Testimonials

One of my favorite components of the classes is interacting with others who are searching out their area of call, as well. God used classmates to strengthen my quest and also open my mind to additional ways that ministry can be accomplished as a lay person.

Learning with others makes this unknown path more reassuring. God has used the knowledge from these classes to strengthen my faith journey. It also opened up ministry opportunities as well.

I found the academy an indispensable part of my education and journey into ministry.

I remember distinctly how we were taught to use the lectionary, research tools, and the process of reading and meditating and praying on the scripture, which allows it to speak to you in a way which brings the depth of God’s word to the fore. We would underline the salient words in a verse, which words jumped out at us or which prevailing thought became a periscope to understanding the text, and then the sermon preparation process that insured that we kept to the core meaning of the passage within the context of history, culture, and the rest of scripture.

The Academy was a comprehensive and progressive program for my work in the church.

This is an amazing course, made all the richer by the instructors and the fellow students. The affirmations of my fellow students and the course instructors have not only encouraged me, but strengthened my calling. I will be ever grateful for this course.

During this course I was able to define my call and develop a spiritual resume.

I learned that when I was initially called by God to do something He had for me to do, I reacted like Moses. I could give God countless reasons why I couldn’t do whatever He was calling me to do.

As time passed, I moved from the Moses call to the Abraham call. I had finally reached a place in my journey where I stopped fighting God and told Him I would go wherever He wanted me to go and do whatever He wanted me to do.

One of the best aspects of this class was the sharing of our reflection papers and the response from and responding to our classmate's work. It would be next to impossible to get the same level of response in a classroom setting.

This course has caused me to stretch my spiritual muscles to complete the assignments. It was a challenge sometimes and I spent A LOT of time praying. But it merely "whet my appetite" for the next phase of the training. I can't wait to get started.

The call portion is what benefited me the most. It was very helpful to craft a statement because I had to examine how God has been moving me through this process.... It is a great exercise to write about one's calling.