Pastor Tim Potter is in studio this week to speak with Pastor Walton about developing a disciple making church and what that means for leaders and members.
Download the Tim Potter Harvest Time
Episode Transcript:
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 by interviewing our members and other friends of the ministry. We’d like to invite you to join us at Harvest Baptist Church this week. There are 2 services, the first at 8:45 AM, the second at 10:45 AM.
We have Japanese and Korean translation during that second service at 10:45. That’s also when we live stream at hbcguam.org, hbcguam.org. This week, part 3 of the Love Is series from 1st Corinthians 13:4-8. Let’s begin today’s Harvest Time by welcoming pastor Gary Walton. Hi, pastor.
Gary Walton: Hey. Hafa adai, Chris. Yeah. We’re in the 3rd week. We’ll come back this Sunday to just talking about what genuine love means from the Bible’s perspective.
You know, a lot of people, including Christians, seem to think of love only in terms of, nice feelings and affections, romance, and desire, but that’s not all how the Bible defines genuine love. And so I Corinthians 13 gives us a list, Paul gives us a list of 15 characteristics of genuine agape love that affects all of our relationships. We said in the intro a lot of people, you know, have seen this, this love chapter connected with wedding or marriage or family and there certainly are applications to that and we’re trying to bring them out on Sunday mornings. But it really is about the relationships within the church, within the body of Christ. And so we’d love to have you come.
We’re going to just talk about what does love look like. Jesus said that we’re the church, his people, are going to be known by their love. That’s how people would be able to recognize genuine Christians, by their care for each other. And, we’re just walking through what that looks like and what it means, and you’re not too late to get in on the journey as we spend this spring, just carefully talking through these characteristics and what they mean and how we can learn from them. Well, we’ve had a great privilege at harvest over the last week to have pastor Tim Potter with us and we’ve got him in studio.
So pastor Tim, thanks for joining us.
Tim Potter: Thank you, pastor Walton. Chris, good to be here.
Gary Walton: Pastor Tim has been the long term pastor of Grace Church in Mentor, Ohio. He was, there first in an assistant role and then as a lead pastor. I think you said 17 years?
Tim Potter: Yes, sir. 17 years of both.
Gary Walton: Okay. Of both. Just recently, maybe tell us about that, but just recently moved from the actual lead position still in the church, still serving at the same church but overseeing a ministry called Arch Ministries. And that maybe freed up your schedule a little bit to be able to come out to Guam. I’m not sure, but we’re really glad that you’re here.
Tim Potter: Oh, well, thank you. So in 1991, the church decided they needed a pretty robust outreach to our youth in the community. I had already served for 5 years and 5 straight summer internships as youth in youth ministry, so they hired me on after those 5 years in ’91. Had some relative, I guess, what the world would call success. There was some growth and so forth.
So did that youth associate role from 1991 to 2005. And then in 2004, our senior pastor had a heart attack, and we almost lost him. But God spared him. It took him about a year to recover. So that year, they asked me to pastor the church in his stead, and they felt things went well enough, I guess, where when our senior pastor came back, he felt it was time for him to go out from the church and plant churches.
And so in ’06, ’05, they voted. And in ’06, I began the senior role till 2024. And the guys that I had had in my youth group, we were able to train several of them. 2 of them, took the place of myself and our associate pastor, Kent Hobi.
Gary Walton: Yeah, that’s so great.
Tim Potter: And I went from senior to assistant, again, in charge of church planting, and the church planting arm of Grace Church of Mentor is Arch Ministries.
Gary Walton: Okay.
Tim Potter: So Arch is under the authority of our church, and and, I’m personally planning a church right now in, Kingsville, Ohio. It’s been about an 8 month process.
It’s going pretty well.
Gary Walton: Mhmm.
Tim Potter: And, that’s given the possibility of 3 more since we started that one in Northeast Ohio.
Gary Walton: Great.
Tim Potter: And, we’ve God just blows the wind in the sails of that. So there’s, like, 11 other replants in the country we were able to work with right now. In addition to that, all from my home church as we disciple the guys that we had a chance to lead to Christ. So it’s busy, but, I’m thrilled to have my home church because I grew up there. So it’s great to have my home church family, family in every sense of the word, you know, just, still support this effort of spreading the gospel through church planting. That’s gone national, and now a lot of global opportunities too.
So, yeah.
Gary Walton: That’s fantastic. You’re here. God brought you here to direct us, teach on some disciple making. We’re gonna talk about that in a minute. But, this is your first time to Guam. Right?
What do you think of our little island?
Tim Potter: Well, it’s beautiful.
Gary Walton: Mhmm.
Tim Potter: People are super nice.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Tim Potter: Everywhere I’ve gone so far, you know, they’re just sweet people. At least they have been to me. I’m assuming that’s the way they are to everybody.
Gary Walton: Guam is fantastic.
Tim Potter: Yeah. Some unique history here. I’d like to get to know him a little bit of a history guy. So looking forward to getting over and and studying looking at couple of those sites, and I’m a World War 2 history guy along with my son, Noah, and I think there’s a couple places here we can check out.
Gary Walton: But You’ve come to the right place to get some on the ground. Yeah. History.
Tim Potter: I’m excited about that. I, but, yeah, I mean, it’s it’s it’s warm. It’s beautiful. Back home, it’s beautiful and really cold. So it’s been good. Been great.
Gary Walton: You mentioned this. We, had you on the radio last week but via phone. Now it’s nice to have you actually right here and in studio. You mentioned last week you’ve, your wife is Rhonda. You have some kids. Tell us about your family.
Tim Potter: Yeah. So, my wife’s from, Muncie, Indiana. We met as freshmen. We, dated for 5 years, and we’re married in 1991. Her when she graduated from the Christian college we were attending, on the way to her graduation, her parents were in a car accident, and, her mom lost her life, to a drunk driver.
Gary Walton: Oh, no.
Tim Potter: And, she was in student teaching at the time. And we had we had just started to date, you know, just a couple years before that. So, they pulled her out of student teaching and and told her her mom had passed away, and, she never got a chance to walk in her graduation because it was 2 days before graduation that her mom was killed. So they flew her out to go be with her dad who survived the accident.
Gary Walton: Mhmm.
Tim Potter: But it was that situation that just kinda really galvanized our relationship spiritually
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Tim Potter: As a couple. I finished my undergrad. She did 4 years in 3. I did 4 and 4. Got my master’s.
She got her master’s back home at Ball State University. And then we were married in 91, and the Lord led us back up to my hometown, Mentor, Ohio. And there’s opportunities to go over other places. Mentor couldn’t pay me, but I just had this burden for youth having worked with them for 5 summers in a row. And, God just increased that burden on my heart.
And so we went back up there and couldn’t believe her dad said yes to marriage because I didn’t have a paycheck. But I was bi-vocational for 18 of the 35 years we’ve been there. And, we just made it work, and it’s been a blessing to be part of that church family, ever since. So, yeah, we have 4 kids, Caleb, Micah, Noah, Emma, and they’re all about 2 years apart. Caleb’s 28.
Emma’s in her senior year of college right now. They all they all love the Lord. Mean, we’re super humbled by that. Amen. They’re all attached to good, you know, good solid Bible preaching churches.
They’re all seeking to see other people come to know Jesus. Caleb and Micah are married. They both got married 2 weeks apart 3 years ago. And, sweet Christian girls. Caleb lives in New Hampshire.
Micah lives in, Salt Lake City, Utah. And right now, Noah and Emma both have great Christian girlfriend and boyfriend. I’m sure that if things progress, they’ll be wedding bells sometime in the next 12 to 18 months for both of them. But, Noah just finished his football career, and he’s getting ready for possible next level stuff. And Emma’s finishing her undergrad.
She’s running track right now in college. But, yeah, I mean, everyone’s in one piece today. Praise God. And they all love the Lord, which is just a miracle in itself. But yeah.
Gary Walton: Yeah. It’s great to hear, actually. It’s, you know, very encouraging. Congratulations in some ways to you and your wife. I know God’s at work and all that. Yeah. Absolutely. See a family grow up and children, you know, follow Jesus, that’s there’s no greater joy. I mean, that’s what the scriptures say. Yeah.
So thankful for that. Amen. We’ve really loved talking about discipleship, you know, just been able to dive in over the last few days, with the church personally. Actually, as we’re talking here, you and I just came from a couple hours with our pastoral team just talking about this idea. Let’s lay the groundwork for just the few minutes that we have here.
When we talk about, discipleship, what do we mean and, why is that so important?
Tim Potter: Well, the assumption is that we we don’t have a gospel unless that gospel changes the way we live. And that’s what that’s what the gospel of Jesus does when we understand it and we appropriate it. God’s grace appropriates to our lives. One of the biggest changes that he makes in our life is our desire to learn, and that’s really what the root word is. It’s disciple means learner and follower.
So immediately when someone’s born again, we could assume that the transforming work that the spirit of God does in their hearts and conversion compels them to want to follow Jesus. And so that’s in its most elementary form, its meaning. But you get to the basic verb form, you know, it means I follow. So that’s it’s personal ownership of following the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s typically when Jesus Christ descended, he left that responsibility of leading in the hands of people in the church.
And so people in the church, you know, follow someone as they follow Christ, and they’re they’re prepared to lead someone. So followship is fundamental to fellowship. The church knows the koinonia that the Bible speaks of, that we all enjoy to in a more full throated way when there is this interdependent followship in the among the flock. And so, you know, pastor Gary, you’re doing a great job equipping your saints to do that work of the ministry. You’re modeling it yourself.
Your team is learning it to model it. Your whole body is gonna join in in this, and it’s gonna be amazing what God’s gonna do from this island through this effort. But, really, it’s it’s the profundities and the simplicity of it. It’s just what Paul said in 1st Thessalonians chapter 1, what he said again in Philippians 3. You know, he was an example to the Thessalonian believers so that they became a model.
Right? There’s always this followship and this leadership. And as we explained a little bit earlier, it’s really it’s really rudimentary in the Godhead, in the what we would call in theological terms, the economic trinity, father, son, spirit. There’s even there’s even leadership and fellowship among infinite perfection. The son submits his will to the father, and the spirit does the bidding of the son.
And that’s that’s in perfect unity. We’re all made in their image. I think we’re all created, certainly in God’s image, and and and that authority submission, principle is the whole the whole cosmos doesn’t exist without that authority submission principle. It’s like a hinge on a door. Everything in the universe swings on this authority submission principle.
And the animal kingdom, the plant kingdom, humankind, and the God had demonstrated that. Well, so when we’re born again, he takes that by common grace made in the image of God, desire to follow somebody and learn from somebody. And he gives a supernatural flavor to it, and he puts it on steroids, so to speak. We really wanna pursue Jesus, and we really wanna learn from somebody else what it means for them to pursue Jesus. And then we have been equipped then to lead somebody else.
So it it sounds really like a big deal, but it’s actually, hard simple. But the profundities and the simplicity. But in that organic learning following environment, that’s that’s where Jesus builds his church. And that’s a little bit of a drink from a fire hose. I hope not too much, but I think to for us at Grace, it took us about 20 years to get this and to try to own it.
We still got a long way to go. But that’s where we really saw the Spirit of God begin to grow the church, and we realized that there was a lot of ways that we could grow the church. And and that’s, kind of, scary. But when we learn disciple making, and we’re still learning, but to be to see us obey the simple things, and let Jesus take care of the profound things, we never want to go back. But that’s it basically in a simple form, followship, leadership. Yep.
Gary Walton: Let’s say I grew up here on island. I you know, like a lot of people, I I went to church. I go to church. Maybe not every Sunday, but, you know, I go to local church around here. But I am listening to you right now, and I would say, you know, it feels like I’m missing something, you know, spiritually.
Am I missing something? Is there more to it than just, like, you know, going to church? Is that is that what you’re talking about? What’s this disciple making?
Tim Potter: For a lot of people, they don’t realize what they’re missing until they see it and they’re involved in it and it’s kinda like an moment.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Tim Potter: When Jesus says, you know, go make disciples, and teach, and observe all things, which are commanded you. And, obviously, the baptism part is something that takes place in the church. But this the going part and the observing part, people have typically been spectators to that whole, doing of the great commission, and it’s primarily been the the paid professionals, so to speak. So it’s kinda been kinda like a weird performance driven Christianity, where the paid professionals who are the educated ones, they do the great commission, and then there’s spectators in the seats or pews, and they’re watching everybody. They’re they’re okay coming to church.
They’re okay even serving in the church. And they’re okay even supporting the paid professionals to do the the work of disciple making, going and winning someone, training somebody. But in but until they are enabled, empowered, by by the leadership to own the very life that the leadership’s living in spiritual application, according to the great commission, they’re really unfulfilled. They don’t know it. So, yeah, when they get involved, it’s it’s it’s quite a different church that they come to.
Their motivation for coming to worship is different. I think they become more genuine worshipers, quite frankly. And then they become, doers of the word. On Sunday, you you you you finish the the service, I believe, by quoting James 1:25. Now folks, we’ve heard the word, but we gotta go out and do the word, and then we’ll know what it means.
The last line of that verse you said was, in order to be blessed on our deed. Right? So when people see this and then they own it, because they’re shepherded to do it, and they do it, they worship different, and they view their whole community differently. They view their community the way Jesus views their community. You know, you lift up your eyes, the fields are wet into harvest.
We always know that cognitively, but experientially, it’s not something we’re necessarily leaving worship thinking. It’s not something we necessarily, you know, feet hit the ground in the morning. It’s not necessarily the first thing we’re thinking as we walk with God. Right? But disciple makers and we didn’t know this.
Right? There’s a lot of unexpected God intended blessings you learn to go along, but disciple makers look at the world, with pity and, shed tears, and then they beg God to help them reach reach it. So, yeah, it’s it’s it’s it’s changing. It’s life changing. It’s worth the journey of trying to figure out what it is. You know?
Gary Walton: People that come to church. I’m just trying to think through some of the people that might be listening, you know, to us today and tracking along. They of course maybe have an idea of this, you know, becoming a disciple what that means. They want to know what that means, and maybe have some questions, you know, about maybe people they know or even themselves who have been, you know, Christians in some in some definition. Christians, they’ve gone to church, but over time their faith has has kind of waned and they’ve walked away from the church.
Is any of this connected with disciple making discipleship?
Tim Potter: Oh, absolutely. Paul said to the Thessalonian believers in first Thessalonians chapter 5, he said, you know, there’s there’s the strong, the weak, the fainthearted, and the unruly in the church. And Paul told the Thessalonian believers, be patient with all of them. And people that understand disciple making, even though they don’t have the gift of the spiritual gift of pastor teacher, they become tremendous shepherds of the church where it becomes a no soul left behind. So you can have an unruly person that walks away.
But they’re when they’re walking away from a disciple making culture, where they know they’re loved in layers, not just from the leadership, but all the way down to everyone in the membership, they have to try really hard to walk away. So disciple making becomes what we call Smokey the Bear Theology. It’s fire preventative.
So they have to try really hard to walk away, and if they do walk away, they know what they’re walking away from. And in time, the spirit of God compels them to come back. They know the table’s set, and they’re welcome to come back, as if they never left. When I was growing up, because I grew up in the church I pastored. I’m still at pastoring. When someone it was easy to leave the church.
As a matter of fact, you could be gone for a month, and people could look around and say, oh, hey. You know, brother, sister, so and so is gone. And so you’re not really missed. Yeah. But then to come back, was kinda like you were labeled. It’s like why would I wanna go back there? I can never be that. Right? There’s some all stars there. I’m never gonna be an all star.
I’m kind of a slump, you know? But in a disciple making culture now, it’s hard to leave because you’re loved in layers and you’re grown, but it’s easy to come back. And it’s as as if you never left. It’s a completely different culture. So, yeah, I think for those out there that, you know, maybe maybe left the church, it was an environment like I just explained that I grew up in.
You know, at Harvest, you’re not gonna have that. You’re gonna be welcomed in, and we’re gonna pick up where you left off, you know, and grow more, because it’s never too late to do the right thing. You know? And if Jesus since Jesus can save us and forgive us of all of our sins when we’re saved, I think it’s a little bit less of a lift for him to restore us to fellowship at a local church after we’re saved, especially among a group of people that are just gonna love you that way. So
Gary Walton: you’ve I’d love that. Thank you. That’s fantastic. You’ve referenced Ephesians 4 a couple of different times, over the weekend as you’ve been here, which is a text that we love around here. I think it’s verse 16 that talks about this idea that we would not be children tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine.
That’s connected. Right?
Tim Potter: Oh, yeah. Yeah. The cross reference to that too is when the author of Hebrews writes to the Hebrews, and, I believe it’s chapter 5 verse 11. He he challenges him. Right? When you ought to be, you know, children eating meat, you’re still in milk. Right? And then the consequence of that is you can’t discern between good and evil.
Gary Walton: Right. You know?
Tim Potter: But in a disciple making culture, you have people being led by someone more mature than they are, while they’re training someone less mature than they are. And so they’re they’re digging the word personally. They’re they’re digging in the word collectively, and then they’re digging in the word And so there’s a depth. There’s a maturity that the body enjoys degree by degree.
Right? It’s genuine spiritual growth. It’s not swelling. It’s growth. Right?
And so the the the whole testimony of the church, the character of the church, the body itself is more robust in its spiritual stability. And it it it becomes more impenetrable by by false doctrine or or or religious unbelief. When you have the majority of your church able to detect what it is, they can see it before it gets there and there they become self protective. And and there was again, this was something that never I never experienced growing up even as a pastor’s kid. I would always see wolves in sheep’s clothing coming in, taking over, dividing the church.
And but we were preaching the whole council of God’s will. It was a it was a fascinating thing as a pastor’s kid to watch this happen. Phenomenal preaching, phenomenal facilities, phenomenal staff, phenomenal programs, no disciple making. If it was, it was kinda by accident. Right.
And how people in 3 piece suits and modest dresses would come in in unbelief and just tear the church apart. It disciple making people, they can discern, you know, modest unbelief. They can smell it before it gets there, just because they have a better relationship with the word, and they have a better relationship in the word with another believer. So they become the the protectors of the house, so to speak. And then the pastor, I I worry a whole lot less now as a pastor of unbelief creeping in among us, because the lay people are prepared to detect it and deal with it than ever before.
So I don’t know if that answered what you’re saying, but but I think I I think Ephesians 4 is huge when we equip the saints. We equip the saints to equip each other to grow up into a more full understanding of who Jesus is. I think the Greek word there in the text is epignosis rather than gnosis. It’s a full complete understanding of who Jesus is, but they’re doing that with each other because of the way that you’ve equipped them. And, harvest is on an unbelievable trajectory to understanding this kind of body health on the whole island, and then I think that testimony is gonna, like, go out to islands and countries beyond here like you’ve never seen before. But yeah.
Gary Walton: Well, we’ve loved your time here. Thank you. Thank you to your wife for, you know, letting you go and, spending these days. Really appreciated, you know, your willingness to just help us in the word Amen. Walk with us through this time.
Tim Potter: Thank you for the opportunity. I’m humbled. I mean, I’m just amazed by the people here, the students here, the flock here. I, it’s been a great time.
Chris Harper: Well, thank you for listening to Harvest Time today. Of course, at this point in the program, we wanna invite you to services at Harvest Baptist Church. This is our personal invitation to you, 8:45 AM, 10:45 AM, Sunday morning. We have Japanese and Korean translation during that second service at 10:45. We also broadcast that service here on 88.1 FM and khmg.org.
We hope to see you this Sunday. Thanks again for listening to Harvest Time.