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<\/a>Stephen Jones, Director of Discipleship Ministries in the Cornerstone Conference, focuses his efforts and ministry on reaching these present at-risk generations. As a career youth pastor, Jones is convinced this is the mission to which God has called him. His assignments allow him to serve in ministry on the local level at Living Hope Church in Lenior, North Carolina, as Conference Director of Discipleship Ministries, and as National Student Ministries Director. These roles give him opportunities to serve students, youth pastors and leaders both local and nationwide. \u201cThe Lord has blessed me to minister to teens and their leaders in lots of churches and communities,\u201d he says.\nAs a fourth-generation IPHC minister, Jones recalls hearing the truth of the Gospel at an early age. \u201cI heard my dad, Rev. Dwight Jones, preach the gospel every week, but not until I was in college did my faith became personal; something more than just stories I had heard as a child,\u201d he says. \u201cI realize now that choosing where to go to school positioned me to hear God\u2019s voice clearly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones admits he didn\u2019t want to be a pastor, but while attending Emmanuel College (now Emmanuel University), God confirmed his calling into ministry over and over again. Twenty-four years later, he says he is just as convinced that was, and is still, God\u2019s plan for his life.<\/p>\n
As an Emmanuel student, Stephen experienced more than a renewed and deeper spiritual understanding. He also met and fell in love with the young lady who would be his lifelong partner in ministry. He and Mandy Morgan, the daughter of IPHC pastor Gene Morgan, were married in 2002 at the East Marion Pentecostal Holiness Church in Marion, South Carolina. The Joneses have a 15-year-old son named Nate, a member of the Alpha Generation.<\/p>\n
Jones\u2019s general-level appointment as National Student Ministries Director gives him seat, voice and vote on the planning team for Accelerant, an annual weekend retreat designed to build momentum and help students encounter Christ. Held in late January every year, Accelerant is designed to focus on evangelism and students\u2019 personal growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth of these events have made significant contributions toward the expansion of young leaders in the IPHC,\u201d says Jones. \u201cEverywhere I go across this denomination, I encounter leaders of all ministry fields who look back at one or both of these events and point to an altar where God saved and cleansed them, filled them with His Spirit, and called them into service. From my perspective, these events have shaped our entire movement. They\u2019ve been generational influences in the lives of so many individuals who are true \u2018People of Promise.\u2019\u201d Dylan confesses that when he attended college, he hit a season when he dismissed thoughts of going into the ministry. \u201cI had different ambitions at the time,\u201d he says. But in 2019, he attended YouthQuest with a youth group participating in the National Fine Arts Festival. During the final service of YouthQuest, he had an encounter with Jesus. \u201cThat\u2019s when I surrendered,\u201d he says. \u201c\u2018Whatever you have for my life, I\u2019m all in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n When Dylan returned home, he spent time in prayer and decided to transfer his educational pursuits to Emmanuel College. As a student there, he served as President of the Emmanuel Singers and was involved in The Awakening and Emmanuel Leadership Initiative. After completing his studies in three years, he met his future wife, Marissa Harmon, a senior, and soon received and accepted a call from Bill Rose, Pastor at The First Church in Goldsboro. \u201cI felt like that was where I needed to be,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/05\/Picture1.jpg\")
<\/a>Jones also helps plan YouthQuest (YQ), another discipleship and leadership development event with the goal of discipling GenZ and the Alpha Generations. Whereas Accelerant is a winter retreat, YQ is a summer event held every year in July. With the assistance of an outstanding team of volunteers and Creatives, Jones and the Student Ministries Team emphasize the development of young leaders for the next generation and deploying them in ministry with their gifts and callings. YouthQuest encompasses the IPHC National Fine Arts Festival, formerly known as Teen Talent and TalentQuest.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/05\/Picture1-1.jpg\")
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\nOne particular individual impacted by these youth-centered initiatives is Dylan Maynor, middle school Pastor at The First Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Like Stephen Jones, Dylan is a fourth-generation member of the IPHC. His mom and grandfather were on staff at the Gospel Tabernacle in Dunn, North Carolina. \u201cThat\u2019s where and how I grew up,\u201d he says. \u201cMinistry was just a regular part of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Accelerant also had a powerful impact on Dylan\u2019s life and ministry. Even though he grew up in the IPHC, attending Accelerant helped him realize the worldwide influence of the IPHC family. \u201cWhen I read our history as a denomination, I feel like I\u2019m reading the history of my family in North Carolina,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/05\/Picture1-3.jpg\")
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