June 2012 – Nearly a decade ago, Kennon Vaughan decided to give his life to the restoration of biblical discipleship in the local church. In 2006, after being personally discipled and mentored by godly men such as Roy “Soup” Campbell, Tom Nelson and Howard Hendrix, Vaughan launched Downline Ministries, a non-profit organization and community-wide institute designed to train believers to make disciples. (See AFA Journal 2/06.)

Thirty men were trained that first year. Today, in its sixth year, Downline has become a discipleship-training hub in Memphis, Tennessee, where 200 students, both male and female, from 45 churches and 14 parachurch groups are being equipped in the areas of Bible, discipleship, and manhood/womanhood so they can be effective in making disciples of Jesus Christ in their homes, local churches and communities.

Not only has Downline grown in its number of participants, it has advanced the way it trains believers and expanded its means of discipleship by sending ambassadors, rallying the church, empowering young adults and providing tools to make disciples.

Institute
The institute was the initial way Downline began training believers to understand and apply disciple-making as a lifestyle. The nine month intensive training for clergy and lay leaders remains the core of Downline Ministries.

In the beginning, the institute was only offered in a live classroom setting in Memphis.

“Now we have a live institute running in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and we have institutes launching in Little Rock and Oxford [Mississippi] this fall,” said Vaughan, Downline’s executive director.

A new year of training at the live institutes begins each August.

Yet, participants do not have to be in or near Memphis, Fayetteville, Little Rock or Oxford to be a part of the program. A state-of-the-art facility, advanced technology and high-definition equipment now enable the Downline institute to be offered online. A new class starts the first of each month, and online participants can go through the training on their own time.

“It’s really a top notch production,” Vaughan said. “We have several hundred [students] doing it this year as our beta test year, and the feedback has been exceptional. I believe there will be thousands going through it next year.”

In order to attend the institute online, two or more people must go through it together – be it church friends, coworkers or family members. Online students receive a link, which gives them access to the classes, notes and anything else the live participants may receive.

Global initiative
Downline Ministries is also actively training pastors and lay leaders in the biblical standard of discipleship in nearly 10 foreign countries.

In addition to training indigenous leaders in the context of their own culture, Downline sends students who are part of the institute as ambassadors on short term mission trips to assist abroad with the same type of discipleship training they are receiving.

Vaughan said he quickly realized that many of the Downline students were lay leaders who had never been outside the United States or on a mission trip. By incorporating short term international mission trips into the institute, about 70% of now 800 Downline students have been afforded such an experience.

“You can imagine how much has spiraled out of these trips,” Vaughan said, “from students beginning to lead their own trips out of their churches to them forming relationships with pastors and missionaries they’re supporting.

“It’s been fun to watch them begin to think in terms of a global vision of what God is doing,” he added.

Summit
When it comes to equipping believers to make disciples, having a far reaching, yet personal, impact is at the heart of Downline. This is one reason the ministry hosts a national conference series called the Summit. A men’s summit and a women’s summit are held separately once a year.

“This is the air attack of Downline,” Vaughan explained. “It’s a way for us to anthem out the message of biblical discipleship so people beyond the Memphis community can come be a part of this, be inspired and begin to be equipped.”

The weekend conferences are a way to rally the church by introducing people to the concept of disciple-making in hopes they will catch a vision, receive more training and fan the flame of discipleship in their local churches.

The third men’s summit was held in February, and 2,000 men attended. The next women’s summit is set for October.

Emerging leaders
Empowering young adults, specifically college graduates, to impact their world for Christ is a vibrant part of Downline Ministries. The Emerging Leaders program took shape after college students started applying for the institute.

Through the Emerging Leaders program, college graduates come to Memphis and go through the institute, but the biblical and discipleship training is only one-sixth of their year with Downline. The program also includes personal discipleship, voluntarily serving for an inner-city ministry, living in community in a needy area of Memphis, going on a short term international mission trip and working a full or part time job, depending on a student’s needs.

“So it’s more of the first year of life than it is the fifth year of college,” Vaughan said.

“The personal, yet deep, teaching from Downline’s Emerging Leaders [program] is what I’m really looking forward to,” said Wesley Wildmon, son of AFA president Tim Wildmon. Wesley, 22, was recently accepted into the Emerging Leaders program, which he will begin in August.

The program has grown from eight students to 45, and Vaughan is expecting it to double in size during the coming year.

Downline builder
“Our heart is to see a movement of biblical disciple-making launched and spreading across the world, so we are certainly trying to play a role in resourcing that movement,” Vaughan explained.

Downline offers book and website recommendations and makes available its own curriculum resources – its newest one being the Downline Builder.

The Downline Builder is an online customizable discipleship curriculum that allows the user to pull from a growing library of approximately 150 lessons and create a curriculum that meets the specific needs and interests of his disciples.

“You, as the disciple maker, get to go online, enter some information about the person or group you are discipling, and based on what you enter … the Builder then brings forth all the relevant material from the library and whittles it down. Then you get to drag and drop and build your own table of contents out of that database,” Vaughan explained. “So you are literally touching right where the iron is hot.”

To Vaughan’s knowledge, there is no other tool out there like the Builder.

“We’re absolutely thrilled about its potential to resource a global movement of disciple-making,” Vaughan said.

Right now, the Builder is available in English, and by the end of 2012, it will be available in Mandarin, Korean, Creole and Spanish. It can be purchased at builder.downlineministries.com for a renewable annual subscription rate of $49.95.

“So you pay that fee one time, and you have a 12-month all-access pass to build [and print] as many curriculums as you want. Those you are discipling don’t pay anything,” Vaughan explained.

Until July 24, 2012, the Downline Builder can be purchased for the locked-in subscription rate of $29.95 by entering the coupon code: AFAJOURNAL.

“Our hope is to help usher the gospel into the heart in a way that really transforms people so that their motivation for discipleship would always be Jesus and the gospel,” Vaughan explained. “And such would compel them to invest their lives in others for the sake of Christ.”  

Downline Ministries
P.O. Box 770296
Memphis, TN 38177
901-683-5377
www.downlineministries.com