A college student decided to become an assistant baseball coach at a local school just to strategically engage his skills in a place he could share the gospel.
A few girls influenced their entire sorority to get up early on Sundays to go to church and sit under the Word.
Two college students have started an accountability group of ten on their campus, with evangelism and multiplication as the goal.
That’s just a few of the transformation stories Pastor TJ Mauldin of First Baptist Church Tifton has witnessed because of Leverage Your Life, a new small group study from the North American Mission Board (NAMB).
“I would say we’re your typical downtown First Baptist Church,” he shares. “But I’ll be honest; we were pretty inward focused for a while.”
“The idea of leveraging your life,” he says, “to get all the way to the point to where you’re not just a Christian that’s consuming, but you’re a Christian that’s engaging others with the gospel—that was what drew me to the study.”
With nearly 300 college students attending the 1,400-member church, TJ knew the college ministry was the perfect place to start.
“I think it helped everyone see that their future vocation was their pulpit,” says TJ. “Your teachers, your mechanics, your doctors, your accountants, your lawyers, your multimedia, your landscapers—that’s your mission field.”
Soon, it wasn’t just college students who caught on to the vision. After seeing the study’s success in catalyzing students on their college campuses, TJ decided to share the study with his church.
“This was a way for us as a ministry team to say, ‘the priority is to leverage our lives for the kingdom,’ meaning that we’re open-handed with everything, even the people sitting in our pews,” TJ explains. “If this means that we send our friends and family to go plant a church in a neighboring community, that’s the goal.”
Decades ago, First Baptist Tifton had planted a church and walked away with a bad experience.
But through Leverage Your Life, TJ found a new way to invite the congregation into that calling—showing them that church planting is not just a program but an overflow of intimate discipleship and obedience.
“We want to be a church that plants churches,” TJ told his congregation, “Because healthy churches ultimately do plant churches.”
Now, they’re praying over a small town 30 miles away—home to several FBC Tifton members.
“It’s hard to plug in and do life in a community that you’re that far away from,” TJ says. “So, how can we raise up and cultivate leaders who will eventually go back to that community and plant a church? Well, I mean, we’ve got all the people sitting in our congregation.”
Want to see your church ignite a passion for discipleship and mission? Join us Tuesday, September 16 at 11 a.m. ET for a free webinar hosted by Trevin Wax with Vance Pitman, president of Send Network and author of Leverage Your Life. You’ll discover how small groups can fuel kingdom action and how to equip every member to boldly live on mission where they live, work, and play for the glory of God.
Published August 15, 2025