A Vision for Educating Youth & Equipping Leaders

Pastor Roger Doyne and I are 45 minutes into our conversation when he tells me about a vision God gave him 30 years ago. In vivid detail, he describes to me what he saw:

I saw a manufacturing plant in College Station. In this plant, they were producing souls. The people there were dressed in priestly garb on an assembly line. It was discipleship. At the end of the assembly line, something was picking them up and putting them back into the community. There were teachers, police officers, politicians, and garbage men who had gone through the plant and were out in the community carrying out the Great Commission.

I also saw a wind blowing through the plant. It was the Holy Spirit, and He was superintending the whole process. This was the Church being a manufacturing house of the Lord, producing disciples to go out into the community.

After hearing this, I am surprised Roger waited this long to share it. “Roger, you buried the lead,” I tell him. He laughs and explains how the vision was a kind of North Star in what became City Church College Station. The church began in 2001 in North Little Rock but later moved to College Station, where Roger grew up.

In 2015, the church launched the Youth Institute, an afterschool program for children in the community. Roger tells me, “In our community, the harvest field is full of nonbelievers. The majority of parents in our community don’t belong to a church. 70% of households are without a father. Most children don’t see their parents half the time. We get children brought to the Youth Institute that no others would take.” Over a hundred children were going through the program before the pandemic hit, and the church decided to shut it down. 

In 2021, Roger’s wife, Regina, relaunched the program as the Youth Institute Academy. Under her leadership, the Youth Institute Academy made changes to accommodate a wider range of kids, from Pre-K to 12th grade. Roger emphasizes the importance of reaching youth at a young age. “We are establishing the kingdom of God in the community through the youth. Here, in the inner city, we have to get a head start from birth up. We need to give these kids schooling from a biblical point of view. We want to have them for life, to mentor them into adulthood, marriage, family, etc.” Overall, the Youth Institute Academy, as Roger explains, is about “growing the saints, building them up in the faith, so that they will be the major influencers in the community from a kingdom perspective.”

A Church-Based School

Recently, City Church College Station partnered with Courage Schools to launch a church-based school in the fall as part of the Youth Institute Academy. In addition to public, private, and homeschooling options, Courage Schools gives parents a fourth option for their children’s education. This option prioritizes students and measures their success beyond tests and grades.

Courage Schools believes in “restoring and empowering the three pillars of Christ-centered education that best model what it looks like to follow Jesus.” Those three pillars are:

• The Home – where parents have the God-given responsibility to impart a biblical worldview to their children 
• The Church – where shepherding happens beyond the Sunday service
• The School – where parents and churches partner together to advance the Great Commission

One Conversation that Changed Everything

Regina spent her career serving others in the public school system as an educator. However, when it came to educating her children, she and Roger chose to homeschool them. She tells me, “We saw the benefit of having a day-to-day opportunity to teach our children a biblical worldview. Having taught in public school, I didn’t see that as a priority there.” 

While Regina could homeschool her children, she knew that wasn’t a readily available option for many parents in College Station. “Roger and I thought it was important for other families in our community to have access to local, quality education built on biblical principles. Most parents are concerned about the quality of their children’s education. Our schools are failing our children in that.”

Regina dreamed about having a tuition-free Christian school in College Station. She often thought about and prayed about it. Then, in January 2024, a conversation with Lauren Linz and Ray Williams of CityChurch Network gave her hope. In that conversation, Lauren shared about Courage Schools and her desire to get more churches signed up. For Regina, it was an answer to prayer. She didn’t hesitate. She told her, “City Church College Station could do it.”

Educating Youth Toward Maturity

Regina empathizes with how many believing parents feel about their children’s education. “When you send your children out of the home to be educated, you can’t choose which set of morals the teacher they have will present. Public school teachers have limits on what they can teach. And the kids don’t get the support they need to feel strengthened in their faith.” Regina believes that the Courage School at Youth Institute is a game-changer for that. “Our goal is to strengthen a child’s faith and introduce them to Jesus as Lord and Savior and walk that out in front of them. This is significant in a world that’s going away from the Lord.” 

In a Courage School, a student’s spiritual growth and academic development run parallel. Regina explains, “It’s a child-centered education. We help children understand their talents and strengths and explore them through learning so they can understand who God is, how he has made them, and how they will apply that to their interests.” Regina tells me that in every classroom, mentors are there as guides to help children on that journey of exploration. There are also options available for children with learning disabilities or learning delays. 

The path toward having a Courage School in College Station has not been without challenges. “The biggest challenge has been financial. Getting the right personnel is also a challenge, but the Lord is blessing that area.” Despite the challenges, Regina sees the difference a Courage School can make in College Station. “It would make a significant difference. The Scripture talks about those who are mature and immature. Children are, by nature, immature. They need training, but training in the home doesn’t always happen, and children lack what they need to function and flow as God intended.”

If more churches were united in educating our youth, Regina tells me, “It would make such a difference in stabilizing their lives and helping them understand who created them, how they were created, and why they are here on this earth. All those things must be taught, and someone must be the example.”

A Clear Developmental Path for Believers

While the pandemic eventually opened doors to other opportunities for the Youth Institute, Roger tells me it also opened doors in how they equip leaders. Today, City Church College Station exists, as Roger says, “on the ground” and “in the sky” through the Kingdom First Network Global. He explains, “We have a hybrid model of large gatherings as a church, home gatherings, and online training and discipleship using BILD International resources.” 

When the church meets on the ground for larger gatherings, it’s for fellowship and centered around a meal. “We meet mainly for the purpose of relationship-building, caring for the Body, and having the fellowship meal, which we call a communion meal.” That happens once a month. The church meets in homes and other places for the rest of the month. Leadership training and discipleship happen online throughout the week.

The church uses the BILD resource, The First Principles Series, to equip its leaders. Think of The First Principles Series as a modern-day catechism for establishing believers in the essentials of the faith. Roger tells me it provides a clear developmental path for believers to understand and apply the core principles of Christ and His Apostles. 

The series is divided into 13 six-session Bible study guides that utilize, according to BILD’s website, “a highly effective learning process involving Bible passages and readings, community dialogue, personal reflection, and projects.” Unlike other information-based resources that use passive learning techniques, The First Principles Series engages participants in active learning through its dialogue-based approach, which helps believers learn to think biblically.

First Things First

Roger tells me he discovered The First Principles Series by accident in 2017. One day, Harold Nash, pastor of Fellowship North, told him about the cohort he was leading that was going through The First Principles Series. As Harold shared, Roger tells me he “almost got an attitude about it.” “Why am I just now finding out about this?” he wondered. He asked Harold to join the cohort and, as he puts it, “jumped in with all ten toes.” From that point forward, Roger has been an advocate for The First Principles Series. 

Roger highlights how the first booklet in the series, “Becoming a Disciple,” has helped leaders understand “what the gospel actually is and how to share it.” He goes on to explain what one group did. “One thing we did was practice sharing the gospel in 30-60 seconds, like an elevator pitch. We start with a question, ‘Are you a Christ follower?’ Based upon that answer, you’ve got 30-60 seconds to communicate the gospel. Learning how to do that has been life-changing for our people. It’s great to see how people have been able to use that.”

This group was no outlier. Roger tells me other groups have discovered how the Scripture has come to life in their discussions. For him, there is a goal in mind behind the training that takes place at City Church College Station. He tells me:

It all goes back to why we do what we do in all things kingdom and Church. It’s all out of obedience to the Lord. First things first—Jesus has commanded to go and make disciples. Then, Paul expands on it in Ephesians 4. Christ has given leaders to His Church for the purpose of carrying out this assignment, which is equipping believers to grow up in Christ in all things. The emphasis is on every member growing up to do the work of the ministry. This work of the ministry, of the Church, is to be done in the community. The Church is a place for training. The community is for ministry; it’s the harvest field.

We are thankful for the exceptional work of City Church College Station and all the churches in our city that are helping all—young and all—grow toward maturity in Christ in homes, churches, and schools. They’re helping the whole Church grow.

Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Ephesians 4:15-16