Go Make Disciples: Deepening Student Discipleship

For two-and-a-half years, Jason had served in student ministry, learning on the fly as he experienced student leadership for the first time. Hesitant to uproot his family and with a first-born child on the way, Jason longed to pursue further theological training. He had heard about Danny Akin, the new president at Southeastern who was already making an impact; and if he was going to be equipped, this was the place he wanted to go. But first Jason had to find a job — and specifically, a local church.

After a quick search on the internet, Jason picked up the landline and began calling local associations in the 60-mile radius. Did they have any job openings? Were they in need of a student pastor? Could they support him and his family?

Four calls in, a woman named Lona picked up the phone. She worked for Beulah Baptist Association.

“My church is looking for a student pastor actually,” Lona told him. “I’ll have my pastor call you this afternoon; send me your resume.”

Hours later, Jason found himself on the phone with a man named Gerald, the lead pastor at Westwood Baptist Church in Roxboro, NC. As he sat listening to Gerald talk about Westwood, he grew more and more excited. Here was a church led by pastors who demonstrated longevity of ministry. Gerald had served there for 16 years, and the associate pastor, JT, had served for 14. This was a church whose leaders were committed to the word of God and to leading their flock in accordance with Scripture, seeking sound ecclesiology.

This conversation marked a new season that Jason and his family were about to embark on. He couldn’t have imagined the impact that Westwood church and Southeastern would have on his ministry as they equipped him over the next 18 years.

This season of growth, however, was something God had been orchestrating for many years.

Developing the Right Questions

While Jason had known throughout high school and college that God was calling him to ministry, he struggled to determine what his actual gifts were. It wasn’t until those first two years of ministry after college — his trial by fire as he led students for the first time — that God revealed to him his heart for student discipleship.

“That’s the season of my life where I can honestly say I was more driven to prayer and dependency on the Lord than ever before,” Jason remembered. “It was because I knew I was accountable to teach these 30-40 kids, and I didn’t know what to teach them. Where do you start? So, I would go to the word and pray. I remember having a very awakened sense to how the Lord was leading that process, and for the first time the Scriptures were coming alive — because it was not only for me. It was for them.”

Upon arriving at Southeastern, Jason realized that his previous season of growth had been preparing him to flourish in this new learning environment.

“It was during those years in between that I began to develop the questions that I needed answered,” he said. “When I started at Southeastern, I knew why I was here. I knew what I needed to learn, to understand, and to be able to take back.”

When I started at Southeastern, I knew why I was here. I knew what I needed to learn, to understand, and to be able to take back.

Jason enrolled in the Master of Divinity in Christian ministry. Living in Roxboro and working full time, he would drive over an hour to campus every Monday, sit in classes from 12:30pm to 9:30pm, and drive back late at night. He loved every moment of it.

During these classes and his involvement at Westwood, Jason began to see the gospel and its transforming power in a new light.

Seeking Spiritual Maturity

“I think it was a combination of really settling into week-by-week expositional preaching at our church and then, here at Southeastern, beginning to unpack what the full essence of the gospel is,” Jason recalled.

“The gospel is not just the plan of salvation or how somebody comes to follow Jesus. The gospel is this cosmic plan and purpose that God has set forth and which he is sovereignly, omnipotently bringing to its end,” Jason explained. “It’s so much more than just knowing that I’m going to heaven or trying to be the best person I can be.”

Within this sovereign plan that God is orchestrating, Jason saw the work of the Holy Spirit as crucial in sanctifying God’s people and bringing them to a place of spiritual maturity. This understanding transformed the way that he approached discipleship and ministry.

The truths that Jason was learning also began to shed light on a problem he had witnessed and wrestled with for many years.

“For so long, I have thought that the greatest enemy to student ministry is pragmatism,” Jason said. “We just do what works, and, sadly, what works is what brings the most numbers; and that’s what so many ministry leaders default to.”

“The objective that I see in Scripture,” he said, “is spiritual maturity. That God wants us to know and treasure Jesus. And if that’s the objective, it changes everything that I do. If I have that vision before me for students, it’s going to dictate every step that we take in the way that we shape ministry.”

Applying Learning in the Local Church

Jason graduated with his Master of Divinity in 2013. During his studies, he had seen himself grow immensely, both as a teacher and as a student of God’s word. However, he didn’t feel finished yet.

Through a series of events, God directed Jason to pursue Southeastern’s Doctor of Education, a degree that would equip him to practically teach and train up future leaders and to apply what he was learning directly in his ministry setting. Jason was still serving as the student pastor at Westwood, and he and his wife, Erin, were continually reminded of the blessing God had given them in that church body. Whatever Jason learned in his studies at Southeastern, he wanted to use it to serve his local church.

Jason chose to focus his dissertation on the topic of spiritual formation in student ministry, wanting to further understand and address this element of discipleship that had stood out to him so much during his MDiv.

“When we begin to understand the gospel in its full expression, only then can we understand how the gospel speaks to every area of life,” he explained.

As he researched and wrote his dissertation, he was particularly aware of the apostasy rate of students within the Church at large. In his studies, he began to make connections between students’ spiritual maturity and how well they were taught to apply their faith in their daily lives.

“Every seminar that we had, I took something back to our church,” Jason said. “I remember sitting in elder meetings and unpacking what I’d learned, asking, ‘How can we incorporate this?’”

Every seminar that we had, I took something back to our church.

Over time, Jason began to see the fruits of his labors and the ways in which God was working within the student body.

“I saw that students who stayed at church said, ‘My church helped me connect faith and life,’” Jason explained. “And so I’m convinced that this is the way that we need to teach, to help students understand what the way of Christ is, to understand the full expression of the gospel that speaks to every area of life.”

A New Season of Ministry

Jason has been serving at Westwood for 18 years now. This past summer, Gerald retired from pastoral ministry after 34 years of service, and JT assumed the role of lead pastor, having served for 31 years. This fall Jason has transitioned from student ministry to the new role of teaching pastor.
A new season of life is starting for Jason and his family, and it is an opportunity to look back on God’s faithfulness, to see his provision in all of the uncertainties, and to reflect on his sustaining grace over years of ministry.

“I’m stepping away from hands-on student ministry,” Jason said, “but one of the greatest teaching needs I see within the church is teaching and leading parents. I’m going to be more invested in that, and it excites me to be able to have the time now to give to that area of ministry.”

At different points throughout his life — during his teenage years, in college, and while at Southeastern — Jason experienced the investment of many others who poured into his life, encouraging and supporting him in his journey both to and through ministry.

Now, as Jason transitions to a new role after almost 20 years of faithful service, the new student ministry leader is a young man who grew up in Westwood under the discipleship of Jason and the care of that local church.

For Jason and his family, theological education has always accompanied intentional ministry within the church body. Jason has been able to directly see the benefit of his studies at Southeastern while applying what he has learned in his mission field, all with one goal: that the students and families of Westwood would grow to become more like Christ as they seek to know him better.

Please join us in praying for Jason, his family, and the church of Westwood in this time of transition, that they would remember God’s faithfulness and seek him for guidance and wisdom. Pray for their unity in Christ and love for one another.