After seeing the need for equipping and character coaching in their community, the Ammonses connected their joy of sports and the outdoors with a call to make disciples. Shawn has over twenty years of experience coaching sports and leading outdoor adventures, and he started a non-profit sports ministry called Wichita Defenders with some friends. He has also started an outdoor discipleship ministry called Extreme Encounters, where he serves as the disciple-making coach.

The Ammonses invest in the next generation of disciple-makers, training leaders to focus on walking as Jesus walked, reaching and discipling those encountered on the natural path of life. They help current and future leaders to be a disciple-maker while they build a disciple-making ministry and begin partnerships with other disciple-making ministries, fueling a movement throughout the United States.

“We train to share the truth, coach to implement the truth, and mentor to multiply the truth.”

The Ammonses have served as InFaith field staff since February 2018.

Shawn grew up in a family that valued God, the outdoors, and sports. His favorite childhood memories are connected to sports, camping, and being outdoors, and he remembers connecting with God through these activities. Shawn grew up in a small north Texas community that helped shape his character and priorities. He went to Sterling College on a tennis scholarship and received a BA in Education.

While at Sterling, Shawn met his wife, Cheryl. He started working part-time as a youth pastor his sophomore year, and got his first full-time job as a youth pastor in Abilene, Kansas after graduation. Over the next twenty-two years, Shawn and Cheryl were blessed with nine children. Their older two sons are married, and their oldest daughter married in July 2016.

While working as a youth pastor and raising their young family, Shawn acquired a Masters in Ministry from Moody Bible Institute. Looking for a way to connect apprenticing and mentoring with sports and the outdoors, the Ammonses were introduced to InFaith by a friend.

Shawn serves on the National Leadership Team for Sonlife Ministries. This team has a strategic vision to transform the culture of youth ministry in North America over the next ten years. Shawn serves as the Assistant Director of Leadership Development, using his strengths to model and multiply disciplemaking learning communities throughout the US. Shawn and Cheryl will leverage the camp they run as a national disciplemaking training center.