Pastor Ministry Journey

Pastor Ministry Journey

Here is a story of not only an ordination but of a pastor ministry journey. I am a child of God and my name is John Bennett. I am a resident of Mendon, Michigan. I am married to a wonderful woman, Kim, who is a loving, faithful wife, a strong Christian, and a wonderful mother to our children. Our marriage has lasted 28 years and we are both looking forward to many, many more. We have three children which we are proud of. All three are girls and I would not have it any other way. They were all schooled in Christian schools with the younger two finishing their education being homeschooled by Kim. Now they are all out of school and doing different things.

Today I have come closer to God than ever before. My family has gone through some very rough times, financially and emotionally. We have focused on God to get us through these issues. I work as an IT analyst and have several different areas of responsibility. I am responsible for the network and IT department, I handle programming, website development, database management, security (both cybersecurity and physical), business continuity and emergency management, compliance and safety, some marketing, etc. I work for a company with few employees so we all have to take on many areas to keep operational.

When I started at Christian Leaders Institute, I wanted to become an assistant pastor/minister. This has always been a desire in the back of my mind. Then with all that was going on in my life, these desires started to come back to life. These issues that my family has had made me closer to God than ever before. As I have learned about my own walk with God, I recognized the mistakes I have made and the lack of understanding that I had about being a Christian. I want to help others understand what the walk is and how to put off the old self and put on God. I want to do this not only through the actual delivery of sermons but also through writing and studies to help others and myself have a daily fellowship with God. I have now been taking classes from CLI for several years. I had been working on becoming that assistant pastor. Yes, I wrote “had been”. I stated it that way because God has given me a purpose and has been working on me toward this end for a very, very long time on my pastor ministry journey. God has given me gifts to use in order to help glorify Him. These gifts He gave to me have changed my life.

I have been working in the areas of emergency management and business continuity for quite a few years. During this time, God pointed out that there is an element of these fields that is missing. In emergency management, we are trained to protect life and property. We are trained to deal with the physical and psychological injuries that can occur during a disaster. But another basic need of life has been totally ignored and that need is spirituality. I am wanting to use my ordination with Christian Leaders Alliance to work with churches and mission-related organizations to prepare them, their staff and congregations, for disasters. To help keep the pastors and ministers giving sermons, even when the church has been destroyed by a tornado, hurricane, or fire. To help a congregation which has an ill minister that is not able to give the coming Sunday sermon because he is in the hospital. I want to come alongside them to be a support to them in their time of need. I am looking to create an organization that helps in those ways and many more. I am standing now, God helping, and starting down this path on my pastor ministry journey. I do not know what is ahead of me, but with God, all will be well. Thank you and God bless!

Author: Henry Reyenga

Henry Reyenga is president of Christian Leaders Institute and Christian Leaders Alliance.