The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Tim. 2:2)
Jon Ford was an evangelist. He was gifted in leading people to Christ. I have been privileged to lead a few people to the Lord, but Jon has led hundreds to the Savior.
I did not lead Jon to the Lord, but I did share the gospel with Wayne Morris, who led Jon to pray for forgiveness. Jon soon felt a call to ministry and went away to college to begin to prepare. He graduated, became a pastor, and I lost track of him.
Years later, he searched until he found me. He was pastoring a church in a different denomination in Florida. He invited me to speak in his church and, in time, we worked it out. During the message, I told the congregation how God had enabled me to share my faith with Wayne, and Wayne led Jon to the Lord, and now they were being influenced by his ministry.
A week later, Jon sent me an email in which he said he began to realize he could account for more than 1,000 people he had led to Christ over many years of ministry, including several who had themselves gone into the ministry.
Can I take credit for all those conversions? Not really, for my brother Glen influenced me to come to Christ, and who knows how far that chain goes into the past?
Ask God, “Whom can I influence to follow Jesus?”
Ron McClung lives in Fishers, Indiana, with his wife Carol. He has written his weekly column, Positive Perspective, for more than thirty years.
© 2019 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
