When Joe Naramore called Dave Aucremann to ask for a phone number, neither man could have fully appreciated the providence of the moment. Joe was looking for a hub church to anchor Campus Outreach’s expansion into North Florida. He had another name in mind. But in that conversation, Dave asked a simple question: “Joe, why wouldn’t you consider Good News?” The rest, as they say, is history — or rather, providence.
Good News Church in St. Augustine, Florida, will serve as the hub church for a new Campus Outreach region in North Florida, with plans to launch ministry at Flagler College in the fall and expand by January. But to understand how this partnership came together, let’s go back through a story threaded together by relationships, phone calls, and the unmistakable hand of God.
Where the Weaving Began
After graduating from Presbyterian College in 1992, Dave moved to Charlotte, NC to work for the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. That role regularly took him to campuses across the South — including Georgia Southern, where he crossed paths with Steve Lindenmeyer. Steve was on staff with Campus Outreach at the time, serving in Greek ministry. Multiple interactions with Steve began to shape Dave’s heart for ministry.
Then came a surprise phone call from a Navigators missionary in Vladivostok, Russia, inviting him to join a summer cross-cultural project. Dave accepted. That summer in Russia gave him a clear vision of what life-on-life disciple making could look like.
Dave returned to Charlotte eager to grow in both the Word and in ministry, which led to an internship at Christ Covenant Church. His office happened to be in the house where the newly arrived Campus Outreach staff were setting up their offices. He became friends with Joe Naramore and others who would remain close to him across the decades.
From 1992 until 2001, Dave was rooted in Charlotte — in the church, on the campus, and in relationships — before eventually moving with his family to Florida.
Good News Church: Built for This Moment
For twenty years, Dave has been one of the pastors at Good News Presbyterian Church in St. Augustine, FL. Decades of building a culture of evangelism have embedded it in their DNA.
“We celebrate professions of faith every week,” Dave explains. “We celebrate any time someone shares their faith and leads someone to Christ. What gets celebrated gets done.”
But around 2018, the leadership team at Good News noticed something. The church had seen tremendous fruit: people coming to faith, small group leaders raised up, and the kids and student ministries thriving. But multiplication wasn’t happening. Leaders weren’t intentionally raising up other leaders. People weren’t leading those they’d reached to then reach others.
“We saw a lot of addition,” Dave says, “but not a lot of multiplication.”
That realization sent the pastoral team back to the life of Jesus with a focused question: Does Jesus have a strategy? Their conclusion was a resounding yes. Good News intentionally shifted toward a disciple-making pathway framed around winning, building, equipping, and multiplying.
Dave didn’t know it yet, but God was preparing him for another phone call.
The Stitching Together of a Partnership
When Joe reached out about the North Florida expansion, Dave gently pointed out that Good News might be exactly what Campus Outreach was looking for.
What followed was a rapid series of confirmations. There was a decades-long relationship with Joe himself and a philosophical alignment between Campus Outreach’s evangelize-establish-equip-export model and Good News’s newly adopted discipleship pathway. There was Daniel, the proposed team leader — humble, gifted, and, as Dave noted with a smile, a fellow Presbyterian College alumnus. Then there was Vaughn Volious, ready to step up and lead the Columbia region when Daniel moved to St. Augustine. God was moving in all areas at once. And there was Flagler College, sitting right in Good News’ backyard.
“We can invest in a ministry that has a strategy to create a pipeline of leaders that will impact all of North Florida,” Dave told his congregation. “Are you kidding me? That’s a no-brainer.”
The Road Ahead
The plan is both bold and beautifully paced. This coming summer, an initial team will relocate to St. Augustine, establish the region’s base at Good News Church, and launch at Flagler in the fall. The current academic year is being called “year zero” — a season for planting the seeds that will, God willing, bear fruit across the entire state.
Twenty-Five Years in the Making
A fraternity job that took a young man to campuses across the South. A mission trip to Russia. An office in the Campus Outreach house. A church built around the culture of evangelism. A pastoral shift toward multiplication. A friendship that never went away. And a phone call that started by asking for someone else’s number.
It’s not the pattern anyone would think to follow. It has always been the weaving of providence.
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