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He grew up with a desire to preach. After taking public speaking and a training class by Ira North, he began preaching once per month for a rural church. One Sunday the newspaper carried the story of a young man serving time in jail for check forgery. The jail was a few miles from where Brother Pepper was preaching. After some visits of teaching, the young man was converted. The sheriff said if the boy had a place to live and a job they would release him. Brother Pepper went to work to provide this need and the boy was released.

It was during this time that Judge Sam Davis Tatum, a Christian Juvenile Judge was trying to persuade the church in Davidson County (TN) to employ someone to work with the 300 young people coming into his court each year, giving the church of Christ as their church preference. Brother North and the Madison elders recommended Brother Pepper for this work. On January 12th, 1959, Brother Pepper left his secular job to work in Juvenile Court sponsored by the church. He was soon asked to be Juvenile Protection Chairman for Davidson County Parent Teachers Association where he was speaking as many as three times in one day to the various PTAs in the county.

He had not been at the court long before he was having children of all ages referred to him for placement in homes. The old detention quarters were on the fourth floor of the building. There were no facilities to care for children under five and there were no means of separating delinquent children from neglected children. Judge Tatum had been pleading with county officials to construct a new detention building. Brother Pepper joined the Judge's efforts by arranging for PTA officials to take turns visiting the old detention facilities. This aroused the community and in 1966 a new detention facility was built.

Judge Sam Davis Tatum died in 1967. A new judge took his place. The church continued to enjoy the court's cooperation. Brother Pepper was asked by the court to develop a program using volunteers from the community to work with children who were just beginning to develop problems. This opened up additional opportunities for the church. At one time, 40% of the volunteers were members of the church. He did this for five years.

Brother Pepper, over a period of thirty years in the court, placed over 600 children,, age 6 days to 17 years of age. During this time he never lost his purpose of sharing the gospel with the lost. Children and parents were being taught the gospel. Souls were being saved.

About 1959, he was exposed to Otis Gatewood's book You Can Do Personal Work. This book would have a profound effect on him. He began teaching it to others who in turn began to win souls. This led to the elders arranging for a personal evangelism workshop. Afterwards Brother Pepper was named personal evangelism director. In two years and eight months the class had been responsible for 223 baptisms and restorations. One of the workers later reported that in ten years the program had a part in 1,000 baptisms and restorations. Early in the program Brother Pepper saw the need for Bible school quarterlies on outreach to the lost. He committed himself to write four, which ultimately sold over 70,000 copies. This led to writing other materials on outreach and starting in 1964, Personal Evangelism Magazine. (The name was changed to Church Growth in 1985. it continues to be published by the Center For Church Growth in Houston, TX. John Ellas is editor.) His most recent book is CHURCH GROWTH TODAY, a 244 page book. He is a frequent writer of numerous periodicals.

In 1975, seventy-six churches in Davidson County worked together in a year-long campaign. Each trained their own congregation, worked their community and held its own gospel meeting the week of October 5th. It included home Bible studies, telephoning the community, literature, and a broad use of talent. The young people did the telephoning. The advertising included radio, TV, billboards, and bumper stickers. A professional advertising agency was used. Brother Pepper was selected by the overseeing eldership as chairman of the steering committee. Many congregations multiplied their converts. During gospel meeting week there were 634 responses.

In 1990, he suffered a serious heart attack,, making it necessary for him to leave the court work. But God was not through with him yet. Roy Beasley, Executive Director and speaker for Restoration Radio Network International, heard of Brother Pepper's need for new employment. He was well acquainted with his life work in evangelism. He invited Brother Pepper to handle all mail and follow up of listeners. His creative insights were challenged but he arose to the task. After reading the mail for three months, he conceived of the Apollos program based on Acts 18. Since the mail was coming from very religious people, mostly in Africa, they would be invited to teach a group Bible study with him furnishing the teacher's guide. over a period of nine years hundreds have responded favorably. There have been over 32,000 conversions and over 800 new congregations begun. This program focused on explaining more perfectly the word of God to those already religious. The result was the conversion of hundreds of denominational preachers and then their congregations.

One of the dreams of Brother Pepper was to see Christian Colleges fully embrace the work of training students to share the gospel with the lost as this is a part of faithfulness just as is good moral living. In December of 1996, the president of Ohio Valley College of Vienna, WV, invited Brother Pepper to come and share with him and the administration how he perceived a church growth center could work with the college and the churches in the northeast. The plan was well received and presented to the board, where it received enthusiastic support. In March of 1997, the first public announcement was made. On January 1, 1999, Jerry C. Dyer became the director of the Clayton Pepper Center For Church Growth Studies. This broad plan, which includes a church growth library, has been enthusiastically adopted by the college and the churches have Brother Dyer speaking and helping them develop growing churches.

Brother Pepper and his devoted wife, Sarah Maxie, have five children, eleven grandchildren and five great grandchildren.