SR November 2015
19
Seminarian Profile
Conlief Lyons
I live and work in Toronto, Canada, attending the
First Seventh Day Baptist Church pastored by Herlitz
H. Condison. I am married to my sweetheart, Zelmur
James Lyons, and still on our honeymoon going five
years strong!
I am a committed follower of Jesus Christ. I was born to an itinerant pastor,
Charles S. Lyons, who planted many churches all over Jamaica and to a
prayer warrior, Lucille E. Lyons, who would wage all-night prayer battles,
storming Heaven with her petitions. I now find myself drawn to the ministry
like a moth to a flame!
By the age of 14 I had accepted Christ and was baptized during one of my
dad’s fiery sermons. Sweet conviction! But it wasn’t until as a ripened 31-
year-old I finally came to know Christ personally. One of our church leaders,
Tom Rhoden, took my brother and me under his wings and carefully, metic-
ulously, opened the scriptures concerning the messianic prophecies. In
particular, he uncovered passages in Isaiah that detailed the birth, life,
example, and death that Christ would eventually model for all His followers.
I am a trainer at heart. From my earliest days, I have been involved in coaching,
mentoring, or training my friends and co-workers. But it has only been in
the past four years that I have come to recognize the gift that God has
given me. I have known for some time that I was able to motivate and
encourage others, but wasn’t able to connect the dots in terms of my own
life’s goal. I had always felt God’s calling on my life and somehow knew that
I was to follow in father’s footsteps but lacked the courage and confidence
to really explore and discover what this would look like for me. Four years
ago, I was given the opportunity to join the training team at my work on a
three-year secondment. Therein I found my passion. I love designing and
delivering training and get real joy in seeing others find their passion and
move forward. Through this experience, God connected the dots for me,
allowing me to see how He desires to connect the dots in our lives, pointing
us back to Him and His perfect will for our lives. In Him, all things join to-
gether perfectly and we are given the wherewithal to navigate the storms
that inevitably come into our lives.
Now my desire is to study at Tyndale to bring together my love for training
and coaching with the formal means of shepherding a flock. My desire to
pastor a flock is based on this: to equip and encourage others to find their
passion and to realize what God’s will is for them; to know that in Him they
are perfected.
SR
