Affordable Minister Coaching Program

Christian Leaders offers an affordable Minister Coaching Program that partners with Christian Leaders Institute for tuition-free courses and the Christian Leaders Alliance for credentialing.

The need for an affordable minister coaching program is felt by many who are called into ministry but may not have the finances to go through life coach or coaching certification.

Christian Leaders offers a program that is not only affordable but is content-oriented and can be done on your own time. Content-oriented means you have college-level courses to complete, not just training in life-coaching principles.

Do You Need an Opportunity?

Many people search for what Christian Leaders offers. Their life situations are challenging, and their finances are tight. When they discover the Christian Leaders opportunity, they cannot believe that free courses are offered. They take the Getting Started course and one or two other courses before they believe that the courses are free with the Christian Leaders Institute. Further, the credentials are low-cost donations that support the work of making this opportunity available to others. This concept allows for an affordable minister coaching program to be accessed worldwide.

Affordable Minister Coaching Program – Testimony

Amanda Griffin is one of the graduates of the Life Coach minister program. Here is her story:

I’m Amanda Griffin. I am 35 years old and have been married to a wonderful husband for 12 years. We are tremendously blessed to have our sons, Alex (11) & James (8). We homeschool our boys and currently live in Bellevue, WA.

Early Years

I grew up with my older sister, Mom, and Dad in a home that loved God and went to church. However, we did not focus on studying the Bible. My family was involved in volunteering at the church and our elementary school often. So, I have loved God my whole life, but He felt distant and unreachable. It felt like I was always chasing after God. I never really knew how to have the connection, trust, and faith that I saw others have with Him.

Mysterious Illness

Throughout my childhood, I had many health problems that came and went. I missed so much of 5th grade that my mom decided to home-school my sister and me. There were years of illness and years of remission, no answers, always “unexplained inflammation.” However, I never let it stop me from trying to enjoy life. I even remember ignoring the doctor’s orders not to tap dance with an enlarged spleen. I wanted to perform in the production of Anything Goes the summer after I graduated high school. (I’m not endorsing this choice).

After living in California for a while, I got ill again. I moved back to my hometown to be near my family and familiar doctors while we tried to sort it out. The business I was trying to start had to get put on the back burner as my health declined. So I sought out my only other dream: to be a wife and mother.

Dating

Thank God for online dating! I met my wonderful husband Josh when he sent a “wink” instead of a message because he didn’t think he had a chance with me. Hindsight, maybe I shouldn’t have used my modeling photos. Little did he know I was way more nerd than a model. We connected over family values, video games, dogs, and God. Josh was serving in the Navy, stationed two hours away from me. So it was a long distance from the start. But, we talked on the phone daily and the relationship grew quickly. Just as quickly, it was tested.

I Said Yes!

Just three months into dating, I had a massive flare that nearly took my life with inflammation of the lining of my heart and lungs. Thankfully though, it finally gave answers and I was diagnosed with Still’s Disease. My joints were so painful during this initial onset that I couldn’t even climb the stairs.

Josh got special leave from the military, came, and took care of me. Making my food and carrying me up the stairs when needed. I was then put on a pill form chemotherapy and steroids with the hope that after one year of treatment, it would put me in remission. Leaving us with a wishful but uncertain future. Josh could have gotten scared and left. However, he stayed and loved me anyway. Three months after that, he proposed to me on Christmas. Of course, I said yes!

Refinement in the Fire

Now, as much as we loved God and wanted Him at the center of our marriage and life, we were not skilled at that. Although always faithful and full of love, our marriage struggled. We dealt with the normal marriage issues of blending two lives together. We also faced chronic illness, military life, raising two boys, and struggling financially due to extra health costs and lowly enlistment salary.

Then Josh started getting troublesome symptoms that we now know were the beginning of his Narcolepsy. However, they were unable to figure that out while he was in service, and his job was working on fighter jets. That skilled job can kill you if you step into the wrong place at the wrong time. So, we had no choice but to deny re-enlistment, ending what was supposed to be a lifetime career.

Further Refinement

Skimming forward over several years: Josh got into business school and completed his degree in just two years. However, no job was available with a sustaining salary because he didn’t have “industry experience.” So he went back for his MBA, then his Narcolepsy drastically worsened to the point where he had to drop out. Josh developed severe depression.

I got diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer, finances were desperate, and years of unresolved marriage issues hit boiling points. We were dangling by a thread. Yet, in His grace, God used our willingness and blessed us with a renewed and restored marriage. He brought glory to Himself by taking two lowly, broken people and lifting us up to something humbling and beautiful, just like He does with all of His children.

Over these years, we sought God more fervently, studied His Word, and learned to trust on a deeper level. We were also involved in our church as much as my health would allow. Although He didn’t take away any of the hardships, God came close and increasingly revealed Himself to us. We grew to rely on His strength while He sustained and comforted us to make it through another day.

Journey to Full Surrender

I soaked in the sweet faces of my family as they sang me Happy Birthday. I was especially grateful as I blew out 33 candles. This birthday, this age, held significance beyond any I had. For some reason, I was profoundly struck by the idea that I was now the age that my Savior was when He took my sin upon Himself and covered the price that was mine to pay.

Now, for quite some time, I felt a prompting from the Lord. I was praying sincerely for a deeper relationship with Him and for Him to seriously direct my life. This prompting was an invitation to surrender. Now, I can’t really explain this, but I felt that it was something big and not so fun. So I’m going to be honest, I didn’t jump straight to a big “yes.” I felt like we were barely making it, though.

But then we had a miracle summer with good health and our very first family vacation, a road trip from Washington to Kansas to visit my Grandma. I tucked those beautiful memories safely in my heart and felt the courage to finally surrender fully and step into what God had for me. I sincerely prayed that His will be done, whatever it may be. “I am ready, Lord. Use me. Send me. Let me bring You glory.” I felt His presence and peace and a feeling of anxiousness, but not fear.

Health Crisis

From there I developed new and devastating symptoms. I could not walk 35 ft from my bedroom to our kitchen without collapsing to my knees. Any activity at all had me near passing out. Lots of doctors, specialists, and testing. Eventually, I got a diagnosis of Adrenal Insufficiency. I had no detectable levels of cortisol (a vital hormone that your body needs to survive). Then, I went into a life-threatening Adrenal Crisis.

It took so long to discover this, that it appeared that my recovery was going to be an uphill battle. Then, I didn’t respond well to the typical treatment. My body didn’t want to tolerate any stress, even with increased steroids (corticoid steroids are the cortisol replacement, like a diabetic using insulin). I went through “crashes,” where I couldn’t open my eyes or move my body, and could barely slur out words, but my mind was aware. I heard and felt what was going on around me.

To bring me out of these episodes and save me from going into crisis again, my husband slipped the pills into my mouth and waited until I responded. During one crash, my son tenderly picked up my hand and rested it on his cheek, letting me know he was there. Unable to move or open my eyes, a single tear rolled down my cheek, and he lovingly wiped it away.

Peace in The Lord

I am sometimes saddened by how much their little lives have been affected by our illnesses and struggles. However, I am also thankful for how God has shaped our boys through it. They are not bitter or resentful. They are compassionate, caring, mature, and wise in ways other kids their age are not. I am reminded that sometimes our suffering isn’t for our good, but maybe for the good of another.

Even in the middle of the pain, the scary and life-altering diagnosis, and the uncertain future, God held me so close. Instead of feeling fear and frustration, I was overflowing with God’s peace and joy. Psalm 23 was constantly on my lips. My eyes were locked on God, not my circumstances. I have never felt so close to Him nor as joyful as during those trying weeks.
A favorite song of mine includes the line, “I’ll count the joy come every battle, ‘Cause I know that’s where You’ll be.” … and He is.

The Purpose from the Pain: My Calling

2 Corinthians 1: 3-5, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.”

This verse is deeply written on my heart now. I have so profoundly experienced God’s comfort, that I want to pour it out for others. I want to help others to grow a connection with God and come to know His heart through studying His Word. Also, I desire to see all those struggling and burdened to know the grace that abounds in Jesus Christ and how He longs to walk with us through the valleys. I want everyone to know that we don’t have to wait until we are out of the valley to experience the Lord’s promised peace and joy!

With the love of Jesus, we can pick up our crosses (our afflictions) and bear them in His name to bring Him glory and serve the Kingdom of Heaven right now. The two areas I feel called to serve are helping others create strong marriages/families by placing Christ at the center. And helping those with disabilities/chronic illness to realize that although we may feel broken and useless, God will never take from us what we need to accomplish the good works He created us to do (Eph 2:10). We are of immense value in the eyes of our Savior.

The Gift of Education

Although God has faithfully provided just enough throughout the years, there is no surplus to be able to put toward ministry training. However, I want to be the best servant I can be for the Lord. I want to deepen my understanding of scripture and theology to become competent in the Word and confident that I am teaching properly.

I am immensely grateful to the Christian Leaders Institute (CLI) for providing this education without the stress of finances or strict deadlines where my health could prove problematic for my studies.

Healing

The Lord has blessed my health tremendously in the last year, and although I still struggle with my illnesses, I am finally healthy enough to work again!

I am now getting my Life Coaching Certification from CLI to fulfill my calling to help those the Lord brings to me. Currently, I am up for the Early Childhood Coordinator job at my church. There I hope to be able to use this training to coach young families in creating healthy and meaningful Family Discipleship Routines.

Christian Leaders Institute/College and the training I have received here over the last year have been one of my greatest blessings. I pray that many others will be blessed as well.

Are you interested in this affordable Minister Coaching Program for yourself? Follow these steps:

First, enroll in your free account through the Christian Leaders Institute.

You will automatically be put into two connected getting-started classes. Part 1 will give you an orientation to Christian Leaders, and part two will give you an introduction to the worldview of Christian Leaders.

Second, you will be able to access courses that will help you become a life coach minister.

Third, you will become a member of the Christian Leaders Alliance for your Life Coach Minister credentials.