About Me

I was raised in a ministry family and observed the success of my parents’ 63 years of life together.  I began preaching at age 16, over 46 years ago.  After college, I spent two years in West Africa as a missionary.  I returned for five years as an associate pastor at my father’s church before being named as the Lead Pastor in 1983.

My tenure as pastor was marked by an emphasis on missions.  In 28 years, we gave over $63 million dollars to missions (local and foreign).  We also implemented a small group structure in 1993 that became a national model.  My first book, The Cell Church (Regal, 1995), has been translated into many languages and is still in use worldwide as a cell church handbook.  In 2000, many of our 28 associate pastors took the skills they learned in small group ministry and began planting their own churches.  Three of them now have 85,000 in weekend attendance every weekend and one is the second largest church in America.

In 2001, I began the Surge Project, a church planting model based on mentoring and multiplication.  By 2015, over 22,000 small, rural churches have been planted in twelve world zones.  My second book, The Remnant (CharismaMedia) was written to help correct leadership implosion and to give the ten most important principles of ministry.  Over 120,000 free copies have been distributed to pastors in six languages worldwide.

My latest book, Model Man, expands the mentoring principles I have used for pastors and small group leaders to specifically help men live a life of “integrity to legacy.”

My newest project was launched in January, 2020 after my fiftieth anniversary of ministry in 2019.  It is called “Pastors University” and it is my top “50 lessons from 50 years.”

I have been married to my wife, Melanie (follow her on Twitter at @MelStockstill) for forty-one years.  We have six children, five sons and a daughter. All six of them are in ministry with us. We have thirteen grandchildren and we live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

In my free time, I enjoy golf, Sunday lunches with our entire family, duck hunting (I have killed a grand total of one duck), and an occasional South Louisiana fishing trip with my sons.  I travel and speak worldwide and am a teaching pastor under my son at Bethany Church.

This is my personal blog and is focused on “generational leadership.”  My philosophy is that you lead by example and your proof of leadership is in the success of those you mentor.  I love to see leaders multiply.

My goal is to impart timeless truths that will enhance your value as a leader and keep you there your entire life journey.  If you have observed influential leaders who have imploded and want to be a “long term leader,” this blog is for you.

I write on integrity, purity, example, pace, purpose, marriage, children, and legacy. I believe in modeling your message and helping leaders develop “from integrity to legacy.”

I typically post once a week. To make sure you don’t miss my newest posts, you can subscribe via e-mail below.