Ministry Studies
Ministry courses will equip students in their personal and professional lives as they minister as difference-makers. Topics range from ministry basics to evangelism, to chaplaincy, and more.
Dive right into Christian Leaders training. This "Getting Started" course is a three-credit course that allows you to attempt quizzes again as you get familiar with studying at Christian Leaders.
Ministry Foundations gives you a great foundation for pursuing basic ministry. This course is foundational for those who want to serve in a voluntary (bi-vocational) or salary position in ministry.
This course discusses people-intelligence for life and ministry. This class will help you identify common principles for effective communication and how to improve your effectiveness. This course also will help you minister to people better as you learn to hear what they are really saying. This course is designed for you to learn how to express your love in ways that people will understand
This course discusses caring for others pastorally as well as strengthening your own marriage. Whether you are married or not, this course gets at the spiritual principles of what makes a powerful kingdom partnership as a husband and wife become one spiritually, emotionally, and sexually.
This course explores some key aspects of pastoring a church including Your Family and Ministry, Leading the Leaders, Helping People Though Grief, The Nine Facets of Training your Ministry and Small Group Volunteers (Carl George), Sharing the Gospel, Hospitality, and tools for pastors as they set up a discipleship culture in homes of those they influence. This course also offers guidance for dealing with important transitional events, such as baptisms, weddings, and funerals.
This course explores various kinds of chaplaincy, such as prison, military, and hospital chaplains, along with the potential for using online chat to minister as "chatplains." Students will engage in biblical and theological reflection about chaplaincy, develop personal qualities and skills, and learn basic practices for bringing Christ's healing presence into challenging situations.
This course looks at many of the human relational dynamics that occur in most families. These insights are very helpful for Christian Leaders to lead people into God-glorifying wholeness. (Warning: This course is not for everyone. It equips leaders to help people with sex-related problems and includes material with blunt sex-related discussion.)
Are you interested in being a Christian Leader who is confident with people? This one-credit influence class will help you learn how to be a servant leader. This class will cover the essentials of becoming influence-smart largely based on the book of Proverbs.
This course equips students to bring biblical peace culture to every relationship and situation. You will learn to pursue God's purposes in situations of conflict, rather than reacting in harmful ways. You will learn to depend on God's presence and reconciling power to be a peacemaker, applying PeaceSmart principles in families, organizations, and evangelism.
Restorative Justice 101 - Restoring Relationships - Transforming Justice: This is the first course in the Restorative Justice track. When someone is convicted of breaking the law, they have actually offended the public. This public offense is a broken relationship. This course teaches how to restore not only the "public offended relationship," but many other relationships as well.
Life Coaching Ministry is a full three-credit class that could also be called "Life-Changing Coaching". This class teaches you how to be a life coach minister. Professor Steve Elzinga guides you through the study of the theory and practice of life coaching. He connects this field to that of the volunteer, part-time or full-time vocational life coach minister. This class is part of the Ordained and Commission Life Coach Minister track at lifecoachminister.com. This class can also be taken for higher education credit at Christian Leaders Institute or Christian Leaders College.
Some ministry clients "want" more assistance with options available. This course helps you give wanted direction while ensuring the level of personal ownership of decision-making remains high.
This course provides students with a Biblical framework for learning and developing Godly, healthy living skills that promote self-care and community support. Students will learn the foundations of the 12-step recovery process, best practices of conflict management and how to manage one’s dark side. Students will also survey the fundamentals of healthy relationship skills in personal and professional sectors, learn and apply love languages; God-given temperament patterns and how to go from the self to community in the context of the church.
This course focuses on helping people to manage unchecked behaviors that lead to poor judgment, acting out, self-destructive behaviors, and feeling out of control. Instead, attitudes and behaviors can be cultivated that are conducive to long-term success and peace of mind.
This advanced class presents key building blocks of a thriving marriage, offers insights for strengthening one's own marriage, develops ability to offer pre-marriage preparation for couples, and cultivates skills for marriage counseling.
Sexual intimacy is a God-given gift connected to marriage and procreation. This course discusses many vital aspects of sexuality within a Christian Worldview approach, in order to equip Christians and ministers to grow in their personal lives and in their ministry impact.
This course teaches biblical foundations for youth ministry and trains you in best practices of youth ministry. Offered in partnership with One Hope Ministries.
This course provides training for ministry among senior citizens. The class surveys various aspects of aging persons and their unique needs and opportunities for faith and service in God’s Kingdom. It explores life coaching for seniors, thus equipping ministers of all ages to benefit the seniors they are pastoring. It also examines current academic thought regarding seniors.
This class looks at mighty things the Holy Spirit does in the thought, work, and practice of presenting God's grace to others through evangelism.
This course trains disciples of Jesus to spread the movement in local ministry settings. Students will be equipped to lead a small group, plant a house church, develop a church launch team, and evangelize others. Featuring Francis Chan and David Platt.
This class takes many principles of marketing and integrates them with a
biblical framework for planting sustainable, reproducible churches.
(This class can be used as a marketing core requirement for the Degree
program or as an elective in all programs. You can only use this course
once in your program.)
The course addresses the day-to-day issues of leading a local church effectively. It covers crucial aspects such as church organization, preaching, worship, and ministries, emphasizing best practices and offering options rather than rigid prescriptions. Students will develop skills in working with diverse congregations, managing finances, building relationships with other churches, and addressing common pastoral challenges.
This course explores how godly leaders, relying on the Holy Spirit, can help guide, motivate, mobilize, unify, and equip God's people to pursue God's mission for them.
People with Down syndrome, autism, ADHD, learning differences, dementia, medical challenges, and other differences of ability are treasured by God and should be treasured in every church. This course provides the framework and practical tools to shape a congregation where people of varying abilities and disabilities can participate and belong.
Almost 21 million Americans have at least one addiction, yet only 10% of them receive treatment. Drug overdose deaths have more than tripled since 1990. From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 Americans died from overdosing on a drug. Alcohol and drug addiction cost the U.S. economy over $600 billion every year. Source
Breaking the Cycle of Addiction focuses on how to do ministry to those who are in that struggle. Dr. Mark Vander Meer presents this practical course to help you minister more effectively!
This class empowers youth leaders to not only learn how to disciple youth but also learn how to create local movements for raising up indigenous youth leaders. Dr. Ted Travis is a world leader in mobilizing youth leaders in urban areas. This class is made possible by a grant from the DeVos Urban Youth Leadership Initiative.
This course builds upon basics of communication, explores various elements of preparing and preaching sermons, discusses various models of preaching, and presents a wide-ranging sample of preachers for learning and critical evaluation. CLI recommends taking Hermeneutics and Exegesis and Communications 101 before this class.
This course teaches you
how to plant a house church and house church network. You will also
learn the leadership operating system that makes house churches strong
and thriving.
This course examines the cultivation and practice of worship ministry. You will gain a deeper understanding of various elements of public worship, develop the ability to lead worship teams and musical praise, equip others to be effective worship leaders, discern the impact of worship style on seekers and longtime church members, and make the most of worship space, sound, and lighting.
This course examines the necessity for church revitalization, the contributing factors that contribute to decline, and the biblical principles which lead to health and vitality.
This course empowers women to minister to other women with their unique needs and perspectives. You will learn the importance of women in Scripture and Christian history, and develop a vision for ministry.
This class cultivates the art and method of preparing and preaching effective sermons and/or formal Christian presentations. Drawing first upon the Bible and communion with the Spirit, students will deepen their calling as preachers, develop their skills in crafting and delivering powerful messages, and grapple with some practical challenges in preaching.