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Ron
Browning
Pastor
of NewHeart Expressions (NHE7: International Ministries)
160
S Sable Blvd K101, Aurora CO 80012
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 by 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 and Central State
University where my primary studies involved music; after almost or an actual
three years (?), 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 with children’s homes and finally with my
own school for the arts in Arizona, which Ginger and I owned when we
married.
Salvation
Experience
I
came to know Jesus in saving faith at the age of 28, October 31, 1994. I knew this was true conversion evidenced in
real repentance that brought an obvious change in my life – for the first time
in my life 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, 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 of various
sexual brokenness, which I was able 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 and 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. My doctors and therapist believe 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 about 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 a waste of my time, and as John stated, “God’s
calling upon my life to walk men out of the trenches and clutches of sinful
behaviors”. 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 and 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)
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. |
