course, as children, my sisters and I didn’t understand much of what was going on behind the scenes. We did not see our parents drifting apart until they actually separated. This separation came when I was 13. Up until this moment, my life had been very structured with church and school. I was at the top of my class and a good kid.

I moved in with my father who left the church, moved, and remarried. The structure of my life was gone. Because I had always been a trustworthy good kid, my father had no problem giving me whatever freedom I requested. My relationship with my mother was horrible and my father, with his new wife, gave me freedom and lost touch with much of what was going on with me. At the time I had no complaints about this new freedom. However, we moved to a small town just up the road from where I had grown up to this point. I was hated by many because of my “other” small town roots. I found those who accepted me were the rebels. Skipping class, smoking, drugs, lying, and stealing became me. It all seemed to happen overnight.

I will not include to this testimony all the details of the remainder of what my life has been up until now. It is shameful and detestable. I have spent the last 20 years lost in addictions. It is plural because there have been many. I have spent the last 20 years in and out of trouble with the law, in and out of rehabilitation centers that focus primarily on cognitive intervention. Everything that was taught in each of these programs was sound, intelligent, textbook instruction to changing the way you look at your life. There is something though that no person, book, or system can teach…..How to WANT the change that is needed!

May I mention that throughout these years, I did work, learned a few trades and earned a license as a Plumber. I also met my wife Amie and we started our family. Not all times are hopeless while in addiction. I feel it would be unfair to my wife and children and the progress I’ve made working with my hands if the only picture I painted for you, the reader, was a rotten image of my entire adult life. No, not all was bad, but I have always been confused and I have always been lost.

My wife and I took a plunge in our marriage about four years ago. God was not #1 in our household and we did not fight fairly at all. This unresolved conflict in my marriage led me way deep in addiction to hard drugs again. It is very humbling to talk about. I was a failure in every regard and I had given up. Depression consumed me and all I knew was to attempt to drown it out with more and more substance. This lifestyle also brought me to a prison cell where I found my Bible. I fell in love with it and I thank God for calling me to it. I read and read and read and then read some more. I have a hard time expressing in words how wonderful I feel it is to have a copy of the Word of God available to me. Oh, how lost I was for so long! How though? I always had this book on my shelf! But by the grace of our Father, he has opened up a whole new world for me. I have a new life now in Christ! I am Born Again and while I constantly find myself asking God’s forgiveness, the heavyweights of sin that used to so easily trip me have been stripped off and I have become a Slave of Christ rather than a Slave to Sin.

With this new man I am attempting to become, I find that I am consumed with questions. I am in awe and wonder of God, His Word, and how He is using me. What theology is sound? What is my calling? WHAT NOW??? I know there is a purpose and now I am seeking gospel ministry training. I feel in my soul that my testimony of wandering, sin, and rebellion will be valuable in God’s church. This is my mission! To get training and to help in my congregation in any way that I can to bring others to the Good News of Christ.

Christian Leaders Institute is crucial to me now because it offers everything that I need to take the next step in my gospel ministry training journey and provides it on a platform that works perfectly with my schedule and the demands in my life. Thank you so much for this gospel ministry training opportunity!

Learn about local ecuministry ordinations at Christian Leaders Alliance.