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Who disciples us shapes how we disciple others.
In this episode, Jessie Horney and Heather Jallad explore the powerful connection between being discipled and making disciples. Jessie shares the story of launching the Wonder School—a journey that not only transformed her personal approach to disciple-making but also shifted her church’s entire posture toward mission and church planting. Whether you’re rethinking discipleship or dreaming about new forms of church, this conversation offers practical wisdom and inspiration for the road ahead.
Jessie Horney is an associate pastor at Redemption Hill in Boise, Idaho. She is passionate about empowering God’s people through discipleship and has devoted her life to the task. She is the director of a non-profit preschool that serves over 50 families each year. Jessie and her husband have 3 kids.
In Season 6, we’re diving into discipleship—exploring what it means to follow Jesus and share Jesus in our everyday lives and how churches can cultivate a culture of discipleship that is more than curriculum within their communities.
Related Resources:
Discipleship Reset – a week-long live training experience designed to equip the leaders of the average North American church for the opportunities of 2025. You can still receive access to the replay of all sessions (for FREE!). freshexpressions.com/discipleship-reset
Email us: podcasts@freshexpressions.com
Interview Summary
“We were good news to her family… and then she heard the Good News… and now she is good news.” — Jessie Horney
What happens when a preschool becomes a mission field and discipleship extends far beyond Bible studies and Sunday sermons? In this episode of the Fresh Expressions podcast, host Heather Jallad speaks with Jessie Horney, associate pastor at Redemption Hill in Boise, Idaho, and founder of Wonder School—a missional preschool that’s transforming lives in unexpected ways. Jessie’s journey into ministry, sparked by a desire to offer affordable childcare, blossomed into a vibrant model of incarnational discipleship.
In this deeply honest and inspiring conversation, Jessie shares how everyday life—meals, classrooms, and playgrounds—can become sacred spaces for spiritual growth. Her story is a powerful testimony to the relational, community-centered, and Spirit-led nature of true discipleship.
From Writer to Pastor: The Wonder School Origin Story
Jessie’s path to ministry didn’t begin in a pulpit. It began in her living room.
“I didn’t want to pay for preschool,” she admits, laughing. “So I just did it at my house for four kids once a week.” At the same time, she felt a strong and inexplicable call to seminary at Fuller, despite coming from a conservative Baptist background where women were not permitted in leadership.
Initially reluctant, Jessie eventually accepted an invitation from her brother—pastor of Redemption Hill—to move her small preschool into the church building. Wonder School launched in the fall of 2020 with 20 students. Today, it serves 60 children annually with a team of eight teachers and a mission-driven leadership team.
Though not labeled a “Christian preschool,” Wonder School is rooted in the faith of its founders and staff.
“It didn’t matter that we weren’t doing faith-based programming because we were a faith-based people,” Jessie explains. “We became the closest thing some families had ever come to encountering Jesus.”
Discipleship: A Two-Way Street
For Jessie, discipleship is both deeply intentional and constantly unfolding. She describes two complementary approaches that mirror how Jesus discipled others. One is structured, through small groups of four to six individuals she invites into what she calls a discipleship group. These groups require a deep level of commitment and vulnerability. “I’m going to give you a lot of my life—you have to give me access to yours,” she says. These meetings happen multiple times a week and serve as spaces of transformation, challenge, and mutual growth.
The other mode of discipleship is more fluid and everyday. Jessie sees each encounter—as ordinary as a preschool conflict or a casual conversation—as a potential moment of spiritual formation. “Even if they’re not Christians, I’m always thinking: is this a character or competency moment? That helps me know what I’m discipling them toward,” she explains. For Jessie, discipleship is defined as growing in the character and competency of Jesus. And while books or Sunday sermons may offer insight, they fall short without real, lived relationships. “There has to be access to someone’s life going both ways,” she insists. This relational quality is essential for meaningful transformation.
Being Good News Before Sharing Good News
One of the most profound insights Jessie has gained through Wonder School is the idea of becoming good news before proclaiming it. This reorientation changed everything.
“I always thought evangelism was sharing the good news,” she reflects, “but Jesus was good news first. He filled their boat with fish, healed them—then invited them to follow.”
At Wonder School, being good news takes tangible form. Affordable tuition and generous scholarships are good news. A loving, welcoming environment is good news. A place where families—many of whom are far from church—are treated with dignity and kindness is good news. Jessie has seen firsthand how this posture cracks open hearts. When people experience kindness and inclusion, they become curious about the deeper message behind it. “We were good news to her family… and then she heard the Good News… and now she is good news,” Jessie says, describing one mother’s journey from skeptic to Spirit-filled leader. This approach to mission isn’t just about soft comfort. Sometimes, she notes, good news carries hard truths. But when grounded in love, even challenge can be received as grace. For Jessie, being good news is not a slogan—it’s a daily, embodied practice of presence and peace.
Multiplying Through Empowerment
Jessie is intentional about raising up others. “The teachers who work for me who are believers—I’m discipling them to replace me,” she says.
One powerful moment came when Vanessa, a once-skeptical teacher turned disciple, approached Jessie with a bold message: “God told me to tell you to give me your job.” Jessie, though surprised, trusted what she heard. She had seen Vanessa’s transformation through discipleship—how she had grown from spiritual ambivalence to Spirit-led boldness.
This multiplication mindset has transformed Redemption Hill’s discipleship model as well. With the introduction of 3DM huddles and microchurch strategies, the church now embraces a decentralized, mission-first approach that empowers people to live out their faith in every part of the city.
Lessons in Leadership and Identity
Jessie’s most personal transformation came when she realized she had been leading with gifts that outpaced her character. “I was dangerous,” she reflects. “I hadn’t let the Lord change me in a way that allowed my gifting to be kingdom gifting.” Through intentional discipleship and a season of quiet with the Lord, Jessie came to a deeper understanding of her identity—not as a communicator, teacher, or pastor—but as a beloved daughter of God.
“If I’m not pointing people toward the Lord, I tell God: take it all away.”
This deep work fuels her passion for discipling others not just into leadership, but into identity. “Who told you the lie that you weren’t beloved?” she asks those she mentors. “Let’s let God replace it with the truth.”
A Word to Permission Givers
To those in leadership—pastors, board members, ministry influencers—Jessie offers this question:
“How’s it working? Count the fruit. Can your disciples make disciples?”
She challenges leaders to assess whether their current model is replicable, transferable, and reflective of the way Jesus discipled. If it can’t multiply, she says, it’s just information—not transformation.
Good News That Grows
Jessie Horney’s story is a compelling reminder that discipleship isn’t a curriculum—it’s a calling. It’s as close as your dinner table, as sacred as a preschool circle time, and as powerful as the Spirit who invites us to grow together.
Wonder School is more than a preschool. It’s a living expression of church, discipleship, and community care. It invites each of us to ask: How can I be the good news in the spaces where God has placed me?
Reflection Questions
- Where are you already positioned to be “good news” in your everyday life?
- What’s one way you could shift from a programmatic to a relational model of discipleship?
- How might your workplace or volunteer environment be a context for discipleship?
- Who is someone you’re currently leading who could eventually replace you?
- What would it look like for your church to embody good news before sharing it?
