Small Church Leader Ministry Training

Small Church Leader Ministry Training

Join today and receive free high-quality online ministry training. Christian Leaders Institute (CLI) trains revival leaders throughout the world. CLI accepts any individual anywhere in their life to learn about Christianity. Read a student’s testimony below who found CLI and is using the small church leader ministry training from CLI to help strengthen her and her family’s faith:

I was born and raised in Southern California, in the United States. I lived in the same city I was born in until I was over 30 years old when my husband moved us (me, our children, and his mother) out to the rural desert. I have always felt a fondness for the desert. The open land, the dry air, the clear blue sky seem to calm my heart and leave me open to the quietness where God speaks. As I watch the sun rise and set over the brush and cactus, I can close my eyes and be close to the Lord.

Sharing the Lord with others in the United States is probably the easiest thing in the world, the freest and legally protected, but I’m reluctant to be viewed as condescending or strange. I feel like the Lord has blessed me beyond belief, yet I am afraid to share His love with strangers. Why? That’s what I’m here to find out.

I was born into a Christian home that did not practice the faith. I knew the Bible stories they tell children, but I did not mature into a real relationship with God with Jesus as my Savior.
I married the man of my dreams when I was 26 years old and it turned out he was a practicing Christian, a man walking with God. We had some wonderful disagreements during our first years of marriage over what the Bible says, whether it is literal, and who goes to heaven. I really did not have enough information to argue. My knowledge of the Bible ended with Children’s Sunday School stories and coloring pages of Jesus. He suggested I actually read the book and because I loved him and looked up to him, I did. He bought me a study bible and I’ve had the same one ever since. It is full of notes, thoughts, and prayers.

A few years later, I met a woman who became a very good friend. She invited me to her church for coffee and I began attending regularly. I’d bring home the sermon and my husband and I would talk about it and I’d learn so much more. The long story short is that I fell in love with Jesus there and ended up being Baptized and dedicating our children in that church. I felt the Lord move mightily in my life at that time.

After our big move to the desert, I continued my study. I used to attend church with my Mother-In-Law but was never comfortable. I love her dearly but felt “in her shadow” at her church and haven’t returned. Lately, I’ve felt compelled to find a church home and have been actively praying for God’s help in this matter. The trouble is that I’m a very introverted person and I’ve been hurt by church people. I’m afraid to open the door and walk in alone. After some reflection, I’m starting to see it may be my own sin of pride that is holding me back.

My ministry dream. Well, that’s the strange part. When I first started looking online for an in depth bible study, I wasn’t looking for ministry training. I was looking to connect with God on a deeper level than just feeling. I wanted something more systematic than just reading my translation of the bible over and over again with no more input than what came to me. I love that part of my morning study, but I wanted more. I found that in CLI’s Small Church Leader Ministry Training.

I am the mother of teenage boys. While we have always read the Bible together and lived our Christian values, I’ve never felt fully equipped to minister to my children. As they begin to look outside our home for a life of their own, I would like to be a better resource for the Christian teaching to them, their wives, and their children in the future.

Recently, I volunteered to work at a local Christian pregnancy clinic. The clinic offers help for women with unplanned & planned pregnancies, supporting them by helping educate them about their pregnancy, helping them find other resources, connecting them with churches, and mentoring them in parenting and skills. It is all in the hopes of saving children from abortion and bringing people to the Lord through service and love. I’m not a counselor there. I’m just a receptionist. But I’ve found it to be such a place of God’s love that I feel called to be more like them. I want to know God daily like they do. I want to be able to share it with others by only the light in my eyes and the love of my heart. Can the Small Church Leader ministry training I’ve found at CLI be used in this context some day? I believe so.

Like I said, I didn’t come online looking for small group leader ministry training or any ministry training, but it sure found me. God works in some very mysterious ways! Through the last few weeks, I find myself growing more and more excited about the classes that are offered here. Because of the “Getting Started” class, I’ve found ways to add to my daily walk with God in my own way. I’ve changed the radio station I listen to while I do the dishes to Worship music, for one thing. When my son walked by and remarked that he had heard this song at church and smiled that smile I love so much, I knew God was there. I’ve begun to memorize scripture, something I never thought I could actually do, and it has been a light in my heart. My daily meditation is now focused on that verse as I repeat it and let God’s love wash over me, instead of just focusing on my breathing. I feel a call to know God more through this class and I thank you for offering it in such a unique way!

I think I may identify most with “Small Group Leader” and I am interested in CLI’s small church leader ministry training. I’ve always loved the ones I have attended and would love to lead one at our pregnancy clinic for young mothers. I feel a connection with these young women and I want to show them that with God they can be the mother of that child and there is no telling what joy they will experience. There is just so much potential in a pregnant woman, so much expectation and joy. It’s as if you can actually see Creation as it happens. I’d love to lead small group studies that help these women know their own strength and where it comes from, that there is an infinite supply in Jesus. I know CLI’s Small Church Leader Ministry Training will equip me with the tools necessary to follow my dreams.

Every way I’ve turned, God has been there. At my worst moment and my best, God has shown me his mercy and strength. My life has been blessed beyond belief and I give all the credit to the love of Jesus Christ. There have been so many chances to go the wrong way, to give up and end up alone and unhappy, but Jesus has always been holding his hand out to me. I want to be an example to others. I want them to see the love of God when then see me.

I read about the challenges ministries have in other countries and I wonder if there is any real challenge here at all. There is no legal or cultural hurdle. But there is one thing that seems to be growing, apathy and distrust. People all around me are heard saying that people in need should look to the government program that provides for them. That’s what we pay taxes for. But can a government program to feed the poor do the same service as a church ministry? In one way, yes. The people are physically fed to some degree. In the most important way, no. The people are still hungry for a connection to their fellow man and to God. I believe a church ministry can do so much more than hand a hungry child a bowl of cereal or a young woman contraceptives. The church can touch a person’s soul, bring them closer to God, and make them whole so that they can stand on their own and begin to help others. It’s like a ripple effect across humanity. That is what our community needs, the first pebble to be dropped on the smooth surface of the water and then another, and another, until the whole pond is rippling and crossing with love and support in this life. I hope to be a part of this ripplng effect with the use of my Small Church Leader Ministry Training

Has connecting to the Bible has transformed my life? I used to scoff at the idea that just reading could bring you closer to God. Now that I have taken the chance and have been reading for several years, I see the wisdom. I’ve experienced first hand how a simple prayer and a few chapters a day over my breakfast can show me how God’s Word is relevant in every age. It has made me more confident in God’s Word to actually know it first hand. I’m continually amazed by the answers I find there. How much more insight would I receive if I spent more time and trusted that God would show me what I need to understand? He’ll keep repeating it until I see it. It’s there. I just need to pause and see it.

My local church. At the moment, my church does not expand much past, my own family. I’m a work in progress though and am moving towards attempting a church service again. I’ve had some ugly ideas about what church is and what I should expect there. And I’m afraid. I should not be and I know this. God is in any church. He has a reason for me to be there and it isn’t something I can understand just now. I have a multitude of reason why I can’t go to church. I’m busy; my kids race dirt bikes on most Sundays. My husband won’t go; I don’t want to leave him alone on his day off. I’m shy and nervous; I don’t want to try a new church alone. I don’t want to attend with my Mother-in-Law; she’s established there and I feel in her shadow. I don’t like the sermons and politics of her church; maybe I need to be there anyway and see what’s there besides that, “be the change” as they say.

This is an obstacle to overcome. I need prayer here and God’s hand to hold as I step outside my comfort zone.

My family is the reason I feel called to this ministry in the first place. The Lord has held us up in amazing ways and I so desperately want to share that with others so that they can make their families loving and strong fortresses in the world. I believe firmly that each individual relationship with God is where we each begin to build better relationships with our spouse, our children, and our communities.

Though my husband and children have a more subtle relationship with God, one they keep mostly to themselves and share with the world by the way they are responsible for their own lives and help others where they can, they do see that my personality and calling is a bit different than theirs, and they fully support what I do as long as I respect and support their need for peace and privacy. While I read, study, and discuss with them and others, so that I can shout to the mountaintops, “God did this for me!”, they are happy to watch and love me from the sidelines. I love them for this because I know in some dark corner they think I’m a little bit crazy but they love me anyway.

CLI has come into my life at just the right moment and at just the right price. The free online small church leader ministry training CLI offers is flexible that it fits perfectly into my schedule. My husband supports all of us on one income. In Southern California, even in the desert, that’s a difficult thing to do, so we don’t have a lot of spending money. We homeschool our children without government oversight and support, so a lot of our money goes to their education. But my children are moving toward beginning their own journey. As they begin to move outward, I know I’ll have more time to do the things I have put aside while raising them, not to mention the money that used to go to their education can then go to mine. I know I’ll be able to pay back to CLI so that others around the world can get the training they need and desire, but it’s wonderful to know that I can get started on the work of it right now! 

I’d love it if the CLI community could pray for my personal ministry direction and my small Church Leader Ministry Training. Pray that with God’s help I can find the courage to step into a formal church and begin to build a wider church family. Pray that I can find my calling there; that I’ll find a way to fit in or stand out and be happy with where God has planted me to bloom.

Check out more stories about CLI students becoming leaders in ministry the on the CLI facebook page