Ministry Training Vision

My name is Rockford Penn and I am following my ministry training vision. I am a member of the Remnant Fellowship Church of Christ Ministries in Columbus, Ohio. I am currently working as a graphic and web designer at a software development company known as Technicity. I am one of eight siblings. I have one older brother, one older sister, one younger brother, and four younger sisters. So I guess you could say we had a full house. Thankfully, I lived with my mother and my older brother so I didn’t have to go through the sibling craziness all throughout my childhood, and even though I did not live with all my siblings throughout our childhood we all still have relatively good relationships with each other.

Some of my earliest memories of my siblings and I together were in my grandmother’s church at Rehobeth Temple in Columbus Ohio. I remember spending the vast majority of my Sunday mornings and early afternoons in that church, and I enjoyed it. Yet, I never quite felt like I had a strong relationship with God when going there. I may have been young, but when I heard things about God in church and learned about things that happened in the Bible I was very interested, but sadly not much stuck with me after service. I would leave feeling excited from the praise and worship service, but I had a difficult time remembering the message of the day or much about the Bible.

In my early teens, I decided to start attending my father’s church, Refuge Temple in Columbus Ohio, and it had a slightly more positive effect on me, but I still felt something was missing. It wasn’t until about a year ago when I started attending Remnant Fellowship of Christ Ministries that I realized what was missing, God. In both Rehobeth Temple and Refuge Temple, I felt I wasn’t getting much out of it because it felt like my relationship with God was at a standstill. After visiting Remnant Fellowship of Christ Ministries a few times, I got so much out of it I was hooked on learning more about the Lord. To my surprise, after I started attending this fellowship I could feel my relationship with God growing for the first time in a long time. As a young man, I had been so caught up in worrying about various things going on in the churches I grew up in and worrying about what other people thought that I lost sight of what was important, God. Now I feel my relationship with him is stronger than ever.

I remember learning about a certain scripture that helped me realize my calling, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12). This scripture along with some other hints from up above have helped me realize that he has given me a ministry training vision for my future. I plan to use my ministry training in many ways. First I plan to build up a good foundation of knowledge of the Lord and his word so that I may share that knowledge with others. Second, I plan to use my ministry training to encourage those who are hungry for knowledge of our Lord and Savior to seek formal training so that they may share the knowledge of our Lord as well. Third, I plan to use my ministry training to one day become a Christian leader in hopes that I might be able to help someone find their way to the Lord the way my pastor helped me find mine.

Having a scholarship from Christian Leaders Institute will help me by allowing me to receive the formal training in ministry I want at a price that I can afford. It will help me to realize my ministry training vision. It will further my education in the knowledge of the Lord so that I can spread that knowledge to those around me. The Deacon Minister Ordination with Christian Leaders Alliance will assist my ministry by providing me with the credentials that will open up a variety of doors and opportunities to minister to people that I may not have had the opportunity to reach without them. One ministry opportunity, in particular, that is being put in my path right now is missionary work. The free ministry training and ordination have been formative in my ministry future by preparing me through informative, insightful, and helpful courses.