Providing practical guidance from proven ministry leaders who are passionate about the local church working right.
Providing practical guidance from proven ministry leaders who are passionate about the local church working right.
David Vaughan
Founder & Executive Director
D Vaughan Consulting’s Founder and Executive Director, David Vaughan, is a coach and consultant who specializes in developing healthy churches. He possesses both the formal education and real world successful ministry track record that prompts leaders from all over the country to follow his example.
David's Story
David has been in ministry all of his life. Born in Ashland, KY, he was privileged to grow up a “preacher’s kid” under the spiritual guidance of both his parents. His father was well known for his successful leadership of congregations in New York, Kentucky and Virginia, and his passion for ministry spilled over onto everyone around him, including David.
While in high school, David felt called to follow in his father’s footsteps and received a Bachelors in Biblical Studies and Christian Ministry from Cincinnati Christian University. He later continued his professional studies at Asbury Seminary’s Institute of Advanced Church Leadership while serving churches in Lexington, KY and Chesapeake, VA.
In 2002, David and his wife, Donna, were called to serve at the Westwood Cheviot Church of Christ, a leading congregation on Cincinnati’s west side. Once a flagship church, Westwood Cheviot had fallen into gradual decline as internal challenges made it difficult to respond to changes in the surrounding community.
As Senior Minister, David immediately launched an aggressive strategy to rebuild WCCC’s culture, refocus the leadership, reorganize the staff, and ultimately relocate the church to a new, larger, and more accessible campus. Under David’s leadership, the renamed “Whitewater Crossing Christian Church” would grow to an average weekly attendance of over 2,300 with both face-to-face and online services.
During his time at Whitewater, David also led multiple facilities expansions, and six capital campaigns while helping the church develop a passion for reaching lost people and impacting the surrounding communities.
David’s calling to serve as a coach and consultant emerged gradually as the leaders of other churches began to inquire about the secrets to Whitewater’s success. After ten years of informal coaching he joined the Christian Church Leadership Network to design and lead regional “Church Working Right” seminars on congregational leadership and renewal. He then became a certified coach with the Unstuck Group and serves as an expert advisor on the cultivation of high capacity donors for a national church development foundation.
Following his retirement from Whitewater in June 2022, David and Donna launched D Vaughan Consulting to extend and expand his personal coaching ministry and to create a national network of consultants. They have a passion for couples in ministry and regularly host retreats in their home near Charleston, SC. When not serving churches and their leaders, the two enjoy traveling and spending time with their children and grandchildren. David also enjoys a good cup of coffee and never turns down a game of golf!
John Hampton
SENIOR ADVISOR & COACH
John Hampton is a native of a small town (Germantown; population 300) in Northern Kentucky. He is a 1980 graduate of Bracken County High School; a 1984 graduate of Cincinnati Christian University (CCU) and a 1987 recipient of Kentucky Christian University’s Master of Ministry. He has also completed studies in Asbury Seminary’s Beeson Institute of Advanced Church Leadership in 2002.
John's Story
John served as either the solo, senior or lead pastor of a local church for over 42 years, from November of 1980 through December 2022.
In March of 2010, John accepted a call to be Lead Pastor at Journey Christian Church in Apopka, FL, located just outside Orlando. He served in this role until he stepped aside as part of a planned succession in January 2023. He previously served as the Senior Pastor at First Christian Church, Canton, OH from August of 1997 until March of 2010. John has also served as the Senior Minister of Northern Heights Christian Church (now NorthEast Christian) in Lexington, KY (1988-1997); the Preaching Minister of Southwest Christian Church in Jackson, Mississippi (1984-1988); and began his preaching ministry at Claysville Christian Church in Cynthiana, KY while studying at CCU (1980-1984).
John now serves as Pastor Emeritus of Journey Christian Church and as a senior advisor and coach for the D. Vaughan Consulting Group.
John is the husband of Melinda to whom he has been married since June 4, 1983. He is the proud father of two daughters, Anna Ashie (Nii Ashie) and Rachel Donaldson (Caleb Donaldson) and is the proud “Pappy” to Hampton, Davies and Bryant Ashie.
John enjoys playing golf, reading books on how to be a more effective communicator and leader, learning from other great leaders, taking walks with Melinda, hanging out with his adult kids and their spouses every chance he gets, spoiling his grandkids and cheering passionately for the University of Kentucky Wildcats!
David Roberson
church working right coach
David grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and came to know the Lord through the influence of his parents and South Louisville Christian Church. He graduated from Cincinnati Christian University – College and Seminary, where he also met his wife, Monica. They have been married for nearly 50 years and have two grown children and two grandsons.
David began his ministry with Christ in Youth in 1976, leading youth crusades and retreats throughout the Midwest. In 1978, he joined White Oak Christian Church in Cincinnati as Minister of Evangelism and later served 27 years as Senior Minister, helping the church grow into a multi-site congregation.
In 2010, David became Senior Minister of Worthington Christian Church in Columbus, where he led the church toward greater community outreach and missions involvement.
Since 2019, David has served with the Center for Church Leadership, encouraging and equipping ministers and churches to thrive in ministry.
Doctrinal Statement
D Vaughan Consulting is a non-denominational ministry that works with churches from a wide range of Christian traditions. While we respect and affirm the right and responsibility of each congregation to discern God’s will and calling for their ministry, our own counsel and consultation is driven by the following key theological principles:
1) The 66 books of the Christian Bible are the inspired and infallible Word of God and the sole rule of Christian faith and practice for individual believers, for the Church, and for churches. All our counsel, consultation, and coaching is grounded in biblical teachings on the mission and ministry of the Church.
2) Jesus Christ is the only-begotten Son of God, at once fully human and fully divine, and the ultimate revelation of God’s grace and truth. We affirm Christ’s virgin birth, physical death, literal physical resurrection, exaltation to heaven, and eternal ministry on behalf of those who accept Him in faith.
3) Those who profess their faith in Christ, repent of their sins, and receive baptism become recipients of God’s saving grace. Believers will be raised from the dead to eternal life with Christ in the new heavens and new earth. There is no salvation apart from faith in Christ.
4) The Church is the body of Christ and the means through which God is working to bring salvation and healing to a lost world. For this reason, each local church must strive to discern and relentlessly pursue its mission to be a “pillar of truth” and a witness to Christ’s love and God’s grace and power in its specific context.
5) Healthy churches will fulfill Christ’s Great Commandment, to “love one another as I have have loved you,” and Christ’s Great Commission, to proclaim the Good News and make disciples throughout the world. Healthy churches will necessarily reflect a Christlike love for one another and for a sin-sick world.
6) The leaders of each local congregation must strive to be blameless, modeling Christian character and unity among and between themselves and the larger body. Pastors and Elders must view themselves as privileged shepherds of God’s flock and stewards of God’s household and its resources.
Our coaching approach builds on 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 to highlight seven key systems of a biblically “healthy church body” that parallel seven systems of the human body. Our polity model assumes a plurality of Elders who work with a teaching Pastor to discern God’s will and calling for the church and to protect and care for the flock.