Top 5 Reasons to Go to a School Of Ministry
By Alice Clarke
Are you thinking about going to a School of Ministry? If you’ve ever wondered whether going to a Catch The Fire School of Ministry, we’ve put together 5 reasons that you should consider.
Catch The Fire has Schools of Ministry established in Toronto, Canada; Raleigh, USA and London, UK. Each school has a different flavour, and they all have full-time and part-time programs.
1. YOU’RE CALLED TO MINISTRY
Have you been called to serve God in ministry? You might think that ministry is just the stuff that happens in church, but actually, we’re all called to ministry, whether it’s in business, raising kids, or pastoring in a church setting. So it makes sense to invest time to grow in your ministry abilities.
You might think that seminary is your only option to learn about ministry, but ministry schools offer more practical vision-based training. Catch The Fire’s ministry schools were born out of the Toronto revival in 1994 which makes them unlike other schools. There’s a high value on the presence of God and experiencing God’s love throughout every component of the program.
At Catch The Fire ministry schools, you’ll learn how to pray for people, to prophesy, to preach, and to share Jesus with everyone you meet. Michele Bridgers, the administrator at the School of Revival in Raleigh, says, “It’s good to know how to talk to someone who doesn't know the Lord... coming side by side and really loving them where they are but not leaving them where they are.”
2. YOU WANT TO BE A GREAT LEADER
You might think excellent leadership is only based on your knowledge skills. Gordon Harris, Director of the School of Ministry says that “the biggest factor to leadership is not just knowledge, but it's actually this thing of the heart, and that goes fundamentally back to what's my relationship with God in a real, experiential way… Once you are more confident in who you are, who God is, and how much you're loved, then all of the mechanical practical parts of it can be tacked on, fairly easily, and you don't have leaders then who are banging around hurting other people.” Hurt people are more likely to hurt other people, and the same goes with leaders. When you deal with your heart and experience God’s love for you, you’re far better equipped to lead others with love and lead them well, too.
3. YOU WANT TO EXPERIENCE GOD
Experiencing God changes everything. When you hear God speak directly into your personal life and experience his deep love for you, you’ll gain new confidence in who you’re created to be. Gordon Harris says, “We all desperately need love at a deep level. We're also looking for an encounter with the sublime… That's God; something well beyond ourselves that's full of beauty and mystery. We so want that deep in our hearts, even if we may not recognize it.”
Michele and her husband Justin came to the School of Revival in Raleigh from a church tradition where people didn’t talk about the Holy Spirit moving or value experiences God. They became hungry for something more, and God led them to Catch The Fire and the school, and it turned their lives upside down. They studied in the school full time while working full time, but for Michele and Justin, it was so worthwhile. Michele says, “If you're just hungry for more of God, hungry for deeper revelation, for more encounters, for healing and wanting to grow and mature in your spiritual life, emotional life, relationally, in all aspects of life, that's why you should come.”
4. YOU WANT TO BECOME YOUR BEST SELF
We all want to live in the best way possible, and allowing God to move in your life will bring transformation and allow you to live a fuller life. Gordon Harris says, “What God does in the school takes away so many things that stop us from being our best selves, so we have many more moments and days where we're operating at our best capacity.”
Recently, Gordon and his wife Cathy were ministering at a short school. One of the students was enrolled full-time in a theological college, but for the last year and a half, he hadn’t been able to sleep. Without sleep, his life and studies were getting more and more difficult. In the first two days of the school, he experienced God and something amazing happened. He came back one morning after sleeping a full eight hours. He had woken up totally disoriented and surprised. It was completely life-changing for him!
Another student came to the School of Ministry in Toronto with anorexia. In the first few weeks of school, her condition got worse. She described how every morning she would wake up angry and disappointed that she hadn’t died in her sleep. The staff team were preparing to send her home for some professional medial support when one day, God asked her, “will you say yes to me?” Without knowing what that would look like, she begrudgingly agreed. The next morning she woke up and realized that she didn’t feel those same feelings of dread or self-hate. She felt completely different. Just by saying yes to God, there was a dramatic shift in her life. Her journey after that point was of saying yes to God’s leading in her life, step by step, as she walked out her healing and transformation.
5. YOU WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
We all have a God-given desire inside of us to do something significant. At the Catch The Fire Schools of Ministry, you’ll dig deep into your identity in Christ and discover your own worth and value. We all want to do something that matters, and the schools are designed to propel you into your destiny by becoming who you were created to be.
