DL Women's Alumni Blog

Jason serves as the Director of Curriculum and Resources. He helps to develop materials to be used by current DownLine students, alumni, and the Church in general.  In addition to curriculum, Jason also helps to shoulder the load with teaching, spiritual formation, and missions responsibilities.

Born and raised in Berkeley Springs, WV, he attended West Virginia University where he was involved with Campus Crusade for Christ and a member of the WVU wrestling team.  After graduating from WVU in 2003 with a B.A. in History and a minor in Religious Studies, Jason lived in East Asia for two years where he was engaged in language study and ministry.

Jason moved from East Asia to Denton, TX in 2005 where he went through Tom Nelson’s Young Guns program at Denton Bible Church.  He recently completed his Master of Theology (Th.M.) degree at Dallas Theological Seminary with an emphasis in Historical Theology and World Missions.

Jason and his wife Kim, also a DTS grad with a Masters in Biblical Counseling, have a newborn daughter, Sydney Mei Seville.  Jason enjoys working out, football (playing, watching, fantasy), reading the Puritans, and studying/teaching the Word of God.

Taken from  DL alum Ashleigh Carrol’s blog. I’m not a true blog “follower”, but I enjoy checking Ashley’s often because it either makes me laugh or think, usually in under 30 seconds. One of her recent post is below, and I loved it. Enjoy and may people see in us how incredible it is to simply be in love with Jesus! Thanks Ashleigh!

Here are the lyrics….

Give me rules
I will break them
Give me lines
I will cross them
I need more than a truth to believe
I need a truth that lives, moves, and breathes
To sweep me off my feet
It ought to be

More like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now
It’s like I’m falling, oh
It’s like I’m falling in love

Give me words
I’ll misuse them
Obligations
I’ll misplace them
‘Cause all religion ever made of me
Was just a sinner with a stone tied to my feet
It never set me free
It’s gotta be

CHORUS

…It’s like I’m falling in love, love, love
Deeper and deeper
It was love that made
Me a believer
In more than a name, a faith, a creed
Falling in love with Jesus brought the change in me

(From Ashleigh…)I don’t know about you, but I’ve never heard someone say they came to Jesus because his rules looked more morally upright than the others.  Or that his high standards made them want to be better.  I come to Jesus BECAUSE I’m broken.  Because without His mercy my own brilliance would take over and ruin me.  Because He is better than.  Better than my own wisdom, better than my desires, better than my pride and self-reliance.  It’s not His rules that set us free…it’s His kindness that leads to repentance.  Let’s not forget that as we present our Jesus to those around us.  Is He the great rule keeper?  Or is He the kindest person you’ve ever met.  The one who forgives 70 times 7.  Someone able to steal our affections.  That’s the Christ that breaks through our own striving to do good and BECOMES good for us.  That sounds much better to me.

Part 1

Part 2

DownLine recently welcomed Pepper and Gabriela Horn to the DownLine family! Pepper will come along Steve Winstead in our DL International movement as the assistant global director. He will be assisting Steve in training and leading teams to other parts of the world to equip national believers in disciple-making.

Pepper was born and raised in Southern California.  He came to know Christ while serving in the U.S. Air Force.  During his four years of active duty he became an instructor gunner on B-52s. When his commitment in the Air Force was complete, he attended San Diego Christian College and graduated with a B.A. in Biblical Studies.

He later moved to Memphis and attended Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. While at Mid-America, he served as an intern in the Military Ministry at Bellevue Baptist Church.  During his time in seminary he began taking mission trips to Eastern Europe.

Upon graduation from Mid-America with a M.Div. Pepper served in Albania for two years with the International Mission Board.  When he returned to Memphi,s he met someone who taught him how to see ministry from a totally new perspective.  This person modeled how someone could intentionally build into the life of others with the goal of impacting the whole world for Christ.  “When I saw it, I knew this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

In 2002, Pepper moved to Costa Rica and spent a year learning Spanish.  He comes to us after having served on a church planting team in the capital city of Honduras.

Pepper has traveled to thirty foreign countries, and he has been a missionary for the last ten years.  He went to Honduras as a single man and came back married to a beautiful, godly and gifted young woman named Gabriela.  She enjoys investing her life in young women and her hobbies include photography and cooking.

Pepper enjoys basketball, surfing and waterskiing.

Over 1,600 ladies are signed up for Legacy this weekend and from all over the country including Washington, Texas, California, Oklahoma, and across the southeast! We’re excited about what the Lord has planned through this conference. We are praying daily for hearts to be readied, eyes opened, and fertile ground for the Spirit to change lives.

I look forward to seeing you ladies but with thousands of women, I thought we might need a little help! There will be a DL Alumni room – Fireside C available during the breaks. After you come through the main entrance, take the hall to your left, and you will see Fireside C and an alum sign. Use this room as a meeting point or come by to see what other alum you can find and catch up with!

I’ll be there with the boys during check-in and for the first part of the program before they head home with dad Friday night, and we would love for you to come say hello!

The DownLine website was recently redesigned… very cool new look!

www.downlineministries.com

This weekend was the first DownLine Summit and 1,000 men came out! Can you imagine the ramifications of 1000 men catching the vision for disciple-making and beginning to build into younger generations!! One of the speakers commented on the quantity of men (many conferences are canceling due to poor turnout blamed on the recession), the quality of men, and the far reaching multiplicative impact of the discipleship theme; considering those three factors, he shared that this would be the most important speaking opportunity for him this year. I went tonight just to peek inside the doors and was blown away! Check out pictures on the DownLine web site… http://www.downlineministries.com/menssummitpictures WOW! WOW! WOW!

Get fired up about February… our Summit experience is coming!!!!

http://www.downlinesummit.com/women/

Join us at the home of Veronica Berry at 7pm this Thursday, October 8 for some sweet fellowship and sharing time to hear how ladies have been applying what was learned during their DL training. Hope to see you there!

8411 Sandy Berry Cove
Germantown, TN 38138

We LOVE the ladies who have joined the DownLine team this fall! They are sharp, intelligent, hard working, passionate about the Lord, and absolutely killing it!! Ashleigh, Sarah, and Karly are working hard to make the first DownLine Summit Men and Women’s conferences a great success. Ariyana who worked with us last year as the Emerging Leader assistant has now become the EL Women’s Director, and Hailey works with her in ministering to these young women. Beth has volunteered with the DL women and helped with the womanhood curriculum for the past two years, and as I’ve stepped back from my involvement with the Institute Women, Beth graciously and with her usual enthusiasm has increased her involvement as the Women’s Director. Check our her blog for the Women’s Institute  - http://www.dlwomen.blogspot.com/- great stuff here including recipes, her favorite books, and insightful encouragment. How blessed we are to have these special ladies helping DL serve the body of Christ in disciple-making!

Since many of you will be starting back soon with your discipleship small groups, I wanted to encourage you with three simple yet profound principles for leading a small group. I recently came across these while watching a leadership dvd for a Biblical worldview curriculum by Dale Tacket, president of Focus Leadership Intitute, Senior VP to Focus on the Family, and architect of The Truth Project worldview curriculum.

We must have a vision to see radical change in the body of Christ…Christians SOLID in their FAITH, RIGHTEOUS in their ACTIONS, and LIGHT & SALT in a desperate world. Discipleship is Jesus’s strategy for bringing about these changes.

When meeting with a small group of women, there are three primary objectives that I pray we experience…

1. Deep Transformation 2. Intimate Fellowship 3. Multiplication

The Greek word for transformation is “metamorphoo.” This word gets thrown around a lot, but God uses it very carefully. Actually, it’s only mentioned three times in the NT. First to describe the glorious tranfiguration of Jesus Christ (Matt 17:2, Mark 9:2), then in 2 Cor 3:18 how we’re being transformed into the likeness of Christ, and I want to camp out a minute on the last reference Rom 12:2…”Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

In many ways, we believers have conformed to the world. Social studies show little distinction between Christians and non-Christians – addictions, divorces, eating disorders, entertainment choices – which is sad not only for the Christians living in bondage but it also greatly compromises our witness and evangelism effectiveness.

So how does true transformation occur? Romans 12:2. Continually coming into the presence of God and seeing the reality, the truth of who He is. John 8:32 says “and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” I pray that as we meet with other women, we will deeply experience radical transformation in our lives that conforms us more and more into the likeness of Christ. May we constantly have the truth before us renewing our minds as we come into the presence of the Lord. For when we encounter the living God, we WILL be changed!

Quickly on the last two points…

People are craving true intimate fellowship in a culture of autonomy, technology, and busyness. Scripture calls us to be continually coming together for close fellowship, and remember there is something that happens in the home that doesn’t happen in a neutral place. So pull out those Beth Bryson notes on hospitality and watch how God uses your home!

Multiplication… the heart of Jesus’s strategy to transform the Body of Christ. Can I hear an AMEN from all you DownLiners!

Praying for you this year as the Lord brings older and younger women together in discipleship relationships for the glory and furtherance of His Kingdom!