Testimony Tuesday: Learning from the teacher

By Bella Agnello

One day in Louisville, KY, a 15-year-old boy understood the Gospel for the first time while riding in a church van. 

Though he grew up in the church, Dr. Kevin Jones did not understand the Bible until Deacon David Williams – who was driving the van – shared the Gospel with him on the way to church. He did not know it yet, but from that moment on Jones’ life could never be the same again.

“When you understand your ugliness and darkness, and come to know Christ, there’s such a  great appreciation for the Gospel,” Jones said. “That’s why I cherish the Gospel all the more, because I was like Paul: I was the worst of the worst before I came to know Christ. But the Lord chose to save me.”

Jones is now the Dean of the School of Education and Social Work at Cedarville University, however his passion for teaching started years prior. Weeks after being saved and baptized, he experienced radical transformation in his life when God laid it on his heart to enroll in teaching training at his church when he was just 16 years old. One year later, during his senior year of high school, Jones taught Sunday school to boys ages 9 to 12 years old. Here, God began drawing his heart towards two lifelong ministries.

“God taught me to love his Word, to be dependent on his Word and to be ready to share his Word at any given moment,” Jones said. “And he showed me a life calling. I didn’t know that, years later, I’d graduate with a degree in Elementary Education and then be a first grade teacher, then a fifth grade teacher. He gave me not only a calling for the church but also a calling for the common place – for the common good – of all people.”

Through Sunday school, Jones was taught by another teacher, Patsy Turner, who taught nursing at Kentucky State University. Turner asked him about his plans for college but, as most of his family did not attend college, Jones had only considered taking courses at a local community college. Through Turner’s encouragement, he enrolled in the School of Education at KSU.

“I struggled a little bit, trying to see what it looked like for an African American male to teach first or second grade – that’s what my heart was drawn to,” Jones said. “Still to this day, how many African American men are elementary teachers? There are not a lot.”

Defying the odds, Jones pressed on and worked hard in his studies. In 2004, he graduated from KSU with a degree in Elementary Education.

2004 was a year of firsts for Jones. After his senior year, he married his high school sweetheart, Demica. The newlyweds then moved to Lexington, KY, so Jones could earn his master’s degree – and later his M.Ed – at the University of Kentucky. While enrolled in school, he worked as a first grade teacher at a nearby elementary school.

Though finding success as a student and a teacher, Jones experienced a sudden and prolonged season of restless nights.

“The only thing that would appease me wasn’t eating cereal that used to put me to sleep, or watching National Geographic shows or reading histories,” Jones said. “The only thing that would ease my mind was reading Scripture.”

Several months went by before God answered Jones’ prayers for peace. At the time, the couple attended Consolidated Baptist Church. After a Wednesday night Bible study, their pastor, Richard Gaines, walked up to Jones, asking to talk to him over pizza.

During that meeting at Donatos Pizza, his pastor said, “I think the Lord is calling you to preach.”

Unknowingly, the pastor affirmed in Jones a calling that God gave him during his college years. Though he felt the nudge to enter pastoral ministry, he dismissed it because he did not like what he saw in pastors.

“I’m like, ‘Lord you can’t be calling me to that,’” Jones said. “What I saw, I was like, ‘I’m not gonna do that.’ But then I saw a healthy image of a pastor at Consolidated Baptist Church.”

With this affirmation, Jones finally surrendered to God’s call to pastoral ministry. On February 18, 2006, on a snowy day in Lexington, KY, he preached his first sermon. He taught on Luke 19 – the story of Zacchaeus. Preaching came naturally to Jones because he taught the Scripture as if he was speaking in front of a classroom.

“I taught what I learned, that teaching is preaching,” Jones said. “I just talked through it and had fun doing it.”

Jones then served as the youth pastor at that church until 2008 when he moved his wife back to Louisville. There, the family had three children and Jones earned his Ed.D in Leadership Education at Spalding University.

Jones taught fifth grade at a local public school and continued to be involved in ministry as a youth pastor, family pastor and Sunday school teacher. He also discipled men and leaders in the church to learn how to give glory to God through their roles as fathers and teachers.

“I never felt the call to be a lead pastor,” Jones said. “I felt the call to do whatever my lead pastor told me to do.”

Jones eventually returned to KSU as a professor until 2014, when he met Dr. Dan DeWitt – the former director of the Center for Biblical Apologetics and Public Christianity at Cedarville University — who worked at Boyce College at the time. DeWitt brought Jones to Boyce College as the assistant professor at Boyce’s School of Education.

When DeWitt moved to Cedarville a few years later, he invited Jones to do a lecture on diversity. God then led the way for him to speak in chapel in 2018 and again in 2019.

An opportunity shortly opened up for Jones to work at Cedarville, but he wanted to seek clarity from God first. On February 17, 2019, he confided in his mentor, Hershael York – Dean of the School of Theology of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary – who responded with two questions: “How can you bring the greatest glory to God?” and “Where will you display the greatest glory for God?”

In 2020, God opened the doors for Jones to come on staff at Cedarville. As the Dean of the School of Education and Social Work, he continues to ask himself the questions York once asked him to surrender every life decision – however great or small – to God.

“It’s not about money, it’s not about the position and it’s not about the title – it’s about where I can give the most glory to God,” Jones said. “Today I feel like I can give the most glory to God being the Dean of Education and Social Work at Cedarville.”

Jones rests in the truth that God is his sovereign provider. God delighted in using a man who did not think he could be a teacher, but desired to give glory to God, in any means possible. He blessed him by giving him ministry opportunities both in the church and in the classroom.

Jones is the product of many teachers who poured into him throughout his lifetime, but he is not done with his education. Jones is still learning day by day to sit at the Teacher’s feet and listen to his teachings.

“I try to go to my Bible every day, all day long, for help,” Jones said. “The Lord has taught me to be completely dependent on him. Character supersedes skillset. Live well, and the Lord will take care of the rest.”

Bella Agnello is a junior Broadcasting, Digital Media and Journalism major with a concentration in Journalism. She enjoys thrifting, listening to records and reading classic Russian literature in her spare time.