Pastor Tim Potter is our special speaker at this year’s Discipleship Seminar at Harvest. He and Pastor Walton spoke about fostering a disciple-making culture.
Download the Discipleship Seminar 2025 Harvest Time
Chris Harper: Welcome to Harvest Time. My name is Chris Harper, and our host on this program is pastor Gary Walton, the lead pastor of Harvest Baptist Church. Every week, we spend these 25 minutes together telling you the stories of our church, interviewing our members and other friends of the ministry. We’d invite you to join us at Harvest Baptist Church this week, 2 services every Sunday, 8:45 AM and 10:45 AM. We have Japanese and Korean translation during our 10:45 AM service.
That’s also when we livestream at hbcguam.org, hbcguam.org. This week, pastor Tim Potter will be speaking in both services from first Thessalonians 5:23, preparing to be presented blameless. Let’s begin today’s Harvest Time by welcoming pastor Gary Walton. Hi, pastor.
Gary Walton: Hey. Hafa adai, Chris. This is a special weekend for us. Every other year, we spend a very specific, set of days focusing specifically on discipleship. If you’ve been around Harvest at all, you would know that, this is not something that only comes up every couple of years.
It’s the theme. We’re a disciple making church, but it’s good for us to come back regularly and, you know, just really set us set aside some time to focus. And we have a a special guest that’s gonna be with us on island during these days, starting actually tomorrow And then on Sunday, pastor Tim Potter is, gonna be here from Ohio. I’m gonna introduce him in just a minute. But on Sunday, Chris, as you mentioned, he’s gonna be preaching in both services.
God’s really gifted pastor Tim and equipped their church in this discipleship area. And, our desire is to is to learn, from him, from, you know, some of the things that God’s taught their church, and he’s gonna be a blessing to you. And so we wanna invite you to come. You know, God’s called each of us to this disciple shape disciple making ministry, and you’re gonna be better equipped by joining together with us this Sunday. But I’m really glad to have, pastor Tim with us actually on the phone here today all the way, I think, from Ohio.
Right, pastor Tim?
Tim Potter: Northeast Ohio and just outside of Cleveland. Yes, sir.
Gary Walton: Okay. Well, so, glad to have you with us. We’re looking to we’re looking forward to you being here next week, but thanks for joining us early to talk to our our, radio audience and our church family.
Tim Potter: Well, we’re heading on a record level of snow so far for this year, and and, another 5 inches is falling right now. And so when I look at the temperature in Guam, I’m just kinda it seems other like, I’m in a multiverse, like, down to your place. But Well, you I’m looking forward to being down there and see and and and just fellowshipping with you guys.
Gary Walton: Yeah. It might be a little shock to your system, but you’re gonna enjoy it. I can guarantee you that for sure.
Tim Potter: Oh.
Gary Walton: Pastor Tim has been the long term pastor at Grace Church in Mentor, Ohio, until recently. I’ll maybe ask you about that in a minute. And, he’s still at the church, but kind of moving positions as the president of Arch Ministries, which is out of Grace Church, and, you know, that ministry is leading efforts to plant churches and strengthen church planners and cultivate partnerships that advance the gospel. But you’re gonna be here this week for our discipleship seminar. So thank you for being willing to come out for that.
Tim Potter: You’re welcome. Sounds like that’s on Saturday
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Tim Potter: Morning into the afternoon. Looking forward to that.
Gary Walton: Yeah. It’ll start on Saturday. That’s 25th. That’s tomorrow, 25th, 9 to 2. Registration starts at 8 o’clock, and you can also sign up online.
If you go to our website, you’ll find a link for signing up, for that seminar. This will be your first, time out to Guam and first visit to Harvest. Right?
Tim Potter: Yes. Yes for both.
Gary Walton: If we can just introduce you to everybody. Tell us about you, your family, your background. Would you do that for us?
Tim Potter: I grew up here. I’m actually still on the church that my dad brought us to in 1972.
Gary Walton: Okay.
Tim Potter: My dad was the former senior pastor here at 34 years. I served underneath him for 17 years as the youth and associate pastor. And then in 2006, became the senior pastor for 17 years. And just before the transition to me being the lead pastor, we started to really take a deeper dive into understanding the theology, philosophy, and practice of disciple making in a local church. And, we had had a great church for years, but I don’t know that we have understood what it meant to be truly healthy rather than just busy doing the work.
So over the 17 years of being lead pastor, our folks just did a great job working with us, trying to figure this out. And, part of you know, we always talk about unexpected, unexpected God intended blessings of disciple making cultures. And one of those unexpected God intended blessings is spiritual replication happens. Its fruit is practical replication. People that are receivers become contributors.
And from our sound ministry, to our usher, to our childcare, to music, all the way up to pastor, teacher, and lead pastor, teacher, people are reproducing themselves, not just spiritually, but practically. So it was my heart to make sure we transition to the next leaders of Grace, that second Timothy 2:2 thing, committing faithful things to faithful men, at an appropriate time. So I just wanna ask God for wisdom for that for me. You know, we started prepping for that, you know, 3 years ago. So when I’m, you know, 53 years old, and the the ministry’s going strong, I think that’s the best time if God provides these leaders.
They’re trained. They’re ready to go to start that gradual transition. So, yeah, January 1st, of 2024, the guys that were in my youth group that we trained became my bosses, and they’re doing a great job. And, so pastor Steve Sindelar, pastor Mike Hixson. And, it’s great being under their authority, and and I’m an assistant pastor at Grace Now going out underneath Arch Ministries, which is a ministry of the church planting ministry of Grace Church.
So, that’s it in a nutshell. But, I’ve been at Grace for mercy. I turned 57, today. So
Gary Walton: Wow. Wow. Happy birthday.
Tim Potter: Appreciate it. Yeah. So I’m trying to do the math here. So I’ve been there 50, 53 years of my life.
Gary Walton: Wow.
Tim Potter: And it’s a blessing. And and and we’ve been able to plant 15 churches out of grace, and and now we get just to do that on steroids, God willing, full time. I’m planting 1 currently right now just southeast of us here in Ashtabula County, Ohio, Kingsville, Ohio.
Gary Walton: Okay.
Tim Potter: And, helping a bunch of others get started as well. So it’s good.
Gary Walton: Well, that’s a fantastic full circle story, of, you know, how God designed the church. Really beautiful. I’m excited to hear more, more about that. Your your family your your wife is Rhonda. You have some kids.
Right?
Tim Potter: Yep. My wife grew up at Grace Baptist Church in Muncie, Indiana. She’s a graduate of Heritage Hall Christian School. We met, we met in college, when we were freshmen. We dated for 5 years, and then we’re married in 91.
And, her birthday is actually 48 hours apart from mine. So we’re pretty much the same age.
Gary Walton: Wow.
Tim Potter: 2 2 2 separate days. We have 4 kids, Caleb, Micah, Noah, and Emma. And, Caleb’s married, and he and his wife live in Laconia, New Hampshire. And they go to Joel Nason’s church up there, in the Arch Network. My son, Micah, is married to Elle.
They live in Salt Lake City. Micah plays for the Utah Jazz right now.
Gary Walton: Right.
Tim Potter: And, they’ve got a wonderful church family there, I think just south of Salt Lake City. And, my son, Noah, just finished his college football career, and he’s getting ready for his pro day to hopefully get a shot at the next level. That’s his desire. Great. He goes to Friendship Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, while he’s finishing up at NC State.
He started at Ohio State and finished up at NC State. And my daughter is, going she’s running track at Ball State University, my wife’s hometown there, by Grace Baptist in Muncie.
Gary Walton: Okay.
Tim Potter: And, this she’s in her final year. So 4 kids and, my first son played college baseball. So it was baseball, basketball, football, and track, and soccer for my daughter.
Gary Walton: Well, I knew that Yeah.
Tim Potter: They’re doing fine. They love the Lord. They’re serving the Lord, and and we’re just super humbled by that.
Gary Walton: I knew there were some athletes in the family. Of course, I’d known, Micah’s story. And I I knew there were some others. I didn’t know all the pieces of that.
Tim Potter: It’s okay. It’s alright.
Gary Walton: A family legacy. So that’s cool. So discipleship, you know, is obviously a key foundation for the church, clearly a theme of your life. What’s the foundation for that? What do you what do you go back to when you start talking with people about, you know, churches and disciple making?
Where does that come from?
Tim Potter: Honestly, Pastor Gary, my own life experience as a PK and then as a pastor and the different the colleges and seminaries I went to and different churches I’ve spoken at, you know, and I I call it in our Stripe of Christianity, I saw a lot of wonderful people. We all stand on their shoulders. But all these churches, as I’m observing them, over the course of, you know, my my pastoring years, I’m amazed at why they struggle, how they struggle. Plateau and decline, 93% of the churches in America, evangelicalism are in plateau and decline, our Stripe included. So I always thought these are such great people.
They all preach the full counsel of God’s word. So, like, what’s going on here, you know? And so that’s when we began to do that deeper dive I mentioned earlier. And the foundation is not experience. It’s actually the word of God, you know, more I think in a more mature fashion, understanding the living word of God, Jesus, in his life.
And then, learning not just to value his his nature, in his person, but actually how he lived. And then how he trained. And then, using the whole counsel of God’s word to mature people towards Christ likeness, again, not just in character, but also in lifestyle, and in purpose. So, you know, the world, the corporate world talks about all the time, know your why, you know, what’s your corporate why. And I think for the Christian, the foundation that we get from the word of God, coupled with our experiences, we study and preach the word of God.
Somewhere along the way, we kinda have a tendency, if we’re not careful, at least at Grace Church, to lose our why. You know, why am I getting up today? Why am I living today? You know, where am I going? And why am I going where I’m going?
Really, to live our lives every day for the exact same reason Jesus lived his. He came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom, for the lost. And he lived to be, you know, a fisher of men. And he’s called us to do the same thing. And we do that in all different kinds of ways.
But I think we’ve done it, at least in our neck of the woods, more institutionally, at the expense of people personally kinda owning that spiritual replication in everyday living. So in our stripe, in our neck of the woods, we had a lot of consumers of really good stuff. You know, we had solid churches. But when they struggle and they scratch their heads, they don’t itch, you know, you start to figure, you know, maybe we need some hands and feet to what we know. And and so we just beg God for that wisdom, and we’ll share that at the seminar tomorrow.
And, and we’ll wrap it up on Sunday. But just really the foundation’s the word, the written word, the living word, Jesus, begging God for wisdom that he promised to give us lavishly if we ask him for the hands and feet. I think wisdom is just a Bible with hands and feet. And for our church, and then patiently you know, because we’re not we’re not disciple makers as pastors. I wasn’t a disciple maker at Grace Church.
I was 20 years full time. I really don’t think I understood what it meant to be a disciple maker until I was 43 and already 20 years in the ministry. And we’ll talk about that at the seminar. But we had some spiritual adjustments in our own hearts to do as pastors and then and then our leaders and then our people. But it’s been worth the journey over the last, you know, 20 years since then.
Yeah. And, it’s been great. It’s been great. And to see the people own it and live it and and know their why of their existence. You know?
Gary Walton: Yeah. Man, we resonate with all of that, so much. I’ve got an interesting ministry story. It might be some somewhat similar to you. It’ll be interesting to compare notes, down the road a little bit.
But, you talked about this developing a disciple making culture. What do you what do you mean by that?
Tim Potter: Well, it’s we we don’t live far from a big Amish community here in Ohio. You go into Amish country here in Ohio or Pennsylvania or in Indiana. Every Amish family has multiple clotheslines
Gary Walton: Mhmm.
Tim Potter: In their yard. And we had we had a lot of good quality, clotheslines Theologically, philosophically, and practically, we were we were hanging the articles of our ministry on, but disciple making wasn’t one of them.
Gary Walton: Mhmm.
Tim Potter: I think we had to define terms. Yeah. You use discipleship all the time, but it wasn’t really disciple making. It was just merely teaching. Right?
And we’ll describe that in the seminar tomorrow, what disciple making is and what it’s not. But, instead of using the term, discipleship, we use, and I noticed you were very careful to use that in your introduction, disciple making. That’s the that’s the literal translation of Matthew 28:19. Go and make disciples. And, that closed line, like, everything we decided that everything we would do at Grace, if it couldn’t be attached to that spiritual replication clothesline, we wouldn’t do it.
So how do we make our Sunday schools about spiritual replication? All of our youth events, college and career events, everything we do, just seeking to be, just seeking to be spiritual replicators. That’s all I can tell you. So, you know, ladies’ missionary fellowship, men’s Bible studies, women’s Bible studies, anything and everything we did, we wanted to do with the purpose of spiritual replication. But we did it slowly.
This is this is something that took us well over a decade, I think, even to see some good traction of training to people, modeling what it would be. Because when you’ve got a good group of people and they’re faithful, and they don’t know because the pastors haven’t been modeling it, you have to you have to teach, you have to model it, and then you have to invite them to learn with you. And it’s a very humbling process. But then when you get your people alongside of you learning with you and then analyzing every part of your ministry, is every part of our ministry for an eternal walk? Ministry, is every part of our ministry for an eternal why?
Is it is every part of our ministry about training, observing all things, what sort of I have commanded you and reaching? And over time, if you teach it, model it, be patient, invite, people to go with you, it becomes a culture. And when that’s your clothesline, it becomes your culture. But it’s it’s slow. It’s like, that’s why we call it a culture and not a program.
Right? Because it’s a lifestyle. And then we get together and we worship. We worship. And worshiping is part of that, you know, observing part of the great commission.
But that that’s the metaphor that seems to resonate most with people is the is the, you know, the disciple is the clothesline. Yeah. And, teaching, modeling, inviting, slow, you know, And then it just becomes a thing. And and tomorrow in the seminar, we’ll explain again, all the different practical hands and feet of what, God gave us wisdom do in our context. Like, every church has to figure out Right.
You know, We would encourage them. You do you. Right? We’re not the model. We’re a model.
You know? So, we wanna encourage, you know, folks to just to know and live the life of Christ the best they can. And I’m I’m sure your folks will just eat it up.
Gary Walton: Yeah. We’re excited about it. You know, it’s interesting. My my background, probably somewhat similar to yours, different locations, different colleges, but, discipleship was such a key word for me. I mean, I was, you know, grew up in a culture where the word was so important.
I really believed in that. I I came out of college and seminary passionate about this the idea of the word discipleship until, you know, you start trying to live it out and not honestly exactly what you’re saying, not really seeing a good model of how churches I could see some individual models, but how churches were truly developing a culture of people. I mean, many, many people. I read in, you know, some of your background, you know, just, about the ministry, but you some specific words that I loved. One thing I came specifically from you was member by member, discipleship.
And you’ve been talking about that, but just tell us a little bit more about what that means for your church and for you philosophically.
Tim Potter: I don’t know if you remember, we had a you know, a president, you know, George H. W. Bush, and his wife was real big on, you know, child education. Yeah. I don’t know if you guys remember her motto as a president’s wife.
You know, no student no child left behind.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Okay.
Tim Potter: I remember. So with our clothesline being disciple making, it’s just not every member motivated, every member included. It’s it’s no soul left behind.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Tim Potter: And and our my desire as a pastor, Ephesians 4, right? You wanna equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. So when I’m growing up, the work of the ministry is, you know, painting, mowing, cleaning, singing, teaching, you know, you serve according to your spiritual skill set, right? The gifts that the spirit of God gave you when you were born again. And so the whole goal was find out what that gift is and how to employ it in serving the people of the church, right, Philippians 4:9-11, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 to 14.
And that and that’s true, but that’s one aspect of what being a disciple maker is. When we have the gift of pastor, teacher, and we equip the saints to do the work of the ministry, I have a conscience I have a conscience that hopefully is spirit filled, you know, word saturated. And my you know, you see people. You see everybody in your church as a pastor, and you want everyone to know and to embrace this life that, that Jesus lives. And so, our people, they serve well.
Right? They mow. They paint. They sweep. They teach.
They sing. They do all the things necessary for the local church to function. But they weren’t replicating. They were busy, but they weren’t healthy. Everything that God’s created that is healthy replicates, whether it be a plant or a person.
You know? Yeah. And and they were busy, but they weren’t replicating. And that’s why the churches plateau and decline. And so our desire was to model for every person what this lifestyle was.
And so as we we taught it, we modeled it, and we invited, what we did was to make sure no soul was left behind. Everyone that came and we’ll explain this tomorrow on the seminar. Everyone that came at the invitations to join us to learn more about this, we coupled them up with somebody else that they could study with. And that became the foundation where everyone just is not a receptor, but they’re a contributor. And and that became the foundation of 1 on 1 discipleship, but there’s no silver bullet to that Right.
That formula. Right? We just started there to make it simple for our people. And and now there’s 1 with 3, 1 with 7, you know, 2 with 2, 3 with 5. It just kinda grew out of being receivers and then contributors, both in observing the word of God, but also trying to reach lost people.
And so, over a course and we’ll explain it over a course of about 15 years, you can look across at every one of the people gathered for worship on a Sunday morning, for instance. And you can see a wow. There’s, like, I know who they’re meeting with. I know who they’re leading. I know who they’re meeting with.
I know who they’re leading. And it’s not an institutional check mark or just a bullet. Right? It’s like this is flesh and blood instead of brick and mortar stuff. And and they know who is discipling me as the senior pastor.
I give testimonies about that. They know who I’ve won to Christ in town, and I testify about that. And so I’m teaching, I’m modeling, I’m inviting as I’m loving. And then everyone that invites that comes begins to teach, model, and invite as they love. And over time, God provokes people to a spiritual jealousy when they see the joy Yeah.
In the growth, you know, and they they start coming looking underneath everyone else’s head saying, you know, hey. Can I join that? Can I join that? And they hear the testimonies, you know, and and then it just becomes a culture. Yeah.
But that’s how the every member motivated to that level, not just to be busy in a church. A busy church is not a healthy church. A replicating church is a is a healthy church. And then everybody owning the Great Commission responsibility for themselves, it’s equally necessary for every member, not just for our pastor teachers and our missionaries. Right?
And and and that’s a slow process to teach people. But then, like like at Grace, when you have, you know, unassuming member, Joe, who is quieter than his church miles, and you walk up to Joe and you say, hey, Joe, what do you do here? And he goes, well, I’m discipling that guy over there. I won him to Christ. And that guy over there, he just was walking in one Sunday and asked him if he’d like to have a spiritual mentor.
And he said yes. I couldn’t believe it. You know? And and, he goes, no. What do you do here, Joe?
What’s that white tag on your coat jacket? You know? And it says, usher. What’s an usher? And he goes, oh, that’s just what I what I happened to do.
But I disciple that guy and that guy and that guy, and I’ve I’ve that guy led this guy to Christ, and now we’re all discipling him. That’s that’s a culture where where what they’re doing to encourage the body is necessary because it’s obedience. Right? Whether it be the gift of helps or discernment or teaching or pastor teaching, we all, you know, fan the flame of our spiritual gifts, but that’s just part of it. It’s growing in addition to that, to understanding that, yeah, that’s just what we do.
Joe’s got the gift of helps. Right? He’s got the gift of mercy. So he’s an usher. Right?
And that really strengthens the flock. But what Joe really does is what he’ll tell you. Yeah. I just assure you that’s the easy thing. Right?
Getting guys like Joe to 85% of your congregation by the time I transition to the guys that I train, My my conscience was settled, Pastor Gary. I I lived in fear for years of 2nd Corinthians 5. What’s the Bema Seat gonna be like for me as a senior pastor?
Gary Walton: Absolutely.
Tim Potter: And I’m not a disciple maker.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Tim Potter: You know what I mean? So that was just me. So but that’s how it went from me to practically now every member, almost every member, at Grace where it became a culture. And, yeah, that’s a that’s a nutshell.
Gary Walton: I love that. I can’t wait to talk to you personally about this, and then, just for you to be able to share this, you know, what God’s done, some of the things he’s taught you with our church family. I think you’re gonna find a receptive audience, people that love Jesus, and we’re trying to grow. So, we’re we’re looking forward to these days with you. Thanks again for being willing to come.
We may try to catch you while you’re here live and do a follow-up for next week. We’ll see if we can make that happen.
Tim Potter: It’s no problem at all. I’ll be glad to help wherever I can. Looking forward to being with you guys. Got a whole lot of people back here praying
Gary Walton: Awesome.
Tim Potter: For that time to be with you tomorrow on Sunday. So
Gary Walton: Awesome. Very good. We’re praying as well. Thanks, pastor Tim.
Tim Potter: Alright. No. Thank you for your time. Nice to meet you both.
Chris Harper: And thank you for listening to Harvest Time. Of course, at this point in the program, we always want to invite you again to services at Harvest Baptist Church. We meet twice on Sunday, 8:45 AM, 10:45 AM. There’s Japanese and Korean translation during the 10:45 AM service, and that’s also the service we air live here on 88.1 FM and khmg.org. We hope to see you this Sunday.
Thanks again for listening to Harvest Time.