Living Out Discipleship

There is power in testimony. I am a local Pastor in Vancouver, WA. I discovered my calling when I was attending a church called Living Hope, I was involved in 18 different ministries, I was on fire for God, leading Bible studies on Friday nights, but it still felt like something was missing. I talked to the pastor about it and he recommended that I take a class that he was leading called Discipleship 101. I attended the class for the first time and the pastor that was leading it said a word that I had never heard before, a word that stuck with me for life and the second he said it, God spoke to me audibly. The word was Theocentric, meaning God Centered. God spoke to me and said, "Jason, I want you to Plant a church called Theocentric Church." I said okay God, I surrender to Your Will for my life. I was tired of not being able to keep a job, I was hired and fired 50 times in 3 years and temp jobs were not enough to cover the bills. At this time, I didn't have any training in being a pastor, no ordination, so I started looking into seminary classes. I could not afford the cost of seminary but there was an option to audit classes for $100.00 per course so I did that for awhile, I would be able to take the course but there would be no grade, no mandatory homework. It was in that class that I met my best friend Marcus, he was Pastoring a church calling Project Truth. I shared my vision with him and he let me speak at his church for awhile until COVID shut us down for awhile. Marcus and I have been good friends for years and he taught me how to study my Bible exegetically and we will get into that later in this book and what that looks like. I really loved his teaching style, he would relate the stories of the Bible to our own lives, some pastors don't do that which can be discouraging to new believers. After the COVID outbreak churches started holding services again and lives went back to normal, I couldn't afford to continue with the seminary courses so just for kicks I decided to search for free seminary courses on Google. I didn't think I was going to get any results but to my surprise the first page that came up was a website called Christian Leaders Institute. The website says it offers free seminary courses online, and my first thought was there is no way, there must be some kind of catch. I decided to sign up anyway figuring what's the worst that could happen, low and behold the president of the Bible College, Henry Reyenga emailed me back saying thank you for registering and he said he is praying for me and my ministry. I shared with him my vision for Theocentric Church and the first course I enrolled in was a church planting course. On June 29th, 2024, Dr Reyenga held a leadership conference in Bellevue, WA so my friends and I drove up there from Vancouver and got to meet him in person and that is where I met my church planting mentor Erskine Currie. Erskine plants churches all over the world, him and his wife were in Vancouver, WA a month prior and they felt a tug on their heartstrings like they were called to do something there but they were not sure what. Then when I said I was planting a church in Vancouver, WA Erskine turned to his wife and said, "That's our guy!!" Erskine and I have been good friends for the last 8 months planning and strategizing this church plant and what we need to remember is that this is not our church, it's His church, but the building is not the church, WE are His Church. The church is built up of a community of believers discipling one another, praying for our brothers and sisters both inside and outside of the church. Matthew 18:19-20 Jesus says "if two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For when two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them."