Brad Fincham never set out to be a pastor. He was happy working with his dad at Faith Baptist Bible College. So happy that when David Strope, then pastor of Ankeny (Iowa) Baptist Church, approached him to consider a pastoral position, he declined. Twice.

“I just didn’t have any strong conviction or whatever toward whether or not God had called me to be a pastor,” Brad says.

Fast forward 10 years, and Brad is the assistant pastor of discipleship at Ankeny Baptist, overseeing an intentional discipleship training strategy.

Ankeny History

Brad grew up just south of Kansas City, in Louisburg, Kansas, and went to Faith Baptist Bible College to earn a four-year Bible degree—and he had no plans whatsoever of being a pastor. In fact, he had a solid job working at the local Hy-Vee grocery store, moving into a full-time position after he graduated in 2003.

In 2008 Brad and his wife, Jenny, took an opportunity to work at Camp Fairwood in Westfield, Wisconsin, bringing them to Calvary Baptist Church in Wisconsin Rapids.

“That church had a profound impact on us,” Brad says. “I mean, just in the way that people welcomed us in from the very start. They were just so intentional in their disciple making.”

Brad began training in discipleship under Pastor Jon Jenks, who is now the president of Baptist Church Planters. Then Brad’s dad invited him to move back to Ankeny to work with him at Faith. But Brad really wanted to finish the discipleship training—this was in 2013, long before the whole world knew about Zoom.

“So I was kind of joking and said to Jon, ‘Hey, you know what? What if you put a computer where I usually sit?’” Brad says. “But then, when we said it out loud, we were like, ‘Actually, we think we can do that.'”

The Finchams returned to Ankeny, and Brad finished the training through Skype. Later that fall, he gathered others at Ankeny Baptist Church to tune in to the training via videoconferencing.

“Toward the end of that year, Jon said, ‘So, who are you guys going to lead this with?’ I said, ‘I don’t have a clue how to lead this.’ Jon’s reply was simple: ‘Yes, you can. The Lord will help you.’”

During Brad’s first year back in Iowa, David Strope asked Brad to consider a discipleship pastoral position. Brad declined; he didn’t sense a call to pastoral ministry. A year later, after an unproductive search for that role, David returned with the same request. Brad took a month to pray about it, but he still did not sense a strong call.

“I said, ‘But what you’re wanting done, I don’t need a title for. I just believe it’s what we’re supposed to do.’”

While Brad felt inadequate for the job and requested that he be called only an intern, he was confident in God’s call to discipleship. In 2015 the church hired Brad as pastor of discipleship.

Disciples Making Disciples

Today Brad leads a discipleship training program, which has seen the disciple-making mindset spread. Small groups of men and women go through 13 or 26 weeks of training. Each training focuses on two main components: personal spiritual growth (being disciples) and helping others do the same (making disciples).

It’s the same training he started with Jon Jenks at Calvary Baptist Church in Wisconsin Rapids over ten years ago, tweaked and refined.

“The training I received from Jon gave me concrete ideas, tangible things,” Brad says. “Here’s how you grow in relationship with God. Here are some practical tools to engage others in relationship and help them, be alongside them. It’s really interactive, conversational, life-on-life oriented. Making disciples is a lifelong pursuit.”

The training emphasizes that spiritual leadership is not just something for pastors; it’s “simply using your life to influence—disciple—others as you grow personally with the Lord.”

While Brad hesitates to put a number on the multiplication, he says participants are certainly seeing growth.

“The Lord just keeps bringing us people,” Brad says. “You cultivate that culture of building relationships, and then people do it wherever they go. It doesn’t have to be people at church.”

Feedback from participants tracks some tangible ways people are growing: “Being devoted in all my roles, not just present.” “It pushed me to look at my role within the church and where I might fit in to help the body.” “The training did a very good job of covering a wide variety of crucial topics for believers in a short time period.”

Brad says he can’t take credit for God’s multiplying work—only that he’s experienced it.

“I thank our wonderful God for Jon Jenks. I’m not sure how to quantify his impact on my life; he’s a Paul to this timid Timothy. His discipleship has changed not only me but many, many others.”

Brad and Jason Blunk, now pastor of Ankeny Baptist—who were college roommates and are second cousins—have even begun helping other churches start similar discipleship training. Though Brad admits that he still sometimes feels “woefully inadequate,” he’s encouraged by the work God is doing at Ankeny Baptist.

“He uses the weak and the simple,” Brad says. “I mean honestly, if God can use me in ministry, He can use anybody, and that’s because of who He is.”

Emily Gehman is a freelance writer and editor. She teaches English and Communication at Grace Christian University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Photos by Brittany Appell Photography and Darrell Goemaat.