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BY RANDALL MURPHREE | AFA Journal Editor
Editor’s Note: AFA Journal frequently tells the stories
of other ministries and their impact for the Body of Christ, but
rarely features a ministry before it has proven itself. However,
DownLine Ministries shows such great potential that the Journal
is pleased to give a preview of this promising discipleship initiative.
DownLine Ministries founder Kennon Vaughan recently visited AFA
Journal offices to talk about DownLine.
Youth, optimism, calling and passion ooze out of Kennon Vaughan,
founder of DownLine Ministries in Memphis, Tennessee. Vaughan is
humbled and a little overwhelmed that God has called him to a ministry
with widespread implications for the Body of Christ.
DownLine is a discipleship program that will train young Christian
men (ages 23 to 37) to disciple younger believers. At this stage,
DownLine is a story of both the ministry and the man God has tapped
to lead it.
Vaughan displays not only zeal, but also patience and wisdom that
belie his 27 years. His eyes sparkle with excitement and his voice
rises with optimism. But it is his focus and the depth of his insight
that make him an impressive voice for the new ministry. However,
as a struggling young believer, Vaughan didn’t always have
such focus.
"I grew up in a home with somewhat of a Christian influence,
but definitely not your standard Bible-belt, Southern Christian
household," he said. "My mother was raised Jewish. My
father’s side of the family was not religious." When they
found a pastor to marry them, he required marriage counseling and
was able to share the Gospel with them.
Vaughan’s mother eventually became a Christian and took the
young Kennon and his two sisters to church at Christ United Methodist
in Memphis. The major element in his relationship with his dad was
sports — both were avid athletes.
At age 13, he went to Kanakuk Kamp, a Christian sports camp. "All
these college athletes were our counselors," he said. "Chris
Creighton, a quarterback in the Canadien Football League at the
time, shared the Gospel very clearly. It was the first time I understood
what sin was. I prayed with Chris that night [to receive Christ]."
But hardly any follow-up occurred and Vaughan grew very little.
His dad’s death when Vaughan was in high school motivated
him to search for meaning in his faith. He began to attend church
youth groups and retreats and study the Bible for the first time.
He tried to put together a baseball career at Auburn University,
then transferred to play at Vanderbilt where an injury ended his
college career. Still, he had the opportunity to travel one summer
with Athletes in Action, a ministry that takes sports — and
the Gospel — around the world.
He remembers one game in Africa: "I think it was a defining
moment in my life, when things started to make sense for me spiritually.
One night, our chaplain reminded me it was my turn to share the
Gospel after the game. I didn’t feel like I was one of those
who should be out there sharing."
He knew that his teammates were much better prepared than he was
to share Christ, but God used his short and simple testimony to
bring a number of people to Christ that night. In that moment, Kennon
resolved never again to be a "casual" Christian. The next
school year, he transferred back to Auburn because he felt "there
was unfinished business there." He wanted to return and establish
a stronger witness for Christ.
Genesis
of a vision
Growing up, Vaughan knew that he needed more than was
available to him as a Christian teenager and young college student.
After he graduated from Auburn in 2000, that void in the church
grew even more evident when he became youth minister at Liberty
Christian Fellowship in Liberty, Missouri, just north of Kansas
City.
"I absolutely love working with the student generation,"
he said. "At Liberty, there was a real influx of students.
My desire was to see each one of them trained individually in the
Word. All of a sudden, there was not near enough of me and a lot
more of them! I’d never been discipled myself, but I started
recruiting guys — college students, young adults — that
we could plug into training these students." Eventually, he
had 26 college and young adults trained and about 200 youth in the
discipleship program.
After speaking at a Disciple Now youth retreat in The Woodlands,
Texas, in February 2002, Vaughan left the event wondering what would
happen to the hundreds of students who had just made decisions for
Christ. Would they be discipled and encouraged and challenged? Or
would they be left alone to struggle with their faith?
"I felt an emptiness in the pit of my stomach," he said.
"Just a few hours earlier, I was offering a final challenge
to a crowd of students, ready to take the world for Christ. Now,
I wondered if those newly birthed dreams would ever become a reality."
Increasing opportunities as a youth evangelist fed his passion
for giving students solid teaching on the Christian walk. "I
was having serious conviction," he said. "We’d have
a retreat and hundreds of kids would make a decision for Christ.
You’ve got three youth workers and they don’t have a clue
what to do with them. I thought it was quite dangerous to the Kingdom
of God to be just producing backsliders."
By 2004, Vaughan had returned to Memphis as youth minister at Christ
United Methodist. That year, he founded DownLine.
Getting
a vehicle
Because of DownLine’s far-reaching potential, Vaughan is
confident that the ministry is from God’s heart and not from
men. Indeed, it appears to be a vehicle which could take discipleship
around the world.
The first DownLine Institute, the ministry’s premiere event,
will kick off August 14, 2006, more than two years after the ministry
was born. The Institute will train committed young laymen how to
disciple younger men. The goal is for these young leaders to reproduce
their faith in others who will then follow the same pattern to disciple
still more young men.
The debut event is in Memphis, but Vaughan believes it will be
replicated in other cities. The program is built on the pattern
established by Jesus in teaching and leading His 12 disciples. DownLine
looks also at Paul’s admonition in 2 Timothy 2:2 "The
things that you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses
entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others."
DownLine will select 40-50 participants for a rigorous 10-month
Bible study, the heart of the Institute. Participants will include
mostly men from the Memphis area plus a few from across the nation
and five from other countries. Minority representation comparable
to that in Memphis is also built into the program.
The men will meet from 5:45 to7:45 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday
and Friday for 10 months. The first hour will focus on Bible study
led by outstanding Bible teachers. The second hour will train the
men to make disciples. Joe White of Kanakuk Kamps and Tom Nelson,
pastor of Denton Bible Church, are among the leaders who will come
in to teach in such areas as worldview and apologetics.
"We have an application process for the local and national
students," Vaughan said. "We already have 60 Memphis applicants
for the first year and about 15 national applicants. We have identified
the five international students we will take from the Philippines,
Kenya, India, Nigeria and Nicaragua."
That latter demographic reveals DownLine’s global potential.
The international students make a commitment to receive the training
in Memphis, then go back and train 10-50 men to be disciplers in
their nations. DownLine will provide continued training through
teams to those alumni.
Gauging
the value
Vaughan is blessed by the encouragement of a number of
key Christian leaders in Memphis, among them Rev. Herb Hodges and
Roy "Soup" Campbell. Over the past four decades, Hodges
has made more than 160 trips around the world training pastors through
his Spiritual Life Ministries. His input is critical in selecting
DownLine’s international students and his training materials
are the foundation for the curriculum.
Hodges believes Vaughan’s passion for authentic discipleship
will have immeasurable value for the Body of Christ. He says the
church is made up of a "95% sitting army" in the pews
and we need to reverse that so the 95% are in the marching army.
After pastoring Baptist churches several years, Hodges founded Spiritual
Life. "We had great churches," he said, "but as far
as impact was concerned, it was all implosive impact instead of
explosive impact."
Campbell has traveled with Hodges on more than 30 trips to train
indigenous pastors. "I believe DownLine is a ministry of Jesus
Christ and is meant to be productive and multiply," Campbell
said. "And I believe Kennon is the right one to pull it off."
Anything of great value comes with a price. For its inaugural year,
DownLine must raise $200,000. Russ Griffith, the second staff member
at DownLine, is on board helping Vaughan strengthen their network
and raise funds. Griffith and Vaughan met at Denton Bible Church’s
discipleship program a couple of years back. They quickly discovered
their common passion for discipleship.
Griffith said that, during his high school years, he benefitted
from the leadership of a volunteer discipler at Reston (Virginia)
Bible Church. "It was something I saw work so well in my life,"
Griffith said. "And my favorite part of doing ministry as a
student at James Madison University was the guys I got to disciple."
The diverse list of churches coming alongside the ministry includes
Christ United Methodist, 2nd Presbyterian, Germantown Baptist and
Fellowship Bible. "We want DownLine to be a blessing to the
local church," Vaughan said. "We are all about strengthening
lay leadership in the church." The eight churches involved
in Memphis may each select a man from their church to attend DownLine.
Griffith said most of the contributions to this point have come
from individuals who believe in the vision of DownLine. "We’ve
got a great board of directors who are helping us get off the ground
financially."
Both Griffith and Vaughan are keenly aware of, but not worried
about, the financial needs they face.
But being men of great faith, they look forward to seeing how God
will provide for the ministry He has ordained. And they eagerly
anticipate the debut of DownLine Institute in August.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
•DownLine
Ministries
8808 Featherleigh Lane
Germantown, TN 38138
www.downlineministries.com
901-283-3437
How you can get involved:
•Underwrite
a scholarship at the DownLine Institute.
•Contribute
to travel or living expenses for an international student.
•Underwrite
the expense of one of the discipleship trainers.
•Donate
to the general ministry including staff and overhead expenses.
DownLine is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Donations are tax
deductible.
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