I Want to be like Tom

I remember first meeting Tom Ferguson when I was 28 years old and getting ready to plant a church in Seattle. He was to be my District Supervisor, and we were getting to know one another since I was coming from out of the area. After talking and praying with him for an hour I recall that I had two distinct thoughts:

First, that he was a godly man. Here was a leader who didn’t just talk about praying, he prayed. When most of us see the encouragement to ‘pray without ceasing’, we somehow read it as slightly hyperbolic; Tom saw that, and lived it literally. There was a constant connection to the Source of his life and that connection was clear to those who knew him.

His humility was just as marked as his prayer life. Tom seemed to embody Romans 12:3—“Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” There wasn’t false-humility or heavy self-deprecation; he simply came across as unpretentious and solid.

Second, that he was a very authentic Christian leader. Though his life of prayer and devotion was evident, when I asked him what he liked to do with his time he said that he and his wife and friends loved to go see movies. I don’t know why that impressed me so much—it wasn’t about the movies as much as it was about the down-to-earth way he answered that question. It was just so apparent that he wasn’t trying to impress anyone; that he was a real guy who loved Jesus, loved his family and friends, and was faithful to fulfill whatever assignment God had given him.

In other words, his position of leadership (one of the highest positions of leadership a person can have in our denomination) didn’t change who he was. His role didn’t shape his reality. This was simply an assignment that he would steward well, but that didn’t cause him to forget his identity, either.

In subsequent interactions, I would realize that Tom was a very positive guy. I never heard him speak a negative or cynical word, and many others didn’t either. This was a man for whom hope was reality and that flavored the way he talked. One person said that “his vocabulary was always tied to the future”.

That was said last week at his funeral. Tom, who was only in his mid-60’s, died on May 20. A guy who could have had 20+ more years to encourage younger leaders to be godly and real and positive went to be with the Lord. I moved away from the Northwest and hadn’t connected with him for a few years, yet I will miss his influence. And the Foursquare Church I am a part of is poorer today because of our loss.

As I watched his funeral live, online, from 3,000 miles away, there was one more thing I learned about Tom, and it doesn’t surprise me. A friend of his said that Tom didn’t believe that structures or systems or organizations were anointed, but that he was convinced God takes delight in anointing people. I think that is easy to forget. But I want to be more concerned with the anointing on my and other’s lives than I am with the structures or systems we seek to build.

And, I want to be like Tom!