In 1989 Donna and I were serving as Youth Pastors for Bethel Assembly of God (now Crossroads Church). The church sent us on an enrichment trip each year to a conference of our choice and in '89 there just wasn't anything we were interested in. We decided to visit the largest Assembly of God church in the country and meet with their Youth Pastor. At that time, the largest AG church in the country was Phoenix First Assembly of God in Phoenix, AZ. The Pastor was Tommy Barnett and he was known for his passion for souls and his innovation in ministry! Donna and I traveled to Phoenix on a Wednesday, attending their youth service that night, then met with their Youth Pastor the next morning. He was a very nice man doing some great things in Student Ministry but really nothing we weren't already engaged in. At that time our Youth Ministry was booming and our stand out initiatives included a Discipleship program for teens and a Leadership training Program for adults interested in working with teens.
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Bud Plake led the school for one year in 2016-17,
Tim Gautreaux led from 1990-93,
Lloyd Ziegler was the inspiration behind it all,
Shawn Marcell led for 11 years from 2005-2016,
Paul Jaqua has led from 2017 to present. |
At the end of our meeting, Jeff Peterson, the Youth Pastor there at Phoenix First, suggested that I meet with Lloyd Zeigler who was overseeing a brand new ministry called Master's Commission. He brought me down to a building on campus called Carmen Hall and introduced me to Lloyd, who began to describe Master's Commission as a nine-month school that young people, right out of high school, could attend as an intensive discipleship program preparing them for the next season of their lives. Their mornings were spent in Bible Study, prayer, scripture memorization and classes and every afternoon they were involved in some type of ministry and outreach. To me it sounded like our Discipleship Program and Leader's Training Program all wrapped into one, full time intensive - I knew I wanted to bring it to Louisiana! I came back home and sold our Pastor and Board of Directors on the idea and in 1990, we launched the first Master's Commission outside of Phoenix right here in Lafayette. That class graduated in May of 1991 - 30 years ago. Aside from a five year break while I was away - having left Lafayette in 1994, returning to serve as Lead Pastor in 1999 - we have had some version of the school up and running here in Lafayette ever since and have had over 350 young men and women from all over America and around the world graduate the school. Today, the program is called Crossroads Leadership College and is led by Paul and Michelle Jaqua, who are both graduates of the program.
Knowing this would be our 30-year anniversary, we decided to do a banquet in association with this year's graduation and invite all our alumni to attend. Over 150 of them took us up on it and it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life! Along with all our incredible alumni and their spouses, Lloyd Zeigler came in to to celebrate with us, Tim Gautreaux who directed the first program for me back in the '90's came in to celebrate with us, Shawn Marcell, who directed the program for 11 years spoke at the banquet and Pastor Tommy Barnett was our keynote speaker for our Sunday services and the Sunday night graduation. Spending time with this living legend was a dream come true! I have so much respect for Pastor Tommy! Kari Campbell, who led our Worship Institute for years (her husband Vance is a graduate of our very first class back in '91) pulled together an alumni band and led us in an incredible time of worship!
I was trying to get a handle on why it was so special to me and my friend Beau Dore, a graduate of the program who also served as the Assistant Director for a number of years, put it all in perspective for me. He said, "You know, most people in ministry never have that large a representation of the fruit of their ministry in one room until their funeral and then they don't get to see it!"
