CLI Brochure

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2008 CLI to be held July 6-11, July 20-25

CLI (Christian Leadership Institute) is a weeklong experience to help you appreciate and grow your skills as a leader in our church. Here's what current DYMC members who've gone to CLI have to say...

"CLI was a great experience for me. It was that week that made me decide that I wanted to get more involved in the Church. It was an awesome week, and I would love to go back four years to that same week. Four years later I still remember almost everything that I learned there. I was scared going into it, because I didn't know anyone, but now I would not regret it for anything. You should go!"

~ Lizzie Wunder, Muscatine, Ss. Mary &Mathias Parish

Sallie enjoys the fantastic food at CLI... well, it's pretty good... edible...

"CLI has been the greatest experience I have had thus far in my life. I went to CLI uncertian whether I should be going, but after the week passed and I learned about my faith and met so many new and interesting people, the last thing I wanted to do was leave! I greatly encourage everyone to consider taking a week out of their summer to participate in this amazing leadership experience!"

~ Cory Millmier, Donnellson, St. Boniface Parish (Farmington)

"CLI was an amazing experience! I learned that if I let God take control, everything will work out. As a result my skills as a leader have increased dramatically because I know that what needs to get done can be better prepared for by prayer rather than stress."

~ Susan Gates, Ottumwa, St. Mary of the Visitation

The obstacle course is always something to look forward to... if you're not blindfolded!

The CLI Program

The Christian Leadership Institute (CLI) is a week-long training event designed to teach young people the skills necessary for effective leadership with other youth and adults in a parish or school youth ministry setting.

CLI offers an opportunity for leadership development through an intense period of learning and community living. The program is an in-depth experience of skills development in the areas of organization, communication, and motivation, as well as personal growth which enables each young person to discover his or her own leadership style. The CLI process includes prayer and worship, recreation and social time.

Teen feels ‘immense flood of joy’

during Christian Leadership Institute

By Susan Gates

Ever since my grandma died last year, the song “Jesus Loves Me” causes me to cry. My grandma used to sing the song to me when I was little. The other song I remember my grandma singing is “This Little Light of Mine.” Last summer, this song became my favorite song, so much so that whenever I hear the song I smile.

Last summer I attended the Iowa Christian Leadership Institute (CLI) in Boone. The week I spent at CLI was one of the best weeks of my life.

On our last night at CLI we had a special prayer session with the laying of hands and the distribution of candles. After the laying on of hands, I felt an immense calm sweep over me, a comforting feeling of peace. As the candles were distributed, the song “This Little Light of Mine” was sung. I soon felt the corners of my mouth curl upwards. I was smiling and I couldn’t stop. Those next few moments, holding the light of Christ in my hands, I felt the happiest I have ever felt.

I was experiencing the joy of Jesus, the terrific love of God. It was through my experiences at CLI that I came to feel the unceasing love of God. I have always been a Catholic, but I had never before felt the immense flood of joy that overwhelms both body and soul.

I have been very blessed to live in a home full of love, but the unceasing love of our God and Savior is so much more than even the greatest of human love. God’s love is perfect love, the example of love described in St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor. 13)

(Susan Gates was a member of the 2006-2007 Diocesan Youth Ministry Committee. This article appeared in the Catholic Messenger in March 2007)

Promoting Comprehensive Youth Ministry