Words of Faith: A Pastor's Journey from Corporate America to Jesus

From Corporate to Clergy: “Yes, Lord!”

A Words of Faith story by Pastor CJ Cousins

I was a very reluctant recruit. My journey of faith in Christ and His call on my life was one of denying the obvious. Jesus made it evident that He had a special plan for my life from an early age, especially through a dream and a near death experience He miraculously spared me from. As a child I was occasionally found preaching to stuffed animals. This would come as no surprise to my mother, who was a singing evangelist, whom I often accompanied as she sang in evangelistic meetings domestically and internationally. Therefore I developed not only a love for singing and music, but a deep passion for Jesus and the Seventh-day Adventist message. As a youth and young adult I was very active in ministry; singing, youth ministry, preaching and public campus ministry.

It was while I was in college that Jesus placed a deep sense of calling on my heart. This was affirmed by several individuals who observed me in ministry. However I wrote off this calling since I was studying Business Administration, which I was being groomed for since high school in a special business program. I was enamored with the apparent prestigious life of the corporate world. I also wrote off this calling since I didn’t think pastors made much money and so I eventually started working at the bank. While witnessing to a co-worker at the bank, again the deep sense that I should be a pastor came over me, but again I ran from this calling and started doing my master's in Human Resource Management and becoming a recruiter for an international recruiting firm.

I ultimately found myself with a fairly large home and on my way to climbing the corporate ladder, when God dramatically pulled me out of my career. This was the biggest test in my journey of faith. While attempting to get back into my career, the Holy Spirit began to place a burden for souls on my heart, so I reasoned that I would start a ministry, called Living For Him, instead of going into pastoral ministry as a “half yes to the call of God.” However, the Lord mysteriously kept the door closed to all my attempts to returning to my career while subsequently enlarging everything I was doing in ministry. Preaching increased, bible studies became regular, small groups became a way of life and some people where baptized. The affirmation of church members and several pastors began to increase until the conference I served in was about to make me a lay pastor and church planter, when the call of God got louder than ever before! And after three years of wrestling with God and several providential events, I finally surrendered to the compelling, yet loving call of my Savior to go to the seminary and become a pastor.

Once surrendered to this call I had such a sense of peace and joy as I looked forward to the vision of ministry that Christ had given me. And I am happy to testify that not only has the vision been realized since coming to the Potomac Conference, but it is enlarging in ways that I could not have dreamed of myself. I am serving as an associate pastor at Restoration Praise Center SDA Church, a vibrant congregation full of young adults and young families. I oversee 24 small groups called Grow Groups and am the online pastor for our online campus, RPCtv. The Lord has used me to teach a baptismal Bible study class and to conduct several baptisms. I have had the opportunity to preach several times, not only in my local congregation, but also at other churches in the DMV area. I am seeing lives changed by the gospel, while my own is concurrently being transformed. I am humbled and honored that Jesus has called me to the pastoral ministry and am fully dependent on Him buy faith for what He wants to accomplish through me. I encourage you, when Jesus calls, do not delay. Just humbly respond in faith and say,“Yes Lord.”

~*~
Author bio: Claypole S. Cousins Jr., also known as “CJ," is simply a man who is in love with Jesus. His passion is to live, preach and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and equip “disciples making disciples”. 

He is married to the lovely Deedre Nicole Cousins, who is a wonderful support and partner in ministry. Together God has blessed them with beautiful baby boy, Thomas Alexander Cousins. 

He majored in Human Resource Management from at Florida International University and received a bachelor's degree in Business Administration. He also has a Master's of Human Resource Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University. 

He has a Master 's of Divinity degree with an emphasis in Church Growth and Evangelism from the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He has served as Intern Pastor at One Place and Graduate Assistant for grow Groups at Pioneer Memorial Church on the campus of Andrews University. 

CJ currently serves as Associate Pastor at Restoration Praise Center in Bowie, Md. He is the pastor for Grow Groups and RPCtv. He is passionate about sharing God’s love as seen through the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the context of Revelation 14:6-12. 

In addition to preaching and teaching, CJ also loves to sing and write about Jesus.

~*~
Connect with Pastor CJ:
Website - www.iamlivingforhim.com
Twitter - https://twitter.com/PrCJCousins
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/livingforhimtv/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/lfhministries/about

Words of Faith: Heroism, the world's standards and the Call of God

The Core of a Hero
A Words of Faith story by Terri Reed

"For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." ~Isaiah 9:6 (NIV)

I think heroism is not an easily defined state by this world’s standards. We look at the media and see athletes touted as heroes. We see activist being named a hero for their work and we see actors called heroes for roles they play. We look to what’s happening in the world and see men and women dying in battles that are meant to free others. We see firemen, policemen and others in professions where they risk their lives for the safety of others. There are schoolteachers who give everything they have so a child can learn. There are doctors who fight to save lives, to find cures to disease and who help to make life more bearable. There are parents struggling to hold onto their families in a world where division is the norm. There are people struggling to overcome addictions and children struggling just to survive.

Are any of these less or more heroic than another? Who is the judge? We each see life differently and individually define our heroes.

As a Christian, I look to the Bible for examples of heroism. Men and women obeying the call of God on their lives against adversity and persecution. I look to Jesus Christ as the ultimate hero. The One who I could only hope to emulate.

As a writer, I try to make my characters heroic. Sometimes that means big actions that require bravery and sacrifice. Sometimes small actions that can only be seen by the reader such as acting in spite of misgivings, overcoming fear to love or to help, moral integrity, and facing one’s flaws to become a better person. If our characters don’t grow and change, becoming more heroic as the story unfolds, the integrity of the story is comprised and becomes insipid.

From his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell defined a hero as someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.

Faith.

On another occasion, Campbell defined two different types of heroic deeds. One, he said, is the physical deed, in which the hero performs a courageous act and saves a life. The other kind is the spiritual deed, in which the hero learns to experience the supernormal range of human life and then comes back with a message (a lesson, a gift, an idea) to share.

I like this because it broadens the scope of heroism and suggests that each and every one of us can be a hero in our everyday lives. Through faith nothing is impossible. I pray that we all would look for ways to be heroes in these turbulent times.

~*~
Author bio: 

Terri Reed’s romance and romantic suspense novels have appeared on Publisher’s Weekly Top 25, Nielsen’s BookScan Top 100 and featured in USA Today, Christian Fiction Magazine and Romantic Times Magazine, finaled in RWA’s RITA contest, National Reader’s Choice Award contest, ACFW’s Carol Awards contest. 

~*~

Connect with Terri:

Website - www.terrireed.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/terrireedauthorpage/

Snail mail - P.O. Box 19555 

Portland, OR 97224