“It starts with men being discipled,” says Dave Wood, describing a leadership program that’s making a big impact at Walnut Park Baptist Church in Muscatine, Iowa. But Dave won’t take credit for what’s happening.

“Our men’s discipleship is not a pastor-driven thing,” he says. “The men said they need it, and they wanted it.”

When Dave arrived in Muscatine eight years ago, he brought more than 30 years of pastoral experience—but never in a Regular Baptist church. He discovered an entire network of connections: “We have a great camp. We have a phenomenal college. There’s a group of churches that like being together. We go to family camp every year.”

He discovered one more connection at a state meeting of the Iowa Association of Regular Baptist Churches. Jon Jenks presented Leadership Journey, a men’s discipleship program he started when he was pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin (and continues as a program of Baptist Church Planters, where he is now president). Jon sketched out a yearlong mentorship experience that includes a weekend retreat and weekly meetings.

“I recognized the breadth and depth of discipleship,” Dave says, “more than just meeting up with a guy to talk. The Leadership Journey structure goes into areas that we probably would not have talked about. And it goes deeper into their transparency and their longing for friendship.”

Dave figured out pretty early that he would not need to push the idea. “The reason our discipleship Leadership Journey works isn’t because of me. It’s because several guys in our church were saying this is so important, and they are invested in it.”

One of the first to participate was Mark Henthorn, a mechanical engineer and business executive. “He was all in,” Dave says. “After that first year, his wife passed away. And then he decided he was going to take Leadership Journey again and lead it.” Mark became such an advocate that he joined ChurchCare Inc., a subsidiary of Baptist Church Planters. He is now executive director of ChurchCare.

As another benefit of men’s discipleship, Walnut Park discovered a different path toward full-time ministry training.

“We don’t have the same pipeline for ministry that we used to have,” Dave says. He describes the twists and turns of the old pipeline in ways that sound familiar: “You go to camp, you make a decision, you go to Bible college, and then you become youth pastor—you sink or swim, and then maybe you become a lead pastor.”

But the old pipeline isn’t providing enough pastors to fill the empty pulpits. “We’re not seeing young men go into undergraduate Bible training. Very few are populating the ministerial classes in any college I know. So where do we find the guys?”

“It’s got to come from our church or it’s not going to happen,” Dave says, answering his own question.

And what does the new pipeline look like? “I haven’t figured it out yet!” Dave answers, but quickly offers some ideas that are under development. First, Walnut Park added the internship program to its budget. When a seminary student needed an internship before becoming a military chaplain, the church responded with “Let’s figure out a way,” and now its first intern, Matt Zajac, is serving as a Navy chaplain.

The internship provides many preaching opportunities. “They are in the pulpit as part of the internship,” Dave says. “They have to know what they’re doing. That takes people listening to your sermons and saying, ‘Why don’t you fix this or change that.’”

“We are investing in the life-touching-life reality of real ministry, and what pastors will have to face and do and deal with and solve,” Dave says. “Then we see the joy of ministry.”

In essence, the new pipeline is tapping the potential of their own church. The current intern, Jonathan Ryan, was part of the second Leadership Journey group and was enjoying a career as choral director at Muscatine High School. He loved the relationships he built as a teacher and considered becoming a school counselor. “But I also knew that my hands would be tied—I couldn’t offer real hope or real help,” Jonathan says, given the limitations of talking about Christian faith in school.

So with the blessings of his school administrator, Jonathan quit his job and enrolled in Faith Baptist Theological Seminary. “Youth ministry and Biblical counseling are huge areas of interest to me,” he says now. “So I’m taking every counseling class that I can.”

Dave believes the impact of discipleship training can benefit every church. “I expected the life-touching-life transformation,” he says. “And we also captured a vision for the guys to take ownership for the church’s growth.”

Kevin Mungons is a Chicago-based writer and editor. Darrell Goemaat is director of photography for Regular Baptist Ministries.