Ron Browning
Pastor of NewHeart Expressions (NHE7: In the Name of Christ)
PO Box 470505 Aurora CO 80046-0505

 RE:  Ministry Credentials
                  How has the Lord Jesus prepared me for Ministry?

 Chronology:

Childhood (ages 7 to 17)
I grew up as the son of a Baptist preacher who taught me basic theology and Scripture memory until the age of 17; from which I was enabled to teach and manipulate a pseudo Christian life. 

 College Years
I attended two Universities: Jacksonville Baptist College in Texas and Central State University in Edmond Oklahoma; where my primary studies involved music; after almost or an actual three years, of which I am unsure of today, I dropped out of school because classes began to require attentiveness to study, which I did not like or intend.

However, with unfinished studies I taught music in the private sector for almost 20 years as a piano/voice instructor, in musical drama and theater, and from time to time as an educational director in various homes for children, and finally in Music With Heart, a school for the arts I owned in Flagstaff Arizona.

Salvation Experience
I came to know Jesus in saving faith at the age of 28, October 31, 1994.  I knew this was a true conversion, evidenced in real repentance and faith; for it brought an obvious change to my life – for the first time I wanted to tell the truth.  After 20 years of living in deception and being deceptive I desired and learned to be a truth teller before judges, in courtrooms, who held my fate (so to speak) in their hands, facing a possibility of decades of prison time – truth when it hurts.  Amazingly, truth won less time in prison than silence or schemes – five years instead of twenty-five.  Saving faith not only changed my heart, but the consequences of a life lived in sin.   

 “Prisonary”
I never attended seminary; however, I attended studies with Mount Zion Bible institute during my prison years (thus, the invented term “prisonary”); at first to occupy my mind, secondly, for my own spiritual grow and fellowship, and finally, to prepare myself to disciple men out of the bondage from various sexual brokenness, which I was privileged to do in prison and once I was release.  Mount Zion is not an accredited school, though they remain Bible focused on the responsibility to make disciples.     

Exchanged Life Thought
I attended studies with Grace Fellowship International (GFI) and more recently with Exchanged Life Colorado (ELM) in pursuit of a greater application of Scripture in my own life and in the lives of those I have been privileged to disciple and journey with through the issues of sexual brokenness, uncontrollable fear, depression, personal failures, controlling anger, unwanted sinful behaviors, etc...  To this end I have studied: 

Basic Studies in the Exchanged Life
                      (through Conferences with GFI and ELM)

Intermediate Studies in the Exchanged Life
                       (through Workshops with GFI and ELM)

 Advanced Studies in the Exchanged Life                (through Seminars with GFI;                  Advanced Training with ELM)

The Exchanged Life is an ongoing study for most discipleship/counselors and ministers.  However, there are now formal studies with Luther Rice Seminary for master’s and doctorate studies.   After my head injury my doctors and therapist believed that would provide unnecessary stress, fatigue, and eventually cognitive shut down.  Grace Fellowship International has recently established correspondence graduate studies. Dr. Woodward stated on Feb. 27, 2008 that currently I have completed a little over half of the GFI Counseling Institute studies as a Clinical Discipler (www.gficounselinginstitute.com ). 

When my mentor, Dr. John Woodward received his doctorate from Luther Rice Seminary, he and I evaluated my educational progress.  Due to my criminal history, I experienced many closed doors in education and ministry.  We came to believe that pursuit of formal studies would be difficult and futile; and as John stated, “God’s calling upon my life to walk men out of the trenches and clutches of sinful behaviors was not dependent on formal education but as to how teachable I was to the Scriptures and willing to personally grow in Christ.  John then encouraged me with a balanced view of my education and experience and roughly estimated that I have about six years of biblical education and discipleship experience in sharing the Word with both music and in teaching.  As John lifted me up, I became less interested in formal education.  I began to view experienced biblical studies and intimate knowledge as true growth in knowing Christ.  As one professor from Mount Zion Bible Institute shared with me, “Ron, you have the heart of the pastor”.  It took me almost a year of study with this professor before I could redefine the term “pastor” as – my Dad – and honestly look at Scripture.  Eventually, I began to see how Christ has given me to the Church as a pastor or what some would refer to as a discipleship/counselor, discipler, and/or an Exchanged Life minister. 

Currently, I have certificates as an Exchanged Life Minister and through NewHeart Expressions I am privileged with Dr. John Woodward to license and ordain other Exchanged Life ministers.  NewHeart Expressions is both a para-church organization and a Church listed with World Ministry Fellowship (WMF) and the IRS.  The Lord has blessed me with the favor of World Ministry Fellowship, who provides me ministerial license to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ with some formal credentialing for accountability.  God has used this credentialing to open doors to preach and disciple prior to my brain injury; He still uses this credentialing to provide former and current students a safe place to journey into freedom.

Finally, the following Scripture certifies my calling, gifting, passion, and position. 

·         Acts 4:13 (NASB)

o   Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.

·         1 Cor. 9:2 (NASB)

o   If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

·         2 Cor. 3:5, 6 (NASB)

           o    Not that we are adequate in ourselves to            consider anything as coming from             ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,
           who also made us adequate as servants             of a new covenant, not of the letter but            of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the
           Spirit gives life.