Sunday Extra: Salvation God’s Way
As a leader, do you give those who follow you room to grow?
In 1989, I met Lon Allison, a church planter in northern California. My dad invited Lon to join his mentoring community for (then) young ministry leaders. Lon went on to become Director of Evangelism for the Evangelical Covenant Church and later Director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.
In 2002, Lon launched a second-generation mentoring community and invited Wesley Paul, a young Indian-born evangelist who was just starting in ministry alliance with Luis Palau. Over the past 20 years, God has powerfully used Wesley through hundreds of citywide evangelistic events and international television ministries … and God has also used LFM’s mentoring to support and strengthen Wesley on his journey.
This week on Sunday Extra, I invite you to be both challenged and encouraged by a sermon Wesley preached back in 2018 at First Baptist Spartanburg … my uncle Billy Graham’s home church.
Challenged as Wesley applies the Old Testament story of Naaman to our personal walk with Jesus.
Encouraged at how God is using multiple generations of mentors to sustain healthy ministry leaders.
The mentoring genealogy continues! In 2019, our dear friend Lon Allison was promoted to Heaven, but Wesley picked up his mentor’s torch and launched a third-generation mentoring community. And last year, one of Wesley’s mentees in Nigeria launched a fourth-generation mentoring community for African ministry leaders.
Following the leadership example of Jesus, each leader gave of their time, wisdom, and resources to nourish and encourage the next generation. Today’s powerful sermon is one small example of the impact.
You and I can have similar impact within our circles of influence for the glory of God and his kingdom!
Kevin Graham Ford
Chief Catalyst
Leighton Ford Ministries
PRAYER REQUEST: MENTOR TRAINING
Over the past two weeks, Leighton Ford Ministries has prayerfully chosen twelve outstanding ministry leaders to participate in our next Potential Mentor Gathering, scheduled for early fall. By God’s grace, these mentors will be equipped to launch new mentoring communities for pastors of small churches, congregations of color, and church plants.
This isn’t a training conference. The picture above is from a similar event in 2020 … a time of rest, renewal, listening, and equipping … prayerfully, a time which strengthens these leaders’ ministries as well as prepares them to mentor others!
Would you please pray:
- For these leaders as they develop their vision for mentoring healthy ministry leaders.
- For LFM, as we prepare the content and finalize logistics.
- For additional funding to expand these opportunities! This Potential Mentor Gathering is funded with seed money from the Lilly Endowment, but we need additional partners to invest in the long-term growth of this initiative.
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen!” (Ephesians 3:20-21, ESV).
