Without a doubt, I know the Lord’s hand was in my life from the beginning, but had it not been for my first youth minister and the discipleship of Baptist Campus Ministries (BCM) and other college ministries, I have no idea where I’d be today.
My father, who also happened to be my pastor, was God’s tool in bringing me to Christ. Together with my mom, he reared me in a home where Jesus was loved.
Eventually, a youth minister, Bryan Jones, walked into my life and taught me what it meant to think and stand on my own. He did what many youth ministers are doing today, at least those who understand that the teenage years are the most critical time in life — he took an afternoon a week and invested his life in mine.
When I left high school, I knew how to defend my faith because he took me through a course called Continuing Witness Training. He walked me through the Bible and taught me to be a student of God’s Word. Bryan encouraged me to live my faith in front of my friends. The first guy I ever witnessed to was during my senior year of high school.
I attended the University of Mobile after graduation, and I remember the biggest desire in my life at the time was to keep serving. I became involved with BCM, and within two months, I was invited to join the leadership team. I was thrilled. It was my avenue to serve and live out my faith.
Like in most BCMs, I was plugged into a small group Bible study where accountability and spiritual disciplines were encouraged, and Jesus was the object of our affection. The key memory of that first year was the result of our prayer times together. As we prayed, God made us aware of the lost students on campus. Revival came, and at the end of that first year most of us had shared our faith with more people than we could count.
Change was natural through my college years, and I ended up transferring to Auburn University. Of course, I joined BCM. I got involved in a small group Bible study, and it was during my involvement at Auburn’s BCM that God planted in my life a specific call to career missions.
Introduced to missions
That summer, the BCM sent me on a 10-week summer missions trip to Charleston, S.C. The following summer I went to the Philippines for seven weeks. God fanned into flame my gift of teaching, and He was amazing that summer because 18 people met Him, too.
I came back and immediately became youth minister at a church in Valley, 20 minutes from Auburn. For five years, I did just what my youth and college ministers had done for me — invested my life in the lives of those God entrusted to me. I was youth minister at two separate churches, first part time, then full time two years later. God grew both groups bigger and more spiritual than I could have ever imagined.
Earlier this year, I resigned and am now preparing to go to East Asia as a journeyman, but most of the youth who accepted my discipling are now leading that youth group on its praise and worship team and as small group leaders. I was blessed to send one of those youth overseas on a missions trip last summer and another on a North American missions trip this summer. Two are attending seminary this fall.
I don’t know where to begin praising God for the life He’s given me. But it wasn’t the result of projects or programs but time invested from one Christian to another. Time and investment — those words are the key.
If a model must be copied, it would have to be the leading Discipler of all time — Jesus Christ, who invested His life in teaching 12 men. They, in turn, changed the world with His gospel message.
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