When David killed Goliath, the Bible tells us that he stood before King Saul with Goliath’s head in his hand. The King didn’t congratulate the young David directly. Instead, he said, “‘Tell me about your father, young man,’ And David replied, ‘His name is Jesse, and we live in Bethlehem.’” (First Samuel 17:58-59). The King wanted to know about his father.

Great men often have great fathers.

On June 10, 1965, a five-year-old little boy named Bruce Johnson Jr. lost his daddy.

Like many young fathers in the 1960’s, Bruce Johnson Sr. left for Viet Nam with tears in his eyes and hugs for his wife and three small children. Just days before his scheduled return home, a year later, he was declared MIA (Missing in Action) and so, two boys and a baby girl lived through childhood and teenage years, hoping their dad would come home.

He never came home. He was finally “Presumed Dead” in 1978, when Bruce Jr. was eighteen years old. Click here for a newspaper article remembering Bruce Sr.

The “missing father” in young Bruce Jr’s life created a hole in his heart, which led to early alcoholism and more, but thanks to the grace of God and some wonderful CBMC men in Michigan, Bruce now has a story you should hear.

In October 2024, Bruce and I were invited to share a platform in St. Louis to talk about our journey with CBMC (Christian Business Men’s Connection). Rather than write about Bruce and his journey, I have merely edited his wonderful testimony. This short story cannot possibly tell the full story of all the good being done by this one man. He and his wife Margie run a camp for kids every summer. They have successfully raised five awesome children of their own, with grandchildren galore, and recently obeyed the Voice of the Lord to adopt a beautiful little girl in need of a home. But even though the full story cannot be told today, you will enjoy this short version of Bruce’s story:

BRUCE JOHNSON’S TESTIMONY:

“The call of Jesus for men. That is certainly part of my story. Like so many I've heard here, and so many that I've known over the years. I have no idea where I'd be today were it not for CBMC, and I'd like to just share a little bit of that story.

GOD USES C.B.M.C.: This story goes back to being a Kansas boy, marrying a Michigan girl, moving to Grand Rapids, and being in the investment business in downtown Grand Rapids. After a couple of years, I met a young man named Mark Barber from Grand Rapids. And Mark, I will say, was a little different than some of the other investment guys I knew. He invited me to come to a CBMC outreach event, and I politely said to Mark, “Thank you, Mark, but no, I have no desire to go to an outreach event.”

And about three months later, Mark reached out to me again, “Hey, Bruce, we've got this outreach event coming up. Love to have you come and join me for lunch to hear the speaker.” “Mark, thank you so much, but no.”

Mark asked me again a third time, a fourth time, a fifth time, a sixth time, and on the seventh time, I finally agreed to go because maybe this way he'll stop asking me.

So off I went to this downtown location and enjoyed a nice lunch, a nice banter with the fellows around the table. And then the speaker shared his story. I was not expecting what I heard. Quite frankly, I was taken aback. It was very real and very personal.

Even though as a little boy, I can remember asking Jesus to come into my heart, I can assure you, I had drifted far from Him. It was about a week later that somebody in the office said, “Bruce, there are a couple of guys here. They want to talk to you.” So, I meander out. “Hey, Bruce, we're with CBMC, and we just wanted to follow up from the meeting last week.” I was kind of embarrassed, and hustled them into a side conference room. “Okay, what's up?”

They invited me to take part in an opportunity to discover more. So the next week, I found myself attending a weekly CBMC meeting in downtown Grand Rapids. I just knew I needed to be there.

These guys were real.

They were serious.

They had a purpose.

Before too long, I found myself going through these various studies that were crucial to my understanding of faith in God. I was deeply impacted, even to this day. I was deeply impacted by a man named Vince. He's now 84 years old. Vince came alongside me. I wasn't exactly a trusting soul. I was trying to figure out his agenda. “Okay, why do you want to be with me? What's this all about?”

But I can say that I was beautifully discipled by Vince. He took his time. He loved me unconditionally. He taught me how to draw from God's word, and most importantly, he taught me how to trust Jesus, to live His life in me and through me. Vince has become a deep, lifelong friend. What a gift it is for those of us in CBMC who have been the recipients of having a “Paul”, for those of us who've been a “Timothy”. (2 Timothy 2:2). It is not the norm in our world, and yet it's the essential heart of what CBMC is all about.

GOD USES INDIA: Then CBMC impacted me again in July of 2001 when I attended a CBMC international event in Atlanta. I met the International President, Tim Philpot. We discovered a mutual love of golf and India.

I had just returned from a very crazy and obscure invitation to be part of a trip by the U.S.-India Leadership Foundation. We went to India, meeting with business, military, and political leaders in several cities across India. We were using golf at these really nice courses in India to share Jesus through our testimony with an unreached people group, the business leadership of India.

We went to five cities, and in not one city had I ever met anyone who had ever heard the gospel presented. In fact, in India, Christianity is viewed as a religion for the poorest of the poor. In each city, as I left, I thought, “Lord, I don't know anybody who can follow up with these dear brothers and sisters, I don't know anyone.” In tears, I thought about some of the people that I met. It was confusing. You know the story of the seed that's thrown out on hard soil or on rocky soil. It just seemed that we were sowing seed on hard soil.

But as I got to Atlanta, I happened to notice this group of guys from India. So I walked over to their table and introduced myself. The leader was a guy named Richard Samuel, who happened to be a “Timothy” for Tim Philpot. And they were just getting ready to launch CBMC in India. Well, I spent the next three days with these guys all over Atlanta, taking them to ball games, helping them with this and that. I had such great fellowship with these fellows. And the next thing you know, I'm invited to come to India to help do some outreaches. I went back to India 12 times with CBMC.

Now, a secret that I have to share with you. I truly thought when I first went, “Okay, I'm going to bless these dear brothers.” But when I got there, I soon realized the Lord was speaking in my heart, “Bruce, I was hoping you were going to get blessed by them, because I think you need a lot more of what they have.” And God has so beautifully touched my heart and my life through the brothers and sisters in India, and some of you are here today. I praise God for all of you who are here from various parts of our world.

GOD STARTS A BUSINESS: I now need to share with you how the Lord led me to start an investment firm 27 years ago. I have a strange story when it comes to that because I'm the first person that I've ever known of that started an investment firm in a ‘rest area’. It's true, I would drive the 35 miles from Holland to Grand Rapids every day, and I would grab a cup of coffee on the way out the door, and I'd come to this ‘rest area’. I had this tree that I loved to park in front of. And at that time in my life, I was loving the whole idea of abiding. And I called it my ‘abiding tree’. Called it my John 15 tree. It's where I would go every morning.

As I began to look through Scripture, I wondered, if the Lord were a 33-year-old young man starting an investment firm, what would it look like? What can I learn from scripture? I had a number of questions.

What would be that firm's priorities?

How would it serve its clients and those called to work there?

What principles would it adhere to?

How would Jesus go about His modern-day working tent, making the craft of the business, and at what fair price would He charge?

How would He align Himself to seeing the Lord God meeting every need, versus seeing His clients as a means to meeting His own needs?

How would He maintain an eternal perspective in all He did?

How would He use the business as a place to invest in others, not just vocationally, but relationally, emotionally, and most importantly, spiritually?

How might He instill a culture of deep trust and integrity in the midst of man's propensity for self-advancement and desire?

How would faithfulness be a prevalent purpose? What would that look like, according to the many verses of stewardship?

But you need to know, it was in the context of CBMC that the conditions were created in my heart that I would even ask these questions. I remember one morning, in the rest area, I came across Philippians 2:13. “For it is God who is at work within you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure”. Another version says, “For it is God who's at work within you, both giving you a desire to want what He wants, and the power to carry it out”.

The Lord God took an invitation from a CBMC member, and He led me to see my greatest need for Jesus. He brought a man into my life who discipled me so beautifully, in spite of my fears, my failures, my addictions, and my self-doubt. And God had taken upon Himself to be at work within me, giving me the very desire to want what He wants, and the power to carry it out.

As so, I'd love to ask you to think about this.

What if Mark had only asked me once or twice or three times? What if he had not asked me seven times for an outreach? I can never know how God may have responded or done otherwise. But I do know that God used CBMC and a man who loved me, who cared for my soul, and was tenacious. He knew that even though I didn't know what I needed, He knew what I needed. He could look into my life and see what a man could become if the Spirit of God is present there. I'm so grateful for the friendships that I’ve formed over the years, literally all over the world.

I remember so well another time in my early 30s, and this ties us into our conference. I was in Second Timothy, chapter two, I came across these words, “Timothy, my son, be strong in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the things that you have seen and heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these things and trust the faithful that will be willing to teach others also”.

I can remember so clearly, Bruce, regardless of your vocation, this is my call on your life, and it's always been true north.

Picture hanging on Bruce Johnson’s wall in Kansas

GOD USES PAIN: As I look back through the years, I very clearly see God's hand on my life. Even as a boy, growing up, my father was missing in action in Vietnam, from the time I was 5 until he was declared killed in action when I was 18 years old. I want to close this talk by sharing with you a picture that hung in his bedroom as a little boy. (See picture at right).

In so many ways, this picture of Jesus and the young boy reflects each of our lives, does it not? God is directing our paths, our families, our businesses, and our very purpose in Him. We are, in a way, sailing the boat, but He is so faithfully guiding our way.

May each of us daily seek His divine guidance, His father's heart, and His precious calling into the places He's prepared for each of us.

Click here to listen to Bruce Johnson’s sixteen-minute audio message.

The Bruce Johnson story seems especially fitting as we approach Father’s Day. On June 10, 1965, an American soldier named Bruce Johnson went “missing in action.” It is tempting to move into another speech about ‘missing fathers’, not from wartime, but from divorce and family dysfunction. The father’s influence cannot be overstated. But in my friend Bruce’s case, he overcame it all.

Now, sixty years later, that little boy Bruce carries on the heroism of his father in a far different way. He leads people to Jesus.

We started this story with King Saul’s encounter with David. “‘Tell me about your father, young man,’ And David replied, ‘His name is Jesse, and we live in Bethlehem.’” (First Samuel 17:58-59). King Saul seemed to know that a great man must surely have a great father.

So where has my friend Bruce Johnson found the courage to be a full-blown Jesus man in 2025?

I can hear Bruce echoing the words of young David…. “His Name was Bruce, and we lived in Kansas”. Today, we remember and honor his sacrifice.