Avery Johns
Multiplier | Pocatello Team
With my grandpa being a pastor, church was a normality of my life for only a short period. My family and I went faithfully to our small baptist church every week, always dressed to impress, but I never really knew what it meant to be a follower of Jesus; I went because I was told. It was around my junior year of high school when the gospel became real to me. From then on Jesus was more than this spiritual figure to me, He was my Lord and my savior. When I moved to Ellensburg Wa in 2014, the very same year that Resonate planted on the campus of Central Washington University, God began to show me what it truly meant to be a disciple makers and how to use my life to live sent and see a kingdom impact and movement begin to emerge around me and the community I had been brought into. Over the next few years I was challenged, pursued, and called to obediently walk, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to be the man who Christ has called me to be.
As an On Campus Multiplier and our sites lead on the Freshmen Ministry Team, my life is a little crazy at times but I wouldn’t want it to look any different. I spend most of my time on campus trying to engage with students in a multitude of ways, whether it be just having lunch with them, playing sports on the field, or just hanging out, I just try to meet them within their own spheres and build a relationship with them. My main priority is campus outreach and trying to see how we can reach the campus and our community with the gospel. My hope for my role on staff is ultimately to see the kingdom of God expanded on the campus of ISU but also to help train, develop, and send out leaders to other church plants, cities, and the world so that they may play a part in the Great Commision, living lives empowered by the Holy Spirit to play their own specific role in the great commission.
Getting to see people experience Christ either for the first time or in a new way in an area that is full of church hurt or unreached people groups is something that I think makes myself and many others passionate about what we do. Also getting to see young leaders and students take initiative over community building and the great commission in a city where the ideology of missional communities is taboo is life giving and cultivates a greater desire for me to be apart of Resonate Church as a Multiplier. Pocatello isn’t a desirable city to most and seen more as a stop on the map rather than a place to plant roots, but living in an area with so much potential to help reach and send out disciple makers into other major cities surrounding us is very exciting and I am very excited to see how Christ moves in us and around us in the next few years.
To have a team of both prayer and financial supporters not only allows me to spend all of my time on campus reaching students and being present in their lives, but also encourages me more into mission because I have a group of people supporting me, praying for me, and going to The Lord on my behalf to see His kingdom expanded throughout the world. It’s my joy to invite people onto my team because many people desire to help out and live sent lives but at times cannot physically help but this is a way that Christ has called and gifted some people to join in on the great commission.